So last week someone "mentioned" that my Peeled Skinnies were getting a little, shall we say, off topic. Apparently I'm supposed to be writing about all things snack oriented- the snack industry, marketing snacks, snack nutrition, the dangerous world of snacks espionage... All of that's great to write about, and occasionally important, but these days it sure seems like there's some white elephants in the room that need SERIOUS consideration. Far more consideration, in fact, than high-fructose corn syrup (devil that it is) need suffer. But fine, this is peeledSNACKS.com, so let's get to it...

Okay, so, snacks... I caught a great concert last week at New York's famous Summer Stage in Central Park.  Headlined by Canadian power-pop indie super-band the New Pornographers, the concert took place under a burning Summer sunset, and the bands literally played to the changing weather (a heat wave was just breaking as the bands were playing).  My new favorite band of all time ever, the Frames (they're from Ireland, sort of emo by way of U2 arena rockdom), started out the evening playing to rain showers.  Southwestern indie-mariachi stalwarts Calexico followed up drably, aside from some serious spice added by some flamenco maestro they'd picked up on a recent tour through Spain.  New Pornographers suffered from no sound check (they sounded aweful, truly), and an under-used Neco Case (as if she could ever be over-used), bet generally rocked the evening nicely.

 Now Summer Stage this summer is promoted by Snapple and Stella Artois, along with some other non-food companies.  Without going into the merits or defecits of those two companies, I'll offer up that I HOPE that neither of them had any say in the food that was available.  Summer Stage does have two small eateries with which they seek to feed the kids... only, all that they serve is hamburgers, fries, and pretzels.

Sigh.  Young people, dudded up for a fantastic night out in the park, dancing to hipster tunes and flirting with each other glore, and all that they have to eat is a bunch of nutrition-free food that's more or less designed to make them fat and sick.  And people wonder what's wrong with youth today.

Here's what's wrong with youth today- cheap food is TOO CHEAP.  The Summer Stage is clearly selling crappy food because it yields the best profit margins- hamburgers and french fries are somewhat cheap to make, and all the kids love that stuff.  But the overall cost to kids (and their livers, and their gym instructors) doesn't quite get factored in.  The culinary norm for our culture seems famously wretched- high fat, high carb, low nutrition bunk.   And we wonder why kids aren't doing well in school?

So, to whit, the secret to advancing our culture and reclaiming our place as the greatest nation on Earth is by selling only healthy snacks at rock concerts.

Today's poem:

Fries need more Catsup.

What? I don't understand you?

Oh.  Needs more Ketchup!

Hipsters scoff at rain.

Lightning wipes out the whole band?

They scoff at that too.

I feel my liver.

Late night, it whispers to me...

"Please leave me alone..."