After exhaustive research, I’ve concluded that it probably doesn’t matter in normal household use — the risk of truly negative consequences from mismatched batteries (e.g., your Apple MagicMouse explodes) is vanishingly low, and the incremental energy savings probably isn’t noticeable. (Really, if you asked me “how long do your mouse batteries last?” my guess would probably be wildly inaccurate.)

However, I have no practical way to know the “residual voltage” left in each of the batteries in a device that’s stopped working. And batteries cost like 50 cents each! So, Duracell, you’ve won this one by default, it seems…

As a result I’ll be eating roughly a pint of blueberries per day from now until they disappear, and I’m reacquainting myself with the relative sweetness and deliciousness of the wares available from my various blueberry sources. (Last year, Jersey blueberries from Fairway were the most reliable, but the Mississipi blueberries I picked up this week at Fairway gave them a run for their money.)

I’m also musing on the following Dr. Science question: Crush a blueberry, say with a rolled-up newspaper, and it stains the newspaper blue (or, more precisely, purple). Crush a blueberry in your mouth and dribble the juice on, say, a kitten, and it stains the kitten blue. (I think.) But crush 500 or 1,000 blueberries in your mouth and swallow them, and the blue, uh, disappears! (Please don’t ask me to explain what I mean. Just ask a five-year-old.) Where does it go?

I’ve done my research (thanks, Internet) and am not satisfied with the answers — many of which seem to contradict the premise of my question by suggesting that the blue is in fact, uh, reemerging at the end of the, uh, rainbow, I’m just not noticing. (Not bloody likely!). So this will have to remain one of biochemistry’s little mysteries for now.

In the meantime, as long as you’re not worried about swelling up like Violet Beauregarde (and if it hasn’t happened to me yet, it probably isn’t going to), join me in enjoying one of summer’s treats. They’re delicious and good for you — and, at least here in New York City, at the moment they’re everywhere.