As geekette sows, so do I reap.

Well, actually I'm sure her planting is going a lot better than my foraging for food in an increasingly empty kitchen. Tomorrow, for instance, I will eat a steak that is now defrosting in the refrigerator. The label has a "sell by" date: April 24, 2000.

I suspect the steak will be as yummy as the chicken I cooked earlier in the week. Anticipating my imminent relocation, I have also sorted through my prized assortments of scary canned foods. Not so much to eat the stuff -- though I would, if the cans in questions weren't each so many years old and quite possibly botulized.

My favorite is, of course, the fried dace in salted black beans. Mike Yee used to keep that stuff in the cabinet when we lived together in college. And when he wasn't around Guido and I would eat the stuff. We couldn't decide if we liked it because it was tasty (tasty in its literal meaning: "full of taste") or because it was utterly ridiculous. Is it true that Mike went on to study global food politics at NYU? Maybe he can help us figure out why they don't carry food this interesting at Stop & Shop. Or Publix. Maybe I'll go to the Giant Beagle in Berea and ask them if they can start stocking the stuff -- just to see what they say.

Unfortunately I have decided that my scary canned food collection is not worth packing and moving, so off it goes. But not before I pry open that classic can of dace, given to me as a parting gift from a kind-hearted co-worker at the Law Journal so many years ago.

Yep, stuff still looks the same as it did in the 1980s. Unable to help myself, I even ate a bite of the stuff. Tasty... just like I remember.

And now I don't feel so good.