Monday evening roundup

Goodbye, Mercedes Sosa.

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I'm trying to find for you an article that was circulating at work, about how complaints about new media (these days, Twitter) go back in history to every new media invention, including writing itself. I can't find it--I'll check the hard copy tomorrow for the writer's name--but in the process of searching, I came upon this list of Businessweek articles about Twitter, including "Is Twitter Pimping Porn to Family Users?"

Goodbye, Gourmet. I hope your successors will follow in your footsteps:

More than just a cooking magazine, Gourmet explored the culture -- and increasingly the politics -- of food.

It was that connecting of the dots between policy, the environment and the dinner table that food writer Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," most lamented losing.

"They were reaching an audience that wasn't sensitive to the political and ecological implications of their eating," he said in an e-mail. "It was largely a hedonistic community that Ruth [Reichl] introduced to some hard issues."

And if you're looking for a testament to just how much food matters:

"The new intelligence has provided fresh ways to try to undermine the foreign al Qaeda fighters. Pakistani authorities say they've started targeting food shipments believed to be headed for al Qaeda operatives, who prefer their own cuisine over local fare. "The Talibs, they're eating mutton, chicken, bread -- the food ordinary people eat," said an officer from Pakistan's ISI spy agency. "The Arabs want their own food.""

In other news: when tipping becomes extortion.