Answering Roll Call

Two-thirds of a teaspoonful of instant coffee is a good way to flavor a cupful of hot water, milk, and cream first thing in the morning, just as a mere capful from a bottle of applejack brandy made in Virginia adds admirably to any flavor of ice cream just before going to sleep at night.

Yet the former view, if not the latter, is obviously deeply abhorred in the wilds of Somewhere, Minnesota, and that helps to define such a place.

I don't know how thoughts on this might run in areas where other distinguished scribes can be found, notably in the football-crazed Panhandle of Florida, the slightly more serene Thomas Wolfe country around Asheville, N.C., or in the teeming innards of Houston, Texas.