This afternoon, the CDC issued a stark, unambiguous warning -- DO NOT EAT ANY ROMAINE LETTUCE.  Not in salads, not in lettuce wraps, not in sandwiches...nothing.  The recall is the latest declaration of romaine's danger.  Again, this warning, like the ones before, is tied to an outbreak of E.coli infection.

I know this because I got a news alert on my phone.  Unfortunately -- and this is no joke -- I opened it as I was paying the bill at lunch.  A lunch where I (with not a little pre-Thanksgiving self-satisfaction) ate an overflowing bowl full of veggies nestled on top of a huge serving of ... you guessed it...romaine lettuce.

This warning is triggered by 32 reported cases in 11 states.  None have been reported in Arizona, yet.  But California has 10 reports, and with Yuma boasting that it's America's salad bowl, the smart money is on an Arizona infection soon.

So -- come up with a new Thanksgiving Day salad and ditch the romaine garnish.  Reinvent your Caesar salad recipe.  And you might want to invest in kale futures.  Regardless, dump the romaine.  All of it.  The CDC isn't messing around.  E.coli is a serious gastrointestinal infection.  

By the way, this is a picture of what was left at the instant I opened the alert...I'm fine as of this writing.

What's left of my romaine salad...after receiving the E.coli alert!