Why is that so many politicians can’t seem to resist messing up their lives — and ultimately ours — via sex or greed? Elliot Spitzer, governor of New York state who has made amazing progress in curbing the greed of corporations, allegedly has been involved with a prostitution ring. Can’t you just see his opponents salivating? The reverberations will be seismic.

A person’s sexual activities are his or her own business, but anyone active in the political arena risks opening the darkest corners of his life to investigation. Politicians need to get a grip and either be mindful or choose another profession.

Kinda gross, right? Food microbiologist Paul L. Dawson cautions, “Before you have some dip at a party, look around and ask yourself, would I be willing to kiss everyone here? Because you don’t know who might be double dipping, and those who do are sharing their saliva with you.”

Dawson was part of a study concluding that the little dab of dip on your chip transfers at least 50 to 100 bacteria from one mouth to another with every yummy bite. Ooh, now that’s delicious.

As I ambled through the Saturday farmers’ market this morning, after several weeks absence while skiing and working in Colorado, I thought about the people who have come and gone over the seven years I’ve frequented this particular market.

How many moms have I heard tell their little ones, “Let’s go see Harry and Gene?” Harry, who moonlights as a high school principal, is still with us; but Gene, who last winter declined physically despite his agile mind and flirtatious chatter, has passed on. Their organic stand, laden with gorgeous seasonal persimmons, kiwis, grapes and citrus fruits, is always my second stop.

My first is the French bakery… before they run out of melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon twists. Jean, with his delightful Chamonix accent, has gone east to run a French restaurant, but a lovely young woman plies me with baguettes and pumpkin ravioli.

The kindly Fuji apple vendor has passed on, but his beautiful daughters greet me with a smile. And while Kristy at the vegetable stand found a Saturday market closer to home, where she wouldn’t have to drag along her son, I’m getting used to the friendly face that now peers out from behind hillocks of organic black kale, leeks and rhubarb, despite not knowing his name.

Another Harry keeps bees within a few miles of my home, so of course I use his golden wildflower honey to sweeten the numerous cups of tea I brew throughout the day, thus innoculating myself against allergies.

This morning I pondered the fact that many of these farmers have relationships not only with the hundreds of patrons at our market, but at many other markets throughout the city. They are an invisible web linking enthusiastic flavor lovers throughout the city with each other, with wholesome food, and with the land that sustains us.

Sadly, it’s not really an open market. A Minnesota farmer named Jack Hedin writing in the NY Times today notes that the Dept. of Agriculture, in a concession to large agri-business, makes it almost impossible for small farmers who are subsidized to grow commodity crops like corn and soybeans to grow organic fruits and vegetables. (nytimes.com/2008/03/01/opinion/01hedin.html?th&emc=th)

Is this crazy? There’s a huge demand for fresh, organic produce, and we virtually prevent our smaller farmers from growing it? We’re doing a disservice to the farmers and to ourselves. I’ve written to the Farm Service Administration and I’ll let you know if/what they respond.

Inspired by today’s New York Times story on the plastic bag tax that has reduced Ireland’s consumption by 94 percent, I visited reusablebags.com. While I had some idea of how much plastic we use and what happens to it in a landfill, seeing numbers like these was pretty mind-blowing:

• Worldwide, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed each year, more than one million per minute.
• Americans use more than 380 billion plastic bags and wraps each year, including 100 billion plastic shopping bags.

Although the US is the worst abuser, the rest of the world substantially contributes. I know it’s a pain to remember to bring cloth bags to the market, but after you get in the habit, you feel kind of silly going in without them. My trick is that once I’ve unpacked whatever I’ve purchased, I display the bags prominently by the front door. Of course they look terrible there, so the next time I go to my car, they’re handy to grab and stow in the back seat.

Some stores even give you a five-cent rebate for bringing your own bag, and Trader Joe’s offers a weekly contest. But hey, if you’re helping save the environment, you’re already a winner, right?

John Edwards abandoned his bid for the presidency of our great country today, and as we resign ourselves to not seeing him in the White House, I have deep concerns we’re also resigning ourselves to no universal health care. Since leaving a staff job a little more than a year ago, I’ve come to painful awareness of the costs of health insurance and medical care in the States. Although the mortgage debacle is ruining people who gambled with their homes, medical costs ruin people who never chose to be ill. There are more bankruptcies due to medical expenses than any other single reason, and they don’t occur only to people who gamble with their health. It could be you… it could be me. I hope we will all continue to press for this important policy.

Following a brilliant birthday celebration for my daughter in Northern California this past weekend, we passed through Napa Valley en route to balm for both soul and body at the Calistoga hotsprings. Nothing can diminish my enjoyment of hotsprings, but wine tasting, the original raison d’etre for a visit to Napa? What a disappointment! When I first came to California in the ’80s, wine tastings in Napa were an adventure. We’d cruise up and down Route 29 and Silverado Trail admiring the stunning valley, vibrant with brilliant yellow mustard blossoms against the backdrop of the often misty hills, and stopping at any winery that captured our fancy. Pourers were genial and tastes were generous, and there was an air of exploration about the whole endeavor. Grateful for their generosity, we lay down cash for at least a bottle at each winery, thus stocking our larder for the coming year.

In later years, wineries began charging three or four or five dollars for tastes, and that seemed fair, although we bought less wine.

Yesterday, since it was after 5pm, only a couple of wineries still welcomed visitors. We ventured into Peju’s new tasting room, replete with arched ceiling, stained glass, hardwood floors and stone appointments. It’s lovely. However, they announced we couldn’t start tasting, that the next series would be starting in a few minutes and please step into the next room and sample some mustards and chocolate sauces. We were summoned back into the tasting area shortly, lined up at the two tasting bars, and charged $10 for minuscule tastes of four questionable wines. The two with high pricetags were only marginally better than the early pours. Our server was a nice enough man, but better-suited to a boardroom or classroom than hosting a wine bar, and slow as the dickens; I’m happy to stick around if it’s entertaining, but the point of making customers wait for two sips and dragging the whole thing out for nearly half an hour is beyond me.

I feel so sad for anyone who missed out on the Napa experience as it was “back when.” You missed something quite special.

In this season of no award shows in Hollywood while the writers’ strike drags on, the nonprofit WriteGirl, of which I happen to be a member, presented Bold Ink Awards to half-a-dozen inspiring and successful writers at the Grammy Foundation 1/24. WriteGirl is a mentoring organization that works one-on-one with teen “at risk” girls who dream of becoming published. I can’t say they dream of becoming writers; as Callie Khourie, one of the Bold Ink honorees and author of successful screenplays like Thelma and Louise and The Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, pointed out, they already are writers. It’s the published part that’s tricky. WriteGirl gives them a head start on that too. Once yearly, for the past six years, we’ve publish an anthology of writings by the mentees. Our current release, Lines of Velocity, is available at writegirl.org. Hey, get yourself some good reading and help us compensate for the dwindling funds for education. Unlike the reality of our national education policy, the girls we mentor really don’t get left behind. Every single one has completed high school (in a district where the overall dropout rate is 50 percent), and nearly all have gone on to college.

Admittedly, I’m not an economist, but here’s my simple solution for solving our country’s financial woes: Stop spending money on imperialism, create new jobs for people in green and sustainable businesses that will alleviate our dependence on foreign oil, and stop giving tax breaks to the super-wealthy. Instead, put that tax money toward education so that our energetic and talented youth can make a positive contribution instead of being used as cannon fodder or killing each other before they even get out of high school. Our LA drop-out rate is 50 percent! And we wonder why the economy has problems? Think of what we’re spending on prisons, welfare, extra police protection and so one… cutting back funding for education is incredibly short-sighted. We’re being penny-wise and pound extremely foolish.

Would somebody like to explain to me why the American public went into a patriotic frenzy after 9/11 when the president launched a war against a country that had always been our friend, yet, when he hands $20 billion to the homeland of most of the terrorists who wrought that destruction upon us — Saudi Arabia — it’s business as usual? Is it because it’s business as usual for this administration… do what is expedient at the moment and consequences be damned?

Bringing that philosophy closer to home is Orange County sheriff Mike Carona. Carona was indicted months ago on felony corruption charges, for using his office for personal financial and political gain, and probably wouldn’t have resigned today except that he would have had to turn down yet another gift — free legal representation — were he still in office. Poor Carona, now he’s out of a job he exploited, but is he hurting financially? Nope. He’ll get a pension almost equal to his former $200K yearly salary for the rest of his life. And he’s only 51. Aren’t you happy to know where your taxes are going?

So remember how the pres told us all we should go shopping to show our loyalty after 9/11? Here’s a guy who is the antidote to shopping, Rev. Billy! Check him out at http://www.revbilly.com. This courageous (and slightly crazed) character walks into Victoria’s Secret with a bullhorn and tells customers to stop shopping, cause Vic’s slick ‘n’ sexy catalogues are raping Canadian forests. He’s right, of course. Shouldn’t there be signs in the window, right next to those little images of the credit cards they accept?

Credit card debt in the US, as of Christmas eve, was up 26 percent from last year. Experts say “the subprime mortgage is partly to blame” for our $920 billion in collective credit card hell. That makes sens; point the finger at an inanimate entity. No subprime is going to stand up and squawk, “It ain’t MY fault!” So who’s fault is it? The pres? Advertising? Social pressure? Maybe a little over-indulgence? There’s plenty of responsibility to go around. And sure, sometimes things really do get tough and I’ve been there, when you have to buy groceries with your credit card or you don’t eat. But I also think that as a nation, we’re pretty self-indulgent. Have you ever taken a vacation you were still paying for long after your tan faded? Was it worth it?