JUST WHAT I NEED ...

... Another magazine to put on the regular-read barbie. But the newest find -- Believer magazine -- is a fascinating, quirky read for people who love books, and ideas, and, uh, birds. It's about one-third literary magazine with reviews and analyses and so forth; one-third current-interest magazine (think The New Republic or The Atlantic) with article topics ranging from the mindset of the Abu Ghraib torturers to what it's like at a convention for Mego toy collectors; and one-third odd stuff. For example, there's a "bird" page, which, in the current issue, gives a rundown on the auk. And a recent interview with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, despite such quibbles as his being dead and all. And an honest-to-goodness "Personal Ads for Poets" page. Plus, it flies against modern conventions by being about 90 percent words to 10 percent art elements -- and most of the art elements were very rough sketches of Mego figures of Aquaman, the Hulk, the Judy-Garland Dorothy, a stout Jim Kirk, etc., scattered throughout the issue rather than just amid the article. It's a Very Strange Periodical -- and at $8 U.S. a pop, a Very Expensive One -- but I find it compelling.

Words: "Hot Planet" (short story by Hal Clement)
Sounds and Images: "The Meaning of Food" on WXXI -- documentary focusing on the importance of food to life and culture ... so far it's shown wedding feasts, nursing babies, astronauts/cosmonauts eating in weightlessness, the last-meals cook at a Texas penitentiary,
State o' Mind: Intrigued

BREAKING BREAD ...

OK, everyone who likes food and everyone who likes music (and if you don't like either one, I can't see that we have much in common) ... let's get a thread started. My musical weekend and the current food documentary on WXXI combine to raise the question: How many songs can we think of that are about food? (At least tangentally.)

Caveat #1: Alcoholic beverages don't count -- which unfortunately excludes "Margaritaville," "Dandelion Wine" and "Whiskey River." Otherwise, we'd have 20,000 country and blues songs alone in about ten minutes.

Caveat #2: No Weird Al songs allowed, either. That's just too easy.

Have fun. I'll start.

1. "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" - Harry Belafonte
2. "30,000 Pounds of Bananas" - Harry Chapin
3. "My Jalapeno Man" - Urban Tapestry
4. "Sex and Chocolate" - Debbie Ridpath Ohi (ohiblather)
5. "Chocolate is a Vegetable" - Graham Leathers (musicmutt)
6. "Food Glorious Food" - from Oliver!
7. "Honey Glazed Ham" - Tom Smith
8. "Goodbye Earl" - the Dixie Chicks (a reach, yes, but blackeyed peas figure prominently)
9. "Coffee Coffee Coffee" - Tom T. Hall
10. "Black Coffee" - Bobby Darin
11. the "Popeye" theme ('cause he eats his spinach)
12. "Cheeseburger in Paradise" - Jimmy Buffett (I nearly typed "Jimmy Buffet")
13. "Breaking Bread" - Johnny Cash (OK, I'm cheating -- that's playing over the credits on the documentary)

OK, I'm stuck already. A little help?