Opinion: In today’s pages: Tomatoes, iPhones, oil
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Columnist Tim Rutten blames our year-round Caprese cravings for the tomato menace:
A proper insalata Caprese is one of the jewels of Campania’s incomparable cuisine.All that’s required are ripe tomatoes just off the vine, fresh mozzarella di bufala, basil coaxed to aromatic fullness by the sun’s heat, a sprinkling of coarse salt, a grind of pepper and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. It’s a gloriously simple dish that happily reproduces the colors of the Italian flag and virtually stares up from the plate, whispering ‘high summer.’ The fact that you now can order some variation of it in February from half of America’s restaurant menus or supermarket takeout counters goes a long way toward explaining what’s behind the current national recall of tomatoes across the United States.
Contributing editor Max Boot says its time to re-up our Iraq commitment by protecting troops. Sci Fi Channel advisory board chairman Peter Schwartz says sci-fi should trade in its ‘Blade Runner’ dystopias for some ‘Flash Gordon’ fun to get people optimistic about the future. And Radisson Hotel LAX owner/operator Peter Dumon urges his fellow hoteliers to stop fighting the living wage.
The editorial board discusses the iPhone’s limits, declares the start of silly season for oil policy, and wonders at the Bush administration’s irrational immigration policy:
As we hustle to show resolve in the immigration ‘crisis,’ we’re getting used to the idea that all private endeavor is subject to Washington’s prior approval. What kind of country do we want? A few years ago, a border wall would have seemed a relic from medieval China or Central Europe in the totalitarian era. Now it is official U.S. policy.
On the letters page, readers respond to a two-page anti-gay-marriage ad that ran in The Times. L.A.’s Ari Solomon says, ‘I know newspaper subscriptions are down and ads help pay the rent, but this was blood money.’
*Cartoon by Lisa Benson, Washington Post Writers Group