My cats are getting good at leaving notes. Rosie begs for half and half and then won't drink it. I don't blame her. I have to use the fat-free type now, and how in the world could half and half not have any fat content?

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The world is becoming accustomed to artifice. That's because so many things are marketed now as substitutes for the 'real' thing. Take the dairy case... you can choose from a list of butter substitutes: margarines, olive oil butter, real butter that has been fat-downsized, and other things that defy me when I read the ingredients. The yogurt cases are expanding. I am surprised by that because I meet few people who eat it.

I tried that Activia yogurt for a month to help get "regular," as the commercials claim. All it did was make my 'problem' worse. Soon as I quit eating it, regularity returned. Go figure!

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Then there is the trend at the meat case... renaming cheap cuts to make them sound better. There used to be another name for the formerly cheap cut called "flat iron steak." I can't recall it but it may have been London broil, which wasn't a steak but was a kind of roast or cut that you sliced up for stew meat. It was tough and not very tasty. Now it is 'flat iron steak' and the price went up.

It is 'flat,' but I don't think it resembles and 'iron.' It must be tenderized in order to be edible. It is best marinated, too. Almost all round cuts are that way.

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This year's red raspberries are cheaper than last year's. They are good, too. I started seeing good-looking peaches already. I like USA peaches much better than the ones we get off-season that are imported from Chile. The corn here isn't really very good until the local corn is ready. Right now the corn is coming from Texas and Mexico. Our corn is just below knee-high. August is when it gets to our shelves.

My dad taught me how to do sweet corn on the cob:

Fill a bucket or your sink with cold water. Pull the corn silk off the end of the ear of corn. DO NOT HUSK OR OPEN THE HUSKS! Leave all the green tight around the corn!

Stick the ears down in the water so the end where you pulled off the silk is facing the bottom of the bucket.

Soak for an hour, at least.

Start your grill and let it burn down to a constant heat. Place the ears, husk intact, on the grill and turn them one-quarter turn every few minutes.

The corn will be steamed as it roasts because of the soaking it got. When done, use mitts to strip off the burned husks (they should be black) and wrap the ears in foil. You can drop some butter or margarine on the corn before you wrap it.

The corn will remain hot until your dinner items are ready to serve.

I think boiled corn tastes like pablum. I never boil corn unless it comes from a freezer bag. Also, cook corn immediately after you bring it home. Two or three-days from the field and it turns to starch.

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When we were kids we experimented with smoking corn silk. It tasted funny but didn't get you high. It also made you cough like hell. My uncle told me that during the Depression my grandpa dried and smoked it in his pipes.

In the Depression, one of the big industries around here was the moonshine gig. The region grew lots of apples, so the farmers made Applejack in their barns and bathtubs. The customers were the Purple Gang mob from Detroit and Cleveland. The stuff was sold in speakeasy bars. The sheriffs knew about the trade but were reluctant to interfere. You could make more by fermenting apple juice than selling apples on a street corner.

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I am all ready for Saturday's art festival. Not painting until probably July. I will let you know how the weekend goes. Rain is in the forecast, but I am asking Thor and Odin to hold off until the Festival is over. I would also ask Shiva but they tell me Shiva always does the opposite of what you ask for.

Sounds like an ex-wife I knew.

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This is a really big deal, and very near where I live:

https://www.veggieu.org/

July 19.