Good evening all you sleeping bibliophiles!! Evening? Yes. It still is evening! It was suggested to me that I go home and write the recap after drinking another glass of wine or two. I'm working on it.
We had a splendid evening together, just the four of us, Tom, Scott, Drew and Chris (me), hosted by the gracious Drew who actually prepared a fine meal of ravioli served with a gourmet salad which included, among other things, dried figs that Drew actually chopped up by himself. With our wine before dinner, we enjoyed aged cheeses and, I have to say, some excellent Prosciutto, almonds and a plethora of those spicy, little, green peas. Drew you are a host. And your wine selection was outstanding.
When we did a roll call we noted that a number of our regular attendees were conspicuously absent from tonight's gathering. We men looked at each other and became silent for a moment. Then nearly in unison we said what men normally say to each other in that kind of a situation: "We have no women. Where are the women?"
"You don't know what you've got until it's gone." --a male wrote that.
Scott, the only member of our little foursome with uh, what's the correct term, relationship, Scott said that we didn't need any women. Tom immediately disagreed and told Drew that it was Drew's fault that we didn't have any women because he picked such a tedious, crappy book. Drew claimed that it wasn't his fault. It was the vote, the vote that picked the book.
At this point, Chris said that he thought that it was a truly beautiful book, one of the most beautiful that he had ever read. There were a few questions concerning how Chris could so completely emphasize with a main character that led such a banal, and utterly miserable existence. There followed a brief conversation of the sort that only men can have when they're alone together, followed by a collective grunt of understanding. And then we had what would have to be characterized as an interesting, insightful, intellectual conversation concerning the merits of the book.
We had a fabulous time until the meeting agenda moved to planning next month's meeting at Chris's. We became a little anxious and the topic immediately returned to women. We weren't sure how to get our women back. Scott suggested that maybe could find replacement women. Chris said that his self-confidence was too shot for that, while Drew and Tom just looked at their shoes.
Then we decided that we should give you all a couple of different flavors of choices. The first would involve a little classic / near classic literature with just a touch of romance thrown in, say:
1) Breakfast at Tiffany's --T. Capote
2) Tender is the Night --F. Scott Fitzgerald
3) A Farwell to Arms --E. Hemingway (a guy's book, but the kind that will get us all choked up.)
OR... OR...
We could skip reading this month altogether and just eat, have some wine and watch a DVD on a 42" Plasma Monitor.
We think that the meeting should be held on Thursday, 5/30 rather than on the last Tuesday of the month since Tuesday's the day after Memorial Day.
Ladies, can we lure you back? Please let us know. Drop me a line and copy our fearless leader.
If we vote for the DVD option, we'll throw some choices out in the next couple of days.
Chris