I'm still alive, I'm pretty good at picking reality tv winners, and I am not safe from disease.

Ho-ho! Guess who's back! While reading Marty's blog today, I noticed on his cool little blog update widget that Tom had a newish blog post up. Which caused me to think, "Well shit. If Tom's finally writing in his blog again..." and here I am.

In the months that have passed since I last posted, several notable things have happened. Also, these two completely irrelevant things happened: one, Stephanie Izard won Top Chef, and two, David Cook won American Idol. The astute Wintery Mix reader (and if you're a Wintery Mix reader you can, by default, consider yourself the most astute Wintery Mix reader) may notice that I nailed that shiznitz, right from the start. I've got tennis elbow from patting myself on the back so often through the spring and early summer.

I'm most pleased about Stephanie winning Top Chef. She seems cool as hell, she's from Chicago, and it sure seems like she's got no plans to leave. The word here is that she's got a new restaurant in the works, the investors all lined up, and all she needs is to find an ideal space. Personally, I can't wait to try it. I hope it's awesome and we can add it to the list of kick-ass restaurants in Chicago. Really, we're turning into a dining Mecca over here. And personally, I've had some great meals lately. You can read all about them in my Yelp reviews.

Anyway, since I'm writing a blog post, I feel like I really ought to come up with a topic to write about... you know, another one of those random subjects that I find interesting despite the fact that no one else agrees. So here it is: I was listening to this program called Radio Times yesterday. It's on Philadelphia's public radio station and I get it on one of Sirius's NPR channels. The hour I heard was an interview with Dr. Robert Weinberg, who is an epidemiologist, or an oncologist... or whatever. He's into cancer, anyway. He also co-wrote an article in Newsweek recently that talked about what scientists know these days about what causes different types of cancers. The one bomb he dropped that really perked my ears up was his claim that there is absolutely no scientific evidence that eating organic food is any better for your health than eating meat and vegetables produced traditionally. Needless to say, the phone lines lit up and he was reiterating himself to every other caller for the rest of the program.

This guy's point was that it doesn't matter what you shoot an animal up with--by the time it gets to your mouth, the chemicals present in non-organic meat and dairy are present in such small quantities (when compared to the enzymes and hormones your body naturally produces) that they're a non-factor in causing diseases. He said, "The dose determines the poison," (or words to that effect) and ran off a few examples of other substances you ingest that would be deadly at larger quantities, like table salt or the fluoride they put in our drinking water.

"Up yours, Organic Cow! Suck on that!... Farmer Bob, I'm ready for my midday injection."

To that, I say: "Kiss my ass". I'm just not ready to believe that eating stuff pumped full of antibiotics, growth hormones, preservatives and pesticides isn't going to cause some kind of harmful effects in the long run. So Dr. Weinberg can keep his Aldi brand burgers, I'm still (usually) overpaying for my organic meat, dairy and produce. Athough I don't think Dr. Weinstein is eating too many burgers. He also took potshots at pretty much the entire Western diet, quoting studies about the lower instances of cancers in non-Western countries and the dangers of eating a high-fat, high-carbohydrate, high-calorie diet. Oh, and just in time for the holiday, he says grilling your meat will kill you. And so will eating red meat in general. Happy Fourth of July!