Hey guys! I wanted to alert you to a new almond butter available at Trader Joe’s that contains roasted flax seeds. It tastes very similar to Naturally More’s almond butter with flax, though I think if it came down to a Kardashian brawl, Naturally More would win for being slightly sweeter (hey, my sweet tooth is the size of a Woolly Mammoth’s incisor).

It was $3.99 at my Trader Joe’s. I’d definitely recommend trying it!

Now, on to J.D. Salinger. If you aren’t embedded in literary academia like I and my fellow lit master’s students are, you might not have paid much attention to the passing of American author Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye, and talking about him on my “health” blog might seem out of place. But, really, Salinger has had a much bigger place in my health journey than a 100-calorie pack. For real.

 The thing with Salinger is that he has something meaningful to offer everyone. Believe me, I can’t tell you how many times I roll my eyes at my professors or peers who love pontificating and hearing their own voices boom in classrooms, hall ways, etc. in a Narcissus-like one-way conversation (”phonies,” as Salinger would call them). All of us love to be heard (hello, I have a blog!), but there’s something extraordinary about someone who can sift through his own pretentious bull-crap to cull what’s really going to resonate with people and cause them to, dare I say it, reflect on themselves. I’ll leave you with a quote from my favorite Salinger novel, Franny and Zooey: “”‘An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.’” I think all of us in our journeys to better health, to happiness, to wherever and whatever, should always remember we’re shooting for our own perfection, on our terms. That’s the way it should be!

After all that reflection and melodrama, please excuse me — I’m off to find ways to refine my Spanish that include the web and booking Taco Tuesday dates so I can drink a pitcher of beer and call it an academic expense.

What are you guys up to this weekend?

<3,

The Cranky One

Tags: almond butter, J.D. Salinger, new products, trader joes