What Gets Prince Charles Drooling?

Camilla Bowles, you say?

Well, you would be wrong.

Apparently, what really gets Chuck's heart fluttering - at the dinner table, anyway - is a plate full of brassica oleracea var gemmifera. Or, for those of you not fluent in Latin - we're talking about those miniscule cabbages known as brussel sprouts:

As Britons chose their EU representatives at the polls on Thursday, the heir to their nation's throne gave his own backing to Brussels -- sprouts, that is.

Prince Charles shared his love of the much-maligned vegetable and leeks with teens at a school in Gloucestershire, western England.

During a visit to Brimsham Green School in the town of Yate, Charles met students with a rare preference for nuts and fruits over candy and chips.

Quizzed about his favorite greens, he said: "I rather like Brussels sprouts... and leeks are a very good Welsh vegetable."

In comparison, President Bush can't be called terribly health-conscious when it comes to his favorites:

Bush representatives recently shared, at the Chronicle's request, the president's "official" favorite foods and his least-favorite vegetable. Favorites are Mexican food in general, enchiladas, tacos, salsa, hamburgers, barbecue, peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, watermelon and pralines-and-cream ice cream. He'll eat broccoli, but he says no to beets.

Just say "no" to beets. I think Dubya has got something there. Then again, considering his past history, he may want to consider changing that to - Just say "no" to pretzels.

A new election platform is born. Somehow I don't think that the folks at Aunt Annie's, Snyder's of Hanover or Rold-Gold are going to be making campaign contributions.

On the other hand, I've heard that the Jolly Green Giant was happy to accept an invite to dinner at Buckingham Palace.