Considering the profound influence that Tolstoy's ideas about non-violence had had on Mohandas, aka "Mahatma", Gandhi (they corresponded for about a year before Tolstoy's death), and subsequently on many others — including Nobel Peace Prize laureates Lech Walesa, Nelson Mandela, and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. — we should properly consider Tolstoy, in addition to being a writer, a seminal political philosopher, most overtly so in later phases of his life. He was also clearly crazy.

PARIS — For Europe's poorest countries, European Union membership has long held out the promise of tranquil prosperity. The current Greek financial crisis ought to dispel some of their illusions.

There are two strikingly significant levels to the current crisis. While primarily economic, the European Union also claims to be a community, based on solidarity — the sisterhood of nations and brotherhood of peoples. However, the economic deficit is nothing compared to the human deficit it exposes.

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers."

— Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

There exists a widespread and mostly true perception that politics in America has become a relentlessly negative exercise in demonizing and defaming not only one's specific political opponent, but also any group, straw man, or bugaboo that campaign pollsters say it is profitable to attack. That, however, is not the sum of the political art as practiced by elected officials. One must also have a positive archetype to extol: a repository of virtue so far beyond reproach as to immediately engage the sentimental reflexes of the politician's audience.

Dropping difficult subjects down the memory hole, however, does not necessarily make them go away, nor does rationalizing the abnormal into normality. Indeed, it's precisely such efforts on the part of U.S. authorities that are likely to galvanize international lawyers outside the U.S. to take matters into their own hands.

And that's what kitchens are for. The other day as I was passing the meat counter at Whole Foods I noticed some very nice looking — unusually nice looking — chuck roasts. "Where are these from?," I ask. "Local," the butcher says. "Where local, exactly, could you tell me, please?," I say. She disappeared for a minute. "From Maine," she says. "But Maine," I say, "isn't local." She stares at me. Anyhow, they are exceptionally nice so I take one. Meanwhile, I've miscommunicated with Sharon about dinner so she's gotten her own provisions. 'What about Sauerbraten?' I think to myself. So I put the roast in a large plastic bag with two thirds of a bottle of Guigal Côtes du Rhone, for a day and a half.