Daily Blague

¶ The Dining In/Out section of today's Times features an amusing article by Julia Moskin about tell-all waiters who vent their outrage on the Web (I especially liked the photo of the cleaver-wielding chef, which reminded me of a favorite Monty Python routine). The article turns out to be better than any of the sites, because waitpersons, Thespian aspirations notwithstanding, do not seem to spend a lot of time polishing their writing. If restaurants were as poisonous as the atmosphere at these sites, even the laziest of us would cook for himself. Nevertheless, there is fun to be had here and there. At The Stained Apron, a bartender laces a lousy customer's frozen cocktail with - well, read it yourself. At Ontherail, the "five second rule" is invoked in a piece that reminds me (not that I needed it) why I would never want to work in a restaurant kitchen. And for contrasting but not contradictory assessments of restaurateur Steve Hanson, whose B. R. Guest outfit runs several popular Manhattan restaurants, compare The Wine Enthusiast and Shameless Restaurants. Bitterwaitress took forever to load, but I had no trouble checking out the goods at Cafépress.

¶ La Coquette reports on an afternoon spent resale shopping in the Seizième with a visiting fashion editor from Chicago. It is difficult not to hear Kate Hudson's voice reading the piece - probably because La Coquette herself writes, of the prospect of living in Paris, "I imagined how my life was going to be SO Kate Hudson in Le Divorce!" Then I got to thinking. Kate Hudson might make a great audiotape of La Coquette, but the actor is already a little to old to be playing twenty-four year-olds. And I reflected on the moment in life, which can happen anytime between the ages of fifteen and thirty, when one's feelings about being too young to be impersonated by a famous actor shift from impatience to relief.