Our lizard brains weren’t designed to enjoy bitter flavors. In our hunter-gatherer heyday, if you found yourself chewing on a bitter leaf, it probably meant you were mere seconds from foaming at the mouth. Stick with the sweet berries, they said; they’re safe. In spite of this primal distaste, we persist, scouring for bitterness like masochists. 

It’s finally that time of year, when the best comfort foods of all varieties come out. Yet as the weather dips below freezing, we especially turn to a seasonal favorite: soup.

Christmas always comes too early. The jingle bells on Halloween, the nativity scenes preceding Thanksgiving feasts — our capitalist machine thrives on yuletide fever.

In today’s world, perhaps the greatest gift anyone can offer is an escape — from technology, from the stresses of life, from the world at large.