Fruitcake without rum is like taking your sister to the prom.

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Irv Dean
Gazette city editor

Thanks for the feedback. My thinking about what could happen if there were a breach in the dam is based on a New York City Department of Environmental Protection worst-case scenario which says that within 12 hours of the break, low-lying areas along the Mohawk would be inundated -- parts of Scotia, Amsterdam, the GE campus in Schenectady-Rotterdam and the Stockade neighborhood all would be under 6 feet of water.

I loved Asta, even before I had a Jack Russell Terrier of my own. He was a great foil for the sophisticated Charleses. My favorite Asta moment was when he peed on their Christmas tree.

It should have said "gross receipts," and thanks for pointing that out. We've fixed the story online.

Irv Dean
City Editor

John S. Roberts, division manager of Rimkus Consulting Group Inc. in Houston, Texas, sends this comment by email:

An interesting article, although the business about making decaying bodies and feces smell bad is not correct. Methyl mercaptan, a relative of the butyl and amyl mercaptans typically found in most skunks, is a contributor to this odor. It is produced by the decomposition of methionine, a common sulfur containing amino acid. The bulk of the odor and the really horrible portion of the odor from decaying bodies and feces are typically nitrogen compounds. These are cadaverine, putrescine and skatole.

Methyl mercaptan is utilized in the manufacture of methionine, which is then primarily utilized in chicken feed. Other mercaptans are utilized commercially in a wide variety of applications. Each species of skunk produces their own individual blend of mercaptan.

You are correct that oxidation, using hydrogen peroxide, is an effective way to remove the odor of skunks from animals, but your mechanism is incorrect. The baking soda allows the mercaptans to become water soluble (assisted by the detergent), which then allows the hydrogen peroxide to react directly with the mercaptan to form less odorous compounds. The reaction products are then flushed down the drain. Tomato juice is slightly alkaline (basic – like the baking soda) and works by getting the mercaptans to dissolve in water and be flushed from the animal. But it isn’t very effective and the odor of the skunk based mercaptans is quite strong (detectable at very low concentrations), so it isn’t very effective.

We'll all miss him, Sara, as he embarks on his new career in nanotechnology. We're expecting small things from him.

Let me clarify. Farfalle isn't penne. You're right, farfalle is like a bowtie or butterfly. They sometimes use farfalle in the recipe and sometimes penne.

Reader Leo Scanlon checks in from the D.C. area:

I have to admit that I'm a little jealous of people with these high-tech gadgets. They poke around and swipe on the screen, and do all kinds of miraculous things. If I poke and swipe on the screen of my old cellphone, all I produce is a smudge ...

"Crapulous" is my new favorite word. And, no, it doesn't mean that.