OK - let's hear it for the latest blatantly stupid trend. Salt. Yep - in a recent Newsweek TipSheet section - taste tests on salt were conducted - tongue in cheek, I'm sure. Turns out you can pay anywhere from about 75 cents for 26 oz. of ordinary table salt up to - are you ready for this - $17.95 for 16 oz. of Pink Himalaya Salt! Now - I don't want to put down the Himalayas (subtle pun there) - or the color pink - but how dumb is that? It presents a veritable saltmine of satire - a total collapse into the depths of dumbth. And to think I thought bottled water was stupid if your water supply isn't entertaining an aquarium full of coliform. (At least Perrier bottles make good bud vases).

Did anyone watch The French & Indian War on PBS last night. Wow! (I always thought it was 'Wars' plural - but I'm not about to argue with near-perfection). Talk about knock-your-socks off! 9 to 11 PM and neither my husband nor I suffered from 'droopy-lid syndrome'. In past years, I've read a great deal about that era and some of the accounts last night were like revisiting a place where I had been. The account of Braddock's ill-fated campaign and the story of the exodus of the British from Fort William Henry under a white flag when the disgruntled Indian allies of the French fell upon the evacuees despite French efforts to hold them back - amazing. And do you realize easily we might have lost George Washington - he was a young 'wet behind the ears' & none too competent officer with Braddock's army. The conclusion should be next Wednesday night, I assume. Don't miss it!