Don't Stop Believin'...

I'm not prone to gushing. Well - Ok I am.

However - I don't throw the "holy craps" around willy-nilly.

HOLY CRAP!

GLEE is amazing.

WATCH and love!

The big tease is that it launches this fall... SO - stay tuned. I hesitate to be so effusive since every show I seem to like gets canceled [Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who? Eli Stone...] - but, this and Better Off Ted are the best things to happen since - well - the parenthetically mentioned programs!

Land of the free and the home of tacky family portraits...

Did we invent this horrendous genre?

It is simply hilarious -

LOOK!


















A Southern high school couple, perhaps?

off to the Shady Pines in the sky...

Dorothy Zbornak Hollingsworth (nee Petrillo)... has departed.

Along with the definitive Vera Charles with her...

AND - NO - contrary to popular belief - were I to take the "Which Golden Girl Are You?" quiz - I wouldn't come up as Dorothy.

RIP Bea Arthur [Bernice Frankel]

"After being in the business for such a long time, I've done everything but rodeo and porno."


[last year as Carrie Bradshaw in a TVLand short featuring Bea, Sally Struthers, Katherine Helmond and Charlotte Rae as the Sex in the City gals]

Iced for a cause...

Today is Iced Coffee Appreciation Day.

It's a sunny day here in Greenville. A good day for an iced coffee beverage.

Live near a Dunkin' Donuts? GO. A small Dunkin' Iced Coffee is only 50 cents today. For every small Iced Coffee purchased today - Dunkin' Donuts will donate 5 cents to Homes for Our Troops - a national organization that helps create specially-adapted homes for differently-abled veterans.

CHEERS!

The absurdity of the tea bag...

AND no...I don't believe the vast majority of the tri-corner hat crowd has ANY clue that when they say they're "teabagging" it has giggle inducing effects on many...

SO - "Taxed Enough Already!" Really? Rachel Maddow pointed an amazing irony out this evening. Many of these so-called protests today on Tax Day were held in public parks. Created with?!?! The safety of the protesters was insured by a police presence. Paid for by?!?! Hmmm...



AND the best thing she noted this evening is that the whole tea party phenomenon surrounding the stimulus package and business bailouts [IF I understood her correctly] was, in some way, shape or form, developed by the same DC PR firm that reps [repped?] bailout recipients AIG and others. Here in South Carolina - one protest was organized by the local head of one-note, anti-gay fringe group American Family Association. Nice to see they've diversified.

I could go for a nice unsweetened iced tea.

ONE, TWO, TROIS – a delicious tale of redemption

A while back I wrote about how I wanted to gush about Parish – a great spot in Atlanta – but couldn’t due to a self-imposed boycott resulting from a dreadful customer service experience at Trois – a restaurant from the same company.

Having worked in retail and having represented four-star fine dining restaurants – I am particularly sensitive to customer service issues. The original offense paled in comparison to the ensuing complete lack of response to it…

Enter gracious GM Mike Maxwell. He reached out and explained how a great many contacts went unanswered due to the actions of an incompetent FORMER employee. SIGH – feeling better…

I was pleased to hear from him and happily surprised by his grand gesture. My friend Dejie [previously gushed about cabaret diva and top-notch concierge] and I sipped and supped and laughed the evening away on a wintry Thursday at Trois.



The stunning room wasn’t particularly busy [a sign of the times?] so our well-informed, delightful server and his colleague Christopher Blackburn were able to chat with us a bit throughout the evening.

We began with delicious martinis and a sinful amuse of crisped chicken skin with sausage gravy. Um… yum! We shared tempura Georgia prawns and a crudo trio of pristine raw fluke, scallops and tuna – the beet “nipples” on the fluke were – while slightly disturbing – great

Dejie opted for salmon accompanied by veggies and a neat-sounding gruyere consommé – though I wish it were more than just a shot glass full, I opted for roasted suckling pig with tiny [cute] vegetables and cauliflower gratin. The meaty pig - accompanied by a slab of belly – was drizzled with rich reduction. The tiny vegetables were actually tasty little root vegetable balls [not what I envisioned - but good nonetheless], the cauliflower generous and delicious.

Earlier we skipped some intriguing salads to save room for dessert. In hindsight I wish we’d gone for something chocolate – the pistachio crème brûlée was more like a pot de crème and somehow ever-so-slightly gritty. The accompanying shortbreads rocked as did the taste of toasted oats ice cream I begged for [from another dessert]. Frankly, I could eat that ice cream every morning. I’d weigh 700 pounds and have to be carted around on a flatbed truck – but I’d do it and be happy doing so.

A final, lovely touch was the surprise of a crackly thin dark chocolate bar to take home. Just neat.

Redemption... from the confirmation call of the reservationist to the warm, informed service and great food.

After dinner we ambled downstairs to the ultra swank bar to hear a musician Dejie had heard about – that was a sexy, luxe end to the evening and may even warrant its own post. FOR NOW – CALL and see when he’s playing and GO, have a drink and take HOT, HOT music of Ike Stubblefield.

UPDATE – subsequent visits have proven just as lovely – though, sadly, Mr. Blackburn will be [or has] departing Atlanta to work with the restaurant group to develop another groovy restaurant and bar at an upcoming boutique hotel in Chicago’s loop. I wish him the best and promised him I’d post this sooner rather than later. It’s later – but – many thanks for your hospitality and best of luck!

Hmmm... GSP to DFW

Was I sitting next to smart, snarky, syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage on my flight from GSP to DFW [on my way to Sante Fe]?

Yes. Yes I did. Nice chat. He was in Gville to speak at Furman University. Neat.

OHHHHH... NOW I understand what Twitter's for.