“The Sword of Wisdom is always hanging overhead.”

Samuel Hahnemann wrote (in 1810), “What sensible man would imitate the efforts of the organism for its own preservation? These efforts are in reality the disease itself, and the morbidly affected vital force is the producer of the visible disease! It must, therefore, necessarily follow that all artificial imitation, and likewise the suppression of these efforts, must either increase the disease or render it dangerous by their suppression, and both of these allopathy does; these are its pernicious operations which it alleges to be the healing art, the rational healing art.”

A — I was an exception to the rule. I wanted my meat to look like hamburgers and hot dogs. No big game hunter worth his mettle would track down a wild hamburger or a hot dog. If friends or relatives served me a sirloin steak, I’d hide it under a pile of ketchup, offending many steak lovers.

Of course, I was really an ovo-lacto-vegetarian, not a vegan, causing extra dialogue and confusion whenever I ordered a “Jack in the Box cheeseburger, cut the meat.” “You mean you want a grilled cheese sandwich?” was the inevitable question “No,” I’d say, “I want a Jack in the Box cheeseburger with ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and Jack in the Box Secret Sauce, but without the meat.”

A — According to Dr. Google, “No, butter does not ‘have to be’ cultured; while cultured butter exists and is often preferred for its richer flavor, regular butter is simply made from churning fresh cream without any added cultures, resulting in a milder taste.” What Dr. Google doesn’t say is, cultured butter depletes the calcium is your bones, and (perhaps in my case only) tastes like shit.