Sunday Times...

[lsanderson]

I'm having a very lazy day today. Instead of looking for work or putting in the new garage door, I've been reading the New York Times which appears almost magically on my porch every day. Granted, there is a painful exchange of check or credit card information very early in the year, but I've learned to blot that out of my mind by the end of summer through the constant application of alcohol.

There's a bunch of interesting stuff:

Frank Rich
The Vietnamization of Bush's Vacation
By FRANK RICH
ANOTHER week in Iraq, another light at the end of the tunnel. On Monday President Bush saluted the Iraqis for "completing work on a democratic constitution" even as the process was breaking down yet again. But was anyone even listening to his latest premature celebration?

Vietnam
The Past Lingers in Changing Vietnam
By AMANDA HESSER
BREAKFAST at the Morin Hotel in Hue was a game of Russian roulette. As my husband, Tad, and I sat sipping Vietnamese coffee in the courtyard, nuts from the bang trees above us dropped like bombs onto the stone patio. I asked our waiter, Dinh, a slender young man, if they ever hit people. "Yes," he said, pointing to his forearm and shoulder with a shrug. "One broke a table."

Tomatoes
The Industry: Killer Tomatoes
By MATT LEE and TED LEE

Douglas Heath, Ph.D., says he is on the verge of perfecting what he hopes will be the defining fruit of his career, one with a trifecta of rare and attractive qualities. It is a seedless tomato; it delivers the robust, sweet-and-tart flavor most supermarket tomatoes lack; and it has all the disease resistance the commercial industry demands. He has, in fact, created it -- the patent on the technique has been filed and approved -- but just a few minor kinks remain. Although seedless grapes have been around for more than 100 years, seedless tomatoes aren't yet commercially available.

Tomato Water
The Arsenal
By AMANDA HESSER
Chefs may work with an abundance of ingredients, but they are often thrifty and efficient with them. Take, for instance, these preparations from Alex Ureña, the chef at Suba, a restaurant on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Beginning with plum and beefsteak tomatoes, Urena creates elements of more than five dishes.

Weird puzzles from Japan
A Few Words About Sudoku, Which Has None
By WILL SHORTZ
IT is said that nature abhors a vacuum. As humans we seem to have an innate desire to fill up empty spaces. This might explain part of the appeal of sudoku, the new international craze, with its empty squares to be filled with digits.

And a couple of pieces on Detroit
Detroit
By BRIAN PARKS
WHY GO NOW The four wheels of Detroit culture - sports, music, machines and beer - are all on a roll. The city will be host to this season's Super Bowl, after having mounted the baseball All-Star game last month, and the high-profile events have fueled much sprucing up of downtown. Detroit's music revival, led by Eminem, Kid Rock and the White Stripes, is being extended by acts like Brendan Benson, the Dirtbombs and the Detroit Cobras. Car culture is always intense, and this January sees the opening of the North American International Auto Show; last year it drew over 780,000 people. As for beer - well, there's never an off-season there.

Can't Forget the Motor City
By PAUL CLEMENS
A few years back, my father and I were driving through Detroit in my Pontiac, listening to ''Darkness on the Edge of Town.'' The track was ''Racing in the Street,'' which opens with Springsteen singing, ''I got a '69 Chevy with a 396/Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor.''