For the past four years (which feel like eons) Ian Shoales aka Merle Kessler has energized the public air waves with his edgy brand of Bay Area humor. Whether he's bored with Borat or pondering Scientology, his fast-paced personal essays are irreverent without falling into predictable cynicism.

Kessler's latest rant has to do with the hullabaloo over a pizza chain in the Southwest accepting Mexican pesos, as well as dollars. The pizzeria owner received hate mail, death threats, and accusations of pandering to illegal aliens -- when all he was doing was feeding hungry American and Mexican border crossers with pockets full of pesos for pizza pies.

It's fun hearing Kessler go off on Michael Feldman-esque tangents, as, for example, when he points out that Minnesotans often accept Canadian money without worrying about singing "The Maple Leaf Forever" at hockey games. What, he wonders, if that great Scottish-American burger joint, McDonald's, decided to accept British pounds? Would the American booboisie worry about a restoration of bonnie Prince Charles to the throne in this country? Sadly, in 2007 we're so caught up in xenophobia when it comes to Mexico that we blanch at the possibility that pesos could supplant dollars, just as migrant workers have replaced our own homegrown tradesmen and field hands.

If Voltaire wrote, "A witty saying proves nothing," Kessler's wit proves the world is nothing but a junkyard of funny wonders. Bless him, he'll never hyper down!

I gotta go.