Don't Eat the Romaine Lettuce

The warning came just as millions of Americans were preparing for the biggest food holiday of the year. People should not buy or eat romaine lettuce; restaurants should stop serving it; anyone who has it on hand should throw it out and clean the refrigerator immediately.

The stern and sweeping advisory, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday afternoon, two days before Thanksgiving, caught many people off guard. But the agency said it was acting out of an abundance of caution after 32 people in 11 states fell sick with a virulent form of E. coli, a bacteria blamed for a number of food-borne outbreaks in recent years.  NYT

Don't eat the romaine lettuce; just throw it out instead.

If you insist on serving it your guests may wind up dead.

E. coli is the culprit; it gets into the leaves.

And if it does not kill you, you can still come down with heaves.

Of course, if Uncle Charlie must smoke his foul cigar;

and maybe Cousin Shirley treats your house like some cheap bar --

If that's the case then serve it, in salads and rolades.

And you can watch them writhing in agonized charades.

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