Many of the comments I get about this “A Question of Taste” column is whether I have any. And the answer is: Why, sure! My pallet is as refined as any of those Jay Wells/Ruth Reichi critics opining for The New York Times or L.A. Times.

(Editor’s note: That’s “palate,” Rick.)

Just as important – particularly at the gaping dawn of a new year when folks are forging lists of resolutions and vowing to be better — is the fact that I routinely infuse into these caloric meditations a bit of provocative and wise commentary about the world around us. It’s like Noam Chomski with a chocolate cake in each hand! “Here! Feed your mind and your face!”

With that established, here are three thematic items on my Must Do in ’24 list, all of which will directly benefit New London with an eye towards the traffic situation, which seems more congested with each day.

At the start, I think we can agree that a disturbing and increasingly large percentage of drivers — typically fitting into the behavioral parameters of entitlement/selfishness and/or “Look! My cell phone is spot-welded to my palm and I can’t stop looking at it!” and/or “Wait! Did I even TAKE driving lessons?!” — is bereft of skills or common sense.

So this is what I’m going to do.

1. Take a sack of street tacos, a beach chair and a calculator to the intersection of Bank and Tilley streets in New London, hard to the fire station and the former Octane bar. There, over the course of however long it takes me to eat my feast, I will take notes on the number of drivers who, headed east into downtown, choose to ignore the clearly established Left Turn Only directions at Tilley and blast straight ahead on Bank.

Let’s say there was one of those surveillance cameras installed overhead to record the myriad instances of this transgression. And let’s say the City of New London officials sent tickets and fined every scofflaw who ignores the turn signal. Wow.

2. Next, I’ll bring a to-go container from Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse and sit down with my gear near the Whale Tail fountain across from the train station. As I munch — probably on a side of creamed spinach to accent my Pork Delmonico with Bok choy and a passion fruit demi-glace with pickled blueberries — I’ll calculate the number of drivers who, often with the sort of lunatic facial expression associated with video game addicts playing a serial killer role, ignore the VERY CLEARLY marked and flashing-light-alerted pedestrian crosswalks. Dozens! Hundreds! Pedestrians beware!

Ditto on the surveillance camera/citations/fines.

3. Finally, back west on Bank Street to the intersection by Jasmie Thai, where Howard Street goes left and Blinman Street goes right. Drivers heading in that direction in the right lane go straight or take Blinman; the left lane splits into two — both of which are clearly marked as LEFT TURN ONLY.

I’ll be too busy to do much more than nibble on the box of Chips Ahoy I’ve brought, trying to keep up with the number of left-only automobiles whose pilots cheerfully ignore the law and roar ahead on Bank Street.

One more time with the video-aided issuance of traffic tickets and fines.

If this happened, before long, New London would have a budget sufficient to build the City of Oz in the old Fort Trumbull neighborhood. And I’ll have started off 2024 with a dazzling variety of culinary experiences worthy of my own Food Network program. (And never underestimate the competitive attributes of Chips Ahoy.)