> Robin Garr's Wine Lover's Page: hands-down, the finest wine-related site on the web.

> Edmunds St. John and Unti Vineyards: two producers you probably haven't tried, and should.

> Allen Meadows's Burghound: well worth the subscription.

> Other wine-related destinations: Peter Ruhrberg's German Wine Pages; Jamie Goode's Wine Anorak; the website of the Gang of Pour; Sue Courtney's New Zealand wine website; the home page of British wine critic Jancis Robinson [MW, OBE]; and the news section of Decanter magazine.

> My outdated guide to used and new bookshops. Web and bricks-and-mortar (Cambridge, MA; SF Bay Area; Chicago).

> Bookfinder.com: indispensable meta-search engine.

> Robin Garr (yes, him again) also runs a Food Lovers' Discussion Group: good recipes, good people.

>The Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch site.

> The CMC Company: for certain hard-to-find ingredients.

> The only blog I visit with any regularity is Chris Brooke's Virtual Stoa, which commemorates Dead Socialists, celebrates the splendid, condemns rubbish, and exposes nonsense.

> The All Music Guide website is a useful compendium of discographies and reviews across all genres of music.

> Forced Exposure and the Jazz Record Mart: good places to buy things you can't find at Virgin... and things you can.

> Get lost in the Silva Rhetoricae.

> Read the fine newspaper columns of Jon Carroll.

> Perhaps best of all, shut down your browser and go outside.