Friday Happy Hour Story

Happy Friday evening to you all.

I had a classic DC moment last night when I was out walking Stanley the Wonder Dog around 10:30.  We came upon Chris Matthews leaving a neighborhood restaurant with his wife.  (A restaurant coincidentally owned by David Brock's boyfriend.)  I don't know if he had had a few pops, but he was engaging in a quintessential Matthews stream of consciousness monologue about the "King and Country Pledge" debate at Oxford in 1933 to his silent companion -- she was getting into the driver's seat -- which he then followed up by singing Buddy Holly's "That'll be the Day."  You really can't make this shit up.  Stanley was sniffing Matthews' shoes the whole time.  

Speaking of shit, then as Matthews got into a "Smart Car" -- which was quite amusing itself as he's a pretty big guy -- Stanley decided it was time to opine about the quality of the singing and squatted on the grass there on Connecticut Avenue and did some of his finest work.  So I then found myself holding a bag of dog crap -- scooped up suitably enough in Washington Post newspaper sleeve -- and looking at Matthews in the car.  Get thee back Satan I muttered to myself.  But then Matthews cracked a huge grin and began waving animatedly at Stanley and, of course, I instantly forgave him all of his sins.

Time to go partake of Mexican food and have that Friday night Margarita fix. 

Comments

[Toast]

That's awesome.

Of all the wrong-headed gasbags who plague cable news, I have the hardest time hating Matthews. Yes, I'm painfully aware of his contributions to the lowering of our discourse. But unlike so many of the rest of 'em, I don't think he's a douchebag at heart. He just seems like a big, dumb, happy, addle-brained grade-schooler.

[Sir Charles]

Toast,

I know what you mean. Matthews bizarre, no-filter babbling is sometimes refreshing in a tightly scripted era. But probably what makes me soften up to him is our shared love of political lore -- he just loves this stuff (and actually knows a lot). I saw him a year or so ago in a little diner in Chevy Chase and he was regaling a couple of people with these kinds of stories. (Talking rather than listening would seem to be his strong suit.) He was all disheveled -- staticky hair, rumpled clothes, and just going on and on enthusiastically about this campaign and that of yesteryear and yes -- he seemed like a little kid.

[kathy a.]

next time, you need to ask him to pose with stanley the wonder dog. not at that particular moment you mentioned, exactly, but it probably wouldn't take much to get him talking for a few moments, eh?

[Sir Charles]

kathy,

I am pretty sure I could get him to do it. I'd just need to ask him some political trivia question where he could expound at length.

[oddjob]

Frakkin' A that would have weirded me out as an experience!

[Corvus9]

You know, I have in the past defended Matthews at this site, and along those lines too, and it is nice you have my impressions of the man confirmed (or at least supported by anecdote).

[minstrel hussain boy]

sorry to fill you in on this SC, but, what you have out there is not mexican food.

when you come west, i'll show you where it is.

oddly enough though, the finest french chef in the DC area is a mexican kid from guanajauto.

his crepes will make you shout "gracias sinaloa!"

just so's you can get a picture of what i'm talking about when i say mexican food...

best mexican food in the whole, wide, world (and i've been around the world twice, liked it both times)

[Joe]

Minstrel Hussain Boy, what would you characterize what we call Mexican food in the East and Midwest- Mexican-American ?

[minstrel hussain boy]

i'd call the best of it, mexican/american.

i was being sarcastically jingoistic. i'm sure that a major urban center like DC has a big enough mexican community, and enough sophisticated palates among the gringos that there is fine mexican food there.

hell, even in mexico, what i represented was baja/sonora or, the catchall, norteño. it is different from what you would find and eat in chihuahua, or jalisco, or obregon, or guerrero, the yucatan, chialpas, or anywhere else.

many vibrant local cultures and their cuisines make the journeys afar well. they nessicarily change with the people and locations around them.

i've have sublime ceviches from ingredients pulled out of the puget sound by chefs of mexican descent and attitudes. i'm certain that the same thing happens in DC.

i'd love to turn some of our gulfo de califonia chefs loose on the chesapeake. i'm sure the result would be superb.

for me, even though it's very different from what you find elsewhere, part of the appeal for a place like camacho's is when, after months on the road, i can go there, eat the food, and have my mouth tell the rest of my body and soul:

relax boy, you're home.

at our centers, we're none of us far from the words of georges de santyana:

patriotism is the memory of food we ate as a child.

[minstrel hussain boy]

shit, i forgot to add this:

cocteles mariscos

remember, these recipes are not engraved in stone and shit. if you have local stuff, by all means, toss it in.

it's part of the process and plan.

[oddjob]

This time of year Maine shrimp are in season. Ever had those, mhb? They're small, and taste like shrimp, but their meat also has some of the sweetness of scallops.