last night

Mini-St. John’s Reunion with Dave and Tina, both from my class.

Very funky Indian place on 3rd Avenue for dinner, with much possible table space sacrificed to wonderfully gratuitous visual effects, and a prix fixe vegetarian meal on a tray with small samplers of about 9 item per course.

Try the website, HERE. That will give you an immediate sense of the quirkiness of it.

Then, West Village for live jazz. Dave and I used to both play saxophone in the old days. I haven’t touched mine in about 15 years, but keep thinking I’ll do it again soon.

A fourth guest was there, previously unknown to me, who had an art studio on about the 80th floor of the north tower of the WTC. He’s simply a late riser, and would have come in towards noon on 9/11/2001. But his early bird friend was there, and died. The plane seems to have crashed more or less directly into their floor.

None of our college classmates died, though I was hearing last night about a few close calls, including one (my first roommate in Annapolis) who had to jump into the Hudson River to escape the roiling debris cloud coming down the street at him. Before last night, I hadn’t heard any news of him since graduation.

There are now about 3 or 4 commitments per day for the rest of my time here, including the remaining three lectures themselves.