I like beets. I used to boil up a batch, peel them and cut them up, butter well and eat with whole wheat bread for lunch. Oh, and lots of black pepper.

That was when I was still a bride and hadn't learned that my husband hates them with a purple passion. He says they taste like dirt. He objects to how the house smells, hours after they've been cooked. When I understood that, I gave them up.

Later I learned that this serious dislike of beets seems to be a male thing. Too bad, because they seemed easy to grow. But what does it tell us that even the bugs won't eat them?