Today's Raft of Inconsequential Bad News

First, Arrested Development, a show I've only recently come to realize is brilliantly funny, is getting the axe. Its third season (in progress) has been chopped to 13 episodes, and all signs are that this is the end of the run. What a g'damned shame. One can only hope that, like Family Guy, a cult groundswell will illustrate the error. And in the meantime, I still have a season and a half that I haven't seen, which is something. (In slightly better news, Seventh Heaven is going down too, and it's high time. But that it could get a ten-year run while AD gets only 2.5 is as pathetic as it is inexplicable (unless, as appears to be the case, a show's ratings are inversely proportional to its creativity).)

Second, some people shed allergies as they age; I, however, seem to be following the opposite path. After entering adulthood with no known food allergies, in the past five years I discovered I had an allergy to tree pollen, which made it difficult for me to enjoy fresh apples, pears, plums, and other fruits in those delectable families. Though I never ate a ton, my discomfort in doing so eventually grew to a degree that I just stopped. And though I can have them in even mildly cooked form (although recently I had an issue with some dried nectarines), I still miss them.

Today, absently, I grabbed a granola bar out of a post-halloween bowl of goodies. After eating it, however, I got itchy throat and tongue syndrome, familiar from the onset of allergic reactions to the above-named fruits. The ingredient list included no reference to fruit of any kind, but did indicate almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and other candidates. I continue to eat a bunch of peanuts, so I think I'm okay there, but almonds would be a dreadful loss, and would also bode ill for my future ability to eat nuts generally, since my allergies appear to be progressive with age.

I love too many foods too much to be losing them like this. It's really not fair.