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Light On Light Through


You'll hear a little of this and lot of that on Light On Light Through - my reviews of great television series and movies, my interviews with authors and creative media people and their interviews of me, my media theory and political commentary, thoughts about my favorite cars and food and space travel, discussions of my music, and a few of my readings from my science fiction stories. In the first years, starting in 2006, I put up a new episode at least once a month.  More recently, it became more or less often than once a month, usually less often.  But in the Summer of 2020, I began getting more in the mood to podcast, and on 17 October 2023, I began publishing a new episode of the podcast every Tuesday at 12:01 pm -- a minute after Noon (New York time).  - Paul Levinson 

24 October 2021: Interview about Light On Light Through podcast

26 December 2023: Chuck Todd interviews Paul Levinson about Alternate Realities on The Chuck Toddcast  

A Umami Tomato...

Sep 3, 2007


Well, my wife and I just had our first tomatoes from that straggly plant that I told you about last week.  It's a "Better Boy" variety, and I have been hovering near it and taking care of it like a baby boy since we brought it home, or the verge of extinction at the end of August.  It's lost almost all of its original leaves, but has put out lots of new ones, along with a bunch of little yellow flowers, and (so far) one new tomato.

But we bought it - for just seven dollars, by the way - with a whole lot of tomatoes on the plant.  And today we ate the first three, beautifully ripened and ...

Delicious!  With that great umami taste!

Haven't heard about umami?  It was identified in Japan a decade or two ago as the fifth taste our tongues react to - along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.  The umami taste is rich, deep, musky - well, if you've ever had a good tomato, that's what you're tasting.  Some meat and fish have this taste, too...  (And it's also the taste that monosodium glutamate (MSG) brings to food.)

I'll keep you posted on how many more great tomatoes we get from this plant that I rescued from oblivion....