Reportedly fed up with the posturings of Iran's oil minister and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Saudia Arabia has walked out of OPEC meetings and declared that it will increase production in order to meet the world's demands, instead of the world having to meet the demands of OPEC.  Aside from Iran and Venezuela, OPEC had intended to keep production low during the northern hemisphere's winter months, increasing oil's prices, and Russia wanted to use a lower oil supply to "punish" the U.S. and E.U.  Saudi Arabia's decision may also have been influenced by competition from a new oil player, Brazil, which recently discovered what may be the world's largest oil fields in its territory.

http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2008/09/11/the-death-of-opec.aspx?GT1=33009

Ting Top preserved periwinkles, a product of China.  Purchased at A Dong Supermarket in West Hartford, CT.

"INGREDIENTS: PERIWINKLE, COOKLING WINE, SUGAR, SALT, BLACK PEPPER, PICKLED SAUCE"
"CONTENT OF SOLID THINGS: NO LESS THAN 44%"
"KEEP REFRIGERATED IS BETTER: AT 3-5º C"

I like clams and scallops and escargot, and I think I've had mussels and liked them, so I figured periwinkles shouldn't give me too much trouble, even kept in "cookling wine" and "pickled sauce".  (I don't like oysters, though.  As Rosanne Rosannadanna said, it's like chewing on a phlegm ball.)  But when I opened them, the smell did give me trouble and I decided not to tempt fate, and threw them away.  They smelled like they'd been left out too long, sort of like bad sourdough starter.  Maybe they had been, because I found them on an unrefrigerated shelf.  Maybe that's how they should smell, if it's from the unidentified pickled sauce, but I'm not going to test with others.

Forum sells 'Obama Waffles' with racial stereotype