Very Good

The trouble with reading blogs is that I find things that are things I ought to write about, only that what I'm reading is better than what I would write. Now that sentence is one reason why. Like others, I have been loath to write much about Israel's vicious bombing of Lebanon. I'll admit to not wanting to suffer the slings & arrows of outraged people throwing the anti-semitism hand grenade my way. Here is a great piece on the recent problems in Lebanon. It's via Sadly, No!

Near the end of the meal, I heard a buzz from the wait-station. Kate was in a corner, pretending not to be freaking out. Paul came out from the kitchen. The Prince had been playing grab-ass with Kate all night. The other servers had seen it. She'd tried not to make a big deal of it, but when it became plain that she wasn't into Captain Handsy, our visiting dignitary had launched into a particularly nasty set of comments.

A bunch of us followed Paul out as he crossed onto the patio. He nodded to the Saudi. "Yeah. I gotta ask you to leave."

Objections arose. Paul shook his head. "She works for me. I don't allow that for any guest. Now I gotta ask you a second time, please leave. Meal's on the house."

The Saudi's lackey starts to yell: "You can't talk to him like this! This man is Prince --"

Paul cuts him off with a whistle, a New York cab whistle. Sets his shoulders and says:

"This is America, which makes you the Prince of absolutely fucking nobody."

The single most patriotic moment of my life.