What's up with the big S these days?

Everyone -- and by that I mean no one -- has been clamoring to get an update on the summer's hottest trend, salmonella-getting. Since the smoking gun turned out to be a blazin' serrano pepper from Mexico, I suspect you've turned the page on this news item, eh? Still, there's more interesting stuff:

• Mexico sez: hey, we don't got no -- sorry, skipping the offensive stereotypical retort here -- we've found no salmonella (and the U.S. responds, "did too!")
• Wal-Mart is taking the claim that some guy got salmonella from their peppers "very seriously" -- and as the Consumerist points out, this is what "companies use over and over again to appear contrite without actually saying or doing anything." Stay tuned on this one.
• This guy (director of the Paleobiotics Lab) says "our sick, leaky guts" should share the blame.
• Oh, great, let's just irradiate everything to oblivion, just in case, to be safe you know.

And finally, it's nice to see that someone took my Law and Order meme literally:

"Holding a tomato in one hand and a jalapeño in the other, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations subcommittee, pressed the FDA on whether the tomato was still a "vegetable of interest" or had been cleared. "

Vegetable of interest -- heh.

P.S. Still no salmonella outbreak at the Durham Farmer's Market. I'm just saying.