Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act Three, Scene Seven: It's a Turkeyful Life, or, Why You Never Bet on a French Bird
Picking up hot on the heels of my last posting, this blog entry will cover the period from Thursday Nov. 24 to Tuesday Nov. 29, encompassing my first American Thanksgiving.
I'll begin with a brief history lesson. The Pilgrims were brilliant people. Brilliant and lazy people. Brilliant, lazy people who decided to hold their Thanksgiving on a Thursday, so that they could enjoy a de facto four-day holiday weekend. In reality, I think it might have been Abe Lincoln who put it on a Thursday, in which case he, too, was a brilliant and lazy man. But really, the history of how it happened isn't important. What's important is that I ended up with two extra days off which I spent, appropriately enough, in a brilliantly lazy fashion.
So, with most of my friends either home or away for the weekend, Thursday night I was invited to an intern Thanksgiving potluck that Claire and her roommates were holding. Marie, Claire's lovable roommate, suggested I bring "some buns, if I want," a suggestion at which I scoffed rather forcefully. Instead, after having my mother send me a recipe for pumpkin pie (which I hope was Grandma's recipe that I had asked for - I'd been craving Grandma's pumpkin pie since Canadian Thanksgiving...) I spent Thursday afternoon baking more pies than anybody could ever need.
You see, as a student of economics, I figured that by spreading out the 'fixed' costs of production - the various spices, etc. which I would have to buy no matter how many pies I baked - over more pies, I would be lowering the per-unit cost of each pie...
... sigh, it's no wonder I'm alone, heh heh.
Anyways, the dinner itself was quite enjoyable - everybody had made something delicious and exciting; luckily Claire had realized that the people cooking the main course were vegetarian and had rushed to the store to purchase some turkey. Of course, that's not to say that the stuffed eggplant wasn't a suitable main course...
On Friday (Nov. 25) I spent most of the day reading my gigantic new book and eating a ridiculous amount of left-over pumpkin pie. That night my friend Kristina and I went to the movies in an ultimately fruitless effort to see Harry Potter - even a week after it had opened in theatres it was still sold out! So, we saw RENT instead, which was quite good. However, I still haven't seen Harry Potter, since none of my friends down here have any interest in seeing it (I found out after the fact that even Kristina has never read any of the books or seen any of the movies and was just going along to humour me!) . It's a most regrettable situation.
I spent Saturday, again, reading, eating pie, and working on one of the essays I have to submit as part of my internship. I know I left the apartment to do something, but for the life of me I can't think of what it was.
Sunday was a more active day - Claire and I went skating at the ice rink they've set up in the National Gallery's sculpture gallery, which, while enjoyable, was hell on my feet. After that, we grabbed a late lunch/early dinner before heading over to the Embassy to meet Brendon and Jake to watch the Grey Cup (that's right, Uncle David, I caught it!). The embassy throws parties for most major Canadian sporting events, and extends invitations to all the Canadian expats in DC who have registered with their "Connect2Canada" network. They projected the game onto a big screen in the Cafeteria, and served pizza, wings, and wildly overpriced bad Canadian beer ($3 for a can of Labbatt's Blue? Ridiculous! Didn't stop us!) . It was, as those who saw it know, a really good game.
Sadly, my Alouettes lost, but I don't know what else I should have expected from the French... I was able to take some solace in the fact that the Québecois sovereigntist who was there took the loss much, much harder than I did. It took all my strength not to kick him when, asked if he was Canadian, he responded "Non, I'm Québecois." I don't even know why they let him into the embassy...
On Monday (Nov. 28), we went to the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars (housed in the Ronald Reagan Building, interesting choice, thought I) for a discussion with the Directors of the Center's Canada and Mexico projects. It was actually pretty interesting, and I gained a new appreciation for Mexico. That appreciation would subsequently be diminished on Wednesday... but I'll discuss that when the time comes.
Tuesday (Nov. 29) was a pretty slow day at work... with Congress still on recess not much was going on, so I finished off one of my essays. That night we went to a dinner party at the Head of our section's house, which was a lot of fun. She had an absolutely gorgeous house in a great part of town: on the way up there we drove through Embassy Row and past the Vice President's house, the British Embassy, and the National Cathedral. I've decided that I need to make it back up there some time during the day before I leave to look around... but I hardly have any time left!
And on that note, I'm done for the day.
I'll begin with a brief history lesson. The Pilgrims were brilliant people. Brilliant and lazy people. Brilliant, lazy people who decided to hold their Thanksgiving on a Thursday, so that they could enjoy a de facto four-day holiday weekend. In reality, I think it might have been Abe Lincoln who put it on a Thursday, in which case he, too, was a brilliant and lazy man. But really, the history of how it happened isn't important. What's important is that I ended up with two extra days off which I spent, appropriately enough, in a brilliantly lazy fashion.
So, with most of my friends either home or away for the weekend, Thursday night I was invited to an intern Thanksgiving potluck that Claire and her roommates were holding. Marie, Claire's lovable roommate, suggested I bring "some buns, if I want," a suggestion at which I scoffed rather forcefully. Instead, after having my mother send me a recipe for pumpkin pie (which I hope was Grandma's recipe that I had asked for - I'd been craving Grandma's pumpkin pie since Canadian Thanksgiving...) I spent Thursday afternoon baking more pies than anybody could ever need.
You see, as a student of economics, I figured that by spreading out the 'fixed' costs of production - the various spices, etc. which I would have to buy no matter how many pies I baked - over more pies, I would be lowering the per-unit cost of each pie...
... sigh, it's no wonder I'm alone, heh heh.
Anyways, the dinner itself was quite enjoyable - everybody had made something delicious and exciting; luckily Claire had realized that the people cooking the main course were vegetarian and had rushed to the store to purchase some turkey. Of course, that's not to say that the stuffed eggplant wasn't a suitable main course...
On Friday (Nov. 25) I spent most of the day reading my gigantic new book and eating a ridiculous amount of left-over pumpkin pie. That night my friend Kristina and I went to the movies in an ultimately fruitless effort to see Harry Potter - even a week after it had opened in theatres it was still sold out! So, we saw RENT instead, which was quite good. However, I still haven't seen Harry Potter, since none of my friends down here have any interest in seeing it (I found out after the fact that even Kristina has never read any of the books or seen any of the movies and was just going along to humour me!) . It's a most regrettable situation.
I spent Saturday, again, reading, eating pie, and working on one of the essays I have to submit as part of my internship. I know I left the apartment to do something, but for the life of me I can't think of what it was.
Sunday was a more active day - Claire and I went skating at the ice rink they've set up in the National Gallery's sculpture gallery, which, while enjoyable, was hell on my feet. After that, we grabbed a late lunch/early dinner before heading over to the Embassy to meet Brendon and Jake to watch the Grey Cup (that's right, Uncle David, I caught it!). The embassy throws parties for most major Canadian sporting events, and extends invitations to all the Canadian expats in DC who have registered with their "Connect2Canada" network. They projected the game onto a big screen in the Cafeteria, and served pizza, wings, and wildly overpriced bad Canadian beer ($3 for a can of Labbatt's Blue? Ridiculous! Didn't stop us!) . It was, as those who saw it know, a really good game.
Sadly, my Alouettes lost, but I don't know what else I should have expected from the French... I was able to take some solace in the fact that the Québecois sovereigntist who was there took the loss much, much harder than I did. It took all my strength not to kick him when, asked if he was Canadian, he responded "Non, I'm Québecois." I don't even know why they let him into the embassy...
On Monday (Nov. 28), we went to the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars (housed in the Ronald Reagan Building, interesting choice, thought I) for a discussion with the Directors of the Center's Canada and Mexico projects. It was actually pretty interesting, and I gained a new appreciation for Mexico. That appreciation would subsequently be diminished on Wednesday... but I'll discuss that when the time comes.
Tuesday (Nov. 29) was a pretty slow day at work... with Congress still on recess not much was going on, so I finished off one of my essays. That night we went to a dinner party at the Head of our section's house, which was a lot of fun. She had an absolutely gorgeous house in a great part of town: on the way up there we drove through Embassy Row and past the Vice President's house, the British Embassy, and the National Cathedral. I've decided that I need to make it back up there some time during the day before I leave to look around... but I hardly have any time left!
And on that note, I'm done for the day.
posted by Scoops at 12:23 p.m.
4 Comments:
Tell us about Rick Mercer! Was he very erudite and witty in person, or did he pale in comparison to your in-house wit?
Were your pies the traditional pie-shape or could you in fact produce Elvis?
Mrs. Marchant!
So glad you've made a reappearance on the blog.
Rick Mercer seemed fairly witty from afar; sadly he left halfway through the game so we didn't get a chance to meet him in person. I'm glad you brought him up, though, because I forgot to mention his attendance at the Grey Cup party in my post.
The pies were of a traditional shape. After our conversation I briefly flirted with the idea of etching a likeness of the King on top of the pies, but realized my artistic skills were wanting.
Yes, well, frankly, glad to be back - discovered why my prior very supportive comments have not appeared - it seems that little "word verification" excercise at the bottom of the comment post is not merely an optional game! I thought it was like when you sign on to listen live to a radio station and they give you something to do while you are buffering....oh well.
...btw, forgot to mention that in my vast experience, many many seem witty....from afar! Its upclose and personal that you can truly tell the fairly witty from the actually very witty. Perhaps the Rickster will re appear to allow verification.
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