[noodles forever]

DKNY alerted me to the passing of Momofuku Ando, the inventor of ramen noodles and the founder of Nissin.

I learned about ramen from Lorie. She and I survived my sixteenth summer on a diet of ramen, Pop Tarts, Gatorade, Diet Pepsi, sex, cribbage and Mr. Bungle tapes. Lorie's technique was to pound the dry noodles to break them up while still in the package, and I follow it to this day.

In this time of sickness and uncertain stomachs in the Ross-Tavis household, we are grateful for the gorgeous simplicity of Mr. Ando's invention: easy to make, easy to digest, always on hand and always cheap. The New York Times has a lovely appreciation of Mr. Ando, to which I would add that ramen, like Mother Teresa, has given solace to the wretched of the earth.