It is called corn smut. Which is an inherently funny name. [link]

I've decided to work out which fruit I like, for values of fruit that equal apple. So I'm doing a one by one test, organic, since that's closest to the truth, I figure.

I'm pretty much just a Granny Smith fan, although Galas are fine. If you can get them, Pink Ladies are lovely (and their flesh is pink!). And, of course, Macouns, which I have only ever had in New England in October: they are not shipped commercially. The McIntoshes I buy at Farmer Joe's don't taste like the ones I used to get as a child...

That is amazing! I am aware of huitlacoche, but had no idea that's what it is. Yikes.

Political quote of the day:

A new Public Policy Polling survey shows finds that 49% of Republican voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama, as compared to 52% that thought ACORN stole the 2008 election, "a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn't exist anymore."

Oh come on. Obama employs time travel to send ACORN agents from 2008 to 2012. The same way he traveled back to 1961 to plant his "birth announcement" in the Honolulu paper.

Fortunately, the American citizenry has a plan to take on this kind of lawlessness. A total of 2,972 signatures were secured for a White House petition to "Establish new legal system of motorcycle riding "judges" who serve as police, judge, jury, and executioner all in one". The petition was thus more than twice as popular as the one exhorting the White House to "Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016".

In our defense, no one told us the Death Star would be filled with cherries.

Also, since the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was retired last Saturday, that means we're going to build a new Enterprise, to be one of the new Ford -class Battlestars.

I vote for a cherry-filled Death Star! YES.

I like Pink Lady apples, and honeycrisps, especially when they aren't the ginormo 2-lbs per apple ones.

I'm from Indiana, so I am a total snob about fresh corn and how good it should be.

I am dealing with people who have a TALENT for long-term miscommunication.

I'm trying to communicate about a budget. They ask: tell us what you need in terms of expenditures. I give them a list of expenditures based on my estimate of what I spent last year.

Mind you, they keep all the records of what I spent last year. Their records are what I use to do my estimates.

So in September I gave this list. Heard nothing.

In December, I get another email: how much $$ should we send?

No acknowledgment of previous email or what questions they had in light of it. It's like I sent the email into a vacuum.