And remember - you heard about it from the La Choy Dragon.

This is probably hard to believe, especially for you, Matt, as you're so often nestled beside me on the couch reading while I talk back to reruns of Teen Mom, Google pictures of sphynx cats in sweaters and interrupt your deep literary thoughts with questions about rashes and weather forecasts. It may be hard to believe, but I used to read like a fiend. By the weak glow of my headboard's clip-on light, in the middle of math class, anywhere and anytime I had a free second to explore the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler or track the whereabouts of The Talented Mr. Ripley, I was reading. But these days, distracted by life's distractions and no longer dependent on public transportation (you read a lot faster when the guy next to you is trying to sell you a seat on his space ship), my reading habits have slowed to a snail's pace. The backlog of novels and short story collections waiting to be read is older than a teen mom and spreading faster than this rash... but I'm making a dent. Currently on the docket: "Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street" by Michael Davis. And it's really good. I keep pausing to look up the old commercials Jim Henson used as the small-screen debut for some of the earliest Muppets.

This one is a 1965 spot for La Choy's line of Americanized Chinese food.

"For the campaign, Henson designed a lumbering, life-size dragon fully capable of locomotion. Counting the chef's hat that he wore as a crown, the La Choy dragon stood considerably taller than the actors hired to play against him. Operating from within the dragon, Frank Oz could swagger, flail its arms, shake its head, crane its neck, and, with assistance of an aide with a blow torch, breathe fire."

(Lauren, I know we used to eye this book with longing and envy when it was perched in the window at Unabridged. I'll send it to you when I'm finished.)