While I could throw everyone a curve and explain something I learned in statistics, I won't.

I've taken quite an interest in the Chef Jeff Project, on Food Network. I think it's quite admirable to see an entrepreneur to put his company at risk to aid some unfortunates, and also inspiring for half a dozen Gen-Y'ers to buck the cycle they've known only, and aspire to something greater, something outside their environs.

Of course, I volunteer this with a caveat: I know nothing of growing up in the hood, nor of gang influence or crystal methamphetamine. I thank God most every day for the loving home where I grew up (even if Dad was home only half the time), and the relative well-to-do of my parents that we were suburbanites.

While working as a consultant for the Sewerage department post-Katrina has sent me to some very rough neighborhoods on the West Bank (foremost being Lincolnshire), I confess that I've only seen the houses. It wasn't until I started at the parish building proper (in the office of Capital Projects, still a consultant), that I got to get a peek into the mindset behind the seeming dilapidation. (Thank you, Zakita.)

No, I'm not going to classify a group of people as a social experiment: that's ascetic, cold, and marginally (though not intentionally) racist. But, I am still an interested onlooker, and I thank this Food Network program for the peek inside.

As far as the premise itself, good things happen when people take it upon themselves to pull themselves out of a destructive cycle in which they find themselves. This is the American spirit embodied, and I hope to see much more of it going forward.

And in news also related to the title at hand, my boss at the parish (the one my boss answers to) is quitting smoking after ~30 years. Friday was one week without a cigarette. My hat's off to you, Reda.

-KIE