Shameless self-promotion
If you don’t have anything nice to say, once said Tallulah Bankhead, please, do sit next to me. For those of you that share this sentiment, I offer an apology: I am out of controversies, rants or even opinions as regards the specialty food industry.

For one, brief, glorious moment, I considered joining the ranks of the political punditry and, relying on my vast experience as a former Washington kindergartener, offer my take on the upcoming US presidential elections. Unfortunately, I encountered difficulty working in the whole Greek angle. For example: Obama prefers to drink ouzo on ice – classicist or lightweight? McCain likes to take his ouzo neat – maverick or just plain reckless? (Yes, I made it up – but that’s hardly a disqualifier for punditry in this election). Then I had a whole paragraph on Hilary as the Trojan horse, with Bill at the reigns, or making hay (or in it).

Sadly, I could only take this theme so far. So instead I have decided to devote this column to shameless self-promotion.

Did you know we have a web site? We do! It even won an award from Elance for one of the three best-designed websites of 2008. The full-length articles from all past issues are available there, as are sourcing guides and recipes. Our search engine actually delivers relevant information. We also have a handy list of all our advertisers with the types of goods they produce and contact information. Our “Ask the Editor” feature invites visitors to ask us for help on Greek food and beverage issues, such as where to find a particular product, or which importers carry certain goods. Occasionally we get asked about traveling in Greece and we are happy to offer our opinions about that as well. We’re a full-service magazine. So, please, do visit. And you have nothing nice to say, well, you can still sit next to me.

Ellen Gooch
Editor in Chef