Adam Smith missed on predicting a culinary trend

"It is difficult to preserve potatoes through the year, and impossible to store them like corn, for two or three years together. The fear of not being able to sell them before they rot, discourages their cultivation, and is, perhaps, the chief obstacle to their ever becoming in any great country, like bread, the principal vegetable food of all the different ranks of the people."

Little did he know that sautéd potatoes were already becoming popular in Flanders. Little did he know that huge fast food chains would be created using deep fried potatoes as one of their staples. And little did he know that those deep fried potatoes could be frozen for years.

Pizza as a vegetable? Check the facts.

The news has been filled with talk of Congress classing pizza as a vegetable for school lunches. Surprise, the bill doesn't even mention pizza. It does roll back a requirement on the size of a serving of tomato paste from a half cup to two tablespoons. Surprise again, even two tablespoons of tomato paste can have more nutrition than a half cup of some fruits and vegetables.

I got this from Politifacts story "Republican lawmakers classified pizza as a vegetable for school lunches, Democrats say".

I think I should make an effort to check Politifact and FactCheck more often as part of my daily online newspaper reading. Politifact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times; FactCheck is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.