Hard core

Does this happen to everyone, and it's just that I in particular am bothered by it more than others?

I always get the core of the lettuce. Always have.

I pointed this out to CamoDidi when we were younger. Ever since then, each time I got the core of the lettuce in my salad (which was each time we had salad), he would point and laugh while I feigned great exasperation. We thought mom was giving it to me but it would also happen when we went out to eat.

I don't like that core part of the lettuce. It is disproportionately high in the stalky stuff, the xylemy phloemy vascular part. I don't like the stalky part, even on the outside leaves. It squikks against your teeth and it has a bad flavor, like wet anemic dirt. And salad dressing doesn't stick to it either, so there's no covering it up.

One of the first ways I started exercising my freedom as an adult was to stop eating that part of the lettuce. Because I didn't have to, and there was no one around who could make me.

Still, every time I get a salad that someone else has prepared, there it is. It usually appears about halfway through. In the corner, under a lovely leaf or cucumber slice. The core.

Who conspires against me?