Word on the street today is that our old friend Mikhail Gorbachev, at the age of 77, is launching a new political party in Russia. His intention, we’re told, is to take on Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party. As Gorbachev only received one half of one percent of the popular vote the last time he ran for elected office in Russia (in 1996), and as Putin, a former KGB official, still seems to be very much in control of the country, it’s unlikely that he’ll make much headway. If, on the off chance that he does start to get traction, however, if I were him, I’d give up soup. Seriously. No matter how delicious and wonderful it looked, I wouldn’t even take a bite.
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Russians hate Gorby and blame him for the collapse of the USSR. Fun fact though, Putin was Yeltsin’s chosen successor, and was expected to keep with Boris’s moves towards openness. His opportunity to power came from Yeltsin’s collapse under oligarchs, which Putin moved to oppose, thus earning him popular support, which allowed him to undermine many of pre-drunk Yeltsin’s reforms.
Hanging around in Iowa last year with the Edwards campaign, I met an attorney who travels around the country specializing in cases where the client is potentially under threat of death. Of course, the attorneys representing these clients take precautions accordingly as well. He told me about some of these security measures and it was very interesting. For one thing, they are often not even identified by their actual names. But, as to your point, there were many precautions he mentioned regarding the possibility of drugging and poisoning. These attorneys are not to make plans for meals more than a few minutes in advance. They are to avoid eating in the same restaurant more than once. They are encouraged to grocery shop instead of eating out at restaurants, and it is to be done essentially at random and at the last moment. And then, all preparation of the food should be done by the attorneys themselves. It was similar to what a friend of mine who was a federal marshal said about how they have to handle federal witnesses in certain cases.
To most people, that stuff is all spooky and the stuff of conspiracy theories. But it’s actually just part of the daily work of some people. Sometimes I think it’s people’s mistrust in themselves as to where to draw the line that keeps them from thinking about such things. It strikes me as a lack of confidence, and maybe a somewhat reasonable one when considering the seemingly unknown nature of these things. The stuff’s interesting though, and I can’t understand people not being at least curious about it.
All that said, if you find yourself running around Ann Arbor trying not to get poisoned, a good place to go for soup is LeDog. There are two locations downtown, but I’d especially recommend the Liberty Street location if someone’s trying to kill you. Chef Jules runs an incredibly tight ship, and he makes the best Bouillabaisse in the Midwest.
See the link above for more info on LeDog.
Oh, God, Le Dog’s one of the very best places in Ann Arbor for vegetarian food, believe it or not, so long as you like soup (though I have to say that I prefer Jules’ wife’s soup more, from the Main St. location).
God, I’d eat stuff there that I wouldn’t anywhere else, like this squash blossom soup she made that was just divine.
That, unfortunately, was something I never found in Ypsi—vegetarian soup of such quality. I had to make it myself. Ypsi has the best Mexican in the area, and better falafel, but no good soup.