How to Eat Vegemite

******* I remember as a child trying Vegemite. I think I got a spoon out of the cupboard and just stuck the whole heaping batch into my mouth. The stuff is AWFUL! Bleh. Of course the "natives" of Australia (I was living near Sydney at the time in Pymble) assured me that it is normal because Americans just do not like Vegemite. So, I had always accepted this as fact. Vegemite is horrid BECAUSE I am an American. If I were a *true* Australian, I would love the stuff.

But Kim has just written me and I think of her letter as a challenge to give Vegemite another chance:

After reading your post I quickly took some vegemite photos... just so that you didn't have a bad experience. You don't need very much vegemite at all. On the end of the butter knife there would be less than 1/4 of a teaspoon of vegemite... that is plenty for a sandwich. My husband really likes Vegemite on toast for breakfast. I love vegemite and cheese and lettuce sandwiches. Veronica doesn't like vegemite at all. David likes vegemite on saladas (crackers).

Hm. OK, so do things DIFFERENTLY next time. Next time, I shouldn't be a pig and try to snort up the whole jar! Emperor has been dancing about for days singing, "Vegemite! Vegemite! Vegemite!" He thinks that when he receives the magical Vegemite that it will *prove* that he is a true Australian. We shall see. The child also imagines himself to be an Indian because he can sneak up on people without being heard. He's cute, because he imagines people are different not so much based on what they look like, but the different things they can do. So in his mind he can really BE anything. Elf has decided that Vegemite is frightening, but yet he ate some play-doh today on a dare.