I am thrilled to announce that you can now direct your web browser to Madison's Isthmus newspaper's Daily Page site and read my new column, entitled Fringe Foods. The first indecorous arrival into my gastrointestinal system is menudo rojo, and it's fringetastic.

(you can also find my columns, as they stack up over time, by clicking here)

The Daily Page asks that you register your full, real name with them if you want to comment on articles posted on their site. For those of you who read this blog, you are of course welcome to do so. If you're hesitant to establish your identity on the Internets, you can comment here using the anonymous comment feature.

LOST is living a shell of a life during the strike-plagued hiatus. Mobisodes (or webisodes, if you're not a Verizon customer) are the tiny supplements made to keep us alive until February.

The third 'sode is titled "King of the Castle," and features a portion of a chess match between Jack and Ben. Some verbal judo ensues, and the segment ends with Ben performing a "castle" move, which presumably puts Jack at a significant disadvantage.

Much has been made online of the fact that the move Ben performs is illegal. His pieces are not in the proper position to execute a castle. This has been interpreted, logically, to mean that Ben will cheat with his hands while he swears virtue with his mouth. I can't argue with that interpretation, but I have another. It is rooted in the fact that Ben lauds Jack's chess skill, and yet Jack doesn't appear to recognize the illegality of Ben's castle.

We should consider the possibility that, since both kings are not on their proper starting space, the board was improperly laid out from the start. In other words, Ben didn't intend for the castle to be illegal, and Jack didn't call out the illegality, because both players placed their kings on the wrong space from the start.

The meaning of this would be that both Ben and Jack are operating from a false assumption about the game; the implication being that neither man truly understands what's happening on the Island.

Just a thought.

Clinton Portis. Mike Golic. Carmelo Anthony.

Famous men. Large men.

Cowards. And I'd tell them so to their faces.

They are all advocates for the so-called "Stop Snitching" movement. They may not all announce their support explicitly, but they make it clear by their statements.

Clinton Portis, running back for the Washington Redskins, said:

"I don't know if he was fighting dogs or not, but it's his property, it's his dog," Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis told WAVY-TV in Virginia. "If that's what he wants to do, do it. I think people should mind their business."

When told that dog fighting is a felony, Portis replied, "It can't be too bad of a crime."

This morning, on his ESPNRadio program, Mike Golic stated that, if he were aware of performance-enhancing drug use in his sport, he would not report that use to a supervising or investigating authority.

In December 2004, NBA star Carmelo Anthony appeared in an underground DVD entitled "Stop Snitchin'." While he did not advocate violence, the purpose of the video was to discourage cooperation with police.

These men insist that their comments were taken out of context, or that the brotherhood of professional sports prevents them from turning in wrongdoers. This is the height of cowardice.

There are websites, which I will not link here, that provide lists of known or suspected informants, cooperating witnesses and undercover law enforcement agents. The thin excuse for this database is to keep people in the community informed about whom they can or cannot trust. In truth, this list allows criminals and would-be criminals to skirt the law and harm people who might stand in their way. It also allows for unscrupulous cowards to place their personal enemies in the line of fire by falsely submitting their name, address and photo for inclusion.

The law protects all of us, and it is only as strong as we allow it to be. This is the case for any rule or authority, whether municipal or social. Men like Carmelo Anthony, Mike Golic, Clinton Portis, as well as Scooter Libby, Busta Rhymes, Cam'ron and others, weaken our social order by placing blind loyalty to friends or cohorts above proper behavior. To do so is cowardice, pure and simple.

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Although not rising to the level of offense of the individuals listed above, I'd like to add former Dane County Board member Dave Blaska to the list. Dave was so upset by my fair responses to his inane posts at the IsthmusDaily Page that he implored me to go away. Poor thing.

Hyperbole aside, I was looking for my review of CocoLiquot on TheDailyPage Forum, and the thread has disappeared. I dunno why. But anyway, I found it in Google's cache, and thought I'd preserve it here. The meal we experienced was during the Madison Restaurant Week, a limited-menu expeditionary dining promotion.

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Setting the scene...we were a party of four, seated a little slowly (probably 10 minutes after our reservation). We were informed that not only had they run out of the whitefish that was listed on the menu, and not only had they also run out of the mahi mahi that's on the regular menu, but their dessert options were also totally different than what's listed on the website. Oof.

Desserts were a duet of tarts (apple with cinnamon ice cream and lemon meringue), citrus parfait with a bunch of various fruit media piled in there, and a chocolate banana-praline torte. The fish was replaced by their sausage entree, but at the last minute, an emergency shipment of eight servings of mahi mahi was helicoptered in from Restaurant Magnus, and the day was saved.

The romaine salad suffered from a bit of prepared-too-far-in-advance-itis, and was a little wilty. Totally inoffensive otherwise. The onion soup, on the other hand, was the starter standout. The Roth Kase cheese was the star.

We were told by the server that the hanger steak is something of a specialty of CocoLiquot. If you're not married to filet mignon, do give hanger steak a try. It's noticeably different in preparation and in consistency, but it was very, very tasty. Cooked on the rare side of medium rare, but with a nice char on the surface, and sliced, it was no-need-for-a-knife tender. The pommes frites (with the accompanying aioli) were great. The mahi mahi was a nice piece of fish; the ladies at the table weren't charged extra for going off the rez.

I was sad to see the desserts changed, because I was jonesing for the bittersweet chocolate cake, and the little lady was hoping for a creme brulee. However, the banana torte was good (more bitter--in a good way--than I would have expected for a milk chocolate dessert), and the duet of tarts were solid if not spectacular. The citrus parfait certainly looked cute as it walked by toward other tables.

Add a couple carafes of wine and some chocolates for the road, and the two and a half hours we spent there were well worth it.