Scathe spot

Thursday evening, we took in the worst City Lights downtown lighting event I've been to.

I guess you can't make up for there being snow on the ground (last year, I think) or the blinky light buttons (that they handed out the first year), but seriously, the lights were much fewer than they used to be, with buildings that I know were lit before now dark and with the music-synchronization-blinky part of the event very short.

Corporate sponsors were not pasted along Bartle Hall's east-facing wall, either, which is probably the main sign/explanation that I'm looking for. I didn't go "early enough" for the speeches-part, so perhaps I missed something other than the fact that the Salvation Army was putting this one on. Maybe that was it. You know, Labor Party-types from the earlier part of last century used to call them the "Starvation Army." Good thing they give out free turkey dinners now. . . .

After the lights, even though it smacks of trendiness and things that make me go "ugh," we went to JP's Wine Bar and Coffee House to celebrate my friend's birthday. I hadn't been there since my own birthday. (It was my idea.)

Thursday also was the debut of the 2006 Beaujolais wine, so the place was packed. We lucky five somehow got a booth and then spent $80.

I happen to like that kind of wine, by the way, so I can't be accused of trendiness. It's smooth, basic and lacks the usual crappy table wine bitterness.

I prefer JPs in the light of summer evenings, I found, with hardly no one else around so I can pretend my living room is pretty and there are people in my employ who like to bring me cheese and wine in proper glasses. Next summer, I'm looking forward to using their new outdoor cafe space.

Leaving, though, being the downlooker that I am, I noticed this lovely bit of fine craftsmanship on a utility pole outside. Note white sock without blood.


I'm just saying, if I really wanted to or if I had been really drunk, I could have found an injury. I like how whoever it was folded the metal binder back for safekeeping.