The Spice Route by John Keay

"The human body needs minerals, notably salt; but pepper, the most substantially traded of all spices, is a dietary irrelevance. One might live a perfectly healthy life without ever ingesting, inhaling or otherwise being exposed to any one of the desiccated bits of vegatation that have traditionally been considered spices. Nor are they addictive in any physiological sense. The withdrawal symptoms might be evinced at times of scarcity were purely social and economic."

A quotation for early risers

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?" "What's for breakfast?" said Pooh, "What do you say, Piglet?" "I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said. --A.A. Milne, Winne-the-Pooh (1926)