An entertaining, mostly non-academic lunch with Acosta-Alzuru, Fink, Hollander and Hume (delayed by committee meeting, which is darn close to "delayed by death"). 

Lots of talk of apples. Preferred apples, heirloom apples, saving apples for later, the best age for apple trees and the heartbreak that an apple tree will put you through. (Fink, mostly, on that last one.)

Things we learned:

• Fink believes apple trees do best along treelines
  
• If a tree splits and the branches spike into the ground, they can root and continue to grow
  
• Apples are not grown in Venezuela, and all those imported are "red"
  
• Johnson prefers Empire apples, occasionally available at Publix now (which the author knew, being Johnson himself)
  
• Hollander ate some sort of small, sour green apples as a child (no comments, please)
  

Lemon bar update: I failed to comment on last week's lemon bar which was, perhaps, the finest lemon bar I have ever consumed at the faculty center. It had a nice, sponge-cake like consistency with wafting overtones of lemonicity. Far superior to the gelatinous creations we consumed last semester.

This weeks again had a decent consistency, though perhaps slightly more dense than last weeks, but had hidden pockets of lemon situated quite far from the edges. Some discussion on how they managed to center the lemonicity in a bar cut from a pan. 

Convention(al) Lunch

Large crowd today, the featured topic -- the Democratic National Convention. Much Obama love at the table, some discussion of Kennedy's appearance. And then came the role of women. Hollifield criticized the party's apparent insistence on a "shut mouth spouse wife" instead of letting a woman like Michelle Obama speak her mind.

I'm not capturing the full flavor of the vent, its colorful language and passion and hands tossed about in complete abandon. Shoulda had a video recorder.

Oh, an average day for food. Had rosemary potatoes and other stuff I no longer remember. Edible.

Of Iceless Water

Thus begins a new academic year for LatFC, a lunch without ice for drinks. Push and push the button. Sound, but no ice.

The water tastes kinda funny without ice, which begs the question: does ice mask a funky, kinda stale taste in the water, or does a lack of ice change the taste? The only way to answer this, experimental methodology fans, is to drink water without ice when ice is actually available. Updates coming soon in a top-tier peer-reviewed academic lunch journal.

Lunch today starred Department of Telecommunications Czarina Ann Hollifield, Department of Journalism Future Czarina Janice Hume, and newbie Kristen Smith, who teaches graphics in AD/PR and plagiarized my lunch of pasta, spinach, and a piece of pound cake. Discussion focused on students and instructors who plagiarize coursework and lunches, and the best penalties for both. Hollifield praises the university's formal process, I spoke up for a more informal, corporal punishment.

Ah, it's good to be back. But where the hell was Johnson?

Lemon: a new twist

Lemonocity takes a new twist: not lemon bars, but lemon on broccoli.

Lunch today with Russell, discussing home sales and tap dancing (though not at the same time ... but it's an idea!), got the lemon-sprinkled broccoli and a sausage-over-rice dish with a few onions and peppers tossed in for taste and color.

Skip 'em both.

The broccoli was pale because of the lemon, or the supposed lemon. Another Zen moment, but oddly not so Zen. The veggie tasted curiously fishy. That's the best way to describe it, that it tasted somehow fishy rather than lemony. Either that's what TFC was going for or somehow they dropped the broccoli in a fish tank and were able to get it out in time for cooking.

The sausage thing was okay. Tad greasy and bland, even with hot sauce, but edible.

Important Note: The post before this (below) was the 100th on the infamous Lunch At The Faculty Center blog. That's somehow important, I just haven't quite figured out how or why it's important. There should have been multimedia. Should have been fireworks. Ah well.

The Wrath of Con(rad)?

Hollander and I lunched at the old FC today. I didn't think it was still possible, but I was shocked. Not by Hollander's dismal assessment of the Athens real estate market, nor by the chicken supreme, which is just like it was last semester (possibly frozen since then?), but by the fact that the tables near the cash register are aligned differently.

Instead of being placed at a careful 45-degree angle, the tables are now parallel to the divider. This will completely change Fink's sight-line.

Western Meal

Late, from the other coast ... Lunch with Sweetser at Costa Azul on
Coronado Island.

Sat outside and had very nice enchiladas, probably the best Mexican
food of my four days in Southern California.

Very little talk about Grady and no relevant conversations about lemon
bars, aside from a mentioning of the vegan ones from Frick. Sweetser
refused to believe they were any good.

Walked around the downtown area for a while. Forgot to buy a book on
The Del again, second time I've done that in 14 years.

Sent from my iPhone

Gobble the Cobbler

Ate alone at TFC. Veggie day -- corn (canned), green beans (canned) and mashed potatoes (one prays not from a can). And apple cobbler.

With every bite of good cobbler, one should be prompted to ask: "How many sticks of butter died for this dessert?" Dairy must be present, butter must drip from every loving spoonful. TFC cobbler is light, not quite so buttery. Subtle, perhaps? Not a Zen moment, nothing like the nearly impossible hint of lemon one strains to find in lemon bars, usually with no success, but it does make you work.

I'm starting to believe desserts are what TFC does best.