If ours were a truly civilized nation, Corey Duncan would be king.

I hate to quote Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester, the character played by actor David Ogden Stiers on MASH, but those were the only words that came to mind after sampling the fried cornbread thing prepared by the Hilton Garden Inn’s executive chef at the Nosh on the Nansemond Friday.

I could have said the same thing for Steve Gellas at Pisces, Norman Faitz at Panevino, Shannon Puglisse at Agora Bistro and World Fusion Bar, or any of the restaurateurs serving up their magic at the event.

The first Nosh on the Nansemond Restaurant Extravaganza was huge success, at least in the minds of the organizers.

We got out of work a little early, we had fun and fellowship, and we raised a lot of money for the United Way. Those were the measures of success we set early on.

I talked to a lot of people as I was preparing to write my story and I know the event had some problems. Chief among them was that we only had one beer tap operating, causing some lines; Some of the less mobile folks thought the restaurant tents were a little too spread out; there was not adequate communication between the organizers (I was in charge) and the vendors, who were not kept informed on how many people to expect, causing some to run low on food.

I apologize for those shortcomings. Our committee is having a meeting Monday to assess the event while it’s fresh in our minds so that we can address these things for next year’s event. If anyone has any other suggestions, please contact me at the phone number or email address listed below and we’ll be sure to bring them up Monday.

Be that as it may, I sincerely felt those were minor concerns. The night before the event I had a minor panic attack about us going ahead with the event at all. I mean thousands of our fellow countrymen just got wiped out by Hurricane Katrina and are homeless, hungry and destitute. It just somehow didn’t feel right to be gorging on tuna sashimi, citrus saut\u00E9ed shrimp, salmon cakes with roasted papaya sauce and deep fried lasagna while children were still perhaps stranded in flooded houses with nothing to eat.

I mentioned this concern to Win Winslow, United Way Campaign Chairman, and we both felt that it was for a good cause so it was probably OK..

We were thrilled with the support for Nosh, but it’s imperative that the support and enthusiasm carries over to the remainder of the United Way campaign.

As Winslow said, &uot;this is the beginning, not the end.&uot;

Between now and the end of October, many of you will be approached in your workplace about contributing to the United Way. Please do. There are many people in our community who are hungry, homeless, trapped in abusive relationships, victims of fires or other disasters, who need help and the agencies of the United Way are the only safety net that exists.

It’s a fact that many people in our community are just a paycheck away from being out on the street and it won’t take much to push them over the edge. We need to be prepared to catch them if they fall.

Andy Prutsok is editor and publisher of the News-Herald. He can be reached at 934-9611 or at andy.prutsok@suffolknewsherald.com.