Some of my best friends are Brussels sprouts...

And breaking news from an informant who knows!

Did you know that there is a controversy surrounding Brussels sprouts?

I don’t know if you are aware, but there are people who don’t like Brussels sprouts. Indeed, there are those who hate Brussels sprouts. I’m not sure that I’ve ever met one of these people, and certainly no one has ever expressed a desire to do violence toward Brussels sprouts and their supporters in my presence. However, as being pro-Brussels sprout is not something one typically displays (I do have a ceramic broccoli necklace, but not a Brussels sprout one) and is not, as far as I know, associated with any particular practice other than purchasing or growing and eating said sprouts, it’s perfectly possible that I have lived to be almost fifty years of age without knowing that some people absolutely hate these innocent vegetables!

I learned about controversy from the nightly news, which my parents in North Carolina watch, while I was visiting them for Thanksgiving. The last I had heard much at all about the humble sprout from Brussels (are they really from Brussels? Don’t tell me to Google it because I’m tired of Googling things. I miss asking someone!) was when I was in a long term partnership with a Canadian. Brussels sprouts are traditional fare for Canadian Thanksgiving, so I made them for all of our Thanksgiving meals.

My friend and co-author Kenneth Anderson, who is most known for his work in alcohol harm reduction, second most known for his in depth historical chronicles of the entire history of American addiction treatment, and in some corners known for his command of East Asian languages, is also known as someone who does not feel that he has eaten a meal unless it contained a large slab of meat and some potatoes or other startch. Not one to stray from the ordinary, even Ken loves Brussels sprouts. I bought some at the farmers’ market yesterday that we will soon enjoy.

It’s hard for me to imagine vitriol being directed at the cute little veggies, but apparently this was a thing. However, in recent months or perhaps years, they have started to grace more menus and become more popular. Good news, in a time when we could all use some good news.

(If you do not like Brussels sprouts, please tell me and I will not serve them if you come to my house for dinner. But please spare me any anti-Brussels sprouts hate speech.)

Meanwhile, I have it on good authority that you can get into Yale Law if you ever got less than an A in college! And the informant did not go to Yale Law, so any who went to Yale Law should not be accused of breaking any oath they may have been forced to take protecting the secrecy of Yale Law admissions policy. In fact, I have two informants who are People Who Would Know. One was an undergraduate dean at Duke for over 45 years in charge of pre-law things, and the other went to another law school but knows Things of Importance. The retired dean says that the legend is “more true than not,” but not entirely true. The other informant says that while Yale Law was the best school if you wanted to become a law professor, other schools, including Harvard, were better if you wanted to do something else. And you didn’t have to make straight As to get in.

All seems to have worked out well for everyone, including me. Thanks to the legend, I did not go to law school at all, and that is one of the many things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving week.

I have discovered that I do occasionally enjoy reading law journal articles, especially if they are about something that I can do absolutely nothing about. As a person who tends to want to do something about the things I can, there is something relaxing about reading about things I know nothing about and am absolutely not at fault for. Which brings us to the topic of my next entry… let the suspense build!

Lovely, aren’t they? They look good enough to eat!