I have a big family and we’re all very close and loving but they’re like that. They all live near one another and see each other constantly (within half an hour drive of each other, if that) and they wonder why I don’t visit more often. Well, I went off to college at 18, starting then have always lived in cities, now h…

That’s interesting about your mother. So what does she eat? Or, more simply, what is her favorite meal?

Oh me too, I don’t even bother commenting, but the writing is really fun and the commenters whose comments I can read are usually fun and/or informative.

Do you ever wander over to sister site The Takeout? (G/O could use every pageview it can get at this point!)

I think I have mentioned this before. Many many years ago when we were all young, single men, a friend of mine cooked up a scheme with a friend of his. My friend would bring a guy (me) for his friend to meet, and in turn his friend would bring a guy for my friend to meet. It was hoped that a little cross-matching…

Only in the sense that Maryland borders Virginia.

You were close, it was Kaine, not Kane. 

Because I am insane I like to create little trivia quizzes to torture my dinner mates. One of my favorites is, “Who lost the [DATE] Presidential election and who was their running mate?” I bet if you asked 100 people who actually voted for Hillary in 2016 who her running mate was a good majority couldn’t tell you.…

I think we all know that George Washington crossed the Rubicon with Julius Caesar at Valley Forge, many thousands of years ago, but not before 4004 BC, because that’s when the world was created. Or at least that’s what I was taught at the Betsy DeVos Success Gospel Christian Academy.

And her trademark heart necklace!

Dorothy Kilgallen was almost preternaturally good at this. “John, we’ve deterrmined that our Mystery Guest is American, is that right?” “That’s right Dorothy...” “But there’s something about your accent. Have you lived in England recently?” “Yes.” “I see, you have. Are you Ann Sacoolas, the woman who ran down that…

“Are you in the theater? I mean on Broadway, something I would have seen you in?”

Just an interesting piece of historical trivia: Ted Kennedy and his niece, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg (JFK’s daughter), both endorsed Obama over Clinton. Hillary won the 2008 MA Democratic primary by 15 points.

After reading these comments:

That’s probably right. I should ask him, but he’s probably forgotten.

I thought it was an homage to Irving Berlin. Although I doubt either of them are big fans of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” among the other couple of thousand songs that Berlin wrote.

The Memphis Group! You have a good memory and I think you’re exactly right. This postmodern style is very difficult to define, but that’s what it is. It’s a pastiche of several syles and yet is somehow firmly and identifiably very high-end 1980s.

I know you’re right but what can explain “turkey bacon”? I know that eating pork is proscribed in Judaism and Islam, but why have bacon at all? I guess turkey is healthier than pork (“the other white meat”) but that too seems very strange. The turkeys walk among us and there’s a flock (technically known as a “rafter”)…

Or maybe nicotine. There must be something to it!

You do, and I forget what it’s called. My American husband was on one when he was transferred to London for a year (by his American-based company.) We weren’t married then, so to visit him I got the usual grilling from customs at Heathrow.