¶ Matins: Oh, dear: an all-day lunch. The wonderful afternoon on the balcony has left me rather envying the Spanish gent in the photo. Or perhaps it was emptying all those bottles of wine that did me in.

It wasn’t as though we could have gone to the Oak Room. Not yet.

¶ Tierce: IRS agents are turning to YouTube for evidence of improper pastoral politicking.

¶ Sext: In a curious dispatch, the British Government has pronounced the Irish Republican Army’s ruling council “redundant.” This stops a shade short of official disbandment, and it may not satisfy the Unionists who are currently standing in the way of full devolution from Westminster to Stormont.

¶ Vespers: The charming short films of M Ward, at vimeo. In KUBM, Bennett Miller (Capote) co-directs a film with Judd Apatow (Knocked Up). Not in this lifetime.

¶ Compline: Devin Cecil-Wishing is the son of a friend from undergraduate days who has recently found me. Over the weekend, I received a link to the artist’s site, and I have to say: I want one. Be sure not to miss the lustrous works in the “Miscellaneous” category, one of them an album cover.

Oremus…

§ Matins. More, in any case, anon.

§ Tierce. This was the first that I heard of an apparently notorious “mack daddy“ clip by the Rev David Manning of Harlem’s Altah World Ministries.

Devoting an entire day to the preparation and consumption of lunch — luncheon, really, seems the only word — puts me somewhat behind schedule; I may not get to the Book Review until later this afternoon. We did have a glorious day for it.  

§ Sext. What a load of sorry history. (Do read P S O’Hagerty’s conclusions about Irish violence at the beginning of today’s Morning Read.)

Mrs Crum’s menu did indeed turn out to be a breeze to bring off. We began with antipasto, made at Agata & Valentina and garnished with some extra Sicilian salami. This was followed by linguine in clam sauce. As I detest any kind of work at the table, I bought shucked clams, and between that shortcut and the use of fresh pasta, my main course took a bit longer to serve than it did to make. The very simple salad afterward — mesclun, romaine, tomato wedges, and a balsamic dressing — made a fine interval between the linguine and the dessert of fruit and cheese. Who knew that nectarines have flavor again. After about twenty years of cardboard fruit, the markets are offering nectarines as tasty as they are juicy. I’d never have bought them if Mrs Crum hadn’t told me to. I had a vague idea of slicing them into wedges and dusting them with sugar, and I very well might have done so if a bottle of beer hadn’t slid out of the fridge and shattered on the kitchen floor at twenty minutes to one. Cleaning up the mess left me no time for fussing over fruit. Glad it didn’t!

§ Vespers. Then there’s the lovely 24 Hour Trip to New York, shot entirely with an iPhone, and narrated in fabulously execrable French. (via kottke.org)

Now that I’ve caught up with my work for today, I can return to clearing yesterday’s table, which is still laden with dessert plates, wineglasses, and a bust of Shakespeare, who dropped in toward the end. Once I’ve stripped the tablecloth, I can inch the table back to its everyday location. It was quite funny, ha ha ha, when Fossil Darling and I lifted the set table to move it up to Lady Diana and LXIV, banquette style, to discover that the tabletop had somehow come free of the legs, which were folding (collapsing). LXIV saved the day, not to mention lunch.

§ Compline. Devin’s self-portrait, on the home page, is pungently reminiscent, notwithstanding his much simpler attire, of the Enlightenment pastels of Maurice Quentin de la Tour.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
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