Oh, this is cruel.

A salmonella outbreak that has slowly grown to nearly 300 cases in 39 states since August has been linked to tainted peanut butter, federal health officials said Wednesday.
(HuffPo)

Once upon a time, back near the Beginning of Everything - before the Internet, even - peanut butter was the Official Food of Everybody Under Ten. I grew up on the stuff. Even today I am rarely without a jar of the stuff. (Hint: Get the real kind with real peanut oil, the kind you have to stir.) But no longer is it, like, vaguely perverted for a kid to show up for school without a peanut butter sandwich in a paper bag. Peanut butter has fallen upon bad times.

Some school systems, I'm told, go so far as to forbid it, so common have violent allergies to peanut butter become. Travelers worry about peanuts on the plane. Some have allergies so severe even getting kissed by someone who's been eating peanuts is a threat. Says the Mayo Clinic, "peanut allergies account for 80 percent of fatal or near-fatal allergic reactions each year."

Bummer. And now, salmonella too? That's really cruel.

But, I suppose, if you've got some peanut butter lying around you probably ought to check this out.