Wilfrid

The Adam West/Burt Ward? I grew up with it and had no idea it wasn't serious. Shout out to Eartha Kitt, Cesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Burgess Meredith.

Because I missed them.

New thing from the last few show, Ana now casually hoists Cisi on one shoulder.

Oh right, "crisp" is adjective enough. I take your point.

Should see the line outside Lexington Candy Shop. 😵‍💫

I'll be honest, I didn't watch Columbo or Cannon or Kojak, etc, so I don't know.

I love scrapple but you really do have to get the pan so hot that water explodes from it (and crank up the extractor fans) because it must be crispy.

Columbo, meh. Episode 2 is just terrifying. No spoiler, but conjures a personal terror for me, then just makes it worse. Jumping out of the armchair saying fuck no sort of thing.

Thanks for that and will think about it.

I never met her but I remember her posts well.

For sure. I wore those for years.

Look what just surfaced. Australia (look at that glass), circa 1987.

Ooh, king crab wrap comp...

Just watched the season 2 opener for "Poker Face." Spectacularly good. For all its quirkiness, this is a show that actually bases each episode around a mystery, lays clues, and has the "detective" explain the solution. Like an old Thin Man movie. Plotwise, it has patience. Layered over the plot, all kinds of wildness. Cynthia Erivo makes the most of her role(s(s)) and Natasha Lyonne is endlessly watchable. I think there are several more episodes already available.

I was curious about Wegman's Next Door (entrance just inside the Astor Place supermarket), but as I am sitting here I guess my curiosity is partially satisfied. Surprisingly attractive space. You can see out but outsiders can't see in. A large crew of uniformed staff. A 9 seat bar, a separate sushi bar, tables and banquettes. I will get no further than the Pommery this evening, but I will put it on the list for dinner.

I saw a ramp martini on IG. Full liquor license now?

Whoa, there's a lamb dish in place of the pork. Booking now! May have to eat the duck app and the green asparagus, but there is cheese too. Light lunch, I guess.

Might have to step away from alphabetical order because there's a series of huge volumes coming up; there are shorter ones later in the list so I could mix it up. 16. Durrell, The Alexandria Quartet (the whole thing or maybe only Justine?) 17. Eliot, Middlemarch See what I mean?

Almost finished The Horse's Mouth, Joyce Cary's largely comic novel about a wreckless, broken-down painter Gulley Jimson. I say largely comic because although Jimson's life is constant and largely self-made chaos, Cary relentlessly shows him looking at the world around him as a painter; and it's very well done. The dialogue is well done too, which is just as well as most of the book is composed of multi-page episodes in which Jimson shares his world view with friends, former lovers, possible investors, equally broken-down priests and so on. Line by line, these scenes are beautifully written and very funny. But it does seem to me they could be fewer and shorter since they advance neither the plot nor our understanding of Jimson. "...(W)ho is Gauguin? You don't mean that French painter who did dead dolls with green eyes in a tin landscape. I couldn't paint in his style unless I became a Plymouth Brother with the itch, and practised on public-house signs for fifteen years." I do have a nice, boxed Folio Society edition with illustrations by John Bratby.

I want to try that duck pithivier.

Well, El Born is drizzling olive oil, La Pineda isn't.

For comparison, some of the bites from my last visit to La Pineda.

...So, mannequins to the ceiling and plenty of art and historical artifacts on the walls. The theme of the show is "a cultural and historical examination of Black style over three hundred years through the concept of dandyism." Dandyism. The curators seem to know what dandyism is. Dandyism isn't any one particular style of dress. I would say, and I think the curators would agree, that the Dandy is someone obsessed with their appearance; someone who takes great agency in deciding how they look (and dandies are men or women dressed as men, historically speaking). So, portraits of Black dandies from eighteenth century France, okay. But the countless representations of enslaved Black people in fancy dress? No. These are absolutely not dandies. They are subjects who have been dressed up by their "owners" like so many toys. I am inclined to say the same about the military figures, constrained by uniforms. Meanwhile, the mannequins represent not a history of Black style but very much contemporary Black style; haute couture from the 2020s, even through 2026 collections. Hello Pharrell. Sometimes the history presented around the walls is reflected in these contemporary styles; often not. If you look at a haute couture suit with simple, clean lines and wonder what it has to do with the show, the answer is usually simply that the designer is Black. It's no more a "dandy" outfit than anything else on the runway. So a hodge podge. Historical artifacts that are often irrelevant together with present-day haute couture that often seems disconnected from the show's theme. Edit out the supposed dandies of slavery days, bring the mannequins down to earth, and it would be a much better and more manageable show.

Yes, of course there are things worth seeing in this vast, rambling show. But what a badly designed hodge podge it is. Two general complaints. It looks and feels like a much bigger version of an FIT show. There is that small step up to a shelf where the mannequins are positioned. Unlike at FIT, however, only some of the mannequins are on this shelf. Most of them are on towering pedestals that have been placed on the shelf. So you spend an hour craning your neck back trying to examine costumes from the weirdest angle. It's not too late. They could just take the pedestals out and put the mannequins at the normal level. Second, it's so dark in there. Okay, FIT is dark, but it doesn't have the crowds. While you're not breaking your neck, you are trying not to tread on people. I have more to say about the content but I have visitors arriving...

I wish. That was a harrowing experience.