“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter.”
Would anyone have believed in the first months of the twentieth year of the twenty-first century that this world would be in the grip of a pandemic?
Both those paragraphs describe a somewhat hard-to-believe scenario. You may well recognize the first paragraph as the opening to the work of fiction by H.G. Wells, “War of the Worlds”. Jeez, sadly, the second paragraph is no work of fiction; this is where we find ourselves.
As 2econd Friday began, back in April of 2017, we certainly did not consider for one moment that Part 36 would be held just days before Las Vegas closed the doors of all its casinos, for at least 30 days, in the hope of avoiding a complete collapse of the ability of cope with this situation.
Part 36 did go ahead, though. And it was a delight to have three Special Guests. Matt had just celebrated his birthday, a few days prior, and it included an extremely cunning cake. Special Guests two and three (Wendy and Steve) were obviously disappointed not to be able to test any of the extremely cunning cake. But not to worry, they were due to indulge in their own cake, a few days later; a wedding cake, no less. Congratulations to all Special Guests on their cake endeavors.
No cake was consumed at Sahara. There was meat. And pretty fantastic meat, at that. At Bazaar Meat by Jose Andres. Wife Camper is a big fan of Jose Andres, having seen him speak at Life Is Beautiful. He talked of safer cooking methods for women who would usually cook over open fires, which are seriously detrimental to their health; he created a solar cooker.
After Bazaar Meat, the Special Guests went home, and Wife Camper and Husband Downie went to the CASBAR Lounge, and then on to play some Baccarat. Rest assured, Edge-Sorting was not used. Vinnie, the pit boss, was great fun, occasionally declaring that the next hand would be commission-free. How Husband Downie laughed, when looking to see we were both betting on Player. Drat, I can’t remember the names of the two lovely dealers, but they get thumbs up from us.
Ha, look at that couch; surely that’s the longest couch you’ve ever seen. It’s certainly the longest couch 2econd Friday has encountered. What a great room, generally. We hope Sahara can get through the pandemic, as we’d be delighted to return.
For this month’s tune, I’ve sneakily broken the rule of choosing a song from the year of opening. After those opening thoughts of “War of the Worlds”, you can surely guess where this is headed. Doo, doo, dooooo. Doo, doo, doooo. Yip, you’re right.
Opening Date: October 7th, 1952, and August 29th, 2019
Tune: “Eve of the War” by Jeff Wayne
Dress Code: Fashion Forward