Saturday morning roundup

Losing your Middle Eastern markets for arms? "There's always Latin America."

Italy has a lot to lose from chaos in Libya, but it did that to itself.

David Ignatius on how the Administration is working this.

Rural India is an emerging market for market research.

I started thinking of 'glass houses'-type clichesfor this one but decided not to bother.

It's official: test scores are not good indicators of learning.

Murphy Brown redux.

Gail Collins on political crimes against writing; Robert Lane Greene on how Sarah Palin uses language more effectively than we think.

I kind-of appreciate culinary purism, especially at quality establishments (although who doesn't love a toasted bagel). You're only going to ruin a very good burger (of whatever sort) with ketchup, and I appreciate April Bloom's unique place for rocquefort--I'm looking into ways of simulating it without dairy. In a way, I can even appreciate refusing to serve vegetarian food--if you accept that that's going to turn away a large number of customers and their friends, that's your call as a restaurateur.

But if you're not going to allow substitutions or special requests, your food better be amazing. For example, if you don't allow dressing on the side, (1) that dressing better be perfect; and (2) that dressing better not be drowning the salad to the point it's inedible (I'm talking to you, Founding Farmers, although you're not alone). [Founding Farmers does, in theory, allow dressing on the side; it's just that in practice they didn't honor my request for it, which irks me as much.]