Potatoes roasted with sage and thyme and Rodin's Thinker

I figured out something I don't like: people posing in front of statues doing what the statue is doing. Rodin's Thinker, for example. Posing in front of Rodin's Thinker acting like Rodin's Thinker is very popular. Dozens of casts of Rodin's Thinker are spread across four continents. This is unfortunate. This gives the most amount of people with the least amount of creativity ample opportunity to pose in front of Rodin's Thinker acting like Rodin's Thinker. I can't imagine passionately undressing someone who thinks a photo of himself posing in front of Rodin's Thinker acting like Rodin's Thinker is funny, cute, or clever. What does that photo say about me? I'm creative? No. I'm original? No. I was in Paris? WHO CARES EVERY AMERICAN GOES TO PARIS OR LONDON ON THEIR FIRST TRIP TO EUROPE. This is what the photo says: "I saw Rodin's Thinker, and not only did I go with my lizard brain's first thought -- I'll pose in front of Rodin's Thinker acting like Rodin's Thinker! Get it? It's funny because it's not funny -- but I also roped in someone ELSE, possibly a stranger, to take a photo of me posing in front of Rodin's Thinker acting like Rodin's Thinker, and I did not care what the people walking by thought of me, and I did not care about the line of people waiting to be next to pose in front of Rodin's Thinker acting like Rodin's Thinker. Because I got a photo of me posing in front of Rodin's Thinker acting like Rodin's Thinker, and now I will post it on my dating profile, because I'm looking for a woman who GETS ME."

Caveat: You can get away with posing in front of Rodin's Thinker acting like Rodin's Thinker if you are under the age of 18. Then, that's it. You can't pose in front of Rodin's Thinker acting like Rodin's Thinker and ever expect to have a decent orgasm.

Sometimes it's the simple things. To make this salad, you need:

• 1 chopped Roma tomato

• 1/4 cucumber, peeled and chopped

• 2 TB feta, crumbled (remember: Belgian)

• 1/2 avocado, chopped

• flat-leaf parsley, chopped

• 2-3 (but make more so you can have more later) small new potatoes, tossed in a bowl with sage, thyme, salt, and olive oil and roasted at 400 degrees for ... 20 minutes?

One of my most memorable meals was a cold salad near the beach in Monterosso of chopped, peeled potatoes; tomatoes; and octopus and a cold half carafe of Vermentino. Then I retired to the beach, where I ordered a cocktail and lay on a beach chair for so long I got sunburned on my neck rolls. Because after three weeks in Italy I had neck rolls. But after three more weeks, when I could only comfortably wear wraparound pants, I still had sex in five cities with two people because even sunburned neck rolls are hotter than posing in front of Rodin's Thinker acting like Rodin's Thinker.