Dear Dr. Boli: I was in my local bagelorium for lunch yesterday, and they asked me what kind of bagel I wanted for my Lox de Luxe Combo, and one of the choices was “ancient grains.” And I was wondering what “ancient grains” meant, but the teenager behind the counter was stuck in trying to figure out what “lox” meant, and I didn’t want to burden him any further. But what do they mean by “ancient grains”? It sounds wonderfully intriguing and mysterious.

Dear Sir: It is not as mysterious as all that. “Ancient grains” is a marketing term for what the bakery trade used to call “day-olds”: that is, items that were baked yesterday but did not sell and are being offered today. It used to be regular practice to offer them at a discount, but the intriguing and mysterious term “ancient grains” has eliminated the necessity for such drastic measures.