What does the Best Before Date really mean? I love thinking about this kind of minutiae at this time of year when everything’s so macro. Ask yourself: Would you eat a Raspberry bio-enhanced yogurt stamped with today’s date? Maybe that’s not a great example; it is bacteria after all. Personally, I think you’d know right away if after the first bite you’d made the wrong call. Someone at work today suggested that Best Before is the date the grocers use to indicate when an item is to be removed from the shelves (or fridge). In that case, it’s surely safe for consumption for days afterward. Hold off on the fridge…

Alison Wright is my hero. We met as I was nervously running through safety checks on my buoyancy control device, waist deep in the Red Sea, moments before a 150′ dive to a scuttled freighter off the southwest coast of Jordan. I was scared shitless. Alison tapped my shoulder and asked to by my dive buddy. It was the first time we’d talked more than hello, day three into a press trip of the Hashemite Kingdom. She was representing National Geographic. I was on a stealth assignment for the Ottawa Citizen. She said I looked like I knew what I was doing. My OCD-inspired safety check had obviously attracted her.…