Saturday follies

Today, I trundle out to the Seoul National University neighborhood to eat the flesh of the dead and to spend time in fine company, waxing rhapsodic about gods, monsters, and the tragic loss of innocence in the hearts of little children.

This shindig is taking place at my buddy Charles's residence. Charles is, as you know, an SNU professor—the only foreigner in Korea who specializes in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Also coming to this gathering are my buddy Tom and my ex-boss Patrick. Tom's bringing dessert; Patrick's bringing drinks, and it could be that Charles will also be offering up part of his own liquid stash to lubricate the evening. Talk will likely focus again on baseball and beer, thus leaving me off to the side to contemplate my scrotum. But that's fine: I'm often more of a listener than an actual participant in large-group conversations.

For the main meal, Charles is making a nice fish stew as well as his famous homemade bread. For my part, I'm bringing an old standby: my dumbed-down take on choucroute alsacienne. Charles's wife Hyunjin will likely contribute her most excellent and refreshing salad. A good time will be had by all.

Oh, yes: today is also Tom's birthday. He's a Sixty-niner like me—just a few months younger. So we may be doing a little something for Tom today, too. (Tom rarely reads my blog, so there's no danger of putting this up. Unless today happens to be the one rare day on which he chooses to catch up on his reading.)

There may or may not be photos later. Have a good weekend!


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