From the mouths of babes...

Despite the tragedy that befell Johnson on Thursday, the Eatery did provide its patrons with lemon bars on Friday.

My daughter, who is almost 4, made her first (and last?) visit to the Faculty Center on Friday. After much deliberation, she chose macaroni and cheese, black-eyed peas, and a lemon bar for lunch. After she pretty much cleaned her plate, we turned to the great lemon experiment. Hume and I, being scholars, probed her reaction to the lemonicity of said bars. Her response:

"Where is the lemon in this?"

Stunned Silence

I suppose it is entirely possible that the last entry demoralized all of us so badly that we have sulked off into silent corners. Which, to be honest, is pretty much true ... 

But the final insult happened on Thursday, the one insult that could make me not lament the loss of The Eatery, the one that could let its demise come to be without a single protest.

It was Thursday, and there were no lemon bars. Not. A. One.

I suffered through the cherry pie which, to be fully honest, may have had a higher level of lemonicity than some of the lemon bars of the past.

Criminal, border line criminal.

BREAKING NEWS: FACULTY EATERY TO CLOSE

An inside source with knowledge of the University of Georgia Food Services empire has confirmed that the Faculty Eatery will close around June 1, 2009. The source said the closing was due to multiple reasons, including persistent financial losses and health code issues. 

The replacement space will be on the fourth floor of the new Tate II center, scheduled to open in 2009. The new eatery will forego the oak paneling and cathedral ceilings in favor of an open floor space. 

The third floor of Tate II will also feature a food court, complete with a Barberitos and an Inoko Express-like stand. 

Fears are already spreading that this will hasten the retirement of Prof. Conrad Fink.

Meeting 1, Lemon 0

Today's lemon bars may be the best I've had at TFC. Perfectly baked, good texture, hint of lemon. Maybe I was just hungry and I have only one data point: no one else at my table had 'em. fyi, those present: Hume (veggies), Martin, and Russell (suspiciously similar sandwiches).

I followed this joy of lemonocity with a department meeting, which counteracts any dessert (or caffeine, for that matter).

Much discussion of Sarah Palin's speech, some Democratic gnashing of teeth. Or maybe the food was chewy.

B'day Lunch

Tempting though it was, instead of LatFC I had a birthday lunch of fish tacos and beer at Agua Linda. Excellent.

While the faculty center might possibly serve fish tacos (I shudder at the thought), the beer poses a problem. Apparently you can only have booze on campus if it's a football Saturday and you're not in the stadium, or if you're in the stadium but are so filthy rich you can afford a fancy skybox (the poor cannot be trusted with alcohol, but the rich can).

At Univ of Florida, at least when I was there, a pub in the middle of campus served beer and good sandwiches. Ate there often. No fish tacos though.

Sweetser probably knows if the Orange & Brew exists still.

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.