Today I learned that what we westerners know as Chilean Sea Bass is really a fish from the subantartic called a Patagonian toothfish. Wonder why you never saw that on the menu.
I also learned that sweet potatoes are a main crop in Africa and are boiled and eaten as breakfast with raw bananas. And to top it all off, I learned that planes lost in the fog have crashed into the Empire State Building and 40 Wall Street, and two near misses at the Empire State and World Trade. It is not often that I read the paper, but boy when I do...
My next story may be called Dead Puppies. I'm not sure why.
My next story may include lunch between me and three newly marrieds who at one point hold their hands together in the middle of the table and compare wedding bands. Their hands look heavier with their rings, call attention to themselves as they pass the menu to the waitress and spread butter on their popovers. The smartest and thinnest of the three was married on the beach in Hawaii to a neanderthal of a man who once told me that a Sprint operator tried to give him the number of a sex line instead of the toll-free help number. He says this with a straight face. The other two women have already outgrown their wedding dresses and married to what they call their equals, their best friends. Their skin is getting rouch, cracking underneath a good layer of make-up. One of them tells me that marriage is not for everyone. When you meet that person, she says, you just know. She says this with a straight face.
After brunch we go to one of the married's apartments, a half block off the park. It is big and hollow. But it is big. Her husband is home watching football with an open beer and his bare feet on the coffee table. The rest of the afternoon consists of piles and piles of wedding photos and honeymoon stories of sunsets and hikes and rainforest treks that had been done by thousands of honeymooners that came before them.
At my right is an empty fish tank. The tank was the thirtieth birthday gift for the woman's husband. The fish outgrew the tank and they put them in a plastic bag and brought them back to the pet store. The tank has a faux wood base and a gold handle. There is a light film of dirt on the glass and the top of the tank is inside it, wrapped with the wire for the light.
