The Demon-Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark (Random House, 1995) by Carl Sagan is a book of lightly connected essays over the battle between science and superstition. It's a very beautiful book (love the cover), and by all means it should be required reading in High Schools worldwide (I know I would have devoured it at that age). I highly recommend it even though I couldn't get into it. The book told me far too much about things I already know, and only enlightened me to the fact that I know far too much about some really whacked out stuff.

The book covers everything from alien abductions to hallucinations to 19th century fairies to witch-hunts to Atlantis to channeling to mid-70's crystomancy and pyramid hats. It is a unified field theory for the pseudo-scientific realm, as well as a frank condemnation of it. The Demon-Haunted World is almost an evil twin of (or in this case the good twin of) the infamous 15th century witch-hunter's manual The Malleus Maleficarum, aka The Witch Hammer (with this it must be said that I have not read either of them in their entirety, but I have read enough of each to feel confident in writing about both). Both books contain an almost Lolita like infatuation with the enemy, the other side. They contain a near pornographic obsession with the unobtainable, a fetish for something which really wouldn't be of interest if only it weren't so excruciatingly off-limits.

With the Witch's Hammer we have the bullish push of natural human sexuality butting heads with a perverse Christian momentum to stifle individualism and selfish concerns, as well as the resulting dreams of incubi and succubi and sexually-charged witches worshiping demonic powers – the great tragedy of which is that hundreds of thousands of innocent people had to die in vicious and cruel ways because of this. Never do the authors of the Maleficarum come out with their wicked love of the witch, but it is not hard to read around their infatuation with human genitalia.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum we have Sagan's Demon Haunted World. Right off the back he points a vindictive finger at the popularity of Beavis and Butthead, and Dumb and Dumber seeing them as a glorification of idiocy, completely overlooking the intelligent and uproariously funny streams of satire which run beneath the surface of both. He points to and often quotes, with all seriousness, articles from the Weekly World News – over and over and over again. It's hard not to grin uneasily at this, smirking around the idea that Sagan might just be so far off in the pages of the latest Edmund's Scientific Catalog that he does not realize that the Weekly World News is a joke, and quite possibly one of the best jokes to be found in the check-out aisle. If one goes looking for fountains of stupidity to burn at the stake, might I recommend everything around the Weekly World News. Look at the Star, the Enquirer, People Magazine, Soap Opera Weekly – look at all the periodicals which feature triple layer chocolate cakes right next to articles about how you can lose ten pounds in a month. Look at all those distractions which use the same never ending stream of mediocrity and banality to eat up time which could be better spent studying the more majestic aspects of reality.

Of course, I could be wrong.

There could be people out there who take the Weekly World News seriously. And to give equal time to The Malleus Maleficarum, there could be Witches out there who have kissed Satan's anus (or at least somebody's sphincter) and now believe themselves to be succubi in his army (and we're not just talking about KISS groupies either). Which is why I believe tolerance to be the greatest of all virtues. Love may make the world go round, but it is tolerance that keeps it from tearing itself apart. I don't mean tolerance as the blind love and the acceptance of the unlikable - that's plain foolishness - I mean tolerance as in standing in the presence of something you don't like and not letting your own revulsion and lack of knowledge push you to do something rash (or bawl over, kicking and screaming like a little girl, or a Fox News pundit).

On the religious side this would be declaring the Bull of 1484 and striking a match to nearly three hundred years of slaughtering innocent people “found” to be witches.

On the scientific side, this is the significantly lesser yet still criminal act of disregarding various aspects of the world simply because they have become the trendy infatuation of the lunatic fringe.

Just because something sounds outlandish does not mean there could not be some aspect about it which rings with with the annals of scientific knowledge. It does exist, doesn't it – even if only in mind – therefore it must carry some weight of importance.

I am happy with The Demon Haunted World. It makes me thrilled beyond belief that it is a product of my age and that The Witches Hammer is fading into the regrettable past (cross your fingers and knock on wood :-). Chapters 7 and 25 should be inscribed in stone and posted outside various courthouses in Alabama. My only complaint is that I live a life which somehow justifies wasting time writing this essay and yet not reading the whole of either book it is based on. Maybe these are the true demons of our age – all the mindless distractions and the misappropriation of time – that is the darkness encroaching on the light of our candles of knowledge. One comforting thought to leave on - although darkness is considerably easier to create than light. The light of knowledge and civilization is what everyone inevitably scrambles for once it seems to be in the least bit threatened.

This is a somewhat healthy variation on the classic Fish Taco. I use scallops, but you can just as easily substitute any form of white fish (and the more tropical the better - I'm looking at you, Mahi Mahi) just be sure to chop it up into boneless half inch chunks. This recipe makes three large tacos. It's easy enough to just juggle the ingredients to make more or less.

In a bowl, mix the olive oil and minced garlic. Add to it the scallops, pineapple, onion, and roasted red bell peppers (these can usually be found in the canned veggies aisle along with pickles and olives - everything else you want as fresh as possible).

Generally you want everything cut into chunks between 1/4 and 1/2 inch in size. You also want to pat them dry with a paper towel before adding them to the oil.

Stir to coat and dump onto a cookie sheet. Spread everything out evenly so nothing is piled up on top of anything else. Sprinkle with the Blackening Seasoning (and as always, be sure to use actual Blackening Seasoning and not some cheap Creole Seasoning - which are more salt than seasoning.)

Place on the top rack of your oven. Turn the broiler to 550 to 600 degrees and toast for 5 to 7 minutes, or however long it takes for the tops of everything on the cookie sheet to brown and get slightly crusty. Once done, turn off the broiler and carefully move cookie tray to a lower rack to wait until needed.

Meanwhile, in clean bowl, mix together everything from Sour Cream to Asian Fish Sauce. Set aside.

On a 12 inch griddle, stack up the tortillas, spraying the top of each with a blast from the olive oil spray can. Toast over medium high heat. As soon as the bottom tortilla has turned a bit brown and crispy (but still flexible!) use tongs to move it to the top of the stack and toast the next in line.

Once the tortillas are done, coat the middle with a bit of the sour cream sauce, top with the toasted scallop mixture and serve!

A simple but elegant dish. It's not exactly heart healthy but close. On a back burner, in a pasta pot, bring the 4 cups of water and 1 Tbsp crab boil to a boil. This is critical - reduce heat to low and wait until the until the surface is simply steaming and not bubbling. Add the chicken breasts and cook for 20 minutes.

Do not cover the pot and check the chicken occassionally to make sure it is not boiling. If the water begins to boil the chicken will harden up and turn as stiff as a board.

Meanwhile, in a tall sided skillet melt the butter. Then add everything from the Olive Oil to the Parmesan Cheese. Be sure to use hard block cheese and not the shaker can kind (which is mostly sawdust). Stir over a low heat until the cheese completely dissolves.

Once the chicken is done cooking (it should be white all the way through), pull out of the pot and set aside to cool. Bring the water it was cooking in back to a rapid boil. Dump Gnocchi in and cook according to its instructions (most of the time the gnocchi takes about 2 minutes to cook and you'll know they're done when they start to float). Strain the gnocchi and put them in the serving bowl.

Pull apart the cooled chicken breasts creating thick yet ragged strips then add to the sauce. Throw in the pepper rings and stir to coat. Pour the sauce over the gnocchi, juice the lime over top of it, salt and pepper to taste, and serve.