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Food, Glorious Food

2008-04-21 - 12:42 p.m.

Gad, where to begin.

Sunday I left work very early and broke the sound barrier getting into the San Diego area by 1pm. There was to be a surprise 60th birthday party for my uncle Mits at one of his favorite restaurants and, since I had been able to rearrange my schedule, I was able to attend.

I got there with ten minutes to spare, then spent five minutes looking for a parking space at this very elegant Chinese restaurant (I was glad I decided to wear a good shirt and new slacks). Once inside, I found that one of the banquet rooms had been reserved. It wasn't just my immediate family that attended - it was also his family and numerous co-workers. We're talking about 70 people, all told.

The guest of honor arrived at 1:20 and was appropriately surprised. There was much applauding and backslapping, and a bit of gleeful embarrassment at a PowerPoint set of pictures being projected onto a large wall screen - these pictures spanned his life and included some from his childhood.

Then the food. E-freaking-gad. There was a lazy-Susan in the middle of the table, and the food was placed on that for us to serve ourselves.

Let's see if I can remember. Lobster-meat balls, breaded and fried. Two different types of shrimp, with snow peas and walnuts. A lobster-and-corn soup. Pork and asparagus in an edible bowl. Sliced mushrooms (BIG slices) and bok choi. A whole chicken, cooked whole and chopped into pieces (beak included). A whole lobster, cooked whole and chopped into pieces (head and tail included). A fillet of a large fish, type unknown but with a very buttery taste. And of course, whatever anyone wanted to drink - from sake to water to tea.

So we ate and talked and ate and talked. Then we talked and talked. It lasted about three hours, and it was a blast. I was one of the last to go, simply because I wound up helping my aunt Pat into her car - she had broken her ankle two weeks prior on a vacation. ("Ya know, most people bring back souvenirs from vacations, not wounds!")

Then I drove home to most of a radio broadcast of the entire Abbey Road album. Once home, I collapsed for a nap, and then noodled around for a bit.

It was a good Sunday.

===

Affordable health care. It's something the Democrats say we're entitled to, right? Then why did they do this?

===

Over here is a tongue-in-cheek article about how Hillary can out-pander Obama.

Wonder how much may actually happen.

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Speaking of Hillary, this won't end well:

In a weird mirror image of last Friday's "cling" revelation � though perhaps without the same general election implications � this Friday afternoon brings a Huffington Post tape reportedly from a closed-door Hillary fundraiser in which Clinton scorns her opponent's supporters � the liberal activists who make up a pillar of the Democratic Party:

"MoveOn.org endorsed [Obama] � which is like a gusher of money that never seems to slow down," Clinton said to a meeting of donors. "We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party. MoveOn didn't even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, and it's primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don't agree with them. They know I don't agree with them. So they flood into these caucuses and dominate them and really intimidate people who actually show up to support me."

Huffington Post says the comments � of which it provides tape, and which the campaign doesn't dispute � came from a small, closed-door fundraiser after Super Tuesday but before March 5; slightly oddly, it doesn't say where or when.

But there's some irony in the scorn for MoveOn, which Hillary courted and which was founded, after all, to save her husband from impeachment. What's striking here is the "us" and "them" view � the almost cultural scorn � toward a section of the Democratic Party to whom, at times in the White House, Hillary was seen as the ambassador for the more conservative Bill.

Also, though some people associated with MoveOn opposed the Afghan war, the group says it didn't.

Open mouth, insert foot...to the hip.

===

Don't tell me, don't tell me...let me guess - Big Oil got to all these prominent scientists and paid them off so they'd reverse their position and become AGW skeptics.

===

Well, enough of that. Work has called, and they have things for me to deal with.

Onward.

Be seeing you.



===

3 comments so far

Brin - 2008-04-21 15:50:07 -
Happy birthday to Uncle Mits!

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Bob - 2008-04-22 05:50:37 - http://shadowgm.diaryland.com
Chicken/duck and lobster/fish are always served complete - i.e. with beak/head - in Chinese dinners because it is considered insulting/bad luck to serve a guest something incomplete.

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Dave - 2008-04-22 16:44:27 -
Bob, I didn't know that. We just thought it was a little strange, having dinner looking back at us.

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