I met David Remnick a few years ago and gave him a piece of my mind. (Well, he did a reading and then I waited in line with all the other slavering hoi polloi. But I did give him a piece of my mind.) I says to him, I says, "David, you're missing the boat. You wanna boost newstand sales of the New Yorker?! The answer, my friend, is food. Hire a regular restaurant critic, do reviews and put that puppy on the coverlines each week. People will go nuts. Sure you have Adam Gopnik and Calvin Trillin and people doing food when the whim strikes, but that's not good enough." He stared at me and blinked a few times and then asked me if I had a book I'd like him to sign.

He's come around over time. And I've never gotten so much as a little note. Anyway, I'm totally amped for the Nov. 24 New Yorker issue. All food, baby. There are some online-only components, like an audio thing about beer with Burkhard Bilger to go with his piece on the rise of craft brewing in the United States. And there's an ask-the-author thing with Calvin Trillin (to go with his piece called "By Meat Alone") and a slide show of photojournalists talking about memorable on-the-job meals.

It's going to be wicked good, I'm telling you.