in which we fiddle while Rome burns

Periodically Himself frets about what might happen if we outlive our resources, physical, financial, mental...  The older work colleagues who mentored him at his First Real Job have been "dropping off the branch" one by one. It's a rare joy to be invited to someone's Great Birthday Celebration and to be in a crowd of lively intrepid people who are Aged and Intact. Not so lovely to pick up the phone and recognize the caller's voice as he stumbles to recall who he was calling and what he wanted to tell you.

I of course deal with Creeping Post-40 Paranoia and its scary relative, Creeping Post-50 Paranoia, by focussing on a lady named Ninon de Lenclos, whom I consider a role model - and if you didn't read the earlier post I just linked to, take a look now and store it away for dreary days.

But it's not easy to avoid glum social and financial predictions as tax time approaches and papers are being shuffled.

So we went out to lunch at Le Bernardin. What else!

I took a few little snaps of some of the lovely things that came to the table:

glamorous table setting

my first course:
beautifully barbered thin slice of tuna
over thinner slice of toast
spread with foie gras

his main course:
(delicious - but description copied off the menu,
I couldn't make this up)

• Poached Halibut; Romenesco, Brussel Sprouts
•  Yuzu Scented Sea Urchin Emulsion

my main:
baked filet of snapper
Baja-style shrimp sauce
roasted green tomatoes

my dessert - per the menu:

• Flourless Hazelnut Cake, Gianduja Mousse, 
• Orange Curd, Praline Ice Cream
• frankly, a lot of fuss, not much flavor

and as we left, we observed this Extremely Large Rabbit right next door.

I'm sure he was there when we arrived, but as I said to a guy named Barry a little while ago, you don't want to get between me and food.