Marmite

Since I have had such a good supply of Marmite from Town Talk, I though I would look up their website.

Very clever -- and they have a section for Marmite haters.

www.marmite.com/love/history

My Cure for the Common Cold.

I hate the common cold. And I get more than my fair share of them. But at some point, a few days into it (as I am now), I will re-read one of my favorite essays, Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, by Gay Talese. It is probably not read by many under the age of 50, except as a guide for good writing, but for those of us who grew up with parents who considered the Chairman's vocals as the background music of life, it is still a very enjoyable read.

Following is an introduction, and a link to the website of Gay Talese and the essay. The introduction, from Esquire magazine:

In the winter of 1965, writer Gay Talese arrived in Los Angeles with an assignment from Esquire to profile Frank Sinatra. The legendary singer was approaching fifty, under the weather, out of sorts, and unwilling to be interviewed. So Talese remained in L.A., hoping Sinatra might recover and reconsider, and he began talking to many of the people around Sinatra -- his friends, his associates, his family, his countless hangers-on -- and observing the man himself wherever he could. The result, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold," ran in April 1966 and became one of the most celebrated magazine stories ever published, a pioneering example of what came to be called New Journalism -- a work of rigorously faithful fact enlivened with the kind of vivid storytelling that had previously been reserved for fiction. The piece conjures a deeply rich portrait of one of the era's most guarded figures and tells a larger story about entertainment, celebrity, and America itself . . .

The essay: www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/talese/essays
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The Most Visited Place in Texas.

For Texans, that's a pretty easy guess.

Unfortunately, it is the only place on the Forbes Travel Magazine, 25 Most visited spots in the USA. If you didn't read the Yahoo/Forbes report, can you guess 7 of the top 10? And can you guess the most visited place in the America.

The answers for the top ten are in small and ghosted type below:
>
> ( no peeking, remember this is specific places in a city)
>
> ( guess 7 of 10 and win a free trip to Town Talk )
>
> (but you have to buy your own groceries)
>
> here they are:
1. Times Square / New York, NY / 35 million
2. Las Vegas Strip / Las Vegas / 31 m
3. National Mall and Parks / Washington D.C. / 24 m
4. Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, Mass. / 20 m
5. Disney World / Orlando / 17.1 m
6. Disneyland / Anaheim / 14.9 m
7. Fisherman's Wharf / San Francisco / 14 m
8. Niagara Falls / New York / 12 m
9. Great Smokey Mountains National Park/ Tennessee / 9.4 m
10 Navy Pier / Chicago / 8.6 m

San Antonio riverwalk is Texas' most visited spot with 5.1 million per year and number 14 in America. For the complete list of 25: http://www.forbestraveler.com/best-lists

Last question: has anyone been to all or even 8 or 9 of 10?
I have visited 6 of 10.
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Speaking of lists. I saw this note on the West and Clear blog: Time Magazine reported the Fort Worth Star Telegram as one of the top 10 endangered newspapers in the country.