Top Secret Ceviche ISLA MUJERES, MEXICO— The next time I gripe about the summer heat in Mississippi, I will try to remember Mexico at noon, in May. Business took me to the Yucatan Peninsula, and the Easternmost point of Mexico, an island on the Caribbean Sea— Isla Mujeres. The island is surrounded by clear, turquoise [...]

The Great Soft-Shell Crab Crisis of 2007 News travels fast, but incorrect news travels even faster. Five weeks ago I wrote a column that opened with this sentence: “Soft-shell crab season is here. Halleluiah, amen, and pass the Remoulade sauce!” That was a true statement— at the time. By the time the column was published [...]

Donuts and Age I am in my 46th year. Some days I feel every minute of those four and a half decades, others I feel as I did in my teens. My wife would say that, maturity-wise, I am still in my teens… early teens. I ate breakfast this past Saturday and felt older than [...]

New Carpet I purchased new carpeting for my son’s room last week. You wouldn’t believe how badly a five-year old boy’s carpet can look and smell after a few short years. Stains and spots were scattered from the center of the room to its most remote corners. With some we knew the origin, others remained [...]

Beans, Beans, Good for Your Heart (but not your arrest record… or your pedicure) Last week I read a story in The Evening Standard that opened with the sentence: “Hugh Grant has been arrested after allegedly hurling a tub of baked beans at a photographer.” O.K., I’ll bite. How can one read an opening line [...]

Roll Out the Vertical Stripes The diet is over. On January 8th I began dieting in preparation of a photographer flying in from New York to shoot my next book. My goal was to lose 30 pounds in four months. The time has come. The photographer is here. I hit just above 50% of my [...]

So You Want To Be A Rock and Roll Star When I was six-years old I wanted to be Darren Stevens when I grew up. Not only was I attracted to the idea of being married to a smoking hot woman who could make problems disappear with a twitch of her nose, I liked the [...]

Soft-Shell Crab Soft-shell crab season is here. Halleluiah, amen, and pass the Remoulade sauce! Two weeks ago the first shipment of soft-shell crabs arrived— alive and kicking— to the back door of our restaurants. Since then we have received daily shipments and can’t buy enough to keep up with the demand. There is a simple [...]

Bake Sales Many of our childhood school activities fall by the wayside as we grow older. Today I don’t play tetherball or box hockey. I haven’t roller skated in years. I don’t think I’ve played an all-out game of dodge ball since the Carter administration, and I haven’t played tackle football since I was in [...]

Viral Victuals I’ve got a virus. My particular virus is not influenza, a common cold, or a computer virus. I don’t have chickenpox, mumps, Ebola, or rabies. There are many viruses with exotic and interesting names such as: cereal yellow dwarf virus, Leaky virus, and Four Corners hantavirus. There are virus named after plants and [...]