| Hooked on sun-dried tomatoes
There's nothing worse than a convert, and I have become one, so look out. I doubt there is anyone in the United States who has scorned sun-dried tomatoes more than I have. I teased people who bought them, refused sandwiches made with them, questioned their very right to exist. To the extent I acknowledged that it might be acceptable to shrivel a perfectly good plum tomato, I argued that the only proper way to do it was gently, in the oven, with olive oil and perhaps some thyme and garlic. Sun-dried tomatoes first came here around 1979. ''I was walking around in Cannes,'' recalled Steve Jenkins, now a partner at Fairway Markets but then an employee of Dean & DeLuca, ''when I went into a great store in the old town. There were big, five-kilo tins hanging from the ceiling, filled with these beautiful dried tomatoes in oil — they were from San Remo, over in Liguria.
Dueling drumsticks: Pan-fried vs. deep-fried
Atlanta — At the Southern Skillet, a meat-and-two mainstay in Roswell, Ga., there?s a fine collection of skillets hanging on the wall and a big one dangling from the ceiling like a cast-iron mobile. None figure in one of the restaurant?s specialties, fried chicken. ?We use a deep-fryer,? says manager Charles Paris. ?You couldn?t fry enough chicken in a skillet for our lunch crowd.? .
Moderation is key for best inventions
And say you hit a deer (as many of us do here in the Hudson Valley); you're OK, but your car is damaged. You call your road service company and get the necessary help. In pre-cell phone days, you would have had to wait for help on the side of the road for who knows how long. As mentioned before, I am a technophobe and gadgets intimidate me. But these little guys are nice for taking quick photos if you do not have your camera with you. You can e-mail the photos to your family and friends, and you can also set the alarm feature to wake you up or as a reminder. However, what about when your preteens and teens are not taught prudence and spend most of their waking hours sending these photos back and forth, and text messaging incessantly? Why are they so obsessed with instant gratification? Then take the person who refuses to unhook the cell from his/her ear when traveling in public transportation.
Tax tip: The deductibility of home interest
I'm assuming you will be using this house as your primary personal residency and you can itemize deductions instead of using the standard deduction. To determine whether all of the interest is deductible, you will need to see exactly how the loan proceeds were used. A home mortgage is any loan that is secured by your main home or second home. This would include first and second mortgages, refinanced mortgages, a line of credit and home equity loans. A home includes a house, a condominium, a cooperative, a mobile home, a house trailer, a boat or a similar property that has sleeping, cooking and toilet facilities. You must be legally liable for the loan. You cannot deduct payments you make for someone else if you are not legally liable to make them. The interest you pay on a mortgage on a home other than your main or second home may be deductible if the proceeds of the loan were used for business, investment or other deductible purposes.
Fraud Roshambo: Paper Beats RFID
Fingerprints aren't just for fingers anymore. Now, they could be an important new tool for fighting document forgery. All paper, as well as plastic credit and debit cards, bears a unique "fingerprint" of microscopic surface imperfections. According to Russell Cowburn, professor of nanotechnology at Imperial College London, detecting these unique patterns is easy to do with a portable laser scanner. And it's cheap, too: "Our field scanners could be manufactured for $1,000 or less (when made) in volume," said Cowburn. The detection process makes use of the optical phenomenon known as laser speckle. Light coming from a focused laser is coherent, or in phase, but when it strikes a microscopically rough surface like a piece of paper, the light is scattered, producing a pattern of light and dark "speckles." The scanner's photodetectors digitize and record this pattern.
A man called Machaan
Returning to his desk, Utsav found life going on smoothly. Rohan here was calling distributors, using his usual swear words; Sumant was telling admin in his flat tones that yet again there was no paper in the printer. Anahita was telling the pantry: "Baba re, chai bhejo..." Nothing had changed; the need for paper and tea and sales continued. "Utsav, are you alright?" asked Anahita. His voice cracked as he said: "I don't know, but it seems a batchmate of mine, Manjunath, was killed in UP." And Utsav broke down again. Rohan, a few feet away, continued to type his sales report. Eyes glued to his monitor, he asked: "How was he killed?" Someone said, "This is life," and added more sugar to his tea. Utsav left the room. Alone in the lawn, he recalled Machaan.
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