I work for an academic journal that is printed in Hong Kong. Last summer, our journals were shipped in a container that got stopped at customs for scanning, and it delayed distribution by a full month. Unless they truly have some way to scan containers very, very quickly (like the way they had to quickly bring Iraq back to stability), inspecting every single container is going to bring international trade to a complete standstill.

This song has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie--there's a scene in a nightclub and so hey, let's have some dancing! Gumnaam is basically the Agatha Christie classic And Then There Were None/Ten Little Indians--this time, with real Indians.

It should be pointed out that this song is in fact a parody of the MTV-ization of Bollywood and of stars whose abs get more comment than their acting ability. Furthermore, the movie is probably incomprehensible unless you have a pretty wide-ranging familiarity with Indian films (not only Hindi but Tamil--one of the best bits is a take-off on South Indian superstar Rajnikanth) from the 1970s through the present, and the people who have that knowledge are, by and large, South Asians. If this is globalization, then India is taking part on its own terms. If that means I'm forced--forced, I tell you!--to suffer through 6.5 minutes of a shirtless SRK, well then , so be it.

Goggling "Hungarian salt sticks" comes up with a number of recipes. This one is from The Hungarian Heritage Review and appears quite authentic: http://www.culinary.org/collector/chef_louis/abl/hhr.pdf/feb_1989_2.pdf

..give Karan Arjun a try. Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan (no relation) as two sweet young boys treacherously murdered by their evil uncle (Amrish Puri at his bug-eyed best), reincarnated to avenge their own deaths and make Ma's heart glad. Lots of Kali worship--and she's the good goddess here. One of the wackiest song picturizations ever (Shahrukh and Kajol rolling in the hay--this being Bollywood, that's literally rolling. in. the. hay.) Moral of the story: Turn the other cheek, and if that doesn't work, come back from the dead and kill them all. I watch it every Christmas to erase all the saccharine American holiday fare from my visual palate.

"I wonder -- is there a third way? A dreamscape where farmer's markets and artificially intelligent shopping carts coexist in loopy harmony? Perhaps the cart might offer some advice on what to do with the turnips?"

There is--it's called Organic Express (there are similar services available, but that's the one I subscribe to in LA). You can just let them assemble you a box of whatever local organic produce they have that week, or you can log on, look at the list of this week's produce, figure out what you might make with it, and order what you need. They even include a weekly recipe with your delivery.

However, the real issue with these "smart" shopping carts is---puh-leese, you want me to TYPE a shopping list into the computer before I go to the market? I'm lucky if I show up with a cryptically scribbled scrap of paper listing the ingredients I seem to recall might belong in a recipe I'm vaguely thinking of making if I have the time.

Tangentially, there is a recent book--The Horse, the Wheel, and Language by David Anthony--that includes one of the most understandable explanations of how Indo-European linguistics works and how it might relate to archaeological research. Since Anthony is himself an archaeologist, there is a little too much information in the archaeological sections, but he makes a good argument for linking linguistic changes with archaeological changes, and his discussion helps to correct the impression most people seem to get, when one talks about the linguistic relationship between Tocharian and Celtic languages, that a bunch of geographically bemused Irishmen, no doubt loaded up on poitin, somehow wandered off into western China. (Briefly, what happened is that two bunches of people at roughly the same degree of distance from the original Indo-European language(s) and culture(s), wandered off in different directions. But Anthony explains it better and in more detail!)

It seems pretty clear that Palin is articulate when she knows what she's talking about. It's just that the topics she knows about are rather limited, and none of them are particularly relevant to being vice president of the United States.

...am I the only one who heard Senator Freudian Slip refer to Sarah Palin as bringing "a breast... a breath of fresh air" to Washington?

As a general rule, when someone loses a family member and they are told "I know just how you feel," I think "Yeah, right--how can you know?" But my own father, who died 6 years ago, was also a journalist (Time, Sports Illustrated, and just about every hunting/fishing magazine known to mankind) and novelist, and what you have written here, not just about the death of your father, but the death of your father-as-writer... well, I do know just how you feel.

Wow. I think this may be the first time I ever recommended a book on Indo-European linguistics to someone, and they actually read it.

Incidentally, in my experience Indo-Europeanists don't need to drink--their brains are already fried. I know Old Irish caused me permanent brain damage.

That has to be the best lede line I've ever read.