Q: Mr. Ritter, in 1998 you were dismissed as a New York City food safety inspector after complaints from the Taste of Tikrit cafe. In subsequent testimony to the City Sanitation Board, you said the cafe "had mouse droppings in such quantity that they blocked the kitchen exits; the restaurant's refrigeration consisted of one illegal immigrant waving a popsicle over a pile of chicken carcasses, and the owners were forced to play Led Zeppelin records at 120 decibels to drown out the sound of buzzing flies in the back."

You also noted that the management has 5-year-old children operating a rusty meat slicer and uses Mace on tardy employees. In your testimony you insisted -- rather strenuously -- that the city should forcibly inspect the restaurant again, or bulldoze it and jail the owner.

But now you say the restaurant is, and I quote, "one of the bright spots in the city's retinue of quality cafes." This despite the fact that health inspectors have been waved off at gunpoint for nearly half a decade. Could you explain your change in position? [...]