The fat boy and his tortilla As a proactive measure she enrolled me in a diet program called TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly). Members who either gained or failed to lose weight were obliged to …
September 4, 2021
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Stories by Max Nash
What to do with a fat child, Jews and pork
Letters from Baghdad, Green Beret who hunted Bin Laden, the road from Kuwait
Nothing Like the Movies The current threats are car bombs against the vehicles lined up to get inside the Green Zone or rockets or mortars fired from a mile or a couple miles away. Fortunately, …
May 29, 2021
No Mexican food without epazote
l was working in my herb garden last weekend when my neighbor, pulling weeds on his side of the fence, retched. “My God,” he said. “What are you doing over there? What is that smell?” …
June 14, 2001
The gruesome heritage of the avocado
When Vic was a little boy on his way to school, he’d shortcut through an avocado grove. Kicking through dead leaves, he worried he might startle a rattler. The quiet also unnerved him. One morning, …
February 1, 2001
Aguardiente
The label shows a factory. A white one-story building with a red-tile roof and brown smokestack stands beside a beige two-story building. In front of the buildings on a green lawn, three barrels and two …
November 9, 2000
Little Debbie
‘Little Debbie doesn’t like to give interviews,” said her father, Ellsworth McKee, board chairman and chief administrative officer of McKee Foods Corporation. When I reached Mr. McKee at his Chattanooga home, he was evasive about …
August 31, 2000
Goat
In 1668 the Marquis de Montespan was seen approaching Versailles in a coach draped in black silk with a pair of stag’s horns wobbling on top. The Marquis no doubt chose stag’s horns because they …
August 10, 2000
Jews, Christians, and the pig
The last time I was in Jerusalem I went to Mahane Yehuda, the city’s central market, where I haggled with a spice merchant over the price of dried mint. The merchant refused to lower his …
July 27, 2000
Fat boy and his tortilla
My brother was a talented artist. When he was bored, or if I irritated him by doing something outrageous like reading his comic books or touching his ten-speed, he produced life-like sketches of a pig …
July 13, 2000
Grape Leaves and the Gulf War
The week 150,000 Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait, I felt relieved when I went with Marc and Leah to the airport. Security was tight A lot of plainclothesmen in bulky Israeli sportscoats stood around the lobby.
February 3, 2000