Guests long gone, I’ve had the obligatory turkey-bacon sandwich for breakfast (twice) and the delicious turkey croquettes (once), and after some rye and a private viewing of the uneven, but enjoyable movie, “Dope,” it’s time to plan the next holiday.

Not naming names, but I know a certain someone who regards her emotions the way my investment bank friends regard money.  It’s uncanny, really.  Substitute “money” for “feelings” and you get the gist: Never enough of them, trading one for another that has more value, the power of growth, the potential of money/feelings, the way in which money/feelings add so much to life.

Hence, pie and club sandwiches, not necessarily in that order.  The pragmatism of gustatory experience is a keen substitute for emotion and money, and I think that’s in large measure why cooking and food have become so ungainly in their appeal.  It’s true while at the same time kind of shameful.

But the alternative is a craving, right?  For more emotion, a change in emotion; more money, a change in where the money is invested.  Food provides an immediacy, ultimately a grim one, that obscures turmoil.  It’s still there.  You just can’t see it.

On to Christmas!