Did you know that Monsanto tried to patent basmati rice and an ancient Indian wheat with low gluten -- pirates! Even if the garbage they produce were not garbage we would despise them for the outrecuidance, the staggering presumption.

On Page Six today (OK Symposia is still a gossip columnist at heart) an "item"about how the Esquire food critic John Mariani has questionable journalistic ethics. We remember him and the plump Mrs. at an AIWF event in Chicago --demanding, haughty, and very newyorkaise. The word always gets out about bad behavior.

Harold Pinter won a Nobel for literature. If you like the theater (so passe, so 19th century) he is the best!

The entire literary world emoting ad nauseum about one of their own, viz., the sorrow of Joan Didion. The over exposure makes us squeamish. Didion has had a good life but one guesses expected to defy the laws of Nature with her quivering egotism. Symposia much preferred Simone de Beauvoir's ruminations after Sartre's Death.

In the midst of terror threats Symposia emailed dozens about the importance of banning foie gras. Last night we made a perfect porcini risotto, learned at a cooking class some weeks ago. How we longed for the light basmati and wondered how the Italians could love this glutinous mess of a dish. Pas encore!

Thank God for Science before which all the culture in the world can take a flying leap into total nonsense.Today a Nobel prize shared by three whose research in metathesis recognizes that the best science is green and does not harm the planet. Tell that to the Monsantos and ConAgras and innane profitmongers!

The universality of politics: at yesterday's Slow Food Urban Harvest the biodynamic people casting aspersion at the organic people, something about bad manure from the Midwest. Like all fringe groups they really have to band together to get anything done.

Transgenic Update: 80% of soy products in USA are genetically modified and 40% of corn.