Tales of a Forth Grade Nothing by Judy Bloom

This was one of my favorite books as a forth grader, and my flight to Seattle was a good time to charge through this bit of nostalgia. It reviles the tale of Peter Hatcher, son of a New York ad man, and older brother to a rascally toddler by the name of Fudge.

Being an older sibling can be tough, but it helps to have some laughhs and build fun memories. That's what this book is about. Being seven years older than my sister Amy, there were some times in which I related to protagonist Peter. And I liked to read as a kid, so this series became one of my favorites. I even drew my own covers for the books and bound them with pieces of cardboard. One of my Fudge doodles even made it onto a pog, with my 'Milk Cap Maker'.

Things That Will Pass for Pizza

There's something about being a kid that gives every adult license to talk about you as if you're not even there, at church, family get-togethers, school, everywhere. So I got a reputation for being a picky eater, rightfully earned. I was averse to the seasoned meat in tacos (it tends to smell like an arm pit). Also, I wasn't into pizza with pepperoni, or a sauce that likely will taste like spaghetti-os. So I never ate school cafeteria pizza, but I was always curious.

At my household, we like to go down to Odon Indiana, for their meat locker. In the freezer, they had a bag of these pizza-ish squares, and I had to try it. The dough tastes like a flour and water pancake, like I used to make when I was first living on my own and didn't know how to cook. The sauce is a little better than Spaghetti-os, but not better than Chef Boyardee. Neither sauce is as good as that in the Great Value brand spaghetti rings.

I love the little nerd-like, nugget-style sausage bits, but the ones on this pizza are not very good. They don't taste like much of anything, so it's more like eating rubber than sausage. Justine informed me this pizza isn't as good as that in school cafeterias. So maybe I missed out, but I didn't want to give into enjoying a cheap bastard version of pizza, not as a kid. I knew that if I pretended to like school pizza, then I'd have to eat it all the time, and eat less of the things I actually enjoyed. No thanks. I needed every freedom I could get.