Yesterday, at the behest of my officemate and pal Jen Perry, I headed to the supermarket located one block from my desk to pick up foodstuffs to eat throughout the day. For some reason, I have a real hangup about having snacks at my disposal, even though I need to nearly be doubling my caloric intake as January's 50 miler approaches.

The store is a larger-chained "health-conscious" store (which equals overpriced regular groceries and many harder-to-find organic products), so I picked up some savory snacks (chips) and headed to the "sweet" section to see what I could scare up.

I'm not at all a sweet-tooth driven individual, but I know that, as the day normally progresses, my body starts demanding more calories, so I perused the healthier dessert options and came across, what I am currently snacking on, "Carob covered raisins".

Past history has proven to me that, well, carob tastes like honey-sweetened bunghole, but, I thought, "give it a try: Maybe your tastes have changed."

This just in: My tastes are the same. And carob still hosts the flavor of water dumped from a dirtied ashtray.

I did a little research, found this piece of information, and quickly discovered why carob, in it's health-minded, well-meaning way, makes my tongue feel like 20 chalkboard erasers have had their contents emptied on to it:

it is considered non-toxic to dogs, and is used in dog treats such as Carob Chip Cookies

There you have it. Dogs LOVE this stuff. And considering what dogs regularly lick, usually at the center of the living room during Christmas dinner, my assessment of the flavor being that of honey-sweetened bunghole isn't too far off.