JPW

Again, plenty of food. People just couldn't afford it. Off the top of my head -- Bangladesh 1974. The problem with Sen's Democracy = no famines theory is the same as it is with almost all "democracy as causal factor" theories (cf Democratic Peace). That is that democracy at all is such a recent development, much less on a wide-scale basis. Democracies are also rich. I'm more comfortable with saying that money prevents famines more than democracy. There's also the matter of effective government. Say that Mugabe dies tomorrow and Zimbabwe has a fair and free election. Guess what? There'll still be a famine there. In the case of famine, it is also interrelated with technology. The US dustbowl probably WOULD have been a famine without the railroad and the automobile. Instead of starve they moved. Democracies, tending to be rich,also have far superior farming technologies.

i've read that there has never been a famine in a democracy. anyone know if this is true? ← If famine is defined as a drastic, wide-reaching food shortage doesn't depression era America fit this description? ← Not really. On a localized basis there were some food shortages in the "dustbowl" region of the central US. Many if not most of the farmers affected simply packed up and moved. Most areas of the US had plenty of food. The shortage was more money than food.

Also saw the promo commercial last night. Looks like Beverley Hills 90210 gets a job. Not promising.

Goat cheese. Goat cheese. And more goat cheese. Cook and drizzle with the best balsamic you have.

Ditto. Nasty food and bad beer.

If you can't get in Ray's, for a steak that has won praise from Michael Landrum (he of Ray's) go to Corduroy (12th and K)

If you're serious about being willing to head out up to 2 hours... Get on Rt 29 and head South to the Pig 'n Steak

Give it away to one of your neighbors. Like me, for example.

I can't tell if the white things are grilled eggplants or potato chips.

Joe H, I agree with you that Washingtonian is a good resource for scouting places. I use it like I use Zagat's - name., address, phone number, operating hours. THe professional food writers have more reach and can devote more time to exploring food than those of us with a 9-to-5. And of course they reacch millions more people than all the web boards combined. To paraphrase what someone recently said to me, "The foodie boards tend to grossly overestimate their influence." However, I have to disagree with your favorable assessments of the Washingtonian's reviews. The most recent specific example is the review of Cafe Spice. The overall experiences that I had there had absolutely nothing in common with what they wrote. It is a complete and utter joke that they put that in the Cheap Eats. To my mind, the mag has a complete lack of critical reviews. By critical I don't mean negative, merely non-cheerleaderish. Given the amount of restaurant advertising dollars that Washingtonian gets, it is EXTREMELY difficult to believe that there is no editorial pressure to write only glowing reviews.

Count the number of pages with restaurant ads on them. Any questions?

Take out last year's issue and a magic marker. Over the "4" on the cover write "5". Do I get a cut of the money that you've saved? Too late, I already wasted the $$. Actually, they always make a big deal out of the what's new and what's been cut. What doesn't change is the lack of anything interesting to say. ← Cutting down on clutter.... Go to 2005 version. Cut out the one column (IIRC it's on the far right) that has the "New on" and "New off" list. Throw rest out.

Take out last year's issue and a magic marker. Over the "4" on the cover write "5". Do I get a cut of the money that you've saved?

Most likely greenhouse raised. At least that what Twin Springs had at Takoma. Not the same as a sun-kissed mid-July fruit, but good enough for the end of May. They were the basis for my salad at the DR picnic.

Speaking of, I ate there a few years ago, and sitting at the table next to me was Governor Mark Warner, who had only been in office for about three weeks. ← His campaign HQ was about 4 blocks away.

Rich, I'm guessing your just looking to ruffle some parents feathers with you're well thought out comment. Peace to you. I gets pretty annoying after a while, as a parent to read some of the foolish comments on this forum when it comes to children. As its been said elsewhere, there are no bad children only bad parenting. My $.02. -jeff ← I took Rich as being sarcastic above. In which case it was somewhat amusing.

That would pretty much be the whole of DelRay. I hear that it's so liberal that they don't even look down on Unitarians. Tax attorneys on the other hand......

nicely done, charles

The restaurant side never impressed me. The bar side is a good place to tuck into a pitcher of beer and some wings while watching football (especially since it used to be walking distance for me)

Nope. The OC, Friends, and NYPD Blue, but no reality TV. ← Hannah, I hope that you had to look that up and didn't know it off the top of your head.

Bill, I thought that Ruhlman's post upthread was likely the most even-keeled opinion thus far.

No I'm splitting it into the difference between end purpose. Grapes to eat = same category as salad growers. Grapes for wine = different category. You'll note that I'm purposely omitting the term "farmer". By defining from the left (having a term and slapping a definition on it) you automatically will run into the types of unresolveable arguments that we have here. A much more solid epistomological process is to define from the right and then worry about labels. Let me try this analogy -- the difference as the same as the difference between a potter that makes bowls for daily use and one that makes bowls for decoration. Winemaking/growing grapes defined as art rather than necessity.

While not placing one above the other, this is closeest to what, for me, separates the grower of grapes for wine from the grower of, say, grapes bound for the supermarket.

Not that it helps Carlovski much, but the Trader Joe's pizza dough is surprisingly acceptable and much better than any pre-formed thing that you'll pull out of the frozen food section.

Question -- Are their children included in the invites?