The Day of the Locust

A lede, or a cry for help, from the WSJ's Ramond Sokolov?

Political commentators are busy analyzing and psychoanalyzing the presidential candidates' words for hints about the real Barack Obama and John McCain. We gastronomers have a better way of penetrating the campaign spin. We take the time-honored approach of that proto-food-blogger Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), who said: "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are."

Either Sokolov is protesting Murdoch's takeover of the WSJ through the canny subterfuge of writing the tritest ledes imaginable, or this this is his way of reaching out, of saying that he's tired of writing about food. If this copy landed on my desk, I'd check to make sure the author hadn't hung himself from a light fixture in his office.

Also, Obama's endorsement of Topolobampo, in 2008, has me clicking over to read up on the Libertarian candidate for president. This place was always overhyped, and my two experiences eating there suggested that it stopped being relevant about the time that Horace Grant left the Bulls. I suppose Alinea would not help with the whole "effete" thing, but a candidate who is about hope and change should be able to come up with a more cromulent answer than a long-in-the-tooth haute Mexican joint.

Comments

[Paula]

Helllloo, just a head's up that my site moved and changed format slightly. See link above. Ciao!

[gastropoda]

Good froth if not rabies foam. The whole exercise was queasy-making. Michelle will never be to go back to Sepia, just for starters. And I'm gob-smacked over Jerome for dinner (home of my high school). Lot o' spinning of empty press wheels on evidence here.