Breakfast

On Sunday, I published an article in which, among other topics, I mentioned my breakfast: 3 eggs, 3 pork sausage links, and grits with butter. The main comment I received was, “You ate three eggs? Seriously?”

What is wrong with eating three eggs? I don’t do it every day, but I’m sure some people do. People used to avoid eggs because they are high in cholesterol. But it turned out that eating cholesterol doesn’t have much effect on your body’s cholesterol level. Eating saturated fat is what drives up your cholesterol numbers.

One day I went into a diner and sat at the bar. I was going to order breakfast, and a man sitting two seats from me ordered first. He ordered a dozen fried eggs and a dozen slices of bacon. The waitress, who apparently knew him, asked him, “You aren’t hungry today?” And the man said, “No, I just ate a large pizza.” And indeed, they served him the eggs on two plates and a heaping pile of bacon on another. And in case you’re wondering: no, he wasn’t fat.

Breakfast is supposed to be the main meal of the day. There’s an old adage that says, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” There’s another adage, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.” And one of my favorite writers, Robert Heinlein, said, “One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast.”

Anyhow, I was frying my eggs in my ceramic frying pan. The pan’s ceramic nonstick coating is white. Suddenly a black spot appeared in the pan. I looked closely and saw a tiny black bug had landed on a drop of molten butter. I could see it’s legs moving as it tried to crawl or swim around. After a number of seconds, it ceased moving, and I wiped it out with a bit of paper towel. I am sure that bug was greatly surprised to land in tasty, but deadly hot, butter—assuming tiny bugs are capable of surprise. I don’t know how many neurons are required to feel emotion, but it’s likely to be more than the couple hundred neurons in that tiny bug.

I had eggs and sausage again this morning, and I plan on having it again tomorrow. When I run out of eggs and sausage, I’ll fall back to raisin bran cereal with almond milk for a while. Now there’s a meal where people should ask the question, “Cereal with almond milk? Seriously?”