"Balsamic'' puzzled me until I remembered that I had asked the lady of the house to look at a food feature someone was pitching to the paper. The lady of the house would give Rachael Ray, the Barefoot Contessa, and Emeril a run for their money on an Iron Chef showdown. She knows her salt.

Sure enough, she picked up a mistake in the feature's offering for mussels, which incorrectly called for a wine when it really meant balsamic something-or-other.

So I told the salesman and scratched "balsamic'' off my list.

"Barbour'' was easier. I sat in on an interview last week with prospective presidential candidate Haley Barbour, governor of Mississippi. Some people say there aren't any great candidates this year, but I find them a most interesting and diverse lot. Heck, they include pizza impresario Herman Cain and Fred Karger, an engaging guy who introduces himself as the first openly gay and Jewish Republican candidate.

Barbour answered questions without a lot of blather, strange for a politician these days.

"Birthers'' baffled me at first. I know the term, which labels those who question whether President Obama was in fact born in Hawaii. I figured out the note referred to a wire service piece that addressed the question and provided some solid indication that he was in fact born there. (We ran it last Thursday.) But I think he and the country would be better off if he produced the original birth certificate.

"BoSox'' isn't my favorite term for our beloved Boston Red Sox, as the late sports editor Joe Barnea would put it. But they aren't playing like anyone's favorite team these days, either. And "BoSox'' is easy short hand, when I can read it.

In this case, it was a note to myself to remind the sports desk that, win or lose, we need to make every effort to get the final score into the paper as soon as it is available, which isn't soon enough when the night games run past our first deadline, which they do way too often.

Perhaps the Sox will move faster when grandson Ike is ready to play for them. I saw Ike hit his first single the other evening. It only took the coach about 15 pitches before Ike connected. But Ike was very kind. He only had to tell the pitcher a couple of times where he wanted the ball. Watch out, Yankees, in about 16 years.

Write to Joe McQuaid at publisher@unionleader.com.