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  Sushi Ginger After attending the Green Valley symposium a few months ago, I decided to

visit sushi restaurants in Petaluma. Clean, crisp, cold chardonnay is a perfect match for

sushi, so I set out just as the “Salute to American Graffiti” celebration was getting

under way.My first stop was Hiro’s Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar, located at 107

Petaluma Blvd. North. Hiro’s was booming. It was a very busy weekend and bustling with hot

rods and people everywhere. Roars of engines whined into the warm summer air. My cold glass

of 2006 Dutton Goldfield chardonnay was lightly oaked and locked to my hand like a hungry

Jamaican Bobsled Team racing down the ice.My co-pilot and old friend, Augie, was on his

first assignment with me. We were hungry and I had a good feeling Hiro was going to come at

us with something big in this first drag race of fine wine vs. fine sushi. Hiro greeted us

warmly, as always.With the wine chilling, the first wave of nigiri came out. It was a

decadent array of squid (ika), salmon (sake) and fatty tuna (toro). The catch: they were all

seared — but only slightly. We had already sampled the chardonnay and determined that there

was some oak to this treasure — but not too much — and he proceeded to have the chef

create this special dish.What was seared on the fish fenced itself brilliantly with the

toastiness in the wine. With aromas of pear and green melon circling brilliantly in my

olfactory, the love of each piece melted in my mouth, ultimately to drown down in wine like

a cold stone thrown into the bright summer air that sank into the depths of a warm pond.Now

I was getting green apple flavors — this wine was changing. It was complex and the second

dish arrived: It was a top-notch roll of complexity fortified with salmon and adorned with

salmon roe. Hiro then came out with yet another dish — a massive construction of California

roll with inches of toasted crab. Below the dish was a beautiful fire-red puree of Thai

pepper to render this the leader of all Dynamite Rolls. It seemed to pair perfectly with all

the high-octane fueling outside on the streets. Ba-boom! It was hot, but very delicious.Next

stop was Kabuki restaurant and sushi bar at 17 Petaluma Blvd. North. Seated right in front

of my chef, Akio, the room echoed with soft voices off the red brick wall. I ordered some

basic nigiri sushi. Tako (octopus) is a favorite of mine since my father and I spear fished

in the oceans off Japan the summer of my junior year at Petaluma High School. My choice of

wine was another Green Valley gem, the Marimar Estate Don Miguel Vineyard 2006 chardonnay.

It has notes of lemon zest and warmed, yellow, orchard apple. The tako was fresh and stirred

with the chardonnay into a beautiful culinary whirlwind. Next on the sushi strip was the

soft-shell crab. The thick, molasses-like sauce was wrong for the light and flavorful crab

and didn’t pair with chardonnay well, but the crab alone was just fine with the wine.The

next dish was in-season blue fin tuna. Smeared with wasabi and tackled by a mound of ginger,

this tasty helping of beautiful, fresh fish went down smoothly. My next piece, unagi, was

done correctly. The unagi (eel) was smothered in a thick teriyaki glaze, wrapped in seaweed

and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Cold wine with lemon notes chased it down.My last piece,

fatty tuna (toro) was followed by a big mouthful of this Green Valley beauty and the wasabi

continued to burn clean.For my last stop, I ventured across town to a real hot spot on the

sushi scene. Owned and run by Chef Steven Tam, Gohan is a very comfortable and upscale sushi

restaurant and bar located across from Orchard Supply Hardware in the new center off North

McDowell Boulevard.Right away, a huge plate of rolls passed me by to another table. It

looked like a California roll sliced and laid flat but with more. On top was at least an

inch of crab meat adorned with black and blue roe (fish eggs). Steve calls this one the

Carburetor.For Gohan, I chose the Ironhorse 2006 chardonnay. Cold and crisp and with no oak,

it still somehow poured into my mouth as a slightly creamy chardonnay. The minerality was

soft, the lemon and pit fruit, opulent but, most importantly, it was gentle and caressing.My

first dish was a specialty: fresh, thin-sliced halibut in carpaccio style, laid out like a

confident, winning hand of poker, its owner giving mixed signals not to give away the

success that lay below. On the bottom were paper-thin cucumber slices and, for a topper,

paper-thin jalapeno slices. This was so tasty with this chardonnay.Next, I was dribbling

fresh cut lemon over a nice plate of a half-dozen myagi oysters that lay in the shell with

some Lake Sonoma Sauvignon blanc and a yuzu sauce adorned with green and blue caviar and

slices of green onion. I grabbed the first mollusk and pulled the meat from the shell into

my mouth. Flavors raced wildly from the acid in the sauce, the salt of the caviar, a dabble

of green onion, the brininess of the oyster, and then the soft, meaty flesh.At the end, the

oyster was creamy, very fresh and bright. Oh yes, the wine — I grabbed the Ironhorse.

Immediately, the creaminess of the oyster met the lemony-orchard fruit and the perfect

levels of acidity created a splendor both of palate and mind.Next came a big, beautiful

presentation of Japanese scampi. It lay in a pool of mild-to-rich crème sauce. Cooked into

it was wakame seaweed. Slices of lemon posed atop this articulated contemporary piece and

big shrimp guarded its base.My first bite was amazing. The scampi was so fresh and the cream

sauce just lifted into my mouth and carried the scampi down and into my belly. The

minerality of the wine and the cold climate apple flavors in it resonated with the buttery

cream sauce, cutting through, covering, unfolding and releasing it into my senses.Steve

insisted on one more piece for a finale: a pancake of shizo leaf (Japanese green tea) topped

with halibut, a cream sauce and tobiko (caviar). Again, a hit, a winner, a knockout — a

finalist in any drag race.Overall, sushi is very good in this town. Having lived in Japan, I

can be a harsh critic; I expect the best. The wines I paired with it were phenomenal. To top

it off, a wonderful weekend of high-performance and antique cars from all over the country.

Petaluma defines what Arthur Fonzarelli once coined as “cool.”(Jason Jenkins is the owner

of Vine and Barrel, a wine shop at 143 Kentucky St. He offers Wednesday night wine education

classes from 6 to 8 p.m. and Saturday tastings from 4 to 7 p.m. He can be contacted at 765-

1112. The Web site is www.vineandbar rel.com)

  Pork Collar LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- If he weren't so busy waiting tables at O'Charley's or

scanning Wal-Mart for discount meat to feed his four kids, Scott Winschief thinks he might

make a pretty good candidate for president of the United States. For the past six months, he

has watched on television in his double-wide mobile home as Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and

Barack Obama have traveled around the country and imitated his lifestyle. Badly.They posed

for photos in the same kind of factory where Winschief, 44, pinched a nerve in his back

hauling 1,800-pound coils of wire in 140-degree heat. They visited bars and drained pints of

the domestic beer that fills Winschief's fridge. They toured barns occupied by animals like

the ones he fed at 4 a.m. every day so he could pay for a few years of college. They

reminisced about shooting guns like the ones displayed inside almost every house in his

rural neighborhood.The presidential race has turned into a riveting competition for

ordinariness, as both campaigns have concluded that whoever does a better job of winning

over voters like Winschief -- an average blue-collar man in an average American town of

60,000 -- is more likely to triumph in Tuesday's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.

Identifying with the common man has been a requisite in presidential elections for almost

two centuries. But the stakes are especially high in a race largely defined by an economic

crisis, and campaign experts say the candidates have gone especially far in their appeals.In

the past six weeks, Clinton hammered down a shot of Crown Royal whiskey -- not necessarily

the first choice of the workingman -- and chased it with a beer. Obama visited a

Pennsylvania sports bar and sampled a Yuengling after making sure it wasn't "some designer

beer." Clinton told stories about learning to shoot behind the cottage her grandfather

built. Obama went bowling.Whether these voyeurs of blue-collar existence yield results

depends on how people like Winschief perceive them. Are these genuine attempts at connection

or overly calculated tactics to win voters? Are they telling moments that reveal a

candidate's humanity or patronizing charades that reveal a candidate's guile?Last Tuesday

night, Winschief cradled his custom-made bowling ball at Arrowhead Bowl in downtown

Lafayette. It was league night, a staple of his schedule for the past decade, and he

shuffled a deck of Hooters playing cards on the table in front of him and gulped Miller Lite

from a plastic cup. One of Winschief's teammates mentioned Obama's recent misadventures at a

bowling alley, where he rolled a succession of gutter balls (with the help of a couple of

young children who rolled a couple of frames) en route to a score of 37. The friend wondered

whether there was an adult in Lafayette who couldn't beat Obama's abysmal total.Winschief,

an undecided Democrat, pondered this for a second as he glanced up at his own score -- 164

with three of 10 frames left to bowl."I love him for trying, but that's awful," he said. "A

37? It kind of makes you wonder why he's even bowling in the first place."Presidential

candidates have strived relentlessly downward in social class ever since the 1840s, when

William Henry Harrison created what historians now call the "common-man myth." While most of

his peers campaigned from their estates, Harrison traveled the country and spoke under a

banner depicting a log cabin and a bottle of hard cider. He won the presidency by a

landslide, and his campaign model became the new standard.With few exemptions since,

American voters have picked presidents who mimic the public's most ordinary habits -- men

who regularly mention drinking, or NASCAR, or old-fashioned farm work. Ronald Reagan liked

to be photographed chopping wood. George H.W. Bush spoke longingly about pork rinds. Bill

Clinton stopped at McDonald's while on the campaign trial, even when it required a side

trip. And George W. Bush is a champion brush-clearer.Disruption to this role-playing occurs

only when a politician makes a blunder so glaring that it reveals him to be a jester in

costume. Gerald Ford bit into a tamale without husking it while campaigning on the Mexican

border in 1976, and he extolled its deliciousness before realizing he had consumed the

wrapper. John F. Kerry ordered a cheesesteak at Pat's in Philadelphia and asked for Swiss

cheese, even though Pat's had specialized in subs with Cheez Whiz for 70 years.

  Instant Food A leading immunologist yesterday said that although surveys showed 10 to

20 per cent of Australian adults believed one or more foods made them ill, a much smaller

number - between 1 and 2 per cent of adults - had a true food allergy.Connie Katelaris,

professor of immunology and allergy at the University of Western Sydney, said that although

some of the difference was accounted for by less dangerous but still unpleasant food

sensitivities, both categories were still overdiagnosed.As a result, many people were

needlessly limiting their diets - in some cases restricting themselves to just three or four

specific foods - in the false belief this would do them good. In fact, they were simply

putting themselves at risk of malnutrition and further ill-health.Professor Katelaris told a

recent medical conference that "these imagined food allergies are far more likely to be

reported by women than by men", and the phenomenon was being fuelled by the popularity of

instant but bogus tests offered by some alternative medicine practitioners, which purported

to detect food allergies by analysing hair or blood."It's an attractive diagnosis to

individuals because it seems to give them control," Professor Katelaris told The

Australian."It's easy for people to understand. They think, 'If I change my diet, I will be

OK'."It's harder to explain that their rash is caused by an immune problem, which is quite

complicated."Although genuine food allergy affected about 6 per cent of children, most of

these cases were resolved. About 97 per cent of children allergic to dairy products shed

their sensitivity by adulthood, while two-thirds of children outgrew allergy to eggs and 20

per cent lost their allergy to peanuts.Immunologists and other doctors agreed that food

allergy was being overblown.Stephen Shumack, honorary secretary of the Australasian College

of Dermatologists, said dermatologists had "suspected for quite some time" that many

supposed food allergies were nothing of the sort."I hate to use the word 'hysterical', but

certainly people who have this perception tend to be more psychologically disturbed," he

said.

 Automatic switch I was listening to you when you were on the radio with Jordan Rich on March

7 and you described a problem with headlights that we have with our 1993 Honda Civic. At the

first position on the light "stalk," the parking lights, tail lights and dashboard lights

are on, as they are supposed to be. As soon as you turn to the next position, the headlights

go on, but all the other lights go off. I know it has something to do with a switch. Since

this is an electrical problem, I'd like to have some idea of the magnitude, before we take

the Civic to a garage for repair. Honda garages in Maine are few and far between, and our

track record with inexperienced Honda mechanics is painful. Any advice you can provide would

be appreciated. I can appreciate your hesitation in taking your car to just anyone. However

the job itself is very basic and takes less than an hour to make the replacement. The kicker

is, however, the part costs about $210. To find a qualified mechanic, go to your nearest

Napa auto parts store and ask the parts seller which shop he or she services that is the

most competent to do this job. You can also Google Napa Auto Care shops on the Internet to

find the shop closest to you. I have a 1998 Riviera. The check engine light keeps coming on.

The code says it is the CAM sensor, but I have replaced it three times and the light comes

back on. Do you know of any past problems with this? Any help you can give me would be

appreciated as I have had this problem for the past three years. There are many particulars

that could turn on the light. However, the most common and most commonly overlooked reason

for this failure is the magnetic button that is attached to the CAM gear. This magnet

triggers the sensor. If the CAM is walking or if the magnet is weak, you will keep having

this intermittent problem. We bought our first brand new car in 19 years last May — a 2007

RAV-4, automatic 4WD — and we have always been religious about 3,000 mile oil changes (thus

we have histories of 314,000 miles with original clutch and 312,000 or 285,000 miles on

several previous vehicles). In addition to "do I need to use synthetic, since I have since I

bought the car 31,000 miles ago?" is "the dealership says every 5,000 vs. our traditional

3,000. Is that OK?" Your letter is self-explanatory. You are doing everything I have

recommended and you are getting record-setting distance in your cars. Thanks for proving the

auto scanner to be right. Just keep doing what you are doing. Car Care Tip: When your car is

on the lift for its oil change job, have the technician spin all four wheels to check for

excess brake drag, which will rob you of fuel mileage. 

 Cable Lug That’s Ben Brown’s facetious view of his degree in economics from Davidson

College. You remember Davidson, the small liberal arts college in North Carolina whose

basketball team cracked the elite eight in the NCAA Tournament, before falling by two points

to eventual national champion Kansas. If you paid attention during the tournament coverage,

you probably learned that a Davidson education is pricey -- around $40,000 a year. Among the

school’s alumni, doctors and lawyers number in the thousands. Two former governors of North

Carolina (Jim Holshouser and Jim Martin) and one former president of the United States

(Woodrow Wilson) attended college there. Now you can add to that list: one front tire

changer. “I didn’t study tire changing -- that’s a fact,” said Brown, who changes the

front tires on Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman’s No. 12 Dodge. Collectively, Newman’s

crew will defend its title in Thursday’s Sprint Pit Crew Challenge at Time Warner Cable

Arena in Charlotte, N.C. When he enrolled at Davidson, Brown had no mechanical background

and no interest in NASCAR racing. He studied economics and played shortstop on the Wildcats

’ baseball team, well enough to convince himself and others in the know that he would be

drafted by a major-league organization after his senior season in 2000. Then Brown’s life

changed, suddenly and dramatically. He was hitting .348 through 37 games of his final season

when he broke his leg, ending his baseball career. After graduation, Brown spent the next

two years “playing softball and goofing off,” as he put it. He took a job as an estimator

for his father’s construction company, where he still works during the week. Then came a

strange and unexpected offer. Newman’s rear tire carrier, Trent Cherry, who had played

football against Brown in high school, asked if he would consider trying out for a pit crew

job. “Trent knew I was done with sports and living in Charlotte and not really using my

athleticism to any gain, so he called me up and asked if I wanted to and got me a tryout,”

Brown said Saturday at Darlington Raceway, while gluing lug nuts to front tires arranged in

tidy rows behind the pit wall. “I had to run a 40 (yard dash), do a bench press, vertical

jump, body fat -- all kinds of stuff. Basically, I got a gig as a developmental guy, and

that’s really where it all started.” Brown started coming to the track as a backup.  

 apparel fabric According to the data from General Administration of Customs, exports of

textile and apparel in April were valuaed at around 14.286 billion U.S. dollar, up 20.79%

from last month, and up 11.34% compared with the same period last year.Among them, yarn

fabric and products were 5.982 billion U.S. dollar, clothes and apparel attachment was 8.304

billion U.S. dollar.In first 8 month of 2007/08 season(2007.09-2008.04), cumulative export

of fabrics clothes were about 113.934 billion U.S. dollar, increase by 17.71% year-on-

year.Among them yarn, fabric and products increased by 22.05% to 40.456 billion U.S. dollar,

clothes and apparel attachment increased by 15.44% to 73.477 billion U.S. dollar compared

with the same period of last season.