Ian Stoba

July 2, 2000

Esteemed Dr. P,

I’m writing to you about my 5 year old son (yes, the one who was nearly named Vercinjetarix). He has recently gotten very interested in cooking and his recipes remind me a lot of the ones in your books.

This morning for breakfast, he wanted to make vegan chocolate mousse served on an open face garlic bagel. I made him use a whole wheat bagel because I was worried that the original recipe would cause the universe to explode. He has also drawn up plans for a grape and avocado stew, which has not yet been tested on humans.

My question is, how do I encourage his culinary creativity while hopefully keeping him from being abducted by Spiegelians?

–Ian

P.S. The bagels were from the place in Fishkill, the only ones I have found in the area that are edible. The mousse was from Now and Zen in San Francisco.

P.P.S. Watch out for that Paul Maes character who writes in here sometimes, he’s from the old neighborhood.

Embrace reality. He _is_ a Spiegelian.