The multiple meetings in Washington between Israeli and Palestinian leaders hasn’t succeeded in bringing peace to the region, but they have bettered one Washington tradition. After 46 years, the famed Christian Science Monitor breakfast, where news makers talk as reporters gobble bacon, sausage, eggs and potatoes, is getting healthy.
In what started to a bow to recent visits by the Israeli and Palestinian ambassadors, plates larded down with pork sausage and bacon now have dainty chicken sausage links squeezed between scrambled eggs and home fries.
Monitor Bureau Chief David Cook credits his congressional correspondent David Grant, the previous breakfast coordinator, with making the change in a bow to the diets of the diplomats. And it’s also a subtle hat tip to first lady Michelle Obama and her health kick. Maybe now she’ll accept an invitation to attend.
Most reporters like the switch, though some have grumbled about the missing bacon at the regular breakfasts held at the St. Regis Hotel across the street from the Monitor bureau.
“This is a matter of debate within the generations,” joked Cook, who’s hosted the last 549 breakfasts of the 3,780 held since former longtime Monitor writer Godfrey Sperling Jr. convened the first on February 8, 1966. “The older guys have given up on their arteries and would sooner eat pork but the younger guys have a different view.”
