There was an article in the New York Times today about “The Banned Books Your Child Should Read” . Reading the article took me on a time machine ride back to the 90’s when I was living in New York City. Let me explain – There is an event every year which I believe is called New York is Book Country. It is a bibliophile’s Christmas day. On a Saturday afternoon in September about 10 blocks or so of Fifth avenue in midtown are closed to traffic and instead of cars it is instead filled with stall after stall of book sellers. There are vendors selling all things book related – new books, used books, antiquarian books, comic books and all things bookish. There are publishers, authors, book activists, and everyone else celebrating the written word and celebrating reading! I believe it was 1991 when I went and met Ed McBain there and asked him to sign one of his books for my mother. (Both of us are big Ed McBain fans). I must say it was a thrill meeting him. If you don’t know him google him!!! This brings up the topic of banned books that the Times wrote about. I think every year there is the ongoing theme of celebrating banned books. When I went I bought 4 posters that listed books that have been banned in the United States. Books like Carrie, To Kill a Mockingbird, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Huckleberry Finn, Where the Wild Things Are, Catcher in the Rye … etc. etc, you know, all the subversive ones that should be burned and not read. That’s why the NYT article made think of that fun afternoon in NYC more than 25 years ago.
Okay, what does this have to do with food? If you have ever been to the cafe you will have of course seen either our breakfast sandwich board or lunch sandwich board. With the exception of Rosie the Riveter ( who has a soft place in my heart for a number of reasons which would be too long to explain in this post) all of them are based on characters in books. Why? Well isn’t it obvious? A person needs to feed his or her self in two ways – good food, courtesy of Umplebys, and reading books. 
