no accounting for taste

Does George W. Bush wear a hemp suit? Does he insist on organic vegetables? I want to know.

More to the point, how is it possible to be served bland iceberg lettuce in the heart of the Salinas Valley, "salad bowl" of the nation? Shouldn't there "be a law" against that?

In a similar way, people are getting away with drinking bad beer out of aluminum cans in Portland, OR. Portland boasts an abundance of quality, reasonably priced micro-breweries.

And even in the middle of wilderness areas with exceptionally good air, people are lighting up Camels and Marlboros.

To their credit, Starbucks did launch a successful assault on decades of abrasive industrial coffee. Regardless of what you think of that company, they did raise the national standard of what we call coffee.

But in general, who can explain America's love affair with Bad Things? You present them with quality (organic farms, public libraries, Al Gore) and they still go for the Styrofoam, Diet Coke, and Chevy Suburbans.