I am having a hard time as I eat out a lot and don’t trust anybody’s hands. Immigration and travel have introduced new bacteria and viruses everywhere. Now I can’t eat tomatoes and my friends in Europe won’t eat buffalo mozzarella so there goes Caprese salad. I eat little meat but now salmon is disappearing and you get signs in restaurants all over saying that it is and don’t eat it yet you see it on the menu. Anyway, mercury has invaded fish so I eat it a little less frequently. I may go back to Bill Blass’s heavenly meatloaf. I was never sure what was in that. I avoid lettuce except at home and we are into rewashing blueberries and soaking them in lemon juice so we aren’t surprised by spiders. It is a bummer. The worst of it is that I am not losing weight.

I do my treadmill on the boat and walk around every port and the only dessert I eat is a tiny — very tiny — scoop of chocolate chip mint that we make. But I am the same weight. Now even rice feels like I am taking food out of poor children’s mouths. And it seems a lot of things could be used for fuel to lower prices. There are so many reasons not to eat.