[miss marmelstein]

Um...I'm Irish-American and am a very good cook and baker - at least my Italian-American husband and many friends who dine here say. Hee-hee! It is the interest in cooking that makes the cook not the ethnic background.

But, you make a great point. Hot food, served around a table, is comforting. Comfort makes one secure. I grew up with a mom who put a hot meal on the table every night of our lives and we felt pretty damned secure. After school, in November, when it got dark early, I remember the smell of meatloaf coming up to the bedroom while I studied. It's as evocative to me as it was to Proust and his madelaines. Marcotte is a fool and I hope one day she'll realize that.

[Little Bill]

My mother was Irish and couldn't cook, I worked in South Boston for 22 years and I could not get a good review of Irish cooking.

My Grandmother was Irish and she, though a lovely woman and frighteningly smart, could not cook nor could any of the large numbers of my female collateral relatives on the Irish side of the family .

Proust of all people, did he get out of his bath after convorting all of his various Bon Hommes to eat? Rechercheé Du temps perdue?(sp)