Dinner party success

We hosted a

dinner party for a handful of Fort

Greene people at my friend Cori Brown's pad Saturday night. (Too bad Cori had to go home the day before for a family emergency.) I wish I could say this was all my doing, but my co-host Wendy Ing deserves the credit. I did manage to prepare the beef bourguignon and the chocolate cake. Meanwhile she sewed up a tablecloth (!) and napkins and trucked in a full kitchen (including vases, votives, tea towels, serving dishes and cheese knives.)

Our seven-pound red snapper was almost too beautiful to cut into.

Between courses we played "name the top filmakers" (the criteria is they have to have made four or more great movies): Hitchcock, Kubrick, Pollanski, Fellini, Ingmar Bergman--but not Orson Welles because he only has two greats--not four. For some inexplicable the guys gravitated toward the East end of the table to compare taxes between provincial Denmark and melting pot, USA. Meanwhile our end began to bemoan the loss of independence kids have today until somebody ran down the who's who of sexual predators in Fort Greene. Who'd have guessed there are like 20 on Clinton Ave alone.

At 2am as we're doing dishes and packing up plastic bins full of dinnerware and hauling it back up three flights of stairs, Wendy says: "This is so fun, and it really wasn't too much work at all. I can't wait until you come back so we can do it again." Cheers!

I'm praying Wendy's ever-positive spirit is contagious and will rub off on Timi. I can't believe how much I'll miss her next year...along with all the rest of the Brooklyn, New York and upstate crew. Some people are scared of swine flu and the neighborhood pervs. Not me. I'm terrified of ten months without me pepes. Oh well, there's always the neighbor's plum schnapps to lift me spirits.