Nom nom

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

On Monday, June 10, Nom Eats, the perennial winner of the “best food truck” category in this newspaper’s Best of Northern Nevada readers’ poll, posted heartbreaking images on social media. The truck had caught fire, and the damage is extensive. At the very least, the business will be out of commission for the summer, the busy season for food trucks.

I’m a big fan. The grub appeals equally to health-conscious vegans looking for a post-yoga snack and to late-night revelers looking for something to soak up the booze. My kids love it, too. We’ve often convinced them to go to art openings and other events with the promise “Nom Eats will be there!”

I was especially unhappy about the damage because on Sunday Nom Eats had been at a little benefit concert I helped organize for my wonderful partner, Margot, who has been fighting cancer. It was a nice event, and we were really feeling the love from our friends, family and community. I’d hate to think it would be the truck’s last outing.

But, by Tuesday morning, the truck had launched a GoFundMe (www.gofundme.com/nom-eats-a-little-too-hot-in-the-kitchen), and, in about two hours, had already met its fundraising goal of $10,000, which is great.

Margot, meanwhile, spent most of Monday afternoon arguing with our insurance company, which was refusing to pay for a procedure scheduled for Tuesday morning, and which she’d already delayed for weeks because of their policies. She had to get up at 6 a.m. to get them back on the phone and finally get the insurance approval.

Losing sleep—not to mention spending hours on the phone with insurance lackeys—doesn’t help any patient recover. This system is broken. As Margot said to me, the health care system is “set up to let the sick fail, either financially or terminally.”