A.Y.O.R. (At Your Own Risk)

With choices come consequences. You can choose between alternatives. You cannot choose the consequences of your choice.

When you hear T.G.I.F., what comes to mind...? What about R.S.V.P...? A.S.A.P...? P.C...("Politically Correct"). N.W.O....(Bush's "New World Order"). Or even T.C.B.Y.? ("The Country's Best Yogurt" - We just had to throw that one in.)

All these acronyms are shortcuts conveying an important message in shorthand form. There is one other acronym that should soon be making its way into our common vocabulary - one whose abbreviated form reflects our attempts to cut corners in our own lives - A.Y.O.R.: At Your Own Risk. What we eat and drink, where we live, who we love, what we throw away - all have literally become matters of life and death.

An enduringly popular early TV game show was called "Truth or Consequences." A selected contestant was first interviewed by the show host (Ralph Edwards, Jack Bailey or Bob Barker), then asked to answer a nonsense riddle. If the contestant failed to answer the riddle (few ever could) before Beulah the Buzzer sounded, he or she had to pay the...