While I have eaten at some really wonderful restaurants, La Cote Basque (don't have the characters for the circumflex and accents, sorry), Union Square Cafe
but if I could take a pill so that I would never have to eat another meal again, unless I wanted to, I would do it without looking back. Having to eat can sometimes be such an imposition and it would certainly solve some of the world's biggest problems, i.e. hunger.
Two words: Pineapple grappa!
WOW!
::)
...I've always preferred to spend money on a book, a piece of music, something tangible, over a great dinner in a restaurant.
While I have eaten at some really wonderful restaurants, La Côte Basque
La Cote Basque
60 W. 55th St. (Midtown West)
This restaurant has closed.
Decorated with harbor murals of St. Jean de Luz, dark ceiling beams and buttercream walls, the room feels as rich as chef-owner Jean-Jacques Rachou's repertoire: Cassoulet Toulousain. Boeuf Bordelaise. Veal kidneys in mustard. Specialties of the house -- anything involving truffles or foie gras -- pad the $70 prix fixe. But in a place like this, who's counting?
Recommended Dishes: Terrine of Foie Gras, Cassoulet Toulousain, Veal Kidneys in Mustard Sauce, Monkfish with Truffle and Madeira Sauce, $68 prix fixe
La Cote Basque is reinvented, serving its familiar, old-school French fare in a cleverly re-done room.
The Scene
Goldenrod-colored walls trimmed with dark-wood accents, tile floor, brass rails, aged mirrors and frosted tulip lamps make the formerly stuffy room feel like a midtown sibling of Pastis and Balthazar. Once awash with hushed, reverent conversation, the space now bustles with a mixed crowd, though it's not quite as hip as the groovy lounge music might suggest. The relaxed service seems happy to have exhaled, though staff still sport bowties and whip off silver dish domes with grand "voila!" gestures.
The Food
The refreshingly retro menu includes supple, garlicky escargot, a flaky, smoky onion tart and wonderful classics like rich pot au feu, with a generous portion of short ribs, sausage, chicken and marrow-packed bones simmering in a leek-infused beef broth. Tender steak with fryer-fresh frites and airy souffles trnasport diners straight to Paris. The only sign of jetlag is the stringy seared foie gras.
Falwell Forms Evangelical Coalition
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
RICHMOND, Va. — Seeking to take advantage of the momentum from an election where moral values proved important to voters, the Rev. Jerry Falwell announced Tuesday he has formed a new coalition to guide an "evangelical revolution."
Falwell, a religious broadcaster based in Lynchburg, Va., said the Faith and Values Coalition will be a "21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority," the organization he founded in 1979.
Falwell said he would serve as the coalition's national chairman for four years.
He added that the new group's mission would be to lobby for anti-abortion conservatives to fill openings on the Supreme Court and lower courts, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and the election of another "George Bush-type" conservative in 2008.
"We all, for the first time, began to realize the potential of religious conservatives, particularly evangelicals, when something over 30 million of them went to the polls," he said, noting most supported the president and anti-abortion candidates, and voted to approve 11 initiatives across the country banning gay marriage.
Also, a decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court allowing gay marriages "helped energize our people," Falwell said.
And when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom began performing gay marriages, it "really caught the attention of people of faith in this country, and what we have been saying could happen actually happened," he said.
"The timing could not have been better. That, along with the abortion issues and the terrorism issue, helped us to get our people awakened."
…
Speaking of toupees, I will never forget back in a TV GUIDE article in the 1960s where they did a several page spread of TV actors who wore toupees,
At the rate HBO and SHOWTIME are going, we'll soon have a TV GUIDE article on actress who wear merkins.
der Brucer
Okay, what's a "merkin"?
::sigh::
An artificial hairpiece used to cover a young lady's shaved pudenda. Originally came in fashion when lice were all the rage, and body hair shaving was a prophylaxis.
Or, as Mrs. Slocum would say, "My Pussy has a bald spot, and needs a wig."
der master of arcana Brucer
The Seattle Mystery Bookshop in downtown Seattle does lots of signings.
Not another day of merkin definitions! We've done this before, I think. You can look it up.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush has decided to appoint White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to replace Attorney General John Ashcroft, because he is "very close to the president and someone he knows can be trusted with major challenges," a senior administration official said Wednesday.
Voice of Moderation?
In his 23-month stint as a state Supreme Court justice, Gonzales was considered by some observers to represent a moderating influence on a generally conservative bench.
Other saw Gonzales as more readily fitting into the conservative faction on the court, especially on business-related cases. Earlier in 2000, Gonzales sided with the majority as the Texas high court overturned a lower-court ruling allowing class-action lawsuits by car owners against the Ford Motor Co. to proceed.
However, some conservative Republicans are already sounding alarms about the appointment of Gonzales, saying his social views are too permissive.
For instance, Gonzales sided with the majority in a high court decision allowing some minors to have abortions without notifying their parents.
“Gonzales is on the Texas Supreme Court and there he has voted against even parental notification for minors who are having abortions,” said conservative leader Gary Bauer, head of the Family Research Council, in a recent memo. “The White House Counsel position often has major influence on [U.S. Supreme Court] appointments. Clearly we are going to have to encourage the new administration to stick to the pro-life position it outlined in the campaign.”
...nothing in Gonzales's jurisprudence in that case (one on Parental Notification) or others would lead people to believe that he would be a Supreme Court justice in the mold of Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas — which is what Bush said he wanted on the campaign trail.
So far, the White House campaign for Gonzales has found few takers among social conservatives or legal conservatives generally. Some of the former are regularly discussing what to do if Bush nominates Gonzales.
The short answer is that there's not much they would be able to do to stop Gonzales's confirmation. Social conservatives would feel betrayed — the rank-and-filers, that is, not just the leaders of the Washington groups — since the chief reason they were given to vote for Bush was that he would nominate "strict constructionists" like Scalia and Thomas. But Republican senators are not going to vote against a Bush nominee who's also the first Hispanic nominee to the Supreme Court, whatever conservatives say. Conservative opponents of Gonzales will have to be careful not to threaten more than they can deliver.
OK then, what musical performance would you most like to attend (time travel allowed)?
My two choices would be:
The première of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" at Paul Whiteman's concert "An Experiment in Modern Music" in 1924 at Aeolian Hall (with brilliant arrangementsby your good friend Ferde Grofé). (Wow, that sentence sure gave charmap.exe a workout.) (But the sie wouldn't do the fance AE for Aeolian :()
The première performance of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at Prague, National Theater, October 29, 1787
Okay, what's a "merkin"?
I also received a Jewish Bollywood movie in the mail yesterdayl...yes, you heard me right...a Jewish Bollywood movie...more on that later!
I do not like waxing. I do not like thongs.
...yes, you heard me right...a Jewish Bollywood movie...more on that later!
Thank you for this edifying piece of information. I, too, was unfamiliar with the term.
Now, are there any...um...hairdressers(?) out there who can explain how the thing is attached?? Politely, of course, as this is a family-friendly website which has just embarked on its fourth year of being the ginchiest website in all of internet-dom.
::sigh::
An artificial hairpiece used to cover a young lady's shaved pudenda. Originally came in fashion when lice were all the rage, and body hair shaving was a prophylaxis.
Or, as Mrs. Slocum would say, "My Pussy has a bald spot, and needs a wig."
der master of arcana Brucer
I think you lick it like a stamp.
I've never understood shaving past the so-called bikini line. I prefer nether regions as Good Lord intended them.
Hopefully starring the appropriately monikered John Abraham.
::sigh::
An artificial hairpiece used to cover a young lady's shaved pudenda. Originally came in fashion when lice were all the rage, and body hair shaving was a prophylaxis.
Or, as Mrs. Slocum would say, "My Pussy has a bald spot, and needs a wig."
der master of arcana Brucer
I am afraid that this film was made long before John Abraham was even a gleam in his parents eyes....I think it is a 1964 film.
Harvey Fierstein in Fiddler!
Fiddler on the Roof has found its next Tevye. As first reported here on November 5, former Hairspray star Harvey Fierstein will indeed be taking up residence in Anatevka, the actor confirmed to Broadway.com. The four-time Tony Award winner will join the company at the Minskoff Theatre on January 4, 2005, two days after current Tevye Alfred Molina plays his final performance.
http://www.broadway.com/Gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=502274
In a colloquial sense, a "merkin" is also a man who marries a gay or bisexual woman so that she can be perceived as "straight."
Isn't the computer a wonderful thing?
Too much information, derBrucer![/size]
In the tradition of Saturday Night Live's "America: Show Us Your Guns"
Ladies of HHW, show us your Merkins!
Now, that's sure to make us the most popular site on the internet
Did you find it?
Here's the excerpt from Max Preeo's liner notes for LUTE SONG:
"LUTE SONG's plot tells of a young bride who is separated from her bookish husband when he's summoned by imperial edict to take examinations in the Capital City. When he successfully completes the examinations, he is given a position in the Imperial service, reluctantly leaving home when his wife promises to care for his parents. But once in the service of the arrogant Prince, the young husband is forced to marry a princess and forbidden any communication with his first wife. Famine falls on his village, his parents die of hunger, and the young wife - forced to sell her hair in order to pay for burial fees - is reduced to begging in order to survive. Eventually, she makes her way to the capital and is discovered by the Princess, who munderstands the deep love between the husband and the first wife, relinquishing him to the noble bride so they can live happily ever after."
The notes also reveal that the show cost $185,000 to mount in NYC in 1946. As we know, it ran for 142 performances.
Okay, Jane, yesterday you post some photos, so we send you compliments. So, what do you do today? You top yesterday's photos with today's flora (or is it fauna?).:: pokes head out from trash can::
And this:
...der Brucer (some day I'll tell the story about the charity auction in which I sold 5 "Bruce Shut Up" cards)Hmmm...I don't remember that story.
...The event I alluded to yesterday is on and happening - I just heard. So, mark your calendars, you NY people - it's December 6 at Partner's in Crime in Greenwich Village. I'll have all the details, but we're inviting some pretty interesting people who I'm hoping will show up. It's a combo launch party/signing and it will be a ton of fun. I'm hoping all our east coast hainsies/kimlets will attend and I'm also hoping we can have a proper hainsies/kimlets get-together the night before or the night after....Lo and behold, the bookstore has a website! (http://www.crimepays.com/)
LOL derBrucer in the trash can....Someday, we'll have to get him to tell the story of Pat Boone and the golf balls...unfortunately, it's better told in person than written (dang).
I know that Marcy, the Marketing Lady, is looking at Seattle and Portland both. Seattle has a wonderful mystery bookshop I can never remember the name of. I'm sure we'll make it up there.Could the Seattle bookstore be called The Seattle Mystery Bookshop (http://www.seattlemystery.com/)?
Okay, what's a "merkin"?It's what Toby Kieth calls himself. Y'know, as in "I'm a 'merkin."
DRLaura, the cardinal is my favorite bird! Lovely photo. Thank you.
The investor I have been discussing What If with is also the producer of this film I'm rewriting. His idea is to fund both projects at the same time, which wouldn't happen until November. If he does so, we'd reopen in LA for a couple of months and then try to come into NY.
I should have said very end of November, when I turn in the script and we have our meeting about all this.