THE GURGLING COD: Rucker League

Back from the Jazz Festival, which was like the Somme, albeit with better food concessions and more music. Deets tk, but betimes, the inbox managed to deflate expectations in a way that almost, but not quite, shades into Guiteau Monday territory. New York Magazine sends various food bloggers pitches about various food related stories, with the idea that bloggers will link to them, thus allowing NY Mag to harness the awesome power of the Blogosphere™. This week, NY Mag teased with "NY Mag's Adam Platt Eats the World's Most Dangerous Meal,"which piqued my interest more than usual. Was NY Mag sending its reporter to eat a Thickburger? A Bloomin' Onion? Was Platt risking his cardiovascular health merely to amuse the readers of New York Magazine? Performing a perverse reinterpretation of Kafka's Hunger Artist? Or even just outSpurlocking Spurlock? No. He's eating fugu. So disappointing. Granted, the thing about magazines is that they have to come out every week or so, but the dangerous thrill of blowfish seems like something PJ O'Rourke might have pitched Details in one of its hetter iterations back in the days of Black Rain.

Call me a fussbudget, but just now, what with it becoming clearer and clearer that many of us are digging graves with our knives and forks, as Rockpile says, the danger that attends eating incorrectly prepared fugu seems a) remote, and b) easy to avoid. It would be as if Planned Parenthood shifted its efforts from addressing a broad spectrum of reproductive health issues to working to raising awareness about the dangers of getting knocked up by Satan.