- Didn't I say not to go out for Valentine's Day? (Another Wine Blog) I don’t have any interest in going to a proper restaurant for dinner on Halloween, because it’s almost guaranteed to be a dreadful, expensive experience.. But we are very much looking forward to trying out Grimaldi’s for a late lunch/early dinner later. Coal-fired Brooklyn style pizza, mmmmm!
- Caswell, Feast, Jim & Levi Goode named semifinalists for 2008 James Beard Awards (Cook's Tour) We have a developing, underappreciated, chef-driven restaurant scene in this town, and it’s good to see some of the big boys taking notice. Here’s hoping the economy doesn’t totally squash the momentum.
- Chocolate and wine, if you must (Dale Robertson, Houston Chronicle) Pssst… I like Spec’s too, but there ARE other wine stores in town. Maybe the Chron’s wine writer could help raise awareness of this fact, especially when they have stock that Spec’s does not. Just a thought!
- Cruise lines offer cut-rate deals to lure us on board their ships (Life's a Trip)
If you’ve ever wanted to try to cruise…
I truly never have, and don’t understand the appeal. Anyone want to take a crack at helping me to understand?
- Experiences Bring More Joy Than Possessions Do (Serena Gordon, Health Scout) I can certainly identify with that headline! I don’t much care about DVD or CD “collections” the very latest gadgets, owning a home (rather, the home owning me), or many other forms of clutter, but I do like my travel, my food, my wine, my reading, and the tools I use to help remember/enhance the same. Those are the things I want to spend my disposable income on.
- Feinstein comment on U.S. drones likely to embarrass Pakistan (Greg Miller, LA Times) This does far more to harm American interests than anything Colin Powell’s underling ever said about Valerie Plame to reporters, although one rather doubts it will be reported that way.
- Treasury's Salesman-in-Training (Eugene Robinson, WaPo)
- Jimmy Carter at warp speed (Mark Steyn)
- Pro-Lifers, It Turns Out, Were a Big Part of Obama's Winning Coalition (Steve Waldman, Christianity Today)
So? Not all voters are single-issue voters, and clearly for some, Obama’s looks, his partisan identification, his appeals to hope/change, etc, trumped their professed pro-life position (and his own pro-death advocacy during the primaries). Voters in America are perfectly welcome to seize on whatever issue bundles they find important, of course, but let us not pretend that Obama’s pro-lifers placed life anywhere high in their issue bundle. - Obama's enablers in chief (Kimberley Strassel, WSJ)
- Iraq: Good news is no news (Charles Krauthammer, WaPo)
- Cash on delivery: The movement to give every American a trust fund at birth (Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, Boston Globe) A very interesting idea that affluent societies ought at least to debate, despite the predictable objections from liberals, libertarians, and conservatives.
- Twitter's got versatility (Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle) Right now, Twitter reminds me of IRC and online journals and blogs in their early days. It’s been a fun way to discover and connect with interesting new people and even businesses and experiences. And maybe the follow/block tools will help keep it free of so much of the rancor that has taken over blogs (especially so much of the nasty personal rancor, blech).
