Maybe I’m dense, but I remain mystified by this sweeping trend toward “eating down the fridge,” which has now spread to what was once a relatively legitimate news outlet. I could see the Porcine Pantload needing to take a week off from grocery shopping, given that he could live off the fat on a forearm alone for a good three or four months. But I’ll say it again: What in the name of Wegman’s is the point of abstaining from supporting your neighborhood grocery or Greenmarket, where fish will otherwise be rotting on the ice, greens decaying in the produce aisle, milk curdling in the dairy case? If the exercise is in learning how to use all of what you buy, there are far saner ways to recalibrate a shopping list. (Did someone say Epi Log?) And if you blow through all your mayonnaise and capers and mustard, get ready for some serious sticker-price shock when you head out to replenish. As the New Yorker’s recent piece on credit cards pointed out, when Americans put the brake on spending, “Every little bit hurts.” Using up cornichons rather than buying fresh cucumbers is like spending all the cash from under the mattress. Only in overfed America would something so idiotic be encouraged.