Wilfrid

In this case, Smithereens must have been wondering what the agency was doing for ten months.

I searched on Google for oldest bars in Richmond, Va. Google AI overviews stepped in to help. It listed four results. The first, when I researched it, didn't exist: a classic hallucination based on misreading a couple of existing places (not bars). The other three results were in New York (Pete's, Fraunces and I can't remember), each prefaced by the phrase "While not in Richmond..." AS. Artificial Stupidity.

What puzzles me is the review(s) appearing ten months after it opened.

Ligaya's latest had me stuck on the first sentence. But it's not a story about fishing at all. It's a story about whaling. Whales aren't fish. Yum. Still not out of the first paragraph. No idea. Best guess, alliteration is funny, it makes a cloudy day sunny. But the restaurant sounds quite good.

Now Santa's on his way. I am sitting here in a thick sweater and my big socks with snowflake designs. And it's August. And I was wearing sunblock on Sunday.

I saw them at Empire Pool, Wembley in October that year. Must have been one of the first concerts I attended. (I know I saw Dr Feelgood in December.) And actually The Who had their first hit single eleven years before that.

Depressingly, I last saw The Who fifty years ago.

I see Sex Pistols are commencing a North American tour with a John Lydon impersonator, Frank Carter, on vocals. They have, of course, recorded without Lydon in the distant past, but I don't believe they've attempted to replace him with a singer from outside the group. Unless you count Ronnie Biggs.

No.

Oh let me see if I have it...

These are great recs, Lee and the Kurosawa, thanks. And I have a stack of McBain novels but this looks like Evan Hunter.

Yes, and there are even bigger pictures in the show. I see it just closed.

That was there a long while. The Infanta de Castilla will be disappointed.

I was not familiar with Mac DeMarco, but he has some funny lines in his profile. Well done, Amanda.

I am amazed by Agnes DeMille.

@MitchW All very useful. I have been trying to remember the details of a trip up the Massachussetts coast, probably summer of 2021. We were out of lockdown but a lot of people were still masked. I know we stopped at Plymouth and Gloucester, and I'm sure we explored some of Cape Cod but probably not all the way to Provincetown. Of course, someone was driving. That kind of trip is tricky by bus/train/ferry. Looks like the solution for me would be to combine it with Albuquerque, about an hour away by train.

As promised, strips of smoked and formerly salted herring over a cauliflower mash with bacon pieces. Maybe not pretty but very edible.

This is a wish list for the next few years. If not now, when? Of course, I want to go back to New Orleans, San Francisco etc as well.

I culled a top 20 from the thread. Or rather 19. I added Buffalo because it was on my original list of places I had visited, which is a complete lie. What was I thinking? Realistically, I don't expect to go to all of these. My job now is to reduce the list by checking which cities have a lot of the things I like to do. Albuquerque Birmingham Buffalo Burlington Detroit Houston Knoxville Lake Tahoe Lexington Madison/Milwaukee Palm Springs Pittsburgh Portland (Ore.) Provincetown Richmond St Augustine St Louis San Antonio Santa Fe Tucson

My neighborhood Chinese take out now has seating while you wait for your order.

Anyone heard of the Abu Hamed? Apparently a refreshment adopted by British journalists as they embedded themselves in military expeditions to the Sudan in the 1890s. Who knew? A kind of sub-Saharan highball. Gin, dry vermouth, lime juice, Angostura and soda. I have all of those so was planning to make it tonight, but it depends how many of PB Brasserie's delicious cucumber martinis I drink.

I don't know when I last cooked arenque. I cook bacalao often enough. Okay, herring fillets, but very strongly smoked and salted. Boiled them, let them cool, then kept them in the pan in the fridge, probably more than twenty-four hours, changing the water regularly. Triumph arrives when you can nibble a bit off the fillet and it has the flavor but the saltiness has gone. I chopped them into a purée of cauliflower, warmed the mixture on the stove, then broke a duck egg over it. It was good and I will take a photo next time as I have plenty left.

Wednesday season 1, I thought, took a while to build from being odd and goofy to the really powerful last few episodes. Season 2 takes off at that level. I mean, I don't care about the Addams family or schools full of strange mutant students, but this is terrific television. And Steve Buscemi is going to be fun.

Nonsense indeed. If they included Maryland, yes, but that state is not strictly part of DC.

Happy to see Harlem Public re-opened while I was away (water damage following a dramatic fire in the apartments upstairs). I only just noticed that Beer Run a couple of doors down has closed. But it has been purchased by one of the bartenders and will reopen shortly as Bar Fiasco, with more emphasis on food (beyond the microwaved hot dogs?) and cocktails (a new, full license or sake cocktails?).* I had been visiting Oh! Craft on Amsterdam for unusual tap beers instead because it felt less like drinking in a shop. *The reporting I saw said cocktails, but I spoke with someone who knows the new owner last night and she said to expect a "wine bar vibe."