I am baffled because I have the opposite point of view entirely. Has anyone ever thought about what your ancestor Gunter in Germany was eating a thousand years ago? Probably cabbage, cabbage, cabbage, onions, garlic, barley, cabbage, pork, and turnips. How about Earnest in England?... pretty much the same. Far from food going extinct, I think there is tremendous diversity now in food production. Industrial production might require GM and capitalization of research through protection of intellectual property, but the fact remains that you are eating tomatoes, kohlrabi, six kinds of lettuce, two kinds of carrots, brussels sprouts, etc. All of those are robust and are grown as millions of mini varieties in gardens all over the world. I mean EVERYWHERE. Seed banks, seed companies, and people's dresser drawers hold huge stores of DNA, all slightly different. In five minutes, I could buy 100 different packets of seeds at the hardware store. Was that even possible in the 50s? And that is F1 or F2. Some okra farmer in Alabama has seeds produced through 50 crosses. People can and do create and study their own cultivars of darn near everything every season and then trade them internationally. How will that change? Activism is all well and good, but GM and Mxxxxxxo are small in the big picture and probably getting smaller. Remember that they have to invest millions in a cultivar just to get it to a commercial seed stage. How many cultivars can they do that with? And they and their timing are going to be wrong how often? Monsanto is not a juggernaut, it is a riverboat gambler. The bigger it gets, the bigger it bets. For better or worse, some gardener in China has a seed that is better than what Mxxxxxxo has got, and it is only a matter of time before the rest of the world finds out about it. In Japan, a single pumpkin seed can sell for hundreds of dollars. Mxxxxxxo has not moved in on that action, and it never will. The market is fuelled by enthusiasts and connisseurs. If the market gets cornered, people will immediately lose interest. Viewed in terms of sheer greed, it is in Mxxxxxxo's interest to maintain wild type specimens in environments all over the world. Even if Mxxxxxxo could sell one type of tomato seed that would make all others extinct, it would not do it. Has anyone considered that? Well, I guess that is enough. I could give 20 more examples. Viewed from a wider perspective, food diversity has never been better. And I will not be buying Mxxxxxxo stock. I should watch more TV, it sounds very entertaining.

Not Food Networks best effort, in my opinion. Guy has been here twice doing his shows, and the only negetive I heard was he didn't really participate until the final filming was done. Even the corvette showed up seperatly in a car van.I wish they would come up with something different that the same competitions and obnoxious hosts. They lost their creativity along the way, for my tastes.

I found this... Marilyn Denis leaving CityLine By BILL HARRIS - Sun Media Marilyn Denis is leaving Citytv's CityLine, although she's sticking with her current employer, which technically now is CTV. If that sounds confusing, well, it is. But as a viewer, what you need to know is this: In the coming months, Denis' 19-year run as the host of the afternoon CityLine on Citytv will come to an end. She quickly will re-emerge, however, with her own daytime show on CTV, likely later this year. "She's a CTV employee," CTV's vice-president of communications Scott Henderson said yesterday. "She's a CTV on-air personality and she is continuing with CityLine during the transitional stage, but when her commitment with City-Line ends, she will continue with CTV." When Henderson mentions the "transitional stage," he's referring to the takeover of the former CHUM empire by CTV, as well as the concurrent severing of the old CHUM-City alliance. The five Citytv stations across Canada were to have been part of CTV's $1.7-billion purchase of CHUM. Last year, however, the CRTC ruled the Citytv stations could not remain with CTV. Those five Citytv stations subsequently were sold to Rogers for $375 million. Denis technically was a CHUM employee, and she still does a morning radio show on CHUM-FM (which now also is owned by CTV). So the new reality as far as CityLine goes is that Denis presently is a CTV employee doing a show for Rogers. Obviously, that's not a situation that could continue forever. "Although it is too premature to publicly share details of our future plans for CityLine, we are working hard on exciting new concepts for the future," said Jamie Haggarty, the vice-president and general manager of Citytv Toronto. "We will miss Marilyn. However, we are enthusiastic about the opportunities that lie ahead." When asked if any dates have been set for Denis' transition, Henderson said, "There's no timeline. It's not like there's a specific contract or commitment. For example, CP24 now is a CTV station that still is airing CityNews, so we're still in the transitional stage. "There's a little bit of sharing going on. But ultimately, when Marilyn's time at City-Line ends, she'll stay with CTV." I liked Marilyn. That's a shame. :( Danielle

I think we'll just have to roam Pitigliano to find places to eat - the difficulty there is that not much seems to open early, but I think it will be an interesting experience whatever happens. Here's the web site for Narcisi & Bussi - doesn't look breakfast to me, and I was trying to find a bakery. Since they open at 8:30 AM, we'll probably go there anyway. There is Forno Del Ghetto Di Francesca in the Jewish neighborhood, but I do not know what hours it is open. It may be the only bakery in town, since it is a small town. That yacht is grossly huge - fortunately, I do not generally have to deal with that client - I only get called in when the production department cannot handle the designs sufficiently. I am lucky that I am insulated from clients - my only client is my boss. The furniture that is going into that yacht is huge and overscaled, but I suppose it will look okay once it is in place. In the warehouse, it just looks out of proportion. I'm mainly working on new designs for our New York and London showrooms, and we are putting in a lot of new furniture there, fortunately in stages so that I do not get swamped. Most of my work is somewhat on hold for now, while we finish the furniture for that yacht!