Haines His Way

Okay, did anyone else not get the "joke" between Chris Noth & Sarah-Jessica Parker when he asked her to marry him?  It seemed very awkward.

Re: The Importance of Being Earnest:

Oh, the play is a jewel.  Unfortunately, the production of which I saw the first half last night featured--at best--amateurish acting and a concept that did the play no justice.  Resetting the play in London of the "go-go" 1960s made the characters' manners completely anachronistic.  The female roles were played by men, as advertised.  The costumes were the least of the problem, though I do hope to never again see Lady Bracknell costumed in a white pant suit.  The worst aspect of the what I saw was that a.) the female roles were not masculinized but b.) the men playing them did very little to feminize their characters'  behavior.  The most egregious element in the whole mess was Miss Prism's dark Fu Manchu moustache, a reflection not only of the director's poor judgment but also the actor's questionable sense of personal fashion.

You DID say this was a production staged in Orange County, CA, right?  I recall a few nights in Garden Grove, where they boys were all dressed that way.  I'd say everyone just raided their closets...and that nothing has changed much in the area.

And does anyone else feel that Gary Shandling is really having an off night?  I don't think he's funny at all. And I've liked his work in the past.

I think his material is good, but his delivery is strange.

Never been a Shandling fan, even on his old HBO series that was lauded to the skies.

Conan O'Brien is very funny later on in the show, and made a wonderful host two years ago.

Nice moment - the director of the Emmys winning and being given his Emmy in the control booth as he directed his aacceptance speech. Cutting to his parents, counting down as he played himself off, etc.

Worst dressed male: William Shatner.

Three words: Get a girdle!

Jon Stewart had about 15 writers on stage with him. Not one woman. I sometimes talk about the "old days" when I was the only female writer on most of the shows I worked on. I guess things haven't changed all that much.

It's bad enough watching alone - am I posting alone, too?

Worst dress so far - Mary-Louise Parker. Did she not look in the mirror?

It's the Emmys, framed for television.  All cameras are focused from the boobs up.

Then he noticed the pic of Dominic Monaghan, included with the preview.  He'll be watching.

He's not the only one!

Der Brucer is frightening me.  Since the other dogs aren't too sure about playing with Fletcher, who (let's face it) is too large and plays too rough for them, he is now considering our adding another dog to the family, to give Fletcher a playmate.

Uh, that would make six dogs.  The youngest two (to make a matched set) being VERY large and energetic.

What is really scary it that his logic makes sense.

 

Uh, that would make six dogs.  The youngest two (to make a matched set) being VERY large and energetic.
What is really scary it that his logic makes sense.

Sorry, SWW, but IMHO you cannot use the words "six dogs" and "makes sense" in the same breath.

                   

Well, we're past the ATL mark. And as nobody's around... Au revoir.

I'm back from dinner.... UGH!

Let's just go down the list...

We got seated at 7:40.

Our waiter didn't come over for ten minutes for the initial drink order.

We were short one glass of water and one set-up of silverware.  We did not get the additional glass of water nor the silverware until around 8:20!  -Of course, we had made repeated requests since we had sat down.

We finished our bread.  The waiter came over to take the empty basket, but made no offer of additional bread.  And by this time, it was around 8:25.

THEN we finally placed our food order.  -Don't ask why we hadn't walked out by then.  We were having some very good conversation, so...

Then our water glasses were finally refilled.

Our food took a good 40 minutes to get to our table.  Of course, the waiter did not start his "apologizing" until about five minutes before the food was supposed to be on the table.  Five minutes later, he apologized again.

The food came.  Nothing extraordinary.

The grilled calamari salad that was ordered came more burnt than grilled, and there was no dressing on it either.  Thankfully, they took it off the check.

My friend, Mark, and I both noticed something "soapy" with our dishes.  -Like the dishwasher had not properly rinsed the dishes.

In the meantime, parties that had come in after us, had come and left.

The waiter then came over and apologized for the slow service tonight.  He offered free coffees and desserts for the table.  Oh, and he also informed us that he would be leaving, so that another waiter would be taking care of us at the end of the evening.

We placed our dessert and coffee orders.

The coffees took 15 minutes to reach the table.  The desserts soon followed.  More or less.  Three of us got served, then the other three got served 10 minutes later.  Oh, wait, make that two.. They forgot one of the dessert orders.

The pear tart turned out to be a pear charlotte.  One of the guys at the table called it a Pear Twinkie - it was basically lady fingers layered with marscapone cheese and pear puree.  Just all right, not great.  Additionally, it also tasted like they had not cleaned off either the serving "wedge" and/or the knife since there was a trace of "garlic" in the final bites.

The creme brulee was served in the "fashionable" "flat" plate - so there's more surface area for the "brulee".  It works in theory, but then the whole ratio of custard to brulee is out of balance.  Additionally, the custard itself was reportedly lacking any flavor except for "sweet".

Needless to say, the gratuity was meager, but it also seemed like the staff knew they would be getting "shorted" tonight.  -Oh, and the table behind us also had their dessert and coffees comped too.

Ah, well...

We left at 9:50... more than two hours later.

And, of course, our original waiter was actually still there when we left.

At least the company was great.  -And we're still hanging out now... So...

Laters...