brainkitchen.com

I’m a big fan of Panera, but alas, this summer they’ve let me down. Here’s the text of a letter I sent them today:

One of the pleasures of the summers of 2003 and 2004 was the tasty treat of the Tomato & Mozzarella salad. This summer, I’ve waited in vain, having to stare at the cursed Fuji Apple Chicken Salad which has usurped the spot at the top of the menu reserved for seasonal salad offerings. Now, it’s Labor Day and summer has officially come to an end with no opportunity for the savory and sweet texture of tomatoes with a chiffonade of basil and thinly sliced red onion and the elegant creaminess of fresh mozzarella. How unfortunate for me and multitudes of other diners. Perhaps the Panera powers-that-be will reconsider for the summer of 2006…so many mouth-watering months away.

Scott Rosenberg’s Links & Comment
So now we see the administration revert to type. 9/11 was Bill Clinton’s fault, and the CIA’s fault. The recession was Clinton’s fault, too. The deficit has nothing to do with tax cuts, but is the fault of the famous “trifecta” of war, recession and national emergency. The little screwup about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was, once more, the CIA’s fault, and had nothing to do with the administration’s own misuse of intelligence. And the failure to put enough boots on the ground in postwar Iraq to control the country? That must have been the fault of the generals who didn’t ask for more troops. Torture in Abu Ghraib? No one’s really to blame there except a few bad apples.

Now comes Katrina, and Bush is once again saying, don’t look at me — the buck stops nowhere. If so many lives weren’t on the line in so many places and in so many ways, it might even be funny.