Help a sister out...

...specifically my sister, the photographer Beth Rooney, who is competing in a contest called "Name Your Dream Assignment" and whose project, "Endangered Feasts," is here, just waiting for your votes. "If the pleasure of discovering a dish that can 'only be found' in one region of the world becomes something of the past, we will deprive future generations of many delightful flavors and memories found in a healthy and diverse food culture," she says. Damn right. As Kyle and I now have the ethos to say, much of what passes for "food" on the sides of America's highways is just this side of edible. When we stopped at a combination gas station/Arby's in Missouri, for example, shortly after our snow-coated ordeal in Arkansas, I overheard the following conversation while waiting for Kyle to purchase a Klondike Bar:

GAS STATION CLERK: How's your Arby's?

LADY IN A WOLF SWEATSHIRT: I took one bite an' I gave the rest to the cat!

GAS STATION CLERK: Was it rotten?

LADY IN A WOLF SWEATSHIRT: Naw, just nasty. Cat took one bite an' walked away.

We knew there had to be good food out there somewhere--Karen Golightly (who made the heavenly chocolate chip pancake pictured above) told us about a barbecue joint in Osceola that sold fried pickles on a stick--but it just wasn't accessible to us. All the food that was accessible off I-55 seemed uniformly-cheap-but-face-punchingly-bad, and was food we could have had anywhere, regardless of what state we happened to be in. And that is why you should vote for Beth's project: to help her find and photograph food that isn't like that. Also, she did my author photograph and I paid her zero dollars for that, but if she wins this prize, she will get $50,000.