Q. If food and survival are even more basic than sex, how come most songs are love songs?

A. There is a bonafide food song, “Jambalaya,” though naturally enough, it’s half in French. There are a lot of drinking songs, of course, in every language, but they’re not pertinent. In fact, they’re downright impertinent, to say the least. And that’s what I want to say, because I can’t really answer your question. And why, when you come right down to it, there should be a ballad to shrimp and not, say, to roast beef or pheasant under glass, I’ll never know.