You're Damn Skippy!

There are as many lunch choices as there are people, and I have found it makes for a more productive afternoon not to load myself down with a carload of carbs and a cauldron of caffeine. 

I'll tell you what makes a nice lunch for me these days - a nice slice of hippie bread, toasted, slathered with peanut butter! And some apple slices or a plum to round it out.

That gives me the complete adult daily requirement of grains, protein, and hippieness while we watch Eyewitness Checkpoint Breaking Action News At Noon, and The View (through the miracle of DVR).

Today, in honor of peanuts, I might watch the Simpsons episode "Round Springfield," the one where Marge, helping Bart study for a history test, asks who George Washington Carver was. Comes the answer, "The guy who chopped up George Washington!"

George Washington Carver is credited with coming up with 300-some foods, and products for commerce and industry, from the humble peanut. The product list includes milk, Worcestershire sauce, punches, cooking oils and salad oil, paper, cosmetics, soaps and wood stains. Carver also worked on peanut-based medicines such as antiseptics, laxatives and goiter cures.

But, in spite of common belief, GW Carver did not invent peanut butter! Nor did Mr Peanut! That honor goes to the Aztecs, who also invented the vacation. 

Avid peanut-butter lover that I am (Skippy smooth, please) I am tickled to death to see that it is now regarded as legal tender on the campus of New Mexico State University, where any student who gets slapped with a campus parking citation can pay his or her way out of the jam with peanut butter.

The deal is, if you park somewhere on the NMSU campus without proper permission, you can pay off the ticket with 80 ounces of peanut butter The university will accept at least 80 ounces (2,270 grams) of peanut butter. You can get get the 80-oz of Skippy (that's 5 lbs) at Walmart online for $14.94!

Miscreants can square their parking accounts at the university bookstore; all the food collected will go right to the Aggie Cupboard, a food pantry serving the college community.

The university is quick to point out that this deal is only good to cover one (1) parking ticket, and not for any other citations or violations. So don't try driving into the Dean's Office and getting off the hook with a jar or two.