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Text 1
Food Fight
by Jeffrey Kluger
Nowadays more and more genetically
engineered crops come into being and become part of
our daily food. Are they safe to be consumed? Don't
they have any bad effects? The public become skeptical
about them, and even protest against them. The governments
have been in a heated battle over the issue. What's
the result of the battle? Can protesters get what they
want? Please read the following article for the answers.
The folks at McDonald's could not
have expected an especially warm reception in France,
but the manure in the parking lots still must have taken
them by surprise. For the past three weeks it's been
hard to visit a McDonald's anywhere in France without
running the risk of encountering mountains of fresh
manure—as well as not-so-fresh fruits and vegetables—dumped
in front of the restaurants by protesting farmers.
There's a lot about McDonald's
that angers the farmers—its sameness, its blandness,
the culinary1 hegemony it represents—yet
at the outset the demonstrations were remarkably genteel,
with protesters occupying restaurants and offering customers
an alternative meal of baguettes stuffed with cheese
or foie gras2. But lately things have turned
nasty. Protesters are finding ever more to dislike about
the uniquely American food—especially the very genes
that make the McDonald's beef or bun or potato what
it is.
Around the world people
are taking a closer look at the genetic make-up of what
they're eating—and growing uneasy with what they see.
Over the past decade, genetically modified (GM) food
has become an increasingly common phenomenon as scientists
have rewoven the genes of countless fruits and vegetables,
turning everyday crops into über-crops able to resist
frost, withstand herbicides and even produce their own
pesticides. In all, more than 4 500 GM plants have been
tested, and at least 40—including 13 varieties of corn,
11 varieties of tomatoes and four varieties of soybeans —have
cleared government reviews.
For biotech companies such
as Monsanto, based in the U.S., and Novartis AG, based
in Switzerland, the rise of GM technology has meant
boom times. Sales of GM seeds rose in value from $75
million in 1995 to $1.5 billion last year, and the crops
they produce are turning up not only on produce shelves
but also in processed foods from cookies to potato chips
to baby food.
But many people question
whether it's a good idea for fallible human beings to
go mucking about with the genes of other species. It's
one thing if a scientific experiment goes wrong in a
lab, they say, but something else entirely if it winds
up on your dinner plate. To date, there's nothing to
suggest that re-engineered plants have ever done anyone
any harm. Nonetheless, the European Union has blocked
the importation of some GM crops, and since 1997 has
required that foods that contain engineered DNA must
be labeled as such. Plenty of trade watchers in Washington
see the European actions as one more tweak from an increasingly
powerful E. U. no longer intimidated by U.S. economic
might. While that may be, the fact remains that the
U.S. Congress may address a labeling bill of its own
later this year, and some private groups are threatening
lawsuits to force the issue. Even without legal action,
public opinion is turning a more skeptical eye on GM
technology. "The farmers in France are right,"
observes Dennis Democrat from Cleveland, Ohio, who stumbled
across the GM-food issue this year, and is turning it
into something of a cause. "There's nothing more
personal than food. "
If the outcry in France
indeed portends global trouble, it's by no means clear
whether it ought to. For all the controversy that GM
technology is causing, the fact is that biotech companies
have succeeded in dreaming up some extraordinary plants.
Monsanto, which produces the hugely popular herbicide
Roundup, has made just as big a hit with its line of
genetically modified crops that are immune to the Roundup
poison—thanks to a gene that company scientists tweezed
out of the common petunia and knitted into their food
plants. Other GM crops have been designed to include
a few scraps of DNA from a common bacterium, rendering
the plants toxic to leaf-chewing insects but not to
humans.
Such souped-up plants are
understandably popular with farmers, for whom even a
slight increase in yield can mean a big increase in
profits. Last year in the U.S., 35% of the soy crop
and 42% of the cotton crop were grown with GM seeds.
Says Karen Marshall, a Monsanto spokeswoman: "These
really do work and have tremendous benefits to growers."
But what happens when they
don't work? Several years ago, a company developed a
soybean with some genetic threads borrowed from the
Brazil nut in an attempt to boost the bean's amino-acid
content. The soy began acting like the nut—so much so
that it churned out not just amino acids but also chemicals
that can trigger allergies in nut-sensitive consumers.
The company quickly scrapped the product. Last May a
study published by Cornell University showed that pollen
from some strains of corn with built-in pesticides can
kill the larva of the Monarch butterfly, a pest by nobody's
standards. "When butterflies start dying,"
says Kucinich, "I think it's fair to start asking
questions."
Overseas, they have been
asking them for some time. In recent years Europeans
have become increasingly jumpy about bad food—and with
good reason. Since the outbreak of mad-cow disease in
1996, the appearance of dioxin-contaminated Belgian
chickens last May and the later recall of contaminated
cans of Coca-Cola in France and the Benelux nations,
health officials have grown fussier about what their
citizens consume.
Since 1990 the E. U. has
approved the sale of 18 GM products. (The U.S. Government
views GM components in foods as mere additives and thus
does not require the Food and Drug Administration to
approve them. ) This year the E. U. banned the importation
of non-approved GM corn. In the U.S., GM strains are
mixed with ordinary strains, so the country's entire
corn export to Europe was effectively outlawed. "Until
we have new rules, we don't want new substances released,"
says Jurgen Trittin, Germany's Environment Minister.
"It's a de facto moratorium4."
But one country's moratorium
is another country's protectionism, and the U.S. is
suspicious of Europe's action. Tension between the U.S.
and the E. U. was already running high recently after
Europe decided to continue a ban on hormone-raised U.S.
beef and the U.S. hit back with a100% tariff on some
E. U. food exports. Coming in the midst of such a catfight,
the GM ban looks like vengeance as much as prudence.
What's more, if Europe is so worried about GM products,
why is it growing them? France produces its own small
crop of GM corn and uses more of the stuff than any
other country in Europe.
The transatlantic food fight will probably
be high on the agenda of the World Trade Organization
when it meets in November—good news for companies like
Monsanto. Two years ago, chief executive Robert Shapiro
gambled big on biotech, spinning off the company's chemical
division to focus on the new science. While the move
made Monsanto a Wall Street darling for a while, investors
aren't as sweet on it anymore. A year ago, Monsanto
stock perched at a lofty 63; today it's mired in the
upper 30s.
Events in Washington could
make things worse. Since lawmakers have not yet addressed
the labeling question, private groups are hoping to
take the lead. Environmental organizations, along with
Jewish and Muslim groups, have waded in, lobbying5
the FDA for labeling and in some cases filing suits
to compel it. Their legal claim is bolstered by internal
FDA memos in which the agency's own scientists expressed
doubts about GM products. A scientist noted the "profound
difference" between genetically engineered crops
though he stressed that different needn't mean dangerous.
Still , it's becoming clear
in Washington that the labeling problem is not going
away. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman admits
that ultimately the activists will probably prevail.
Glickman hopes that labels will not be written to alarm
consumers but instead to inform them, letting them know
that while a product was manufactured with the aid of
genetic techniques, it can also, say, lower cholesterol6.
For now, the most GM foes
can hope to push through an agri-friendly Congress is
a proposal for voluntary labeling that biotech companies
would be free to honor or ignore. In a demand-driven
market, however, they would ignore it at their peril.
In Europe the Gerber baby-food company, a division of
Novartis, gave in to anti-GM sentiments and announced
that its products would no longer contain genetically
modified ingredients. "This decision was not a
safety issue," insists Novartis spokesman Mark
Hill, "but rather a response to preference expressed
by our consumers." Not for the last time, to be
sure, it's consumers who will have the final word.
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课文一
食品大战
杰弗里·克卢杰
现在,基因改造作物越来越多，而且成为了我们日常食品的一部分。食用这种食品安全吗？它们有什么副作用吗？公众开始怀疑甚至反对这些转基因食品。各国政府也为此争论不休。那么论战的结果是什么呢？反对者会如愿以偿吗？请看下面的文章。
麦当劳店的人并不指望在法国受到特别热烈的欢迎，但停车场的粪便肯定还是让他们大吃一惊。最近三个星期中，在法国所有的麦当劳店里,人们都能碰上成堆的新粪便和大量腐烂的水果和蔬菜。这些都是抗议的农场主倾倒在麦当劳门口的。
麦当劳店的许多方面都让农场主们愤怒，如：它的雷同，它的毫无特色，以及它所代表的餐饮霸权。然而，开始时，示威还很温和，抗议者餐馆，给顾客提供一种里面塞着奶酪或鹅肝的面包作为替代食物。但后来情况就非常糟糕了。抗议者发现越来越不喜欢这种典型的美国食物，特别是使麦当劳的牛肉，小面包和土豆成为现在这个样子的基因。
全世界的人们都在密切关注他们所食用食品的基因构成，并且对他们所看到的一切变得越来越不安。在刚刚过去的十年中，科学家们改变了无数蔬菜和水果的基因，把这些日常食用的作物变成了超级作物，能够防霜冻，抗除草剂，甚至本身就能杀虫，因此转基因食物已越来越成为普遍现象。在总共测试的4500多种转基因植物中，至少40种通过了政府复审，包括13种谷类，11种西红柿和4种大豆。
对于一些生物科技公司，如；生产基地位于美国的蒙生特公司和位于瑞士的那瓦特斯公司，基因技术的兴起意味繁荣时期的到来。基因作物种子售出的总值从1995年的七百五十万增加到去年的十亿五千万，并且他们生产的作物不仅出现在直接生产的产品中，而且出现在从饼干、薯条到婴儿食品的加工食品中。
但是，许多人提出疑问：让容易犯错的人类摆弄其它物种的基因是否是个好主意。他们说，如果实验室里的科学实验做错了，那是一回事。但如果它最终出现在你的饭桌上，那又是另外一回事。到目前为止虽然还没有什么表明转基因植物对谁有什么害处，但不管怎么说，欧盟已停止进口一些转基因作物，并且从1997年就开始要求含有重组DNA的食物必须如实标注。许多华盛顿贸易观察家都看出，欧盟这一举动是日益强大的欧盟不再害怕美国经济威胁的又一次回击。也许是这样，但事实是美国国会今年晚些时候会制定他们自己的商标法案，而一些民间团体正在威胁要诉诸法律迫使制定这一法案。即使没有立法行为，舆论对转基因技术也持更加怀疑的态度。俄亥俄州克利夫兰的丹尼丝·德莫克利特说，“法国的农民是对的，没有什么比食物跟人类的关系更密切。”他今年碰到了转基因食物这件事，正把它当成一项事业来做。
如果说法国的抗议确实预示着全球性的麻烦，事情是不是应该如此，则完全不清楚。尽管转基因技术引起这些争论，事实是，一些生物科技公司已经成功地创造出一些奇异的植物。蒙生特公司生产了颇受大众欢迎的除草剂Roundup，他们的转基因作物的生产线也非常轰动，因为这种转基因作物对Roundup毒有免疫作用。这多亏了该公司的科学家，他们从普通的喇叭花中提取一种基因，并将这种基因编织进他们的食用作物中。设计的其它转基因作物，含有来自普通细菌的DNA成分，使作物对吃树叶的昆虫有毒而对人类无害。
可以理解，这种经过强化的植物深受农民欢迎，因为对他们来说产量的些微增长就意味着利润的大幅增加。去年美国35%的大豆作物和42%的棉作物采用了转基因种子。蒙生特公司的女发言人凯伦·马歇尔说：“这确实有效，给种植者带来了巨大的利润。”
但是，如果没有效果会怎么样呢？几年前，一家公司开发了一种大豆，该品种大豆有巴西坚果中的一些基因成分，目的是增加大豆中的氨基苯甲酸含量。结果，这种大豆非常像坚果，不但大量产出氨基苯甲酸而且产出了引起坚果过敏者过敏的化学物质。这家公司很快就将产品停产。去年五月，康奈尔大学的一份调查报告显示，含有杀虫功能的玉米花粉能杀死黑脉金斑蝶的幼虫，而任何人都不会把蝴蝶当成害虫。库钦尼治说：“当蝴蝶开始死亡时，我们就应该开始质疑了。”
在海外,人们提出这样的问题已经有一段时间。最近几年，欧洲人对质量差的食物越来越紧张，并且事出有因。自从1996年爆发疯牛病，去年五月出现比利时受二恶英污染的鸡肉，以及后来法国和比荷卢经济联盟国家受污染的可口可乐罐的销毁，卫生官员对他们居民所吃的食物越来越谨慎挑剔。
自从1990年，欧盟已经同意销售18种转基因产品（美国政府认为转基因成分只不过是添加剂，因此不需要食品和卫生部的同意。）今年，欧盟已禁止进口未经许可的转基因玉米。在美国，所有的转基因品种和普通品种混在一起，因此该国所有出口的玉米都成了不合法的。德国环境部长于尔根·特里汀说：“只有在制定新法规后，我们才会让新品种进来。这是事实上的暂停审批禁令。”
但是一个国家暂时性的禁止，对另一个国家来说就是保护主义，美国对欧盟的行为表示怀疑。美国和欧盟之间的紧张关系最近加剧，这是因为欧盟决定继续禁止进口美国荷尔蒙饲养的牛肉，而美国则加收欧盟100%食物出口关税。在这样的激烈争吵中，对转基因食品的禁止让人感觉既是谨慎又是报复。并且，如果是如此担心转基因产品，那欧盟自己为什么也在种植呢？法国不仅自己生产转基因玉米，并且使用转基因玉米比其它任何一个欧洲国家都多。
横跨大西洋的食品之战在11月召开的世贸组织大会上也许将成为一个重要议题讨论，这对于像蒙生特这样的公司是个好消息。两年前，公司首席执行长官罗伯特·夏皮诺在生物科技上下了大赌注，他将公司的化工部独立出来专门研究这新科学。该举措使蒙生特股一度在华尔街受宠，当然现在投资者对该股不再青睐。一年前，蒙生特股高居63点，而现在却陷在30大几。
华盛顿的情况可以使事情更加糟糕。由于法律制定者还没有处理商标的问题，民间组织希望起个带头作用。环保组织和犹太以及穆斯林组织已经参与进来，游说食品和药物管理局制定商标法案，并且在一些情况下还提出诉讼来迫使他们这么做。他们的立法请求从食品药物管理局的内部备忘录中寻求到支持，因为在备忘录里，管理局的科学家们对转基因产品也提出疑问。一位科学家提到转基因作物和传统作物有“重大不同”，虽然他强调不同并不意味危险。
在华盛顿，很清楚制定商标的呼声还在继续。美国农业部长丹·哥力克曼承认，最终这些活动家们很有可能获胜。哥力克曼希望商标上写的内容不是去警告而是去告诉人们，基因技术生产出来的产品也同样可以起到降低胆固醇之类的作用。
到目前为止，转基因产品的反对者所能希望的，至多是让亲农业的国会通过一项议案，允许生物技术公司自己选择标注还是不注。在以需求为导向的市场中，他们如不标注，必须自己承担风险。在欧洲，那瓦特斯公司的分部哥布婴儿食品公司已屈服于反转基因产品的呼声，宣布它的产品不再含有转基因成分。那瓦特斯公司的发言人坚持说：“这个决定并不是出于安全问题，而是迎合我们的消费者的喜好。”最终还得由消费者说了算，这肯定不是最后一次。
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Text 2
A Dinner @ Margaret's
by Margaret Carlson
What a delicious assignment: invite
12 people to dinner at my Washington house, come up
with any menu I want, hire someone to serve and clean
up, and charge the whole feast to the company. I could
hear the Champagne corks popping.
There were a few difficulties.
Everything had to be come from the Internet, no going
to the store, and I would have to write about it. There's
no such thing as a free dinner.
Immediately, I e-mailed
an invitation to our local Internet hero, American Online
CEO Steve Case. A reply came by phone: Would we mind
faxing the information?
Not at all, but if Mr.
You've Got Mail regresses to old tech, can e-commerce
really be that easy? With Case onboard, and TIME's Person
of the Year issue to dangle before guests, I pursued
a Noah's Ark theory7 of who else to invite: two members
of Congress, two teachers, two candlestick makers. I
warned everyone they would be TIME's guinea pigs.
With the party set for
Sunday night, the plan was to give myself a week to
order, always starting online but resorting to 800 numbers
in a pinch, find a middle ground between ordering the
totally exotic (alligator meat) and the reliably prosaic
(ham), and default to vendors in California when in
doubt, figuring those guys in Silicon Valley9 surely
have discovered how to stuff a turkey through a modem.
First things first: I needed
a new salt shaker and a tablecloth that actually fit.
I ordered both from Williams-Sonoma (williams-sonoma.com).
This is where I first felt Screen Rage, a risk at many
sites. This arises after you've just filled in every
last scrap of personal data, except your shoe size and
SAT scores, and the screen freezes on you. Don't think
that Mr. Internet has saved anything for you. (If God
is a woman, then the Web is a man, silent and indifferent,
with a short attention span.) You have to start over.
And over.
Getting great coffee was
a comparative breeze. I went directly to the sources—a
Hawaiian plantation, cornwellcoffee.com, for
Kona, and to bluemountaincoffee.com for Jamaica's
Blue Mountain beans. This is also when I became a Coffee
Bore. At most sites it's easier to get in than to get
out, since Webmasters tend to fill all the space available,
which online is infinite. Did you know that Kona beans
thrive in the dark volcanic soil, sunny mornings and
cloudy afternoons of Hawaii? I didn't either, but I've
brought it up at three parties. I've turned into the
kind of person I used to avoid.
For real food I thought
holiday season and went hunting for a goose. At
goose.com I found I could acquire a rifle for the
purpose—it's an outdoors store. This is when I fell
in love with Jeeves, the fictional British butler who
helped Bertie Wooster put his pants on one leg at a
time, reincarnated in cyberspace as a cheerful search
engine that sorts through all the others at AskJeeves
(ask.com). As in life, you need a friend of whom
you can ask anything: What is love? What's the GDP10
of Monaco? Where can I buy a goose? The easily distracted
might choose to go elsewhere, for there are no nonstop
flights at AskJeeves. The whimsical Jeeves served up
Mother Goose, along with the chance to hear one (a nasal
honk right out of your laptop) and a recipe (Remove
stray pinfeathers. Place orange rind and celery leaves
under the loosened skin. Truss). That was enough goose
for me.
The encyclopedic Jeeves
brought me to goose liver, which led me to foie gras,
which took me finally to France Gourmet Traditions (gourmet-tradition.com),
a Parisian grocer that had precisely what I wanted.
Jean-Marc Donce could get the foie gras to me on time—if
I were in the Paris bureau. At its site a Strasbourg
charcuterie posted this bad news: "Cannot at this
time ship. USDA11 does not return our calls."
Funny, I have that very same problem with government
agencies.
A few more clicks, and
I found the same pâté at Greatfood.com,
which I ordered, along with mustards and cheese. It's
a luxurious site with Hollywood-studio visuals. You
can't touch, smell or squeeze the merchandise on the
Web, so pictures, however doctored, are essential. It
was at GreatFood that I met temptation in the form of
dinner for 24 at the click of a mouse. But the meat
worked out to about $40 a pound and...it would have
been wrong.
GreatFood had a link to
Omaha Steaks (omahasteak.com), which I'd seen
advertised but never tried. There was a scrumptious
picture of beef Wellington—very festive, very holiday—with
a bonus gift of six 4-oz. sirloins. Maybe there is such
a thing as a free dinner, after all.
I went to Napa Valley at
the eponymous wine.com (What luck to nail down
that name), proved I was 21 and ordered better wine
than I'd ever served. Since I was already in California
anyway, I called up Patisserie Lambert (patisserielambert.com),
where I'd eaten in real time—I mean, real life. It's
a small shop, remarkably cybersophisticated, with visuals
so good you could almost smell the madeleines. And there
it was, the cake of my dreams, Chocolate Fantasia, three
layers of chocolate caramel mousse cake. A dramatic
dessert can redeem many a main-course sin, so I went
for it. But Lambert quickly replied that a three-tiered
cake was too dicey to ship. Then send the layers separately,
I said. Some assembly required? No problem. Then came
word that this was actually a wedding cake. Hey, pal,
no problem. I'll have someone get married. One of these
government officials will preside—captain of the ship,
quick ceremony, that type of thing. Just send the cake.
No go. I settled for two
separate cakes with raspberry sauce on top. In a marvel
of packaging, considering their delicacy, they arrived
intact. Just to amortize the FedEx charges, I threw
in a couple of tomato tarts. Major cost lesson: it's
not the food, it's the shipping that kills you.
There is no grocery website
that delivers to my ZIP code, so fresh vegetables are
hard to come by—thank goodness. I find the very sight
of raw broccoli and cauliflower on a buffet table dispiriting.
I don't go to parties looking to balance my diet with
the four major food groups or to consume the recommended
daily allowance of fiber. For my own evening party,
I hit Cajun Joey's Specialty Foods (cajun-joeys.com),
where sugar is the fifth major food group. Joey hasn't
met a vegetable that can't be mashed, pureed, or creamed.
The carrots, corn, spinach and artichokes looked great
and ended up tasting like candy. I was thrilled.
I can't tell exactly just
when the task of looking for food on the Web finally
began to overwhelm me. It might have been when I found
out that because of the law in Washington, the wine
would take at least ten days for delivery. But wait...fast
delivery was possible to West Virginia. The political
columnist in me wanted to know why: the power of Senator
Robert Byrd? Some anomaly in the jurisdiction of the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms? But the Martha
Stewart12 in me just wanted the wine. A round
trip to West Virginia would take more time than I had
left, yet I needed case of Merlot to ensure that my
guests were less than keenly sensitive to the cellophane
and cardboard from which their meal had so recently
been liberated. I needed a way around the Rules. What
if I could find a local store with a website but faxed
the order? My seven years covering the Clintons were
coming in handy. How do I get a case of wine to my doorstep
by Saturday? Don't ask, don't tell.
The trouble didn't necessarily
end with delivery. When I sampled the beef Wellington,
although remarkably juicy and delicious, I realized
it wasn't going to slice cleanly into pieces suitable
for lap dining (fearful everyone would be busy during
Washington's party-gridlock season, I had let the guest
list swell to a crowd of 30). I was worried enough to
e-mail my editors in New York City: How about a back-up
ham, that mainstay of Irish funerals? "Boring,"
they replied.
But not as boring as going
hungry. Dinner by committee was my worst idea yet. Through
Jeeves, I reached the Smithfield Collection (smithfield-companies.com/collection),
and despite the pretentious name for a company that
slaughters pigs, I got delivery of a crusty, honey-soaked
ham in an ice chest left under the porch, per my instructions,
in one day's time.
At this point, I realized
I needed a real-life Jeeves. Who better to serve food
with pride sufficient to obscure its Internet origin?
Ironically, my virtual Jeeves couldn't produce a human
one. I located a domestic agency in Beverly Hills13
on my own, but its best price for a footman in
a morning coat was $500, minimum. In a panic, I had
our bureau administrator, Judith Stoler, call the caterer
she uses for TIME functions, which, by the way, has
an online site. A waiter would come on Sunday night.
Was this breaking the rules? Let's just say there's
no controlling legal authority.
There are many outlets
for flowers, but it is hard to get just what you want—pale
peach, but please, no pink—if your screen, like mine,
bleaches the colors. The good news is that the roses
I ordered arrived fresh and on time. The bad news is
their color roughly matched that of the ham.
On Saturday, calling frantically
for items that hadn't arrived, I lived out the sorry
fact of modern life that at any given moment, 1 in 5
Americans is on hold for the next available customer
representative with the added indignity, around the
holidays, of having to endure endless rounds of Jingle
Bell Rock. Not to single out Williams-Sonoma—because
it happens just about everywhere—but when you get your
stuff depends on what a company's definition of "submit
now" is. You submit, they process, and depending
on the distributor, or the manufacturer, the popularity
of your item, or who's out with the flu that day, you
will get it overnight—or in a week. The polite "associate"
at Williams-Sonoma sent me an apron and refunded my
shipping costs. I guess there's such a thing as a free
apron.
Since the tablecloth would
come too late for the party, I sponge-ironed the creases
out of my old one until it almost fit. The foie gras,
sourdough and olive Pugliese breads from San Francisco
did not arrive until Tuesday. I became a culinary Luddite14,
baking two dozen rolls. On the day of the dinner, the
waiter called in sick at 4 p.m. Well , that's why God
made daughters—and editors visiting from Manhattan who
know their way around a corkscrew.
Dinner and a good time
were had by all, confirming my belief that people go
to restaurants for good food and to friends' houses
for good company. There were lots of leftovers. And
the ham was the size of an aircraft carrier. The morning
after, I staggered to my desk and clicked my way to
D.C. Central Kitchen (dccentralkitchen.org),
which recycles food to homeless shelters. A team came
right away and wiped out all traces of My Cyberdinner.
My effort cost more than
$2 000. That's not exactly a value meal. But when I
read that during the week I was dining ? la Web, Internet
users spent more than double what had been spent the
preceding week, I felt pleased that in this little piece
of Web history I had played a part. Next time I have
people over, I'm likely to revert to my old ways. I
could have crawled to Safeway and back in the time it
took to make an Internet dinner. But it was nice meeting
Jeeves, even though he didn't work out in the end.
All in all, a virtual success.
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课文二
晚餐@玛格丽特家
玛格丽特·卡里森
这是一项多么怡人的任务：在华盛顿的家中邀请12位宾客共进晚餐，我想要点什么菜就是什么菜，雇人招待和最后的打扫，整个盛宴的开销由公司支付。我都可以听到香槟酒瓶塞开时的“嘭嘭”声。
当然有一些困难。所有东西都必须来自因特网，而不是商店，而且我还得把整个情况记录下来。世上没有免费的午餐。
我立刻发了一封电子邮件，邀请我们当地的因特网风云人物——美国在线的首席执政官史蒂夫·凯斯。电话里传来了回音：我们是否介意传真相关情况？
当然不，但是如果“你有邮件先生”倒退回旧技术，那么电子商务真的可能那么容易吗？凯斯已上了我的客船，还有《时代》杂志的年度人物吸引我的客人，然后我遵循着“挪亚方舟”理论决定还邀请谁：两位国会议员、两位教师、两位蜡扦商。我告诫每个人，他们将会沦为《时代》的实验对象。
宴会定在星期日晚上，计划给我自己留一周的时间采购。一切都得在网上进行，必要的时候可求助对方付费的800电话。在介于地道的异国风味（如鳄鱼肉）和实在的家常菜肴（如火腿）之间，我要走中庸之道。拿不准主意的时候，加利福尼亚州的卖主总是首选，猜想硅谷的那些家伙一定能想出办法把火鸡塞进“猫”里传过来。
急事先办：我需要一个新的盐罐，还有一块确实合适的桌布。这两样我都从威廉斯-索纳玛网站（williams-sonoma.com）订购。就在这儿我第一次感受到了死屏带来的愤怒，这样的风险在许多网站都会碰到。当你几乎把所剩的最后一丁点儿个人数据（除了你鞋子的号码和学业能力测试成绩以外）都填好后，屏幕便凝固不动了。可别认为因特网先生会为你存储所有的一切（如果上帝是位女性，那么互联网就是个男性，少言寡语、漠不关心、注意力集中的时间短）。你不得不重新再来一遍。一遍又一遍。
相对而言，订购美味咖啡则得来全不费工夫。我直接登录科恩威尔咖啡的网站（cornwellcoffee.com）前往柯纳（Kona）咖啡的产地——位于夏威夷的一个种植庄园，以及蓝山咖啡（bluemountaincoffee.com）的网站求购牙买加产的蓝山牌咖啡豆。与此同时我对咖啡已经厌倦了。在绝大多数网站，登录上去要比退出来容易得多，因为网站管理员总想填满所有空间，而网络空间是无穷无尽的。你知道不知道夏威夷上午阳光明媚、下午多云，还有黑色的火山灰土壤，这样柯纳咖啡豆长势最好？我也不知道。但是在三次聚会中，我都提出了这个问题。我已经蜕变成了一个我过去一直想避免变成的那种人。
想到休假期，我打算找只鹅作为真正的大餐。在域名为鹅（goose.com）的网站，我发现得弄只来复枪才能达到目的——这是家户外商店。就在此时我爱上了吉维斯（Jeeves）。他是一部小说中的英国男管家，帮伯蒂·伍斯特穿裤子，一次穿一条腿。在网络空间，他化身成一部诚心乐意的搜索引擎，在咨询吉维斯（ask.com）站点中查询所有其它的站点。就像在生活中一样，你需要一个可以为你提供一切咨询的朋友：什么是爱情？摩纳哥的国内生产总值是多少？在哪里我可以买到一只鹅？容易心烦意乱的人也许会选择去其它的网站，因为在咨询吉维斯站点中没有直达航班（注：指链接）。充满奇思妙想的吉维斯提供了一个叫母鹅（Mother
Goose）的站点，你还有机会听到鹅叫声（就从你的手提电脑中发出一种带有鼻音的雁叫声），并附有一份菜谱（去除零星的新生鹅毛。将皮弄松，把橘子皮和芹菜叶搁在皮下。扎紧）。这样的鹅足够我享用的了。
知识广博的吉维斯给我提供了一个关于鹅肝的网站，使我链接到法式鹅肝，最终把我带到了法国美食传统（gourmet-tradition.com）这一站点。这家巴黎的食品杂货商正有我所想要的东西。珍－马克唐斯（Jean-Marc
Donce 注：店名）可以把法式鹅肝准时送到，如果我人在巴黎的分社。在这个网站上，一家位于斯特拉斯堡的熟食店贴出了这样一条坏消息：“此时无法送货，美国农业部未给我们答复。”有意思，这正是我和政府机构打交道时会遇到的问题。
我又点击了几下鼠标，在美食（Greatfood.com）网站中找到了相同的鹅肝酱，我订了一份，同时还有芥末和奶酪。这个豪华网站的视觉效果像是好莱坞的影棚。在网上，你无法触摸、嗅闻或挤捏商品，所以图片无论进行了怎样的处理，是很重要的。就在该网站我碰到了一份诱惑：点点鼠标，就能得到为24位客人安排的晚宴。但是肉要40美元一磅，还有……。这也许弄错了吧。
美妙饮食有一个链接前往奥马哈牛排（omahasteak.com），我看过其广告，但从来没尝试过。那里有一幅极佳的图片
—— 一种非常适合节日盛典用的惠灵顿牛排，还额外赠送六块四盎司重的里脊牛排。也许还真有免费午餐这回事。
我登录名实相符的葡萄酒网站（wine.com
能得到这个域名真是福气），前往纳帕谷（Napa Valley）。证实已年满21周岁后，我订购了葡萄酒，品质比我以前请客用的都要好。既然到了加利福尼亚，我就又访问了兰伯特法式糕点（patisserielambert.com），我曾在那里用过餐，是在真实时光里——我的意思是在现实生活中。这是一家小店，网络技术非常杰出，视觉效果如此出色以至于你几乎都可以闻到玛德琳蛋糕的香气。那就是它，我日思梦想的蛋糕——巧克力幻想（Chocolate
Fantasia），一个三层巧克力焦糖奶油蛋糕。一份美妙的甜点可以赎救主菜造成的多处罪孽，所以我就订下了。但是兰伯特立即回复说，三层蛋糕运起来很困难，无法送货。那么就将它分开送，我回答道。需要安装吗？没关系。然后他们回答说这实际上是个婚庆蛋糕。嘿！老弟，没关系。我会让某人结婚的。其中的一位政府官员会主持婚典——一位船长，简短的仪式，就是那老套玩意儿。把蛋糕送到就行。
还脱不了身。我最后定下来要两个分开运送的、顶部浇上树莓酱的蛋糕。它们完好无损地送到了，其包装真是不可思议，要知道到它们很娇嫩。为了分期付联邦快递公司（FedEx）的费用，我又订购了两个番茄馅饼。费用上的主要教训：宰你的不是食物，而是运费。
没有网上蔬菜商可以送货到我的邮区，这样就搞不到新鲜的蔬菜——谢天谢地！看到冷餐桌上那些生的花椰菜和花菜我就倒胃口。我去参加聚会可不是为了用四类主要食物来平衡我的饮食，或者去消耗推荐的每天一定数量的纤维素。为了准备我自己的晚宴，我点击了凯金-乔伊网站（cajun-joeys.com）中的特色食品一栏，这里糖成了第五类主要食物。乔伊还从没碰到过一种他们不能将它捣碎、剁烂再加奶油的蔬菜呢。胡萝卜、玉米、菠菜和洋蓟看起来都棒极了，但最后吃起来都像糖果。这使我兴奋极了。
我无法准确回忆，从什么时候起在网上寻找食物成了我无法抗拒的事情。也许就是从那时起：我发现由于华盛顿的法律，葡萄酒至少需要十天才能送到。不过等等……快递可以到达西弗吉尼亚。作为政治专栏的撰稿人，我骨子里要求自己找出其中的原因：是参议员罗伯特·伯德的力量？还是烟酒和火器管理局的管辖例外？但是体内的主妇形象对我说，只管葡萄酒的事就行了。我所剩下的时间，来不及去西弗吉尼亚打个来回，但我真的需要一箱墨尔乐（Merlot）葡萄酒，以保证我的宾客们不会对玻璃纸或纸板条太敏感介意——他们的晚餐就刚从里面拿出来。我得想个法子规避法则。找一家有网址的当地商店，将我的订单传真过去怎么样？七年来我采访克林顿夫妇的经验派上了用处。我是怎样使一箱葡萄酒在星期六运到我的家门口的？你别问，我也不会说。
送货问题的解决不一定意味着麻烦的结束。当我试尝惠灵顿牛肉时，我意识到它虽然极其汁多味美，但很难将它利落地切成适合一口一片的牛肉片。（我害怕在华盛顿聚会大碰车的日子里，每个人都忙得抽不开身，所以我把宾客名单已扩充至30人）我有点儿担心，便发了封电子邮件给纽约的编辑们：再来一个火腿备用怎么样，就是那种在爱尔兰葬礼上的主打食物？他们回答说：“没劲。”
但再没劲也比饿肚子强。和委员会一起进餐是最糟糕的主意。通过吉维斯，我登上了史密斯菲尔德藏品站点（Smithfield-companies.com/
collection ）。虽然这个域名对一个生猪屠宰场来说有些自吹自擂，但是我还是订到了一个用蜂蜜浸制风干的火腿，并遵从我的指示，装在冰箱里在一天内送到门口。
在这个时候，我意识到我需要一个活生生的吉维斯。谁能够仪态大方地招待我的宾客，光彩照人，掩饰其网络出生的身份？具有讽刺意味的是，我的那位虚拟吉维斯先生无法提供这样一位真人。我自己找了一家位于贝弗利山上的家政公司，但是一位身穿晨燕尾服的男仆最低开价要$500。惶恐之下，我让办事处的管理人员朱迪斯·斯多勒打电话给为《时代》承办酒宴的服务商，对了，它也有一个网站。将有一位男招待星期天晚上到。这是不是破坏了规矩？就让我们说没有能够控制一切的法权
。
有许多鲜花销售点，但是很难搞到你真正想要的东西——淡淡的桃红色，但不是粉红色——如果你的显示屏和我的一样，会使颜色显得更白一些的话。好消息就是我订的玫瑰及时送到了，而且鲜艳。坏消息就是它们的颜色和火腿差不离。
星期六，我发了疯似地打电话，催那些还没送到的货物，我体验到了每时每刻发生在现代社会中的一个令人遗憾的事实：节日期间，在接通下一个顾客代表处之前，每五个美国人中就有一个会遇到占线，于是不得不灰溜溜地一遍遍忍受反复播出的摇滚版的“铃儿响叮铛”。别把威廉斯-索纳玛（Williams-Sonoma）挑出来当靶子，因为任何地方都有这样的事情发生。你什么时候拿到货取决于该公司对于“立即提交”的定义是什么。你提交订单，他们要加工，这得取决于分销商或生产商、你选要的东西的畅销程度、或者那天谁患了流感缺班了——你可能过一个晚上就能收到货，或者要一个星期。威廉斯-索纳玛的合作商颇有礼貌，送了我一条围裙，并退还了送货费用。看来免费的围裙还是有的。
因为桌布到迟了会赶不上聚会，所以我就把旧的洗净、熨平，凑合着一用。订自旧金山的法国鹅肝、酵头和普里耶舍橄榄面包直到周二才送到。我于是成了一个厨房里的勒德分子，烘制了两打面包卷。晚宴举行那天，那位男招待下午四点打电话来说病了。喔，这就是为何上帝要制造女儿的原因吧！从曼哈顿来访的编辑们完全知道如何对付开瓶用的螺丝起子。
大家享用了晚餐，度过了一段美好时光，这证实了我的信念，人们去餐馆是为了好吃的，去朋友家则是为了温馨的友情。留下了一堆剩菜，火腿的大小像一艘航空母舰。第二天早上，我晃晃悠悠地来到桌旁，点击登录华盛顿特区的中心厨房网站（dccentralkitchen.org），他们回收食物,分发给无家可归者。马上就来了一队人，把我这顿网络晚餐留下的所有痕迹一扫而光。
努力付出的代价是$2,000。这的确不是顿合算的晚餐。但是当我读到就在我准备网络晚宴的那个星期里，因特网用户的消费总额是前一个星期的两倍多时，我感到欣慰，因为我的网络小故事也在其间扮演了一个角色。不过下次我再请客时，可能会回到老路上。有在因特网上准备晚宴的时间，我都可以在Safeway超市打个来回。但是很高兴能遇见吉维斯，虽然他最终也没能解决问题。
总之，这是一次虚拟的成功。
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