Bad science and xenophobia

Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer: Photographed on Friday, July 8, 2011 for Eat & Run...No Chinese buffet would be complete with the standby, Vegetable Lo Mein, seen here at Asia Restaurant in South Portland.
Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer: Photographed on Friday, July 8, 2011 for Eat & Run…No Chinese buffet would be complete with the standby, Vegetable Lo Mein, seen here at Asia Restaurant in South Portland.

This morning over breakfast Larry told me he had been reading Five Thirty Eight, Nate Silver’s blog, and that the whole “MSG is bad for you” story is a myth, based on flawed science.  Apparently, the negative effects only occurred when subjects were told they were eating MSG, and weren’t reproducible in blind tests.

Meanwhile, I was reading the latest issue of Poetry, a mostly depressing start to the morning, and picked up the pepper shaker absently, meaning to put some on my egg, but distracted.

“Are you planning to use that as a chess piece?” Larry asked.

Startled out of my reverie, I handed it to him.