| Pressure Mounts on Indicted Rep. Renzi
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The Observatory
Paul Krugman
Times columnist David Brooks blew a hole into the left-wing myth of Ronald Reagan appealing to Southern racists to kick off his 1980 presidential campaign. What makes Brooks's Friday column doubly valuable -- it's a bank-shot sinking of fellow Times columnist and Republican-hater Paul Krugman. Brooks's "History and Calumny" defends then-candidate Ronald Reagan from leftists like Krugman who have long slurred his 1980 campaign kick-off in Philadelphia, Miss. as a racist appeal. "Today, I'm going to write about a slur. It's a distortion that's been around for a while, but has spread like a weed over the past few months. It was concocted for partisan reasons: to flatter the prejudices of one side, to demonize the other and to simplify a complicated reality into a political nursery tale.
Unlovable? Not at all! Just don't call rutabagas cute
Rutabagas acquired a bad name for themselves during the Depression and World War II, when legions of children (my mother included) were forced to eat them. Decades later, their image problem hasn't gone away. It doesn't help that they're ugly: rough-skinned and yellow, with a waxy coating and a bulbous shape, they can weigh in at a hefty couple of pounds. No, there's nothing sleek, glossy or colorful about this cruciferous root veggie, which is related to the turnip. But these days, rutabagas are getting downright chic. No one told the diners at Le Lupanar that rutabagas aren't fantastic. In fact, the Lower East Side French restaurant sells a lot of its braised lamb shoulder with rutabagas and baby carrots. “It's pretty popular," says host server Ian Daniel. “People really like rutabagas." Michael Anthony, executive chef at Gramercy Tavern, says the idea of a rutabaga being unpalatable is “definitely a misconception." At Gramercy, the vegetable is sliced thick and cooked with carrots and turnips at a low temperature until sweet and soft.
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