A couple months ago, J and I stumbled into this newish Italian restaurant for dinner. They had a ton of amazing sounding appetizers, but we were particularly intrigued by the description of their fries: shoestring style, served with a horseradish cream sauce for dipping. They came in a tall, propped up paper cone and totally lived up to our expectations. The horseradish sauce was so good, we ended up dipping our pizza in it as well. So, when Westword gave Via the 2007 award for best fries, I wasn't surprised. I was surprised, however, to discover the readers' choice for best fries:

McDonald's. As in MCDONALD'S. Then I learned that readers have voted McDonald's the best fries 24 YEARS IN A ROW. Really, Denver? I mean, really?

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I can't decide if Ben and Jerry's pint lock is a good idea, a funny idea, or an idea for sad, neurotic people with terrible, thieving roommates.

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Last year, there was some hilarity when Ahe and I discovered that a guy we went to school with wandered far from civilization to lock his feet in chains and draw them. It was news because he proceeded to lose the key and had to hop, feet bound, for 12 hours to a local sheriff's office, where they were able to free with some bolt cutters. I commented in that post that I wished I could go back in time to reveal bits of his future to him.

Ahe wrote me again recently to tell me that he had died in November, in Paris, near train tracks. It's a mysterious death. I've felt upset about this for days, but in the hollow way you feel upset about the death of someone you didn't know well, but knew a little bit a long time ago. We kissed once, he dated this girl for a long time, he locked his feet together in the Mojave desert, he was killed in France. That's now my whole story for him.