Frank Prial's charming essay in today's Times on Alistair Cooke and his love of Riesling. One tries to fathom why Cooke would have spent his life on 96th Street; no doubt he had the celebrity here that England would not have offered. Until you have lived there for many years as Symposia had you cannot see the pronounced anti-Americanism -- the Colonies! -- the hovers right beneath the surface of every well-bred Englishman.