Brilliant!

I am delighted to report that Holmquist Hazelnuts, grown right here in Whatcom County and sold at our farmers' market, was Number 97 in the Saveur 100 Travel Edition (January/February 2013).

So why am I blipping the back cover of this glossy food and travel magazine I enjoy?

Because the entire back cover is a brilliant ad for the Apple iPad mini, shown full size. The front cover of the magazine is what you're looking at on the little screen, so when you turn the magazine over, you can gasp and say "Look how perfectly the cover is captured on the screen of the iPad mini!" In fact, you can do that several times and still be astonished, each time.

And then you start thinking about how very handy an iPad mini would be in the kitchen, with more recipes available on it than you could ever make in ten lifetimes. And you wouldn't have to download recipes and print them out and then try to remember where you put them.

And then you tear off the back cover of the magazine, cut out the iPad mini, and carry it around the house, seeing how little space it would take up and how nice it looks in every room.

And then you see how easily an iPad mini would fit in the functional bag you usually carry, along with your compact camera, wallet, and other necessities, as well as in your "proper" black handbag for those rare occasions when you wear something other than jeans.

And then you think about what a pain it is to have to find used paperback books with tiny print so you don't run out of things to read when you're on a trip, and how you would have endless choices of books to read on the iPad mini.

And you also consider that friends and family would be a lot more excited about looking at your photos an the 7.9 inch/200 mm (diagonal) LED than on your camera's 3 inch/76 mm LED.

And how you could blip every day when you travel, without having to carry your heavy old laptop.

I think a visit to our local Apple store would make a good blip.