Pistachios, the healthiest nut out there. But that’s not why I eat them. No, I like the saltiness of the green snack. However, the taste isn’t the main reason I enjoy it.  What satisfaction I retain from eating the nut is cracking its outer protection, the shell. I say this like the little green guys in Toy Story say “The Claw.” The shell is hard, you can’t squish it like an average joe peanut. You have to take both sides of the opening and split them apart. Then, of course, you eat it. This routine goes over and over again until your fingers get tired or you run out of open able shells.

It’s hard to get full on these things, or to realize you’re full because you can’t gorge on the nuts because of how long it takes to even open it. Usually I only stop eating because I see I’ve filled the bowl I put all the shells in, or I’m busy and have to move on. And that’s why I stopped on a Tuesday night; because homework was a calling and I’d been cracking for the last eight minutes. When I was stubbornly making my way back to the pile of homework previously abandoned, I briefly thought why couldn’t we have bought shell-less Pistachios, that way I could eat with my left hand and write with my right instead of using both to either do one or the other. Then I quickly shook that thought away, because Pistachios are like life; It’s not eating them that’s fun, it’s cracking the shell.