Get an A, eat an artichoke

The nutrition police have been coming down pretty hard on America's schoolchildren lately. It seems as though every day there's a news report on school lunches being brought into nutritional line, or fruit replacing chips in school vending machines, or sodas being forbidden from cafeterias. And now, this: school officials in Florida are fretting over a perfectly nice offer made by Krispy Kreme to give students a doughnut for each "A" they earn. Now here a kid works hard all quarter, earns those As, wouldn't you think he or she could just have a nice cruller or two or six? But no; with childhood obesity allegedly at epidemic proportions, nutritionists would prefer they have an apple, or maybe some Brussels sprouts. So now parents will have to go back to paying their kids to get good grades instead of bribing them with a trip to the nearest Krispy Kreme franchise. I've got an idea for the spurned doughnut-makers, though -- as a parent, I know I work hard with my kids to do their homework and write good reports and study hard. How about free doughnuts for the parents of those A students? I'm guessing their teachers probably wouldn't mind a few, either.