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There is a 7-11 down the street from were I live. It is run by Middle Eastern men. In the winter they crank up the heat to 90. That, combined with their lack of hygiene, makes the stank in that store enough to gag a maggot.

I hold my breath when I go in to get the papers, throw the dollar on the counter and walk bristly out.

I got a feeling they have declared a jihad on soap. NASTY!!

This evening treated my family to dinner out at Panjshir, an Afghani restaurant in Falls Church that has been on the Washingtonian "Cheap Eats" list for years - that's the top 100 cheap places to eat in the Washington DC metro area.

We had a very large assortment of delicious dishes. Especially interesting were the appetizers, which were all wrapped in some form of flat dough - three of them, spinach, beef, and potato, were fried like fried wontons, two, scallion, and beef, steamed, like ravioli. Reminded me once again that the Silk Road goes right through Afghanistan, from China to India.

Also got an assortment of entrees to eat family style, beef kebobs, chicken kebobs, and lamb stew, and various vegetables, spinach, pumpkin, turnips, eggplant, carrots, stewed with spices, lentils, chickpeas, and two kinds of rice, steamed white rice, and green spinach rice.

Very nice. The waiter was immaculate and very pleasant. The restaurant was a little bit down at the heels, but the linens, plates and silverware were all clean. The cook came out briefly, looked like she was either the wife or the sister - probably the wife - of the waiter, who was probably also the owner.

Some of the dishes did have curry, but nobody smelled bad.

Tomorrow I am taking a day trip to Richmond, will probably have barbecue for lunch at Buz and Ned's, will report back to you if any of the white or black people eating there smelled like sweat or not. Seeing as how they are working class, it's possible, but given that it's still March, maybe not. I am planning on supper at The Track, they have shad row as a special, but doubt that anyone at The Track will smell bad. If they do, I am sure you'll want to know.