Yes, I've been bitten by the Shawnee bug – and in more ways than one.

I have visited the Shawnee National Forest twice this summer and cannot get enough of it, so that's the first way.

The other way I've been bitten involves real bug bites. You see, my old Marine buddy Mike Ward and I explored the national forest last week, and some Shawnee chiggers voraciously feasted upon me. My ankles now look like they were blasted with a nail gun. And they itch! Thus, I scratch!

Chiggers, incidentally, are not insects. They are arachnids, as are spiders and ticks. Chiggers are immature mites, to be exact. That means baby mites were chowing down on me! Aw, geez! Well, I guess hosting a few chiggers is better than playing host to a Lyme disease-carrying deer tick.

I haven't been bugged by bug bites since my Camp Lejeune days, when I attracted a few hungry chiggers while leading my rifle platoon in the pine woods of that 170-square-mile Marine Corps base in North Carolina. I used to apply plenty of insect repellent, and I'd put a doggie flea collar around each ankle in an effort to stay safe from the chompin' bites of the dreaded chiggers. Another benefit of staying chigger free? My troops would see me as hard corps: "Man, even the chiggers don't mess with Sgt. Griggs."

I probably would have gotten out of the Shawnee last week without chigger bites if I hadn't stopped at an old cemetery as were driving to the national forest's Little Grand Canyon area south of Murphysboro. When we were almost there, I had to pull over. It was an emergency. I'd consumed too much coffee that morning and had to micturate before I exploded, to put it politely. It really was an emergency. I was experiencing extreme bladder distress. It was more than urgent; it was a national forest crisis.

Respectfully, I crossed the graveyard to the bordering forest, where I stepped into the trees and into thick, ankle-deep, ground cover. As I was practically overcome by the nature of my relief – did I convey that delicately enough? – I was attacked by the chigger brigade. I should have just pee-peed along the side of the road and waved if anybody drove by. At least I wouldn't be scratching now.

Itching, however, is better than the pain and swelling of bee stings and horse-fly bites, I guess. We saw plenty of bees in the Shawnee last week. I often photograph bees and wasps – often up close – and get along with them quite well. I've never had any ugly
confrontations with them. I don't bite them, and they don't sting me.

Chiggers are another matter, I reckon, so I'll simply steer clear of their habitat. No more stepping into thick ground cover along old cemeteries, for example.

That should do it, right there, just that. After all, I've not experienced chigger attacks elsewhere in the Shawnee or elsewhere in the Land of Lincoln. My wife gets bitten in the grass in our backyard! But they ignore my leathery, gyrene ankles. Chiggers also have ignored me in the stands of hardwoods and undergrowth around my hometown and along field roads on nearby farmlands and in the woodlands of our state parks. And in almost all of the Shawnee.

So, just one isolated chigger incident – even as voracious as those little buggers
were – shall not deter me from trekking through the woods of southern Illinois. The Shawnee National Forest is my kind of country, you know, and I'm planning an October visit to photograph the national forest in its autumn colors. I'm already itching to go back.

We've been advised that our brains, particularly our memories, can stay sharp if we exercise, eat right and get plenty of sleep. Now it's recommended we also drink hot cocoa.

Specifically, two cups of hot cocoa a day does the trick, says a new study just
published in Neurology, the official journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
My chocolate-tuned ears perked up this morning, when "CBS This Morning" reported
on the study. 

I love hot cocoa and all things chocolate. Believe it or not, last week – keep in mind that it's August – I had a cup of hot cocoa with miniature marshmallows in it.

But back to the newly released study, I soon learned that this good news is for so-called older people, to help prevent dementia and such. 

Just because I can get the seniors' discount for my cup of cocoa at Denny's does not mean I'm a so-called older person. I will not submit to being an old fogie until I can no longer hike and jog and be able to drive to the store to pick up stuff like Dove dark chocolates, Snickers bars, Prairie Farms chocolate-chip ice cream, Entenmann's chocolate donuts, and all the makings for hot cocoa.

I will, however, submit to consuming chocolate and doing so until I grow old and die.

When my wife and I were buying our first home, we were having lunch with our
real-estate agent, a true lover of chocolate. I decided to have dessert and ordered a
hot-fudge sundae, as did our broker, who then remarked: "If God created anything better than chocolate, he kept to himself."

I've always remembered that, and I occasionally repeat it, always in a reverent manner. It is pure chocolate wisdom. It's not in the bible, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone said it is. People say things are in the Bible that are not in the Bible. Sometimes it's because of misinterpretation, while other times it's because people want to legitimize or glorify their agendas. I don't have a chocolate agenda. I just really, really, really like
chocolate.

While I'm trying to stay away from wheat products these days, I must admit that chocolate makes me cheat sometimes. For example, my wife came home recently with some chocolate-covered donuts, knowing that I continually crave chocolate and have a history of adoring donuts.

After she apologized for buying these beautiful things made with wheat flour and smothered in deep, dark chocolate, she was in a quandary about what to do with them.

She apologized? "Oh, I'm sorry; I keep forgetting you're not eating wheat," is what she said. She went to all the trouble of buying those exquisite belly bombs just for me. She was so thoughtful. Now, visualize – if you can; I'm sure you can – those chocolate donuts, which were the same as glazed donuts but drenched in a luscious darkness that definitely smelled chocolaty, heavenly. I could not appear ungrateful, so I refused to toss away Anne's kindness and the donuts' chocolaty goodness. I devoured one. Then I poured a glass of cold milk and gobbled another. Fantastic! Yahoo!

Researchers, nutritionists and health experts have been telling us for some time that dark chocolate contains antioxidants and can be good for our hearts. That's all I ever needed to hear to ensure that I treat myself daily to a little dose of antioxidant-packed nourishment from the cacao-bean gods.

Admittedly, I never needed a lot of encouragement to eat chocolate before all the health and nutrition information. Don't we all like chocolate? Do you know anyone who doesn't? I wouldn't trust anyone who doesn't like chocolate.

The basis for this dialogue was, oh yeah, the study about hot cocoa benefiting our brains, so that we can remember things when we get older. I'll add that good scoop to my reasons for drinking cocoa and chocolate malted Ovaltine and for eating Toblerone dark chocolate with honey and almond nougat from Switzerland and Freia melkesjokolade from Norway.

Has anybody seen any studies on marshmallows?

Inhabitants of underdeveloped nations and victims of natural disasters are the only people who have ever been happy to see soybeans.  
                                                       – Fran Lebowitz, author, journalist, humorist, essayist

No way Fran! Have you never heard of edamame, tofu, soy milk, miso, Trader Joe's spiced soybeans? Snap out of it, girl! The soybean is a good thing.

Granted, I'd rather stuff my mouth with potato chips or pizza, but soybean products can be good for you. Some even taste good.

Getting back to Trader Joe's for a few moments, I can safely say that a soybean skeptic could find many forms of edible soy foods there. Let's stroll through the store and see what we can find, shall we? I see shelled edamame soybeans, TJ's soy milk, those spiced soybeans I mentioned before, organic tofu veggie burgers, the quite pleasant-tasting Trader Joe's Savory Thin Mini Edamame Crackers, and – you'll surely salivate over this one – dark chocolate-covered edamame. We all love dark chocolate, eh?

And what is edamame, you ask? It's merely fresh, green, soybean pods with the seeds inside. You open the pod and pop the plump seeds into your mouth as snacks or appetizers. But first, boil the pods for three or four minutes with a little salt and then dump them into ice water to keep their emerald green color and to cool them down. Next, open the pods and consume the enjoyable beans inside them. They can be a healthful snack to ward off hunger till suppertime. 

Edamame is a Japanese word, and I was living in Japan when I first tried the little edibles. At some Japanese restaurants, edamame is served as a free appetizer dish when you sit down.

Growing up in farm country, I knew soybeans were lush and green early in the season, but they were harvested here when they became brown. Most Illinois soybeans became animal feed or soybean oil or soy meal. And the industrial uses were and are many. I'd never heard of edamame. I'd never even heard of tofu. I was a green kid from the Midwest, and the bean crops came in when the plants were dry and brown. That's all I knew.

You'd think I would have wised up, because I spent some of my growin'-up time in
the soybean fields. For example, I fondly remember riding on my grandfather's old
Massey-Ferguson tractor, as he prepped the field for soybean planting.

"Hey, Grandpa, stop!" I yelled to him one time.

Being the kind gentleman he was, he stopped, even though there was a lot more earth
to be turned and not a lot of time in which to do it. He must have figured that his grandson surely had a good reason for interrupting the work of the planting season. He might have thought: Am I not driving straight enough?

Nope, that wasn't it. He was a great tractor driver. The fact was, I'd seen an arrowhead in the newly exposed soil. I wasn't much concerned about soybeans. I was more interested in finding an American Indian artifact or two, and I'd spotted an almost perfect projectile point. Rather than get mad at his silly grandson, he smiled at me and shared my enthusiasm.

I'm surprised I don't hate the mere sight of soybeans after the summer of 1963 – or was it 1964? –  when I worked for a farmer about two or three miles from my hometown of Lebanon, Ill. During a couple of summery days, a few other young teens and I were tasked with hoeing a large soybean field. That means we had to hoe weeds – digging them up with regular, old-fashion, wood-handle hoes – throughout the entire bean field. The sun beat down on us, and the broiling heat was almost dizzying. However, we were rewarded in the middle of the hot afternoon, when Mr. Virgin showed up with some ice-cold ice cream for us. In my entire life, ice cream has never tasted as good as the cold ice cream we so much enjoyed that summer in that bean field.

Yet, I do not hate the sight of soybeans. Images of those bean plants soothe me and please me. Their roots and my roots are embedded in this Illinois soil. I enjoy walking or jogging for a mile or so along fields of young, green soybeans. I also enjoy trekking through Ponderosa pine trees in the California mountains, but you can't eat pines. I can eat me some soybeans, though. 

We can eat and drink soy in so many ways. First of all, I cook a lot of Asian food, and I use a lot of soy sauce. Then there's miso, or soybean paste, which goes into my beef and pork broths to be poured over my Japanese noodles. And after enjoying edamame as snacks or appetizers, I can always use the pods in soups and stews.

Soybeans are also healthful. A lot of studies have focused on the health benefits of soy. Many of those studies, however, are not fully accepted by nutritionists because they see the research as incomplete. They want more studies that test larger groups of people for longer periods of time.

Nevertheless, researchers and doctors see soybean products as good for heart health and possibly as helpful in protection against cancer. Look at it this way: 1/2 cup of shelled edamame has 120 calories, 9 grams of fiber, 2.5 grams fat, 15 milligrams sodium,
11 grams protein, 13 grams carbs, and it provides vitamins C and A. Eat 'em up! 

Other soy uses in our house? Soy-based whipped topping goes on top of some of our
strawberries. I like soy milk, flavored with chocolate malt. Ever tried avocado-edamame salsa? Hey, try it. You'll be soy happy you did.