First Post

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." - J.R.R. Tolkien

First entry: Stating the objective

If it is in the best interest of the blogger to be pithy and of sharp wit, then I foresee this foray into electronic journaling as something of a failure; if however, a blog may represent the pleasantness inherent in one's sitting down to reflect upon a given preoccupation, then I do believe that this avocation may prove worthy of the time I allow myself for contemplation and work. Rendered into good old fashioned Chesapeake English: I get off track, my mind wanders, I go off on tangents, sometimes I lose focus and sometimes I focus to the point where the law of diminishing returns is not only cited by the prosecution, but to wit is admitted to by the defense. Nonetheless, writing this blog is something I have wanted to do for some time and I figure 'if not now, when?'

If I get off track, sorry. Just hang in there, it usually just takes me a minute or a paragraph to get refocused.

There. Refocused.

That's the way my mind works and if you are reading this you should be made aware of the fact right off, lest I ever be accused of attempting to deceive you into thinking that I'm actually the pithy / witty connoisseur of blog-speak you may expect out here in Internet-land. I'm a guy who has as much trouble maintaining a logical trajectory in person as I do in writing. So, I apologize in advance for any consternation this little journal might cause you; I advise taking it in gradually increasing doses. But then, I've been dealing with the twisty tracks on which the train of my thought runs for some time now.

So much for an introduction.

This is a food blog. Why have I decided to write a food blog? I can't say exactly. What I can say is that I've been thinking a lot lately about the ways in which people interact with one another -- on an individual basis / a global basis. And it seems that the way those relationships play out has everything to do with the way each of us feels about the fine lines between sustenence and famish on the one hand and pleasure and gluttony on the other. And food is one angle on understanding the big picture here.

It's my objective to try to present 'food' in all of its myriad meanings. I'll be talking to people about food, talking about food, and most importantly trying to understand how other people think about food. If I appear to get up on a high horse about any of this stuff, call me on it. My intention here is not to pontificate. I just want to find out more about the way people think about food.

The picture above was inspired by the photo-essay a few weeks ago in a BIG MAGAZINE that looked at what people around the world ate in a given week. This is a picture of my family. We go through about $170 of groceries and beverages in a week. That's East Coast USA money. How much do you spend on groceries? What goes into your tummy?