grinding away

The Blonde said she could smell smoke. Smelling smoke at 30,000ft is one of those unnerving harbingers of modern life. Like having your Harley Street heart specialist insist on cash. Hearing someone muttering in Somali while rifling through the knife drawer in the kitchen at five in the morning. Or finding half a mouse in a pasty and wondering where the other half went. I said, “Don’t worry.” Men do that. We say “Don’t worry” to take away the worry, as if the phrase itself was a prophylactic to worrying. But in all the years we’ve been saying don’t worry, no woman has ever turned to us and replied: “Thank you for saying that, I won’t worry now.” I think we assume that panic is gender-specific, like pain, flu, football and crying in films. (All male.)

AA Gill strikes again. This was the opening to his restaurant review last Sunday. I'll never again say "don't worry." The entire 'review' is another great piece of writing. If you have some spare time you can wander through it here.

I managed to get out yesterday and resolve my pepper mill issues. I picked up a Peugeot Hostellerie which was one of two on my list. I was particularly interested in a Unicorn Keytop but I would have had to order it and I'm too impatient for that - at least in this instance. I've had a poor man's Peugeot knockoff before and it wasn't my favorite mill; this one got off to a much better start during last night's session. While I was in the kitchen store yesterday I reaffirmed my cooking theory that your cooking methods and frequency are inversely proportional to the number of trinkets hanging about the kitchen. Even though I love wandering the cooking device meccas there's load of kit that is merely space filler.

We, or I, are off for some theatre this afternoon. We've got tickets for Lincolnesque which is being staged by my favorites at the Keegan Theatre. They have a second stage in Arlington that I haven't been to so we'll get a first look at that space; I am fan of their Church St. stage in D.C. so this'll be a measure of the secondary digs.

The Roku box arrived and is up and running.