Fare the well, great white north

So last night I went to Gastov's, a german eatery and bar in minnesota. The Hefe Wizen was boundlessly brilliant. It tasted like a fall day - crisp, clear, fields of wheat in the background, and the suggestion of lemon, delicious. I would be severely remiss however if I failed t note the particular vessel in which it was served, a two liter glass boot with the inscription, "Ein Bier, das Man(actually the german equivalent) mit freunden trinkt." Roughly, one beer and a man makes friends. Lyrica, clarification? The rules of the boat were as follwos: could not put it down, toe must be pointing out, you must tap it when you pass it, if it splashes you must drink again (note: this was actually quite the danger in the midregions of the glass as air would rise to the "toe" causing a gurgling sound [very startling when not expected] and if the level was dropped abruptly the bubble would race out, taking beer with it and shooting a drop or two on some poor sap's [my own] mug), and most importantly the second-to-last person to imbibe had to buy the next one. We had 5 if I recollect correctly. For dinner we ordered a dish that was supposedly for 3 but I think could serve 6-7 with ease, really just a collection of meats with red cabbage and veggies under them somewhere. After the food we tried some snuff, it tasted(?) like Vicks. I of course fouled up the delivery of it into my nose and had a brown spot at the tip of my nose until a kind neighbor, in-between low-level hysterics, informed me of the exact nature of my appearance. We finished it all off with a round of apple schnapps like licour, (sp?) which I now believe is the perfect way to end any meal. They of course had an accordian player who was also named Joe! How...not that uncommon, but he played a beautously bawdy song for us and let me subject the rest of the table to my take on percussion with the stick, which was made up of a small drum, cowbell, bells, and a cymbal on top.

The conversation made very very happy Charlie informed me that I would not be overse to a go at the Nero Wolfe series. This statement made me positively bounce with joy as I've been a fan of these books since george introduced me to them. Apparently Charlie and his roommate have formed a local NW appreciation society, it reportedly hopes to meet on the roof of the liquor store behind their house. I have realized of late that I am particularly fond of the Nero or Mencken type of character that is not ashamed to seek their own comfort, has a cynical view of humanity while haveing a well-developed sense of personal morality, and is wickedly funny.

After dinner we went downstairs to the bar and 2+ hours of polka dancing. One gentleman of 72 winters was quite the thing, bedecked in black trousers, a blue shirt, and red suspenders who had his run wih most of the young ladies within a step or two of the dance floor. He was naturally, quite the polka dancer, and I tried to study his movements to pick up a thing or two.

Gastov's in short: Excellent beer, fantastic beer, german food, snuff to your satisfaction, and learn the polka while you're there.

This past week I reread the first 3 books in the Aubrey/Maturin or Master and Commander series. I now feel these books are a-tip-toe above anything else as far as enjoyable series books go. They have it all with their hilarious banter, thrilling naval action scenes, a sloth, espionage, women (at times), and the sheer volume of their collected adventures which will keep you in reading material for some time. The only possible bug-a-boo is that O'Brien is not shy with the naval or early 1800s English jaron. It's qite thick at times but with application and digilence you may hope to understand what the weather-gauge, mizzenmast, and laudanum are; I myself almost know what the weather-gauge is, or at least I understand the importance of having it in any naval action. In all earnestness though, I reccomend them to any landlubber whoever hoped, or didn't even know they hoped, to raise their blue flag at the mizzen.

So as the title of this post implies I have left MN and am back in Chicago. I took the train which wound up being a 9 hour journey. The scenery was quite nice, especially as we followed the Mississippi into La Crosse, the bluffs and the eagles I saw were very striking. Also we wound up being quite the attraction ourselves. They were fixing a bridge in Milwaukee which means we had to take a detour down a different rail line. For some reason this elicited great excitement in local locomotive appreciation chapters. When we made the detour there we no less than 20 people there videotaping and taking pictures of it, and along the way I saw another 10 people taking pictures of us. I don't know if this was the first time a passenger train had gone down that line in 50 years but some people were doing all they could to document it. Anyway, I have no plans except dinner club on Monday the next few days so if anyone has any ideas, let me know. Cheers.