If you happen to be passing through Concord, New Hampshire, you can drop off books you're finished with and pick up something new to read at the local Starbucks.

A good idea you usually see only in independent coffee houses. Hope it's picked up by every Starbucks (and Peet's and Coffee Bean) in the universe. Starbucks, 242 Louden Road, Concord, NH; 603-223-2395.

My first few trips on Virgin America -- Los Angeles to New York, the Bay Area, and Boston -- gave me hope that domestic air travel might become more consumer-friendly. Virgin America's prices, the convenient facilities, the online amenities...many of them only promises at that stage, but still, things as simple as being able to order something beyond Cheez-Its and to plug a laptop into an electrical outlet far exceed the usual Greyhound Bus-style services offered by most American carriers. The passenger experience on Virgin America is more like what you are likely to enjoy on a Scandinavian or Asian airline than on Delta or United. Wouldn't Virgin America's reasonable pricing and quality service force other companies to improve their operations, at least on the routes they have in common, if only to remain competitive?

Since May, however, much has changed. Now when you book on VA, you have to keep in mind that, depending on the ticket you select, you may be hit with a $15 per item charge for every piece of luggage you check in. If you're traveling light, this is no great hardship; as long as you don't forget to follow the TSA rules about toothpaste and pocket knives, you can still store one carry-on bag in the overhead compartment for free. If you have luggage to check, however, the fees can add up. When comparing your $99 fare on Virgin with a similarly priced ticket on, say, Southwest, you may find that you are paying more than you intended to enjoy Virgin's mood lighting.

Similarly, Virgin's much-ballyhooed wireless access (also available on American, Delta, United, and Air Canada) is less than promised. For one thing, what they don't tell you until you're on board is that it's pricey -- $12.95 for coast-to-coast flights; $9.95 for trips under three hours. Like most high-priced hotels and some airports, Virgin America hasn't realized that clients get irritated when overcharged for an essential service. Also, at least on the Los Angeles-Boston flight that I'm currently on, the wireless doesn't work. Although the instructions call for you to "Click Buy to get started," there is no "Buy" to click (the best site navigation moment comes on a page that says only "purchase a Gogo Pass" and "The page you attempted to view cannot be accessed until you purchase service"). According to the cockpit, the problem isn't with equipment on the aircraft, but is a "system wide" outage by the provider, Airtel's Gogo Inflight Internet. Oh, well. Email will just have to wait until I'm back on the ground in Beantown.

One other thing. When I attempted to listen on the plane's "interactive environment" to Cassandra Wilson's superb new album, Loverly, it sounded like someone was in the studio with her crumpling paper sacks in front of the microphone. The next cut I tried, from Diana Krall's Look of Love collection, worked better, although the sound quality on VA's branded earphones was that of an AM portable radio circa 1958. After I switched to my laptop's Phillips earbuds everything was rosy, though, even Cassandra Wilson (and it was a pleasure to discover tracks by Sun Ra amid the more lcd offerings in the jazz section). I know you get what you pay for, but why bother to install "3000 mp3s" and then provide crappy headset to listen with? Bottom line: if you're flying Virgin America, skip the $2 earpieces and pack your own listening devices.

Still, in VA's defense, it has to be said that the few inches of extra space throughout the cabin make a huge difference: a little more leg room, less banging into people and hardware when walking the aisle, room to turn around in the lav. And there's no denying that hummus, baba ganoush and veggies are a vast improvement on pretzels and dry-roasted peanuts.

From the monthly newsletter of Library Alehouse on Main Street in Santa Monica:

‘In the ever continuing quest by Stone Brewing to appeal to the masses….’ No, scratch that. Hmm, let’s try ‘Stone Brewing's new release destined for trendy appeal….’ Nope. Hardly. OK, how about ‘New brew from Stone Brewing likely to be a hit amongst light beer fans….’ Ouch. Way off base. Nowhere even close.

The real lead-in line should of course read ‘Stone Brewing, experts in pushing the limits of the IPA style, brews up another winner.’ And a winner it is. Patterned after the famous Stone Anniversary IPAs, this new brew is born. Weighing in at massive 100+ IBUs (International Bitterness Units) and 7.7% alc/vol, this baby is a screamer!

”And the name? Stone Ruination IPA. So named, the bottle's label states, ‘because of the immediate ruinous effect on your palate….’ “

The nattering above conveys a taste of the potions (and the marketing) cooked up by Stone Brewing of San Marcos. Ruination was the first new year-round release from the brewer after the introduction of its infamous Arrogant Bastard Ale more than four and a half years before. Stone employs an extreme brewing style that uses natural ingredients – barley, hops, water and yeast – to produce quaffs of strong and distinctive character. Initially, Library Alehouse was attracted by the brewer’s promise of “No Additives, No Chemical Preservatives, No Pasteurization No Adjuncts,” but it is the phenomenal taste that makes us proud to include both beverages in our menu of stellar beers and ales.

Not a drink for the faint of palate, Arrogant Bastard won’t be a regular or casual choice even among those for whom the hop flower is mother’s milk. This ale pours with a dark caramel color, an unpresumptuous orange-brown head and modest levels of carbonation. The nose is sugary, with a scent of molasses laced with slightly floral and woody notes that causes the sharp aftertaste to come with an element of surprise. The finish is extended, with a sustained bitter attack that prolongs the experience.

Ruination is intense India Pale informed by an imposing amount of hop bitterness stemming from the application of huge amounts of hops to the brewing and two weeks of dry hopping to the aftermath (dry hopping is a flavor-intensifying technique in which a small quantity of cone hops is added to finished beer before it is shipped). Ruination pours with a clear, dark gold color and an enduring crown of beige-colored foam. Hops dominate the taste, but there is a hint of dry grass and floor-of-the-forest woodsiness to the finish. This ale is imposing, sugary and tart.

Stone’s creations, despite their crisp and breezy qualities, have a moldy rain-forest sourness that persists on the tongue. In a less conformist world, these are tipples of the sort that would be enjoyed in good company with pungent cigars. http://www.stonebrew.com/

Shari Robins (former chef at James Beach and Canal Club) has opened a Balducci-esque market on North Venice, offering such Good Life-essentials as Petrossian smoked salmon, local farmers' markets favorite Kenter Canyon Farms produce and Giorgio Baldi’s pasta sauces, cheek-to-jowel with bodega-staples like Goldfish and Kettle chips and where-are-they-when-you-need-'em household items like kitty litter, paper towels and window spray. Robins Nest Quality Convenience Market, 68 North Venice Boulevard (at Pacific), Venice CA, 310-821-7281. http://www.robinsnestmarket.com/

A new study by a University of Scranton professor, Jon Vinson, has found that coffee is the best natural source of the antioxidants that help protect cells in the body from damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals. Among other harms, free radicals may cause cancer.

Along with other good news -- that red wine improves cardiovascular health and life expectancy and wards off the common cold; that dark chocolate helps prevent diabetes and lowers blood pressure; that virgin olive oil is not only good for the heart, but fights cancer, diabetes, asthma and arthritis, and obesity, and that garlic, the staff of life, will cure everything from cardiovascular disease to the plague -- I feel blessed to have spent so many years doing the right thing.

Given what she was told, your mother was doing the best she could when she tried to get you to eat your broccoli, but she might have done better to have poured a little vino on your Cocopops.

For it to turn out that java is superior in the antioxidant department to foods such as carrots, collard greens, wheat germ and kale that we have been made to feel guilty our whole lives for not eating is sweet revenge. It only remains for someone to document the incontrovertable health benefits of Häagen-Dazs coffee & almond crunch....

(originally posted to Impractical Proposals 2005-08-30)

It's late. After twelve hours on the road, we're exhausted and famished. Somewhere on Route 1A, a beaten-up stretch of highway that meanders through the North Shore parallel to the real Rte. 1 and the harbor, seeking a signal from the elusive ATT Wireless, we pull into a parking lot on what looks in the dark like landfill at the edge of a marsh in front of a dejected-looking building that might be dedicated to processing fish lips into cat food. We call our hotel for directions, but we've been through so many detours and roundabouts that we can't tell the innkeeper whether we're headed north or south. "We're in the parking lot of something called The Wharf," we say, and that wins us incredible and, as it turns out, fanciful you-can't-get-here-from-there-style directions that include a "right turn down the alley behind the Cathedral."

Satisfied for the moment that we won't be sleeping in the car, our attention immediately reverts back to our stomachs. All the long day, expecting to alight by dinnertime in the land of the shoah dinnah, we have been limiting our intake to light snacks, leaving room for the lobsters and steamers that are to be our reward. Sensing that we're talking to a local, we ask the hotelier for "the best place for lobster" in the Saugus-Revere area. "Yoah theah," comes the reply. "The Whaff is excellent!"

And you know what, it is. A rambling multi-roomed roadhouse that probably started its life 30 years ago selling the day's catch off the back of a wagon, Mt Vernon At The Wharf, as it is officially named, is comfortable, friendly and dim. Since it was so late and a school night, we were the only customers, save a couple of locals watching ESPN in the distant bar.

Too young to afford us a wine recommendation and too inexperienced to provide real service (she had to be sent back for things like napkins and butter), our waitress was nonetheless cheerful and solicitous; before heading home for the night, the proprietor herself stopped by to make sure all was well. Two large, plump lobsters, steamed veggies and baked potato, plus ever-dependable Guinness (better safe than sorry), and we were out the door for less than $35. We passed on the steamers because of the hour, but we'll be headed back. For one thing, we'd like to be in the joint on a Friday or Saturday night. Bet it's really cookin' (Mt Vernon At The Wharf, 543 North Shore Road, Revere, Massachusetts, 617-289-0885).