"It's for a good cause" my coworkers say. "Oh, come on - live a little, it's a tradition" they tell me.

It seems I cannot enter or exit a grocery or convenience store without encountering some cute kid with hopeful eyes that seem to say "Buy the cookies for me - please?!"

Oh bother.

Now, why does it have to be cookies they're selling?

I did my fair share of fund raisers as a kid. I sold these horrible candle things that my mother faithfully hung on the wall and burned at my request. I sold Tom Watt junk. The FFA (Future Farmers of America) sold fruit boxes. I got people to donate money and sponsor me as I jumped rope for heart. All kinds of options out there.

Why cookies for this nation's little girls?

I heard on the radio this morning that obesity-related illnesses have now surpassed cigarettes in the death tolls. And here are our little ones are getting all kinds of feedback from the general public at large about how GREAT boxes of transfatty acids are, as their sheets fill up with people buying a dozen boxes or more. I know I personally bought 2 dozen boxes last year (pre-low-carb) by the time I "supported" all the kids in the neighborhood. And I was delighted every time each one stopped by, exclaimed about my favorites, and asked them to hurry back with my precious commodity. What kind of message is this sending to these cute little girls, a large percentage of which is growing up overweight in today's society?

Does anyone else out there think this is an outdated (and dangerous) notion?

Why can't we simply sponsor these girls to do something good . . . visit a nursing home, run a mile, train a dog, plant a flower bed in the community. Why cookies??