Served over a saffron wild rice. With pine nuts.

Oooh. I was going to say risotto, but I like the saffron wild rice/pine nuts better.

I got in a bit later than I should have today only to find everyone a bit quiet. I assumed it was just the Monday tireds showing up, but when I went online and checked out my e-mail, I found out that my next-door cubicle neighbor, who had been out for an operation on an infected leg, had developed a clot over the weekend and passed away.

God, now I'm tearing up again.

R.I.P., Linda Mae. I'll really miss your sweet nature, your willingness to bitch with me about buying plus-sized clothes, and your wonderful laugh.

Oh, Kathy -- what an awful shock! I'm really sorry.

Kathy - that's just horrible! I'm so sorry.

sara, you may have the allergy as well, just not developed it because you've never had them

It's always possible. But in general, I don't like most seafood. And even a hint of fishy is really gross to me. So it might just be plain old aversion born of unfamiliarity. I really did grown up without eating most kinds of seafood/ water-creatures. The things I like, trout and shrimp? Are things I could get fresh locally, in the form of well, river trout and crawdads.

I've tried to like other seafood, but I just can't. The taste/textures are just wrong.

You guys are making me REALLY hungry. I hope this imaginary food can be gotten online.

Kathy, really sorry. Peace to her memory.

Kathy, I am so sorry.

oh, Kathy, I'm so sorry.

Nuclear Scanning Catches a Radioactive Cat On I-5

The unsettling thing about living in a surveillance society isn't just that you're being watched. It's that you have no idea.

That's what struck me about a story told last week by a border agent at a meeting of 200 San Juan Islanders. He was there to explain why the federal government is doing citizenship checks on domestic ferry runs.But near the end, while trying to convince the skeptical audience that the point is to root out terrorists, not fish for wrongdoing among the citizenry, deputy chief Joe Giuliano let loose with a tale straight out of "Dr. Strangelove."

It turns out the feds have been monitoring Interstate 5 for nuclear "dirty bombs." They do it with radiation detectors so sensitive it led to the following incident.

"Vehicle goes by at 70 miles per hour," Giuliano told the crowd. "Agent is in the median, a good 80 feet away from the traffic. Signal went off and identified an isotope [in the passing car]."

The agent raced after the car, pulling it over not far from the monitoring spot (near the Bow-Edison exit, 18 miles south of Bellingham). The agent questioned the driver, then did a cursory search of the car, Giuliano said.

Did he find a nuke?

"Turned out to be a cat with cancer that had undergone a radiological treatment three days earlier," Giuliano said.

He added: "That's the type of technology we have that's going on in the background. You don't see it. If I hadn't told you about it, you'd never know it was there."

About all I can say is: Wow. Wow that the government now has the ability to detect radiation in a cat inside a car going by at 70 miles per hour. And wow at this world we live in, where we feel compelled to sniff, at random, inside the traffic coming out of Bellingham.