Last Saturday, we went to a Christmas/end-of-the-year party for the members and particpants of a local community center. Jonathan teaches a class there, so we attended. We decided to dress up a bit and were worried we might be overdressed, but it turned out to be a fairly formal affair and we were dressed exactly right. We ate good food and played silly games. Oddly, tho, it was held in an out-of-style church-basement-kinda room with tacky light fixtures and drab walls. It gave the gathering a slightly comical touch. Anyway, at the beginning of the event, we listened to a few solo numbers performed by various instrumentalists and then stood through prepared speeches of three or four different members of some committee or board. This opening was especially notable to me because I hadn't had a thing to eat that whole day, and we had to stand there listening and waiting while the food sat on the tables under our noses. And this was multilingual food. No translation necessary. It was clearly saying to me, "Saarraaaah. Eeeaaat meee. Eat me noooowww..." It was all I could do to drown out its terrifingly beautiful Siren song. Not to put too fine a point on it.... heh heh.... Okay, then. Moving on...