Kliban by B. Kliban for January 29, 2025

Like G.B. Senior said: “I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. Now I’m president of the United States, and I’m not gonna eat any more broccoli!”

This is, like, half of the complete strip.

A while back I was ordering Cracker Barrel’s Thursday special turkey dinner when they got to the vegetable option and I asked what the choices were. As soon as she started with broccoli I knew I didn’t have to listen to the rest of the list and I think I even said “Ooh!” when I selected it.

Got a look from her that was easy to interpret as “you mean people actually like broccoli?!” Why yes, I do. And it was delicious.

As a child, I used my imagination to pretend I was a giant and the broccoli was a forest. With cauliflower, it was clouds. Spinach was, of course, what made Popeye so strong.

I like broccoli. My two young sons grew some broccoli for me, timing it to harvest on my birthday. They prepared it by steaming but there were aphids on the cooked spears. The kids were so apologetic but I ate the broccoli with gusto. Their reaction of priceless! Laughing and shocked in disbelief.

The cartoon is incomplete. Maybe we’ll get part two tomorrow.

Broccoli sounds Italian.

I like broccoli, cauliflower is a different story. It’s tasteless and bland. Cauliflower is the tofu of vegetables!

George H.W. Bush as a child

Mother: “It’s broccoli, dear."

Daughter: "I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it.”

A very old New Yorker cartoon (1928), drawn by Carl Rose and written by E.B. White. (Broccoli has been cultivated in America since colonial times but it didn’t really become common until the 1920’s, probably with the assimilation of the great immigration wave from Italy.)

Broccoli is two different vegetables. The flowers I’ll eat anytime. The stalks, not so much. (If you slice them really thin, they’re not bad as part of a stir-fry.)

Incidentally, I just read about people going blind from unhealthy diets.

George HWBush’s childhood.

Well the message is clear. Broccoli causes veggie rage. Down with Broccoli!

A scene from the childhood of George H. W. Bush?

Some can relate…. my kids ate just about everything.