Tonight I bought two Vosges exotic chocolate bars. The one I was drawn to, not surprisingly, was dark chocolate (70% cacao) with New Orleans style chicory coffee. The second one, which my companion drew my attention to, was what they called dark milk chocolate (41% cacao) with goji berries and pink Himalayan salt.

We tried the second one and both agreed it might be the best chocolate we’d ever tasted. The strange and perhaps miraculous thing was that the salt crystals stayed intact enough within the chocolate bar to fleck the rich brown with pink. The packaging promises that the saltiness will fuel desire for the sweet and the bar delivers. The goji berries offer another sort of sweet and slight chewiness. All and all it is nothing sort of transcendent.

Last night was my second bridge lesson at the local bridge club. I think that if this indeed becomes a lifelong hobby, then I will remember last night as the night I got hooked. I made a bid that, compared to most of the bids my fellow newbies were making, was very high. Then I played the hand and made the contract. It was only after I looked at my partner and said, “Whew!” did I realize that my heart was pounding. It was that much of a rush.

President Obama is a very articulate and charismatic speaker; but I’m left with a few questions after his inaugural speech:

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.

Will more government assistance make us mature as a nation or was he just referring to the Bush administration as childish?

We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.

By “leave” does he mean keeping troops there for the next half a century like in Korea?

We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers.

Then why did he take the oath of office on a Bible or aren’t there any copies of the Constitution left in D.C.?

With the bicentennial anniversary of Edgar Allen Poe’s death there has been a flurry of events and activities in the area. Last week I attended two such gatherings, the first was a comical debate held at the Free Library between representatives from the City of Philadelphia, the City of Baltimore and the City of Boston. All three cities were laying claim to the legacy of Poe, though Ed Pettit of Philadelphia came into the debate with a shovel and alluded to the idea of disinterring the man, his wife and his mother-in-law and bringing them all back to Philadelphia for a proper burial which struck me as distinctly Poe-esque (even though the man himself might object, if he could). Philadelphia took the night, though I suspect the audience was biased.

Then on Friday night, I went to the Mütter Museum to attend a lecture on 19^th century medicine and the impact it had on Poe’s life. The moderator from the debate, Grover Silcox, hosted the event and performed several pieces including Annabel Lee, the Raven and the Tell-Tale Heart. He was mesmerizing during the readings, and quite funny during the rest of the presentation. Watching a person go from the intensity he showed during the performances to genial in a space of 30 seconds was a little unnerving.

I leave you with what might be my favorite interpretation of the Raven:

Removing Cats to Protect Birds Backfires on Island

It seemed like a good idea at the time: Remove all the feral cats from a famous Australian island to save the native seabirds.

But the decision to eradicate the felines from Macquarie island allowed the rabbit population to explode and, in turn, destroy much of its fragile vegetation that birds depend on for cover, researchers said Tuesday.

Removing the cats from Macquarie “caused environmental devastation” that will cost authorities 24 million Australian dollars ($16.2 million) to remedy, Dana Bergstrom of the Australian Antarctic Division and her colleagues wrote in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology.

“Our study shows that between 2000 and 2007, there has been widespread ecosystem devastation and decades of conservation effort compromised,” Bergstrom said in a statement.

PETA in its ongoing protest against the existence of humans animal cruelty, has taken aim at fishing practices by way of taxonomy. Fish are slimy and delicious, but “sea kittens” are cute … and delicious. Speaking of which, I could really go for some grilled sea kitten right about now, or maybe a sea kitten salad sandwich. Mmmmmm … sea kittens.

Today I went into the Aveda store at a local mall. I would say they had me at, “Hello”, but it was more like they had me at, “Would you like a cup of tea while you browse?” (And what a tea — peppermint and licorice root, sweet enough it was hard to believe it didn’t have sugar in it.)

Then the genuinely nice salesperson asked if I had time for a “moment of wellness” and even though that phrase is just chock full of the New Age heebie jeebies, the “moment” itself was an all but blissful hand massage using several of their products. My hands still feel like silk. I guess I’m paying for all this feel good stuff, but if the products are all as good as I’ve read and what little I’ve experienced, I think it is probably worth it. I doubt this is enough to make me want to go to the mall more often, but if I do go I’ll be sure to stop in for another cup of tea.

I knew these corporate bail-outs reminded me of something:

Happy New Year! Change is in the air.