The joys of adding insects to your daily diet

The food options at Princeton are rather threadbare:  The dining halls serve the same things day after day; Frist is simply atrocious; and the so-called eating clubs are places where I shudder to dine — but I'm happy to mooch a meal there if you care to invite me.  So what's a person in this one-tiger town to do if she's looking for a gastronomic adventure?  Before you shout "Go to Burger King!" let me say, "B.K. R.I.P."  Thus, we are left to grovel at the feet of the administration for a tastier menu selection. So what would I place on the menu?  Here's my idea:  I suggest that we start serving insects.  Think about it.  Remember all those cicadas from last year?  Well, if people would open up their minds — and stomachs — instead of viewing the swathes of cicadas as some biblical-proportion plague, one would instead see a smorgasbord of asparagus on wings (yes, they taste like asparagus).  And what a delicacy they are — they only come around once every 17 years! You can also take pride, when munching on a bug, in knowing that you are helping to control the pest population.  Plus, you'll never…

Our peculiar northern neighbors

Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day in October.  How many of you knew that? If you are like most Americans, then you are probably unaware of this fact.  Indeed, ignorance of Canadian matters is an acute problem in the United States.  According to a dated CNN poll, only two percent of Americans know the name of the Canadian prime minister. Why are Canadians invisible in the eyes of Americans?  It seems rather strange since Canada is a prominent member of the international community — e.g., it is a member of the G7 countries.  It is also the second largest country in terms of land mass.  And being just north of the United States, it's hard to miss on the map, although one in four Americans did, according to the same CNN poll.  Also, if not for Canada, how would Americans satisfy their craving for maple syrup-coated pancakes on a Sunday morning? Canadians are everywhere.  They live among you.  They are your classmates, your professors and even 'Prince' columnists (gasp!).  They are also scapegoats for life's little annoyances — "Blame it on Canada!"  But for all the jokes and rivalry, Canada remains a mystery to most.  Yet oddly, this phenomenon has become a…

A few of the many reasons to envy Canada

Admit it. All of you secretly wish that you were Canadian. From flag-waving American undergraduates to overseas graduate students, you are all envious of the Canadian mystique. I do not blame you for being jealous. I understand that it is this jealously that leads you to tease us "poutine" and "beaver tail" eaters. Some of you may be sheepishly asking what is so good about Canada that others would be envious. For sure, most of you are not envious of having winter nine months of the year, and neither is it that you care for eating mooseburgers or cod tongue (although they are tasty!). But if you think about it, Canada really is a great place. In addition to pristine wilderness and the best damn maple syrup in the world, Canada is a progressive country that produces progressive people. In what other country can you be in a part of a city known as Little Italy yet dining in an Indian restaurant that is owned by a Jew, albeit eating Vietnamese food and drinking "Maudite" with your half-Brazilian, half-Croatian date, while being served by a Chinese waiter, watching Anson Carter (who is black) score for team Canada to win the…