Still Commodity Trading...

I've already complained about the - New York Sticker Shock - I am suffering at the moment.

For example, the half-gallon 1.75 quarts of Breyers that I used to buy in Boston for $4.99 (already a high price!) costs $6.29 at local grocery stores.

26% higher food costs? Is that what I have to expect here on Long Island?

I couldn't bring myself to buy the ice cream when I first noticed the price jump. Sure, it's only $1.30 more for one of my favorite indulgences, and there's plenty of room in the budget for it. All I need is a little time to recover from the initial shock and to intellectually justify the purchase.

But then the other day I was shocked to see Breyers on sale for the ultra-low price of $2.50.

I bought four of them - the most I could fit into my MIL's meat-cluttered freezer.

In fact I can't EVER remember seeing that brand offered so cheaply in all of my life. When my wife got home Monday night, with my $6.29 complaints still fresh in her memory, she saw all the ice cream in the freezer and laughed, "What? Was it on sale?"

I said to her that this was ridiculous; that I felt like I was now *trading exotic food derivatives* with price swings this crazy.

Perhaps my MIL, with her generic everything, stockpiled foodstuffs, and frozen meat, isn't so *cheap* after all? That's just what living in New York for 40 years conditions anti-Morons to do.

Do any of y'all remember when ice cream actually came in half-gallons?

Surely it was those skimmers on Wall Street who advised every food manufacturer on the fruited plain to reduce package sizes!