The Potato Situation

by Willa Jones (written October, 2012)

Let's hear it again for mashed potatoes!

I have analyzed the lunch menu for October 2012. I circled mashed potatoes. You guessed it! Two circles!

There are red, party, au Gratin, tater tots, sweet, riced, fried (twice), boiled, and scalloped. Including the two mashed, I count 12 days with potatoes. Then there are five with rice and seven with pasta for substitutes.

Who knows where couscous fits into this scheme. It is not listed in my Webster's Collegiate Dictionary nor in my "Composition of Foods" prepared by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Handbook No. 8. Couscous is simply one of those mysteries of life but it does not compare with mashed potatoes.

Since this is voting time (Have you noticed? Oh, hasten the day!), I wondered if those of us who longed for our favorite potatoes should exercise our civil rights by:

1. Stuffing the suggestion box with, "More mashed potatoes, please." Be polite-it will get you everywhere.
2. Make and carry placards around in the dining room expressing our desires.
3. Form ourselves into a singing group and entertain the other diners with:
           
            Que sera sera.
            Mashed potatoes for you and me.
            The future then happy can be.
            Que sera sera.

It's Winter

by Loren Horton

Here it comes
Wind
Whipping out of the north
Penetrating coats
Making ears tingle
Gone-that mild fall
Suddenly its cold

Snow
Is never far behind
Once leaves have fallen
And geese have flown south
Here comes snow
Mixed with ice
Threat to life and limb
Cars skid and slide
Pedestrians slip and tumble

All part of life
In Iowa winter