The other night, while eating a cold, dry, semi-stale ham sandwich that I had purchased from a Wolfgang Puck Express station at O’Hare airport, I wrote on my Twitter feed (I just can’t say “I tweeted” with a straight face. It sounds like someone is too delicate to admit they passed gas.): “Is there any top professional in any industry who has sold his soul more completely than Wolfgang Puck? he puts his name on airport crap.”

I got some interesting responses. Some defend Puck on the grounds that he is in fact a great chef and “cashing in” isn’t the same thing as “selling out.”

I think this is an interesting distinction. I think it’s healthy and fine to want to cash-in, it’s bad to sell-out. I have lots of lobbyist friends who’ve had to wrestle with this distinction.

But we can come back to that. It seems to me though that Puck has sold out. I’m sure he is and was a great chef. But he puts his name on frozen, canned, and prefabbed muck. That strikes me as selling out. An interesting Corner topic: Who are competitors in the great race to be America’s number-one sellout?