Last Sunday I was reading --- and enjoying --- MINI SHOPAHOLIC while sitting poolside on what was a brilliantly sunny late summer afternoon. The main character in these books, Becky Brandon is always scheming and thinking out of the box. Typically some wild consequences result as whatever she touches turns her into some modern fashion-addicted version of Lucy Ricardo. That said reading her escapades is one of those things that gets your brain going.

When I write the newsletter opener each week, it usually involves at least three trips from my office downstairs to the kitchen for something crunchy to eat, typically big pretzels with salt. I munch and type. A few months ago I decided to cut back on carbs, and two friends suggested I roast kale. They went on and on and on about its heavenly delights and how it tastes just like potato chips. Wow! I bought some, tossed it in oil and salt as directed, and baked it. And when I chewed it, I was not thinking potato chip. Maybe to cows it tastes like a potato chip. To me, well, maybe I had a bad batch of kale and the potato chip tasting one evaded me. Today I am trying carrot chips, these really nifty carrots I found in North Carolina that look like chips. They are orange; they are in no way close to potato chips, but at least I like carrots, unlike kale.