When I was growing up, my parents subscribed to the philosophy that if you didn’t eat what was prepared for dinner then you didn’t eat.  And it was always porridge, mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, chicken soup, and, sometimes, even gruel.  Yes, actual gruel!  You would have thought that I was on a diet for diabetics.  I don’t think that I ever even touched anything with sugar.  I never had any dessert at all.  I didn’t even taste ice cream until I was 14 and over at a friend’s house.  I never tried any sugar coated cereal, never ate any chocolate, and never had any iced tea or another drink that was sugar-sweetened.  Don’t even ask if I ever had soda.  I didn’t even know what Pepsi was.  I’d see the commercials on TV for Pepsi and 7-Up, but I never put together what they were since I’d never sampled them or seen them at home.  I mostly just drink water and, on holidays and other special occasions, orange juice.  Everyone at school used to call me “Skeleton.”  Then Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” came out and they started calling me Jack Skeleton.  Why?  Because my first name was Jack and I looked like a skeleton!  The only good thing was that I looked so weak all the time that I used to get passes to sit out of gym class all the time.  And, no, I don’t think I missed out on all the dodgeball and kickball excitement.