It's been a rough month. In one small bright spot, there is the fact that, right now, in November, after the hurricane, after the first snow, you can eat a better-tasting tomato than you have eaten all year. (Thanks, global warming.) Over in Park Slope, Scalino on 7th Avenue and 10 Street is still serving up a "Jersey Tomato Salad," but not for long. Go today or within the next week, because the guy who runs the place told me that's as long as he'll have this particularly fantastic batch of tomatoes he gets from a farmer he knows who probably likes Bruce Springsteen.

You have no soul! You have no soul and this recently released report, from the UC Davis Olive Center, proved it to me! And I quote: "Sixty-nine percent of imported olive oil samples and 10 percent of California olive oil samples labeled as extra virgin olive oil failed to meet the IOC/USDA sensory (organoleptic) standards for extra virgin olive oil." You're a liar! You have no soul and no organoleptic standards!