My, the times they are a changing. Way, way back when in Mike Anderson’s kitchen on Lee Drive there would be daily boombox wars between the fry guys and the oven men. Fry tended to be heavy metal or hard rock. The oven crew for some reason were exclusively punk. Go figure. Some mysteries just cannot be explained. Back then there were no earbuds or noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones just boomboxes like the one pictured, only crusted with grease and grime. Max volume. Enough to drive Michael Ryan crazy stuck in between working the expeditor table. Point being, music was essential to the kitchen then, and it’s essential in my kitchen now. Amazon Echos and Echo Dots let you seed your whole place with music and the app has advanced to where you can play the same thing everywhere in your house without being a millionaire that had a synchronized sound system built into the place when you first raised the walls. And I’m pretty sure you can listen to any station you want online for pennies a day. My favorite is Handcrafted Radio which used to be called Okemos Brewing Radio. They are very good at finding obscure and wonderful live versions of classic rock tunes. While I’ve been writing this I’ve heard Traffic, Creedence, and the Moody Blues. Heard an excellent Frampton tune this morning. Not sure I can really separate cooking and music. I know I don’t want to. Doobie Brothers playing now. China Grove. Rice is almost ready. Time to get up and make gravy.