Fiorella's Flawed Appetite

My mother did her best to prepare well-balanced, nutritional meals. Unfortunately, I disliked (1) all cooked vegetables except corn and potatoes, 2) mixtures, (3) anything red. Many an evening I sat at the dining table after everyone else had finished, the string beans having gone cold before I would finally force down my requisite forkful.

"You'll be sorry," Mother admonished me. "Not eating what other people eat will really handicap you."

My children were also strange eaters, but I declined to fight them and, as time went by, they all managed to develop better palates than their mother. I'm glad for them because Mother was right--it's been hard to explain to various hosts that I don't eat (1) any cooked vegetables except corn and potatoes, (2) mixtures, (3) anything red.

Which hasn't prevented me from developing exactly the same roly-poly belly that my mother had.