We spent several days on the North Fork of Long Island tasting the sulphuric wines and visiting organic farms while reading Sherri Vinton's book The Real Food Revival. Rather depressing but a window to a new world and a new career; we eschew writing and sitting in front of one of these glaring screens so anything espousing the out of doors seems just fine with Symposia.

By the by, we are convinced that growing up in the 1950s was qualitatively finer than it must be for children today. There was a breath of freedom and possibility that was intoxicating; today competition exists for what we just took for granted and discarded.

In a demographically dense world you have to specialize like a worker ant; it is against my nature choosing just one thing at which to be proficient or knowledgeable.

Symposia is trying to figure out what daily commenting will be riveting enough to lure some readers. It will probably come down to culinary marginalia since it has an audience. Part of me winces when I read Theroux's words about how boring food is ...and another part thinks this makes marketing sense. The divine thing about food, recipes, restaurants, the whole chef 'thing' is that it is so easy, so undemanding.