Marching and Laughing

I went back and forth on participation in the Women's March for a variety of reasons, some of them terribly selfish.  In the end, expecting that it might be big, that it might contain a number of handknits, and that we as a country might be headed towards a period of increasing restrictions on protests, I decided to go. I went with a knitter, so we had a lot of fun pointing out different hats to each other.  We arrived closer to march time, so the stops nearest the Mall had already been shut down due to massive crowds.  They at least wanted new people to have to join from a few blocks away.  Given the massive size they had blocked off additional stretches of Constitution, so we joined the crowds going that way.  It meant we slowed as we met up with those on the original march route as the two crowds joined. 

Since there's been some discussion if police reaction, I will say that I saw a MPD tank, but the officers atop it appeared to be helping crowd members take selfies. We saw various officers along the way and they were often stationed near a counter protester, I assume to make sure nothing happened there.  I did see an amazing reaction from Metro employees who had to have a cuckoo day, but they were extra friendly, extra helpful, and extra nice to all the folks coming through.  Given the pictures we'd seen of the morning metro crunch, we decided to bus back which worked eventually.  It wasn't faster than walking home but it involved sitting, which after that much extended standing was very nice. 

And then, after food and more tea had been acquired, we went to the "2 Dope Queens" live show/recording at the Lincoln Theater.  Regular host Jessica Williams was not there, but they had brought in Ilana Glazer to assist Phoebe Robinson and I almost don't want to spoil the guests because it was so fun to just have them be like and here's so-and-so and be like what?  Two of the guests had or did live in DC. But it was fun, and funny, and great to see the crowd most of whom also seemed to have marched, if the cheers and general air of exhaustion were any indication. It was a long but ultimately delightful day. 

Top Chef - Restaurant Wars Again

I hadn't really noticed until last night, when one Restaurant Wars team was all "Top Chef" veterans and one was half and half that the veterans had clearly done better.  But let's talk about that.  It isn't that the veterans are older or have more food experience.  It's just that, as I think we all know, "Top Chef" is only partly about the food.  Okay, it's totally about the food, but it's also about making food in ridiculous circumstances, and experience dealing with ridiculous circumstances is helpful.  And when I realized that meant Emily and Sylva were the last two "Top Chef" newbies standing, well, that surprised me.  

So, it's easy to say that Restaurant Wars is always about which team worked better together, but that's not true.  Teams that were a dumpster fire behind the scenes have managed to save themselves with a combination of good food and charming service.  And teams that were all harmony have suffered from boring food.  Unlike a lot of things that happen on "Top Chef" it is the most true thing about dining.  Do I remember crappy service or that I had to wait forever for my food?  Sure.  Will I forgive a lot if the food was great?  Yes.  Will I have very little to say about swiftly delivered boring food?  Also yes.  

I confess I have never worked farther into the kitchen than the soup station, so I have no idea what a good expediting system should look like, or how hard it should be to convey that to fellow chefs and the server staff when you have a single night to work with.  But, it seems like someone who said they've been thinking about this all these years (John) would have come up with a system that worked better.  Look, I get that once service has started it's really hard to regroup and there's barely enough time to admit you're delightful system has failed. But you're system's effectiveness is not based on how wonderful it is to you, if it fails when everyone else uses it.  

I also think Casey's insistence that she be the only hostess is one of those ideas that only works if everything else works perfectly.  If you decide you have to help in the kitchen you can't let people sit out there just waiting because you wouldn't let anyone else do this.  Which was really the theme of the night.  Katsuiji didn't want the executive chef job, so he figured he'd be the star by making the most things.  John was sure there was nothing wrong with his system that couldn't be fixed by everyone just doing it better.  And Sheldon and Casey both went into patch it and fix it mode. Honestly the fact that their team contained a chef that won Restaurant Wars as an executive chef (Sheldon) and they would not let him be executive chef was the clearest example that this team was caught between two power mongers who think leadership is about being the boldest jerk and not about handling problems. 

But enough about them.  The winning team did great and Sylva's story about his restaurant burning down was touching and I'm glad he at least has a successful pop-up to look back on. I'm glad Emily got to be on a successful team. And happy for Brooke and Shirley.  It's possible all my remaining faves have S names. But I swear that's coincidence. 

Three Interesting Things

1. This is the crap we talk about with Congress trying to overturn DC laws.  Congress wants to overturn DC's gun laws, even though the restrictions set up on the Capitol Building (where you know, the Congress peeps work) are even stricter.  So basically, they want to overturn laws that don't affect them because why? Do their constituents care about DC gun laws? Does it make the members of Congress feel cool?  No idea.  Leave my city alone, you guys. 

2. I have the utmost sympathy for professional social media folks.  (Seriously, scroll through the mentions of any transit provider someday.) As it changes how institutions interact with the public there is often friction.  As with one nearby school district where the person behind the account teased a student who misspelled a request for weather closure.  And then got fired.  So much for breezy interaction. 

3. I wrote about my reaction to the "Top Chef" immunity decision last week. This piece about it from Linda Holmes was also great. 

A Story About a Wall

I've mentioned before that I went to college in Scotland.  Because it's kind of far, my family did not visit until I graduated, and they stayed for two weeks (well, most of them) to travel about and kind of cram in as much of Scotland as they could.  I had two weeks between the end of exams and their arrival, so had done some last travelling about of my own prior to their arrival. So I had seen some castles, museums, and large churches (among other things) in the preceding weeks.  (I know, you feel sad that I had already seen so many things.)  

I had given my mom a list of things I had not yet seen in Scotland, which she mostly discarded, because it did not match the itinerary she already had.  I met up with my family in Edinburgh, we saw the castle and other sites. We took a side trip to another castle/museum. Then went to St. Andrews, where I took them around and then graduated.  (Woot!) Also, hat tip to the lovely waitress in the bar at our hotel that warned me that we had to kneel as part of the graduation (to be hooded) and that a lot of women tripped because their long skirt and/or gown slipped over the back of their heel and so when they stood they were all tangled up.  

Anyway, then we went to Mull, then to Glasgow, and somewhere in here I started to object.  I wanted more days with a little more space and little less scheduling.  (This is somewhat hilarious, because I am often the one who insists there must be a plan, I just find it easier to be more free with a starting plan.)  But the schedule called for all five of us to pile into a car and go see the Antonine Wall.  You have likely only heard of Hadrian's Wall. The Antonine Wall was built after Hadrian's and farther north. We got a bit lost and in the way of family vacations had hit that point where confined car time together had us all a little done each other.  Oh, and I think we were hungry.  But we had to hit the wall before lunch to adhere to the schedule.  

So, we found the place, which honestly looked more like a large British estate.  We didn't really see any sign about the wall.  We wandered around the back of the estate and found a sign, but no real evidence of a wall, just grass.  As we read the sign, we understood why.  The section of wall we arrived at had not been excavated.  So, there was a drawing on the sign of what they expected the wall to look like when it was fully excavated.  (I no longer remember which of the sites we visited, but it looked a little like this.)

We laughed.  Quite a bit. My mother said, well, now you'll never forget the Antonine Wall.  And you know what, she's right. 

Immunity and Reality Competition

As per the usual for this time in the competition, one of the rewards, other than bragging rights for chefs who win the quickfire is immunity from elimination.  In "Top Chef" (and let's face it "Project Runway" too) some contestants have taken that as leeway to go big, go bold, go crazy, and some chefs have decided to try to win the elimination round too.  (I know this week was also an elimination quickfire, but still.)  With, on "Top Chef" the advent of "Last Chance Kitchen" they have tended to feel a little less bad about eliminating a good chef who seemed to have a bad day in the kitchen because, "Last Chance Kitchen" provides the opportunity for them to earn their way back.  (And yes, in the end, if you argue for chefs the biggest advantage is exposure, their appearance has already achieved that, so enjoy the nice hotel.) 

I don't mean to suggest that chefs who made bad food got passes before, but I think as much as they try to pick the thing they would be least likely to eat again, there are still days where you know secretly, this person had a bad few hours, while this person seems to have reached the end of me wanting to eat their food right now. 

So one team had a person with immunity, a person with a strong personality, and a person who sounds badass in the interviews, but seems to default to sous chef mode when on teams.  The challenge had a treasure hunt aspect, and two of the members were local which seemed to actually mean they overthought the treasure map, and as a result were last to arrive on a few items.  So, the dude with immunity had said I'll take two of these items that don't seem to fit and make something.  

The thing he made was not good.  And also a boring idea.  It wasn't the only bad thing on his team, but it was the worst.  So when he said, hey, I'll give up my immunity because I don't think someone else should go home if my dish was your least favorite.  And in this case, the judges took him up on it.  Again, I think the Last Chance stuff factored in. Otherwise, I'd have been a strong proponent for these are the rules we set up, they don't get to change them.  Plus, as Tom pointed out, his team let him take two ingredients they didn't want knowing he had immunity and could create a crappy dish and they could have stopped that. Or tried to help.  

In some ways I think Jamie lucks out because next week is the Restaurant week challenge and there's enough problematic personalities left that you could not pay me enough to put up with that. (This is also probably why I'm not in the food industry.) So he gets to go compete one on one and maybe come back later.  And in the future, you know if there's another losing team with a person with immunity, the judges may well ask them if they want to give it up.