Page Two

When Lisa Tozzi talks about her vacations, she offers a list of which major-league teams she saw at what stadiums ("We saw Chicago and the Dodgers in L.A.," etc.). She denies this obsession. Instead, she claims that having overheard her a couple of times discussing her vacation in this manner, I have exaggerated her casual conversation into a character trait. Despite this denial, Tozzi does chart her travel by baseball.

We were thus interested when she pitched the idea of a sports summer feature section at an editorial meeting. The staff was brainstorming over possible special issues we could offer during the summer. Everyone liked this idea. Interestingly, Features editor Kate X Messer spearheaded the last sports issue.

Tozzi ran the show on this one. The Chronicle writing staff had a lot of fun with the assignments, with any number of them ending up contributing. Enjoy the results.

Last week I discussed our difficulty in naming the new column in the Cuisines section. "Automat" is the title we settled on, though I'm not swearing as to whether or not it is going to last. Each week, under the leadership of Food editor Virginia Wood, we will offer a collection of very short restaurant reviews. Some will be based on reviews we've previously run, and some will be new. The long-term ambition is to be able to offer a complete, annotated guide to Austin restaurants.

The name was suggested by Robert Faires and accepted, at the 11th hour, after dozens of names had been rejected, by art director Taylor Holland. We are open to reader suggestions and comments on this burning issue.

Lots and lots of letters this time, so we'll bow out early.