Jo M

My dog's favorite toy is a plush grunter that looks like a potato/dog. We call it his "tater head." It's tan, about 6 inches tall, egg-shaped, has two floppy ears, 4 legs (maybe a tail, too) and sewn-on facial features. It's his favorite and I'm on the last of the three I bought at once several years ago. It's a durable toy and it takes him a long time to destroy one (most toys he can dissect within an hour). I don't remember where I got it, but I haven't seen it at the big chain stores or many different online stores. I've searched different combinations of the words plush, toy, grunt, tater, potato, and dog.

Twenty some-odd years ago we often visited a Middle Eastern restaurant in St. Louis. They served a light custardy fruit concoction that the waiter called "Ogg-nee".

He didn't know what its English name was, how to spell it or even how to make it--and the cook and other staff knew even less English.

Despite looking for years, I've not run across anything like it in another restaurant, cookbook or Web site. It was awfully good, though.

Anyone have any idea what it could be?

What is the author's name and title of a sci fi short story with the synopsis:

A future Earth has people becoming so dumb that the few smart people left can fool them into boarding rockets to a non-existent paradise in space.