Really excited about various reading opportunities out there right now. This is a blog, so let’s get right into it.

*The best food-writing lede I’ve read in a long time comes from this Washington Post Travel story. It’s about diners along Route 130 in New Jersey, and it’s a beaut.

*And sorry to promote the Post to excess, but here’s a nod to Monica Hesse of the Post Style section. She landed a story in the Sunday paper about cabbies. Now, that’s the hardest topic in the book to write about with anything approaching originality. In this town, just about all coverage goes down a few well-trodden paths: Cabbies discriminate against African-Americans, Lord, I hate the zone system, or look at these hard-working immigrant entrepreneurs who risk their lives to give us transportation. Don’t get me wrong, this is not to disparage any of those sentiments. But Hesse nailed one of those stories that makes editors, including this one, say, Shit, why didn’t I think of that!

*The Washington Times stays right on top of D.C. surveillance story, signaling that under new editor John Solomon, the paper’s not dropping its obsession with cameras in public.

*New York Times chimes in with the latest over Hillary Rodham Clinton‘s efforts to capitalize on those rather tame words about people in the rural backwater spoken by rival Barack Obama. What a scandal!!!

*Japers’ Rink, a WashCaps blogger, delivers the stinging stat on the home team’s Sunday afternoon loss: Caps had 18 giveaways; Flyers 7. As they might say in another rough sport, turnovers’ll kill ya.