Sometime after the treatments began, Ken was remarking on how one of the drugs he was using required him to also consume 40 grams of fat every day. 40 grams of fat is pretty hard to find in any good form, especially for a man like Ken, who eschewed fats with great gusto. I offered to bring him the very best sources of fatty acids known to man, if he would agree to grill them for lunch. It was a surprise of sorts: all I told him to expect was some salmon. I went to the market and bought a very nice, wild salmon cut, with scales, which looked as though it was marinated in something extra slippery. Just in case it was too filling and not fatty enough, I also brought with me a very big bag of my favorite potato chips. When I arrived, I showed him the fish, which was suitably impressive. Then I showed him the potato chips -- Grandma Utz's Handcooked Potato Chips -- and I told him the reason these were my favorites in all the world.

The ingredients listed: fresh potato slices and salt, cooked in lard. I strongly urge anyone who was never eaten anything fried in lard to immediately do so. One meal is all it takes, and I can promise you will never taste anything so full of pleasant tasting stuff, without so much as a smithereen of sugar to sweeten the taste. So I told Ken they were my favorites entirely because anything cooked in lard is tastes good, and anything that oily simply must improve circulatory health, because it is, after all, a lubricant.

He snickered, and cast a nostalgic glance upon the bag of Grandma Utz's, and told me that you could not get these too far away. Utz is not a preserved product (generally, that is true), and they spoil if they are taken too far from Pennsylvania. He also said that he knew what I meant about the lard, and he could remember a childhood slogan for them. With a twinkly gleam of the eyes, he said the slogan was "Remember only put UTZ in the GUTZ."

Guy Sherr - family friend