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30
Jul

College Friend Jim Reston Passes!

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My good friend from college days at the University of North Carolina died recently. Jim Rushton wrote 18 books. He was a historian and novelist, and he provided a 96-page “interrogation” memo for David Frost’s TV interviews that prodded Nixon to admit, “I let the American people down” over Watergate.  He was a great athlete at Carolina, and still holds the record for scoring the most goals in a soccer match there.  We last visited in Linville, North Carolina on his book tour a year ago.  During our Carolina days, Jim and I would have dinner each evening at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house. I wish our conversations had been recorded as we made a gallant effort to solve most of the world’s problems.  Jim was 82 years old and died of cancer.  I will sure miss my friend of 70 years.  To read his full biography, Click Here.

 

01
Mar

THE LEGISLATURE AND CAESAR SALAD!

March 1, 2026

Monday, March 2nd, 2026

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

THE LEGISLATURE AND CAESAR SALAD!

Big news!  The Louisiana Legislature will be back in session next week. We all yearn for the riveting coverage of meaningful issues touching the quality of life in the Bayou State. No, not solving the crises the state faces in healthcare, education and affordable insurance. I mean the real meaty issues where the debate goes on for days. Whether to re-instate the legalization of cockfighting? How about taking one more shot at a new State poem?

But if you think Louisiana has an oddball legislature that leans toward quirky solutions to non-existent problems, check out California that has moved a notch ahead of us here in the Deep South. There is great news to report. California has decriminalized the sale of Caesar salad. That’s right! It’s no longer a crime to put together a Caesar salad in California. What an important gastronomic epitome of a truly civilized state.

To assist in this whole “war on crime,” the California State Legislature, in its collective wisdom, created a new law that banned the sale of any food product using raw eggs as an ingredient. And what do you find in the smooth, creamy taste with a bit of a bite in the dressing that goes on the Caesar salad? Well of course, uncooked eggs. But using uncooked eggs for a Caesar salad became a crime in California.

That’s right! Criminal penalties attached to this new important protection of the public health. Well you can imagine the public response. The rallying cry became, “When you outlaw Caesar salad, only outlaws will eat Caesar salad.” And dire predictions were rampant. Would there be a flourishing black market in contraband romaine lettuce, raw eggs, and Parmesan cheese?

But California is similar to Louisiana in one respect. Things don’t often change very rapidly, and naysayers thought it may take some time to bring legislators back to reality. We’ve had plenty of firsthand experience with the same foot dragging here in Louisiana. So ignoring the roadblocks, a cadre of Caesar supporters took a more gradual approach, and offered several possible solutions:

 Begin a slow return by implementing a five-day waiting period for Caesar salad, so the government could do a medical background check for raw-egg allergies.

Legalize only “medical Caesar salad” whereby people with a vitamin deficiency could get a doctor’s permission to buy a small amount of Caesar salad for their own personal use.

Launch an anti-Caesar salad TV advertising blitz, perhaps with a commercial showing a frying pan, and then showing the pan with a raw egg in it. The voice-over could be: “This is your brain. This is your brain on Caesar salad.”

Allowing only adults 21 and over the right to buy Caesar salad, on the grounds that it may be an adolescent’s gateway-salad to stronger stuff, like macaroni salad or three-bean salad.

We have a knock down drag out U.S. Senate race that’s taking place here in the Bayou State. I can just hear all the candidates’ platforms now that could include a plank that says, “I support the Constitutional right of every Louisianan to keep and bear Caesar salad … or rather to eat and buy a Caesar salad. I’m not going to stand by in my race for U.S. Senator and allow these political eggheads to flourish and think they have the right to micromanage every aspect of our lives.”

Hey, this may be a pretty good approach. It can’t be any worse than some of the platforms we’ve seen candidates for congress have used in recent years. The good news is that the California Legislature did come to its senses, and you’ll be happy to know that Caesar salad is now legal in California. Let’s hope the previous trend doesn’t find its way to Louisiana.

If it does, you will find me in the forefront of leading the fight against the injustices of banning the salad that I eat four or five times a week. And what will my slogan be? Simple. Back off Legislature. Just lettuce alone.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. 

 

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