Risotta

It wasn't copyright infringement I was thinking about but the right of authors to profit from their work. When Amazon started making the contents of books accessible there was a real concern that people would help themselves to discrete passages -- like recipes -- without buying the books (I think there was a previous thread on this). They later restricted the amount of text you can view from a single search and disabled the print feature, which really would have made cookbooks (or at least recipes) just about free. But, as I said, if the searches are not abused it's not much different from borrowing the book from your library.

This is an option that raises copyright issues, but you can access many recipes by using Amazon's book search function and clicking on the links to the excerpts. For example, I did a search for "spanakopita" and came up with eight full recipes in the first six pages of results, from cookbooks such as The Greek Vegetarian, 1,000 Vegetarian Recipes, The American Century Cookbook (which is out of print), The Junior League Celebration Cookbook, and others. You can't print out the pages (unless you have some kind of screen capture program) but there's nothing to stop you from typing them into a text document or just leaving the recipe up on your monitor. If the practice isn't abused it seems no different from taking the books out of your local library.

The Fairfax County Wegman's will be at Monument Drive & Lee Highway/29, on the other side (south) of 66 from the Fair Oaks Mall. Construction has not yet begun. Apparently the company wanted to build a third store in Silver Spring, but the town nixed it. I happened to be in the Downingtown, PA area yesterday when the new Wegman's opened there. It was my first visit to any Wegman's since 1985, when I visited several in the Rochester area. I remember those stores as being bright and pleasant (I was living in Manhattan at the time, and almost any non-urban supermarket looked good to me then), but otherwise quite ordinary. I wonder when the chain developed serious foodie ambitions. The Downingtown store had all the things I've read about on this and other eGullet threads -- a woodburning oven, Pierre Herme boutique, tons of good-looking prepared food, ethnic items, kosher food, a respectable selection of cookware and utensils, nice cheese counter, a cafe, etc. It was so jam-packed (it was opening day) that I couldn't maneuver my way to the butcher and fishmonger, and the quality of the meat and fish counters will be the decisive factor for me in deciding whether to schlep thirty minutes to Sterling or Fairfax for routine shopping or whether to make it an occasional event.

An even 90. But that won't last long . . .

Thanks for all the wonderful responses. I will study Vengroff's Manifesto, but your personal experiences with these scales are also very helpful. I knew I came to the right place!

I'm awed by the wealth of knowledge and experience represented by all you posters here, and I'd like to draw on it. I'm interested in buying a good kitchen scale for under $100. It shouldn't be too big or heavy, and I'd prefer one that gives metric as well as Imperial measurements. A kitchenware store near me recommended one by Aquatronics (sp?) at $60 US, but I'm pretty sure it only gives measurements in ounces. It also does not operate by a pendulum, which I read somewhere is the best. What are people's experiences with scales? Any recommendations?