Sutter Home and Hearth in Ballard should have 'em, both chips and chunks. They're on Ballard Ave, but not for long -- they're moving to Leary Way in a week or two.

Pah. Go, and don't spend a minute thinking about it. The worst of the rioting was in neighborhoods you aren't going to go to, like Tottenham, and if you did something worse than a riot might happen to you. Other areas, like Camden Town, where you SHOULD go, got a little broken glass and whatnot, but it's being vastly overblown in the press. And it's over. London is vast. You'll be totally fine. Unless you forget to wear comfortable walking shoes.

I'd love to read True Grit again. I first read it something like forty years ago (after I fell in love with Kim Darby in the original movie). I recall it being hilarious, though less satisfying than "Addie Pray" by Joe David Brown (aka "Paper Moon"), but more so than "Little Big Man" by Thomas Berger, both of which I read around the same time and which also fit loosely into an American picaresque mode.

I have no opinion on any of the others, so maybe you should pick one of them.

Rather than worry about getting the temperature exactly right or the water flow exactly right, just get a regular ol' coffeemaker -- a cone filter kind, like a Braun or Cuisinart or Krups. If you get a quality machine it will make perfectly good coffee. Manual coffeemakers can be extremely variable in the temperature and rate of the water you pour in, which should be significantly but not massively BELOW boiling, 200 degrees, or about 45 seconds off the boil. An automatic coffeemaker will do this for you perfectly every time.

We have a Cuisinart automatic coffeemaker with insulated carafe that makes outstanding coffee every time without thinking about it. The insulated carafe means it doesn't sit on a hotplate afterwards.

The most important thing besides the water temp is using good fresh-ground coffee, of course.

Almost any cigar store will have cigar boxes for sale if you go in and ask. Stores with a high turnover are best, obviously. I just saw a heap of them outside one the other day, priced at something like $4 each for the nice ones. Where was it? Ack. Somewhere in Belltown.

I'm afraid to ask what "paleo" is. Some kind of all-meat "caveman" diet?

But the secret to eating meat is to eat it in small portions, used to flavor dishes, not just BE the dish. Make stews and soups and salads and side dishes with meat IN them but not. Also, eat lots of non-prime cuts, which often have more flavor anyways. The best tasting part of a cow isn't the filet mignon, it's the brisket, or the cheek, or the tongue. And leave the bone on, and use the bone. Look how poorer countries eat meat: a small bit of lamb shoulder makes a rogan josh; a pinch of beef cheek becomes a cabeza taco; a small amount of ham or sausage makes a salad come alive; the best posole has just a few grams of chicken in it. Oxtail is really good. Beef bones can be had for almost nothing and are the basis of fantastic soups and stews.

If you're looking for a way to eat almost entirely meat, but you want organic, you're going to have to pay. But even then, concentrate on cheaper cuts. Leave the 2" steaks for richer people, and know that your tripe or pulled pork has ten times the flavor.

Get him a cool t-shirt from Slow Shirts on Guemes Island (no, you don't have to go there to get one). Wonderful line drawings.

http://slowshirts.com/

Your cat thinks SHE is your boyfriend.

Bear in mind that when you find one it will be dull as a hoe, and you will have to sharpen it with a file. If it's not razor-sharp it won't cut anything, just bash it.

You might be better off with a scythe. Try a hardware store. For the heavy stuff nothing beats a great pair of clippers. Wear leather gloves.