Tongues Are Wagging

Fine, whip me, beat me, even call me a David Archuleta fan, but, jeesh, get the story straight.

As most of you no doubt know, there has been no action on the blog lately and only moderate changes on the site. I take full and unwavering responsibility for it. It's due to no one other than me, myself, and I. But it's amazing what gossipy flotsam and jetsam a little inactivity can wash up. My spies out there have been the benefactors of some unsolicited recon and found the rumoristas have been working overtime in response to our recent spate of Zen-like stillness. Let's parse each rumor, shall we?

The biggest one is that I'm curled into a fetal position at the bottom of a Lexapro bottle because Leite's Culinaria wasn't nominated for a James Beard Award and that has kept me from looking at my digital failure in the homepage. Sure, we were disappointed, but, hey, we've won twice in a row, which is a major feat in itself. The odds were certainly against us last year, and we beat them, and we knew chances were slim we'd be nominated again. Plus, our buddies over at epicurious.com and chow.com, as well as the folks at starchefs.com, are worthy contenders all. So, no, I'm not crying over my keyboard. Plus I was fortunate to snag a Beard nod for the feature I wrote for The New York Times, "In a '67 T-Bird, Chasing a Date with a Clam."

Then there's this nonsense about LC shutting its doors, and how I'm moving on to greener pastures. How much greener can life get than waking up in the morning--whenever you want--slipping into sweats so you don't notice that recent weight gain, taking a swig from the milk carton, and facing a grueling 40-foot commute to sit at your computer doing what you love? To top it off, I finally got my long-desired-for writing studio in Connecticut, which looks out onto 3 1/2 acres of green. So, okay, maybe this one's half-true: I have moved onto greener pastures, at least when I'm working up here.

Of course, I've heard about the mutiny of the staff for their own brighter futures. Sorry to disappoint. I now have to make an appointment to speak with Linda, she's so busy working on LC and co-chairing several committees. Plus, if anything, every time we open the door to more recipe testers, we have to close it in less than a day because the response is overwhelming. And every week we have new writers, interns, and bloggers approaching us to work together.

The real reason--are all you wags listening?--that the site has been quiet is that I've been playing catch-up with my Portuguese cookbook. It's been an 18-hour-a-day, three-week workfest of writing and rewriting, testing and retesting recipes to meet an April 1 deadline. I've been so entrenched researching the book that I was writing and speaking half-Portuguese/half-English as I muttered away in the gloomy hours of the morning. But yesterday at 1:09:41 p.m., I hit the SEND button and off went the 305-page document. Funny, that was when a little Lexapro would have been kicky; I suddenly felt so down, with nothing to worry about. Well, there is the election and the state of our economy; that's enough to stave off a prescription for a long time.

So with that first deadline met (there are two more), I can get back to work. But the site isn't at the top of the list. There's a little matter of the piles of dishes strewn around the kitchen, dining room, and my studio; the mountain of laundry moldering in the basement; tax information my accountant has been screaming about for the past month; books, magazines, and folders littering the floor around my desk; and this six-day beard that is coming off right after I post this entry. Only then, with my life back in order, will the site start churning things out again. Oh, and guys, and you can quote me on that.