David, o obtuse one, I am not talking about "open travel," which, incidentally, I also favor.

I am talking about people who live right here where I live, in the city in which I live, in the neighborhood in which I live, and in the apartment building in which I live.

You say you favor getting your daily nutrition from that traditional English dish, pottage. Okay.

Hey, waitaminute—

Traditional English dish? Wasn't pottage mentioned in the Bible? I believe Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a "mess of pottage" (Genesis 25:29-34). Which means that pottage has been around for many centuries, if not a millennium or two, before England even existed. And that would make it a Middle Eastern dish, not traditional English. Capiche?

But I digress. . . .

Pottage. The dictionary tells me that this is "A thick soup or stew of vegetables and sometimes meat." Stews and such dishes are usually made with a variety of vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, often whatever vegetables happen to be at hand. Stews are usually characterized by meat (beef, mutton, chicken, seafood such as oysters if available) as one of the ingredients, whereas pottage tends to emphasize the vegetables while sometimes including meat.

Okay, David. Let me draw you a parallel:   You say your choice, to stay true to your "good English culture," is to subsist on pottage. I don't know what recipe you use, but let me suggest one to you. In fact, since your website and your choice of songs seem to indicate that you have a religious bent, let's make it Biblical:

Regarding the pottage mentioned in the exchange between Esau and Jacob, the Bible tells us it was composed of lentils. Let us ignore for now that lentils did not originate in England, and make your pottage of lentils. Let us not corrupt it or compromise its purity with potatoes (which, after all, came to England from the New World, along with tomatoes and a number of other foods which you may enjoy), carrots, onions, or anything else. Lentils.

You will spend the rest of your live subsisting on lentil soup.

Lentil soup for breakfast. Lentil soup for lunch. Lentil soup at tea-time (this is England, after all). And lentil soup for supper.

That, David, is the mono-culture you favor.

You can, of course, take a break from lentils and go to a nearby restaurant or pub and partake of other provender—analogous to the "open travel" and sampling other cultures that you advocate—that is, when and if you can afford to.

But—when you can't afford to, it's back to the lentil soup.

Think about it!

Don Firth