Betta Fish

I never really considered myself a “fish person” by any stretch, but about a year ago we got a little blue betta that we named Miko, and were smitten by his feisty water-borne aloofness. Since then we’ve acquired three more: Frida, Nina and Pablo. Maybe I’m breaking some rule regarding the use of the word “cool” but heck, these fish are just plain cool. They’ve got personalities, they wiggle like little water-breathing puppies when you’re feeding them, they get bummed out... Really, a whole range of emotions that I never figured things with gills might have. Some of you might say I’m just projecting human qualities on animals that otherwise don’t exhibit any of these traits, but people that say things like that tend to make my fish angry, and we certainly don’t want that, now do we?

Paul McCartney

He’s on the cover of Rolling Stone AND Guitar Player magazine this month. This really is cause for some type of celebration, I hope, seeing as how surviving Beatles are a bit of a vanishing natural resource. Oh yeah, he also has a new album out, which harkens back to his first solo record, on which he played nearly every instrument. So even if Sir Paul did participate in some of the “most overrated records of all time” (damn those local online music discussion forums!) I’ll gladly slap a Sgt. Pepper’s sticker on my van and scream “Macca rules!” at helpless pedestrians as I drive down Main Street. Or maybe not, but I’ll think really hard about doing it.

Frying for Fun and Profit

Really, I had no idea that so many things could be fried, and to what degree. Since going vegetarian, I’ve seen most of my choices diminish with regards to local dining. Recently however, while eating at a local establishment that shall remain nameless (here’s looking at you, kid...) I came across the “fried vegetable platter,” and decided to give it a shot. Oops. If I hadn’t already been informed that the dish contained cauliflower and zucchini, I would’ve been clueless as to what the crunchy little amorphous brown shapes on my plate actually were. These were the unhealthiest vegetables on the planet. I have never seen anything like it. I ate almost all of them. Why? Because we Americans will fry ANYTHING. Even poor unsuspecting critters like zucchinis.

— Chris Cooper