And Speaking of Macaroni....

This is a true story. It happened to a friend of my friend Annie.

Annie's friend took her only son up to college. Took him to the bookstore and got his books and a college sweatshirt. Got him unpacked in the dorm room. Went down and bought him a cafeteria card. And then she hugged him and handed him a small amount of cash. She told him, "Now, Daddy and I have talked this over and we can send you this amount of money every month, but no more. So you're gonna have to budget. But you've got your room and your cafeteria pass and you should be OK."

Eight days later, Son called home. He said, "I need more money."

"For what?" his incredulous mother asked.

"Food."

"But you've got your cafeteria pass."

"I sold that. I don't like that food."

"But you have your cash allowance."

"I bought everybody pizza. And restaurants are expensive. It's gone."

"I'll call you back," his mother said. She did better than that. She drove up to the college and she handed Son a big bag of macaroni.

"What's this?"

"Macaroni."

"Why are you giving me macaroni?"

"Because you don't have any more money coming in for 22 more days."

"But what do you want me to do?"

"I want you," his mother told him, "to learn to like macaroni."

What this country needs is about two million more moms like that.

J.