11.05.02 - 6:14 p.m.

Dan is fact-checking a piece on the 50 Most Fascinating People in the Solar System or some shiznit (that will be wonderful breakfast reading next week nonetheless), and I was going to create my own list of the 50 Most Fascinating Foods in response.

But that's hard. Because it requires you to make up all these rules before you even begin the list. Like are you just going to go with an umbrella category like "potatoes," or are you going to divide it into subcategories like mashed, baked, hash-browned and french-fried? I mean, it's easier for me just to put down a blanket statement like cheese because I could probably think up 50 tasty varieties and that would be the end of my list, but on the other hand I'd want to differentiate because I'm not particularly fond of Swiss. Or smoked Mozzarella.

And look how I switched from first-person to second-person narration and back again in those past two paragraphs! How did I do that?

Anyway. So I've abandoned that concept and may instead compile a list of my Most Memorable Meals. Of which there may not be fifty, but will most certainly include the dinner at Osteria del Lago where Carol's crustacean plate stared at me throughout the evening. And the Chicken Kiev that erupted like a geyser in Acire's face. Memorable is not necessarily good or bad, you know.

Would it be extremely wrong and irresponsible to take a mental health day next week? I think my workload could handle it.