Saturday slacking

Tonight's the night, NOT going to be all right, when I try doing up steaks for Howard. I just went to Johnny's Meats on Hertel to purchase the steaks and ask for advice. Everyone at Johnny's Meats is pulling for me. The gal behind the counter suggested New York Strip because, she said, "the men all go for them." Then another woman, another customer, counseled me on how to broil it so it comes out rare. Other people got involved and the final consensus was, broil it 4 minutes on each side. You can always put it back again if it needs more cooking. But once it is overcooked you cannot un-cook it. That is what we all agreed.

So far I have been having the greatest slacker Saturday. I have not been working. As soon as I get done with this it is Leonard Pennario for the rest of the day. But that's OK. I am in the middle of writing about a year of his life that I love, 1950. That is the year he played the piano for the movie September Affair.

Wow, now I am sitting there watching that link and thinking: Was there ever a pianist like Pennario? More woolgathering. This is my day for that.

How I have wasted my day so far:

Up at 6:30, worked until 8. Well, look, I did get some work done. That chapter, I love it.

Around 8 my brother George called up and he came over. He and Howard and I sat around and I made a frittata with mushrooms, peppers, onions and feta cheese, listen to me brag. George and I ate it for breakfast and Howard, who had already eaten, ate it as a second breakfast.

We all sat around and drank coffee and talked about how short the days are getting, what idiots they are at the Albright-Knox, Howard's boiler at Big Blue and how George had not known before reading my blog about how Ludwig Koechel catalogued Mozart's works. There is supposed to be an umlaut over the "o" but I can't do umlauts so I am writing "oe" instead.

At about 10 George and I went to our friend Gary's house and sat around listening to George Shearing and watching Gary make wine. This is the wine I am supposedly making with Gary but really, I just go in for the juice, Gary does all the work. My job mostly consisted of dealing with the Shearing record when it skipped.

At about quarter to 12 Gary had to go teach a dance class and I continued my slacking by going to the Tridentine Requiem Mass being held at St. Ann's. I hadn't really thought I would go because a Requiem Mass is kind of somber for the middle of the day, but I was curious as to what a Latin Requiem Mass was like and besides, I wanted to be able to absorb the atmosphere of beautiful St. Ann's before it gets boarded up and left to rot. Can you believe Buffalo? I mean, can you believe it?

You could tell the church was full of people not used to the Latin Mass because when it was over, as soon as the procession had gone down the center aisle they all got up and started chit-chatting. Usually you kind of sit there until the priest has left the church. Well, it must have been an interesting introduction to some of them. Old people, too! I heard one old lady saying, "I haven't been to a Latin Mass in so long."

I read in the New York Times that the Latin Mass has more of a following among the young -- people who were born too late to remember it -- than among the old. I have to say I am more keen on it than my mom is. It might go along with other old-fashioned things my generation likes to do, things like canning and baking our own bread and, well, making our own wine (or watching our friends do it). People my mom's age think we're nuts. They think: We don't have to do that any more! Why do you want to take the long way?

How did I get onto all that?

After Mass I sat around chatting with a few people at St. Ann's about Jocko. Everyone knows Jocko. No matter where you go in the city that is where the conversation leads. Then I went to pick up my bag of veggies from the farm. The most interesting thing in the bag this week are these Black Truffle Japanese Heirloom Tomatoes. I will have to taste them and report.

Then I went to Johnny's Meats. Oh, the food shopping I have been doing. Yesterday I got yelled at at the Hoowa Supermarket. That is this crazy little Oriental market at Northtown Plaza where I went after I had to get my car photographed at Schmidt's. But I will have to save that story for later.

I have done enough slacking for one day.