The Daily

Quote of the Day: "I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman."--A. Schwarzenegger, Governor of California

Misinformation of the Day: A coworker made some reference to the dollar declining against the mark. "There is no mark anymore," I told him, and he replied, "Whatever it's called these days." I said, "You mean the euro? It replaced the mark." "But the euro trades at different values in different countries." "No it doesn't," I said, "that's the whole point!" Is this what the popular conception of European monetary union is? They maintain their separate currencies and just changed their look?

The dance of acquaintanceship

Before I begin, I need to vent: Can someone explain to me what is the point of offering a named sandwich (e.g. "Vermont lumberjack sandwich") at the sandwich bar is if you're going to ask me questions like, "What kind of bread?" and "What kind of cheese?" anyway? When I order something like that it's because I DON'T WANT TO THINK about every damn ingredient.

Nice conversation at lunch, though. Normally, I sit misanthropically alone in a corner with a copy of the Economist spread out in front of me. Today, however, there were no free tables. In situations like these, I have no problem sharing a table with a stranger--my year abroad in Europe, where this isn't unusual, has conditioned me--but preferrably with some other philanagnost sitting misanthropically alone. Just my luck, there didn't seem to be any around. But then I spotted a co-worker at a table.

I've always been a bit fascinated by this guy. He's director of our premier collection of merit, which means a fair bit of globe-trotting and bigwig-meeting. In fact, when I sat down, he said, "You can rescue me. I'm going to West Africa and I have to have a yellow fever shot." So I talked about whatever I could think of that wasn't yellow fever or immunisation--work, Thanksgiving, my neighbourhood, restaurants.

Finally, after years of being pretty--but not totally--sure, I got confirmation that he's on the team. He kept talking about "we"--"we" live in Rogers Park, "we" are going to visit his parents. Eventually, he expanded this to "me and my partner". Yes, he could've been a progressive hetero being coy, but I rather doubt it, given that I had already said "my boyfriend".

I came very close to suggesting that he and his come out to dinner with me and mine some time. In fact, I'm not sure why I balked. It's just that it's taken three years for him to open up to me this much and maybe I'm a little afraid of scaring him off. After all, he saw me and mine in a restaurant some months ago and could've come over and introduced himself, but didn't. The restaurant conversation was a perfect springboard for a, "Hey, let's get together sometime" kind of overture. Instead, I got a "I enjoyed talked with you", which alone made my day. The next steps on this meandering road in the general direction of friendship can wait.

Someday, dinner will be an option. Maybe in a year or two.

A diabolical offer

Sorry, teapot_farm. Eberhard's entry on mushrooms in his Dictionary of Chinese symbols focusses almost completely on immortality fungus, with hardly a word on common 'shrooms and nothing at all on the cute ones featured in Fantasia.

In other news, I've been having no luck either coaxing someone to come to the opera with me this Friday or giving away our two tickets. Front row, upper balcony. (Bad sight lights, great acoustics.) Gounod's Faust (not my fave--and we just saw it a few seasons ago) with Sam Ramey as Mephistopheles.

Any takers?