LADeP (Lunch at DePalma's)

A couple of "real" journalism people invited me to lunch downtown, so we met up at DePalma's Thursday. They chose an exterior table, which was fine excepting for the noise. Nice day to be outdoors.

Conversation wandered around the curriculum status of Grady (both are alums), future plans for growth and their needs in their current positions of power.

I ordered an Italiano Panini with a side salad. The sandwich was filling, if a little plain and dry. I added the included tomato and lettuce leaf to the second half of the panini, but it didn't improve things much. For the salad dressing (just lettuce and one quartered tomato), I went for the jalapeño-citrus vinaigrette. A little bit of warmth from the peppers, but nowhere near enough citrus. 

Maybe if they crumbled a lemon bar on it ... 

Secrets

The secret to lemon bar happiness is the absence of lemonyness leading up to it.

News Flash!!

Fink labels Russell a Bolshevik, Johnson labels her a Communist and Russell labels herself a Feminist.

Hume finishes her salad in a normal time span and Hollander makes no untoward comments that anyone can recall. Acosta-Alzuru tries to carry on a normal, academic conversation about recent visits to the college, but is distracted by Fink's queries on the five most important news photos of all time and the ethics behind them. 

Acosta-Alzuru retaliates by describing Russell's daughter's face-making abilities during a banquet the night before. 

Chaos ensues, and no one notices Johnson is on his third salad of the week and that he bypassed the lemon bars for Sun Chips, which leave a wonderfully French oniony breath that lingers even now. 

Oh, the humanity!

And while the photo of the dirigible doesn't make the top five, Earth Rise, Street Side Execution, the Napalmed Girl and Tomoko's Bath do.

More (semi) Free Lunches

Was only in the office briefly today, so lunch was at home. A simple Muenster and tavern ham sandwich with a little Cheez-Its Mix on the side. While eating I watched the end of some Titanic piece I've seen before on the History channel. 

It reminded me of being at a theater on a Friday night a decade ago, working with a great reporter on a story about people going to see the Titanic movie over and over. We were talking with one girl who admitted this would be her seventeenth (!!!!!!!) time seeing the movie. The reporter, in a moment of brilliance, paused, looked up and said, "You know the ship will still sink, right?"

Every frame after that was a little out of focus ... the sandwich was good, not really assembled lovingly, but quickly, very quickly. Note to self and Mir: we're almost out of mustard.

Third Person Tweeting

Things we learned:

• Hollander does not Twitter, but several believe someone should tweet for him. (Ghost tweeting?)
  
• Hume is ready to sing camp songs.
  
• Russell gets annoyed when Johnson steals her tenure line.
  
• Someone will, eventually, do a study on the contents of this blog for which they will not get doctoral credit.
  
• Also, lemon bars may have included lemon. Or at least been stored near lemons. Or lemon fruit pies. 
  

Three Minutes of Your Life You'll Never Get Back

Why? Because we can ...




At least the opening minute is kind of neat ...

Astroturfing

Learn something new every single day around here. 

We learned that Russell is manipulating the poll - every time she finds a new computer, she votes again for Sweetser. In the PR world this is astroturfing - a fake grassroots uprising. 

Go figure.

Different Company, Different Conversation

Ate with Fink and Middleton, conversation was reminiscent of lunching with Greenman - far more intellectual, yet still entertaining.

Fink told tales of his AP past (a prelude to his talk with AP's Michael Giarrusso). Middleton and I nodded and laughed at appropriate moments.

Pepper steak is still not peppery enough, squash and tomatoes was almost all tomato juice. I need to order better. 

Post-lunch conversation with Sweetser leads me to believe we need another rule - Sweetser must comment, daily, "I can't believe you guys eat there."

An Odd Collection of Notes and Notables

What a strange lunch ... two new guests did not know we blog about lunch, while another regular mocked the usefulness of blogging ... sheesh ... 

Russell discussed, at not enough length, her disgust for chicken bones on a plate. Also that she will only eat filet because it has - you guessed it - no bones. (If I thought that would work at home, I would try it. My guess is I'd be told to eat more calamari ...)

I was warned, again, that the turkey tetrazini had set off another colleague's heart attack last year. Though it's commonly believed it was her dining companion more than the meal itself. 

And while we tried to maintain our habit of low conversation, discussion of what was blogable and what was not blogable turned into a ridiculously erudite conversation about literary authors and their editors. 

I blame Greenman for trying to raise the conversational bar. Bringing up Elmore Leonard, really, was that appropriate?

Pepper Steak and Peppery Conversation

Arrived late to fund Russell and Hollander already done, but with nothing to do they continued to converse as I ate. We talked about all the Finksters and how we could mess with their papers. Best suggestion: tell them all the comics need to be moved to A1. Dilbert for the business news, Doonsbury for the political coverage. 

Noted Hume's absence. Insinuated that she , or that if she were to  a lot of problems would disappear. Then Hollander brought up . We all laughed, somewhat uncomfortably.

Pepper steak needed more pepper.

Lunch, Not Alone

Mocking others is a hobby of ours. Harassing them, too, if you were to hear all of the conversation.

And what's with Karen always pointing out that I'm the only one who's not tenured? Should I be nervous?

The Remains of the Meal