I am now a published book reviewer

A few years ago I read This Organic Life by Joan Dye Gussow, the legend of gardening, eating locally, and homesteading.

I believe in all of these principles very dearly, and in fact this past weekend we just planted a bunch of blueberry bushes and veggies. But she's a bit of a hard-ass. She goes on for several sentences about how she'd love to eat a banana, but she can't bring herself to eat a food that requires so much petroleum etc. to get here.

I sort of wrestled with that. Surely, she's a maniacal zealot on this point. But is she right?

A few weeks ago--after a few drinks--it suddenly struck me out of the blue: for my tastes, she was too strict. Life is short. We must smile. If a banana will make you smile, then eat the damn banana, I say. (It's not like she has a passion for beating people up, or something that's REALLY hurtful.) We should all try to make the world a better place however we can. But bananas aren't the worst thing in the world. She should learn from Warren Zevon, who recorded an album while suffering with terminal cancer. He called it "Enjoy Every Sandwich."

So I went to the website of her publisher, and they had a thing where readers could send in reviews. I dashed off a smarmy one. A few minutes ago, I got an e-mail that they had published it. Hilarious!