...and on the seventh day...

God rested.

How did that line sneak past me? I mean, really... God "rested"? God the omni-everything can actually get tired? And there, my friends, is our continuing problem in our relationship with the Almighty.
There just isn't any. How can we begin to understand the enormity of creation? It would be easier for an ant to understand HTML code.

Despite the futility of it, we continue to try, although lately the preponderance of effort seems to be falling on 'There is no God.' It's like, after a few millenia of trying, the ant says, 'There is no HTML code.'


There have been Herculean efforts made on both sides of the God spectrum, but no proof for or against God has yet to be found. There is no church in the mountains of Chile where the sun shines every Sunday; there is no scientific equation that starts with nothing and ends with something. Albert Einstein, the smartest 'ant' we've had so far, said as much: "I want to know God's thoughts; all the rest are details."


That said, it is viscerally comforting to think of a creator, to have faith in something WAY beyond our ken. There's just too much evil out there for us to be able to handle it alone. If you would like to put a little peace in your daily life, click on the title of this article; it works for me.

You gotta love the Frogs

It may cost $50, its ketchup may be created from blackberries and currants, but there's no denying that the American hamburger has successfully invaded France, and Michelin-rated restaurants from Paris to Marseilles are vying for the 'best' iteration.

In the world of food news, this is GIGANTIC. How big? Try to imagine if suddenly, every shrimp cocktail in America was served with the shrimp heads intact!
Click on the title for the incredible story -- and kudos to Bob Balascio for pointing out this Gallic gastronomic compromise. Vive le castle blanc!

Geez! Is anybody thinking at the New Yorker?

The upcoming Presidential election is certainly the most important election in this country in decades. The whole world will be watching to see what road America will take into the heart of the 21st century.

This July 21 New Yorker magazine cover defends itself as obvious satire, showing how many ridiculous rumors have been circulating about candidate Barack Obama. Ham-handed at best, insidious at worst, one can only wonder about what goes on around the editorial table at this venerated magazine.

Did nobody question the taste of this cartoon? Did everybody laugh uproariously? Surely the staff is versed in what satire is about; surely they've all read Swift's A Modest Proposal, the mother of all satires. How did this fourth grade, Howard Stern-like joke pass muster?



The damage has been done, and copies of this will circulate throughout the crude and bigoted segment of our population.
Unlike Swift's biting satire, this cartoon will prompt the very action it purports to decry. For shame, New Yorker!

From Fox News

Aides to Barack Obama are blasting a New Yorker magazine cover that depicts �President Obama� in the Oval Office, wearing a Muslim-style outfit and doing a fist-bump with his wife, Michelle, who is dressed in camouflage with an automatic rifle slung over her back.

A picture of Usama (sic) bin Laden hangs above the mantel of the fireplace, which has an American flag burning in it.

The July 21 cover, titled �The Politics of Fear,� is intended to be a parody, an attempt to show how �scare tactics and misinformation� are being used to try to derail Barack Obama�s campaign, says cover artist Barry Blitt.

�I think the idea that the Obamas are branded as unpatriotic [let alone as terrorists] in certain sectors is preposterous,� Blitt wrote in an e-mail to the Huffington Post. �It seemed to me that depicting the concept would show it as the fear-mongering ridiculousness that it is.�

The Obama campaign has had to fight an intensive e-mail spam campaign that claims Obama is secretly a Muslim, and his wife is a black radical. Campaign spokesman Bill Burton called the New Yorker cover over the top.

�The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama�s right-wing critics have tried to create,� Burton said.

�But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.�

Obama did not reply to a question about the cover when he answered reporters� questions on Sunday in San Diego. John McCain�s campaign also slammed the cover as �tasteless and offensive.�

Can a franchised lemon ice be any good?

The reason this is a tough question is there's been so many unsuccessful attempts at expanding this market that genuine lemon ice lovers have given up hope. They either travel to old haunts (Belleville, Newark, Elizabeth) where the 'real' stuff is still made, or they just do without.

This is not a commercial for Rita's lemon ice. Although their product is really good, almost 90 percent the real thing and honestly about as close as a mass-produced lemon ice could hope to get, the old-fashioned, made-that-day, sprinkled with slivers of lemon pits lemon ice still rules.

Rita's, however, is much more than lemon ice, and you owe it to yourself to shrug off any old and well-founded prejudices and give them a try. They are very creative, stock some pretty amazing other cool stuff like gelati and custard, and they're a spiffily run franchise. I've been to about four of them, and they all have been neat, clean, and staffed with friendly, enthusiastic local kids.
And give their ice a try. Ninety percent of the real thing ain't that bad!