“The chain letter is the cockroach of communication, an unwanted visitor that interrupts our routine with a strange voodoo incantation, promising luck and threatening misfortune. But for some reason, we pass this parasite on to the future, happy to see it go, little thinking that we are really only mailing it back to ourselves.”

– John Burkhardt, The Great Chain of Letters

Buenos Aires – A month ago, I decided to launch a meme, a more or less internet chain letter that consists of a series of questions to be answered as the news ripples outward. I’m sure that I will lose track of where it goes, and probably already have, but thought I’d give a sense of where it’s gone that I know about:

I tagged four blogs/five people, of whom, only one chose to participate. A pox upon the others. May their hollandaise curdle and their mayonnaise separate.

Aki over at Ideas in Food, one of the two chefs at Keyah Grande in Colorado, extolled the virtues of lobster, fried eggplant, and Jeff Smith. She tagged four folk, of whom two responded:

Tana at I Heart Farms, in California, who waxed poetic about garlic and other adventures, over two posts, and tagged on to five others, two of whom chose to continue the meme…

Michael, who is guest blogging at Megnut, dropped the meme, but partially answered the questions with a discourse on pork sauce.

Ilva at Lucullian Delights, a “Swede living in Tuscany”, who is drawing out the process with separate posts on each question, beginning with flour as her muse. She in turn tagged five more, of whom, one answered…

Sean at Hedonia, out of San Francisco, who is also going the multiple post approach, with notes on Basil and The French Laundry. Sean continued the chain on to five folk (one of whom had been tagged already back by Aki), but only one joined in:

Garrett at Vanilla Garlic, out of Sacramento, who loves cranberries, flank steak, his mom and grandmom. He pushed the envelope to six folk, upping the ante, and two jumped in:

Liz at Good Stuff in Bethesda, Maryland, who pimped for butter, mom’s spaghetti, and Mario Batali. She tagged four, none of whom have responded as of yet.

Joy at Confessions of a Restaurant Whore back in San Fran, goes for kosher salt, grape pizza, and declining to tag anyone.

Back to Aki, my one responding tagee, and her second respondee:

Haddock at Knife’s Edge who responds with venison, chicken paprikash and his Table Service instructor. No tags, but an invite for anyone out there to participate.

So the meme has moved slowly, and most of the branches have died out unless someone jumps in on their own… we shall see. There have also been a few folk who joined in on their own without being tagged, who might rekindle the movement. Some other folks have also participated just by commenting on the above blogs.

Raspil at Bluecad, The Noisy Kitchen, who’s leaving Austin for Las Vegas, plugs for eggs, osso buco, Mother’s Day, and a trio of cookbooks. No tags.

Charles at The Land of Wolves, who says Aki tagged him, perhaps she did it in an e-mail off the posting, goes for Hops, Chicken Biryani, and Alton Brown. No tags.

Barbara at Tigers & Strawberries gives homage to garlic, herbs, Julia Child, her two grandmothers, and her husband. She says she was tagged by Tana from I Heart Farms, I assume that was via e-mail rather than the posting as well. She chose not to continue the chain.