1) Last weekend I was out twice for dinner, first to Pammy’s in Cambridge, a new-to-me restaurant somewhere in that No Man’s Land between Cambridge City Hall and Harvard Square. My goodness, what succulent pink champagne! They offered a prixy-fixy menu of three courses, which for me were Delta Queen asparagus garnished with a squash blossom, a lasagna bianca surrounded by green salad (probably my favorite course), and a bit of veal with two kinds of sauce. We splurged and split a chocolate-hazelnut torta that was out of this world. This is a great special occasion place, don’t be fooled.
1a) Sunday night I brought two friends visiting from out of town to Dalí, where I hadn’t been since long before the pandemic. How marvelous to be back! (Funny, it was smaller than I remembered.) Even on a Sunday night, there was barely room to move. The cocktail menu included luscious delights, starting with lavender gimlets and then Pisco sours. Tapas generally doesn’t work for me as dinner — Daddy wants a meal! — but we had several plates of gorgeous little bits, and I can’t say I left feeling undernourished.
Pammy’s at the end of the night.
1b) On both these nights I had to make do with reservations at 8 PM or later — not what I prefer — but how interesting it is to observe a dining room wind down for the night, gradually become more quiet and more welcoming to intimate conversation.
2) Walking through the cemetery earlier this week I encountered not one, not two, but three unexpected forms of fauna. The first was a dead squirrel (!), which I took to be a bad omen. (I altered course immediately.) The second, in the section I call the Diaspora, was a large turtle! How on earth did that get there? And finally, walking into what I call the Back Forty on Hackmatack Avenue, an unexpected shape near the purple martin house turned out to be a gigantic raccoon. You could have put a saddle on that thing! (I reversed course.)
A turtle!
2a) Later I was only mildly startled to see three of the cemeturkeys taking their siesta under a tree. I have begun to collect their feathers whenever I spy some of them left around after some Avian Incident.
3) Preparing for this talk my alter ego is giving Sunday on tennis etiquette has led me into the books by Big Bill Tilden, and in the chapter on Sportsmanship in Singles and Doubles, he has this to say: “Now this whole question of good and bad sportsmanship is essential. A nation whose men have been trained to the practices of honesty, generosity, and fair play is bound to have a policy of broad-minded liberality in all its international dealings. The opposite is likewise true. It has been found that following the doctrine of ‘Might is Right’ in sport results in giving an entire people the same point of view.” Somehow this feels significant.
Once upon a time asparagus was served after the roast, but at Pammy’s they serve it as a starter.