3-time Super Bowl champion coach Walsh dies - NFL - MSNBC.com

RIP Bill Walsh. The whole sports world mourns your passage... My hubby was a 49ers fan, and I rooted for them when they weren't playing my Redskins. (Those games got a singular silence in our livingroom.)

Talk show host Tom Snyder dies at 71 - Television - MSNBC.com

RIP Tom Snyder. I loved your style!

Hummus in the school cafeteria? - Diet & Nutrition - MSNBC.com

School lunches were nothing like today's offerings when I was in school. They didn't serve "junk food," but the food they did serve was junk, as far as I was concerned: over-cooked, unimaginative, and tasteless. I seldom ate cafeteria food, because I simply didn't like it!

I usually brought my lunch: sandwiches made on home-made bread and fruit. Even if the sandwiches contained meat (ham, turkey, beef), it was home-cooked, and accompanied by lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and sometimes Italian sweet peppers. I also loved my sandiches made with a single veggie: tomato, lettuce, cucumber. There was always mayo on them, but not in inordinate amounts. (I'd like to point out that tomato sandwiches on home-made bread do not turn into mush by lunchtime. The bread is hearty enough to stand up to the juiciness.) Fruit was apples, bananas, oranges, tangerines, and sometimes sour Morello cherries. Sometimes, I'd buy a cup of soup, which was always good, and I always bought 2 half pints of milk. (I have always loved milk!)

Part of the problem these people are upset about may not be as serious as some would think. Many kids choose what the nutritionists deem "junk" simply because they don't get that kind of stuff at home! While fast food tastes good, and is omnipresent in our society, many parents limit their kids' access to it, sometimes from an economics point of view, rather than a nutritional one.

Could someone please explain to me how nutritionists can condemn as junk a baked dish containing bread, tomato sauce, spices, olive oil, cheese, meat, and veggies? As long as portion size is controlled, pizza is a good rounded meal all by itself! The pizza served in most schools is not congruent with good pizza, because they leave off the veggies. I also doubt that olive oil is one of the ingredients.

Hummus in the cafeteria? Why not? And why not Mexican-style salsa cruda? Corn tortillas can be baked into low fat chips, just like pita... (Another good dipper for hummus is raw veggies...)

9/11, Katrina search dog dies - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com

RIP Jake! Heroes come with 4 legs and fur coats, too!

(Check out his portrait with the story.)

Bulgarian medics pardoned - Mideast/N. Africa - MSNBC.com

Hallelujah and thanks to the PTB!!!!   

These people have been imprisoned way too long for acts they did not commit. The fact that the Libyans used torture to get confessions from them is especially heinous.

I congratulate the EU for sticking together for the citizens of one of their newer members. And thanks to Sarkozy of France for sending his Presidential plane (and his wife!) to ferry the released prisoners back to Bulgaria.    

Visitors line up at ex-first lady’s casket - Politics - MSNBC.com

Goodbye, Ladybird! I, for one, will miss you.  

Ladybird and I had some interesting parallels in our lives... She was born 12/22/12; I was born 12/22/46. She and LBJ married 11/17/34; my late husband and I married 11/17/83. In all other things, except for the love of beauty, we differed.

Still, I hope for at least as long a life as she, and I hope, that in my way, I will have made some good effects on my surroundings, even if it's just to lobby for more laundry equipment for our apt complex!