Editorial Comment

At the transcription office I've been typing up the dictated memoir-in-progress of one of JFK's speechwriters. He sounds about a million years old and he uses a dictaphone, which makes me feel like I should be dressed in a tweed suit with my hair up working in a smoky DC office taking dictation and fetching coffee.

Instead I am dressed in jeans and a t-shirt drinking coffee and dispensing editorial advice in my head to the speechwriter, including:

The spicy baked porcupine you ate in Africa is impressive.

The fried ice cream you ate in Singapore is not.

You're not going to impress the American public, ruler of the free fried food world, with that one. I've eaten fried ice cream before, and it was in a Mexican chain restaurant when I was 17. Singapore doesn't have a monopoly on the stuff.