Thursday, May 15, 2008

"Groggy-Eyed And Fried"


Vagina, 2008.

About ten years ago, this essay was published. I read it, and liked it enough to remember it, but I didn't really get the full meaning.

Everything is on a scale, of course, but last night, while drinking a little bit more than I'm accustomed to, and enjoying the company of a new group of people, I thought of the essay again.

Judy and I had an excellent time. I'll work on a post describing the whole scene, but right now, I'm just focused on recovery. I will relay the following... the hosts made a gigantic tray of paella. The diameter of the tray was at least 3 feet. Honestly, I'm not even sure how you store something like that. But anyway, the tray was overloaded with huge clams and mussels.

A girl next to me picked up a clam that was slightly open and gave it an odd look. "I mean, how do you eat something like that?" she asked, "It looks like a vagina." In real life, as is often the case on this blog, I'm blessed with the gift of "smart-assism." However, that comment caught me a little off guard, and was actually, too much of a layup. I let it pass.

The girl quickly corrected herself, "Not my vagina...."

Judy and I ducked out of the party early and head to a local watering hole. We played backgammon and drank. The table next to us, was filled with Germans. They were being very rude to the waitstaff. I wondered, with the dollar as weak as it is, if that wasn't a glimpse into the future, as more Europeans take advantage of the exchange rate to vacation, or even buy second homes, here.

Perhaps soon, we'll be complaining about "loud and obnoxious Europeans" in the same way that Europeans now deride us "dumb Americans."

1 comment:

S. Urista said...

From the New Yorker article you linked: 'Writers and artists once wrecked their health, destroyed their marriages, and died young so that the rest of America could enjoy art from a safe distance.'


Don't know if I agree 100% with the slant the article appears to be going for (the ancient Egyptians wrote that modern civilization was ruining life as we know it) - but that is excellent writing. Txs for sharing.