It's summertime and it makes me think of camp. Lots of friends' kids are going. My parents sent me to sleep away camp for 8 weeks when I was 6 years old. CAMP WINAUKEE on LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE in NEW HAMPSHIRE. Mom was ok with it because my friends JARRETT and GREG were going too. I loved it. A little homesick at first but it faded. In prison, cigarettes are often currency. At camp, it was candy. I remember when I was 8 years old, my father slipped me some extra cash and said: "tip the counselor and he'll bring you stuff from town." In my case, the currency was the original JOLLY RANCHERS. The long stix. Certain flavors were more valuable than the others. WATERMELON probably the most valuable. I had a pretty good underground economy going at 8. And the counselors got a taste. Maybe they bought beer or pizza. Who knows? If you wanted candy the "legal" way, that came from the canteen. But at our camp, in order to get that candy (CHARLESTON CHEW for me), you had to write a letter to your parents. I was a momma's boy. I wrote long letters about how I was, my friends, what I was doing and what I needed to get sent via packages (RICHIE RICH comics, gummy bears, and MAD LIBS). I loved packages. My love for AMAZON PRIME is directly related to my mother sending me packages at camp. My sister, who went to the girls camp down the road, was lazier and smarter. She would just send an empty envelope home and sure enough, she got her candy. If she did send a letter home it was one of those checklist type stationary which requires that you only signed your name. Nowadays, there is email. I like to keep in touch with my niece or my godchildren at camp. But there's a new development that totally pisses me off. Many of these camps require that you use their proprietary or licensed email system and you need to buy credits for sending and replying. I literally need to pay to be in touch with them. So you pay for your kid to go to camp and they charge you to talk to your kid. Some of those smarter than everyone techies don't like the phrase "you are the product." I can usually take them on in a debate. They have blind spots. Here? Well, I'm sure I have some, but in this case, your kid is the product or bait. Something about this just rubs me the wrong way. It may be generational, but every parent I know that uses these things, it drives them a little nutty. #modernproblemsepisode37... Being stupid and uninformed is fine unless you ruin life for the rest of humanity... Probably #1 on my list of culinary trips... Food on INSTAGRAM is everything... U2 tonight in NYC. Am in need of a good revival... Define yourself by acceptance even if you want to live a life of exclusion. But make all of us exclude, and we'll exclude you... Happy Birthday to MIKE MACADAAN and BILLY CLARK. Belated to NANCY LUBLIN, BRIAN MEDAVOY, BILL ROBINSON, PETER MASTERSON, DANNY BIGEL, and JOANNA BOMBERG.