At the tail end of a story on the S.E.C. case against "Heaven & Earth" guru Morton, The New York Times reports: "[A]s part of a 2009 lawsuit aimed at halting an S.E.C. investigation, the Mortons argued that they were the targets of 'two (or more) dishonest and incompetent S.E.C. employees, who apparently need to justify a trip to California in order to visit Disneyland and
.'"
That struck a chord with Donna Beth Joy Shapiro, the Baltimore cheese- and hat-maker and owner the late Old Waverly History Exchange & Tea Room.
Just last month, she planned a trip to California. Her stated reason: visiting creameries, working in a bakery and taking a three-day millinery workshop. The real reason: scratching her In-N-Out itch.
Shapiro had a taste on a trip a earlier this winter and had been dreaming about the burger ever since. It made her a "prisoner of In-N-Out lust."
This from a woman who rarely eats beef, and never eats fast-food burgers.
"My diet is seriously 98, 99 percent vegetarian," Shapiro said. "But for this thing -- I don't know what they did to it. I tried to eat it slowly, like when you investigate a new cheese."
But it was gone in no time.
Shapiro, forced by twin blizzards and sickness to cancel her return trip, will cling to a memento until she can book another flight.
"I kept the In-N-Out bag," she said. "I sniff it every once in a while."
Los Angeles Times photo