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Felici Anno Novus
Dec. 31st, 2007 07:25 pmToday, in the grand tradition of New Year’s Eves of past, I gorged myself on fine television and binged on sugar, caffeine, and spicy sandwiches. The Travel channel is running a marathon of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” series, which is an excellent blend of historical, culinary, and cultural delight. No kidding. The current episode is set in Ireland, where he tours Belfast and sampled a pint of Guiness with a Protestant and a Catholic man over steak-and-Guiness-pie. He then went to Dublin and ate traditional Asian food—right. My only real complaint about this show is that he often eats food in Ireland, then calls it Irish food (or other countries). To some degree I can understand the incorporation of Asian culture into Ireland, but then what is the point of traveling, when you can find international anywhere you go?
Despite this, I love this show, and Iceland is coming up next. I have no idea what traditional Iceland fare is like, but I’m eager to see. Bourdain went through one restaurant that had an onslaught of Irish shellfish. According to his unofficial guide in Dublin, Irish people rarely ate fish. Fresh fish available to you, and never sampling it. Amazing.
On another channel is non-stop Hitchcock favorites, including Rear Window and Psycho. Last night I had the privilege of watching The Trouble with Harry and Family Plot.
Interspersed are clips of Paris, London, Berlin and Romania celebrating the New Year with fireworks and—in the last case—dressing as bears and dancing. In Berlin’s case, there is music playing that, if I don’t miss my guess, is from Pirates of the Caribbean.
By now you’re no doubt mentally condemning my sloth and gluttony and counting downwards the various levels of hell I am no doubt descending to. I believe firmly in the ancient Roman hedonist tradition on New Year’s. I eat until I am sick, laze about, and watch TV, indulging in all my bad habits to the fullest. Tomorrow, I’ll fast for three days and start the new year anew with good habits.
And the utterance of the word “duck”, which is said to bring new luck for the entire new year.
I wish you all a decadent end of the old year and renewal with the new one.
Oh! And lest I forget, this year I will be afraid to do things, but will do them anyway; I will excel academically, even when it kills me; I will keep my temper with lesser beings and overlook their many, many faults; I will keep silent when I want to talk, and talk when I want to keep silent; I will forget about these in the space of two weeks and curl into a fetal ball, sleep fourteen hours a day, and play video games in between classes while trying to convince Courtney to watch X-Files with me at 1:00 in the morning when I should be studying.
Sounds good.
Anything called Black Death has got to be good.
--Anthony Bourdain
Despite this, I love this show, and Iceland is coming up next. I have no idea what traditional Iceland fare is like, but I’m eager to see. Bourdain went through one restaurant that had an onslaught of Irish shellfish. According to his unofficial guide in Dublin, Irish people rarely ate fish. Fresh fish available to you, and never sampling it. Amazing.
On another channel is non-stop Hitchcock favorites, including Rear Window and Psycho. Last night I had the privilege of watching The Trouble with Harry and Family Plot.
Interspersed are clips of Paris, London, Berlin and Romania celebrating the New Year with fireworks and—in the last case—dressing as bears and dancing. In Berlin’s case, there is music playing that, if I don’t miss my guess, is from Pirates of the Caribbean.
By now you’re no doubt mentally condemning my sloth and gluttony and counting downwards the various levels of hell I am no doubt descending to. I believe firmly in the ancient Roman hedonist tradition on New Year’s. I eat until I am sick, laze about, and watch TV, indulging in all my bad habits to the fullest. Tomorrow, I’ll fast for three days and start the new year anew with good habits.
And the utterance of the word “duck”, which is said to bring new luck for the entire new year.
I wish you all a decadent end of the old year and renewal with the new one.
Oh! And lest I forget, this year I will be afraid to do things, but will do them anyway; I will excel academically, even when it kills me; I will keep my temper with lesser beings and overlook their many, many faults; I will keep silent when I want to talk, and talk when I want to keep silent; I will forget about these in the space of two weeks and curl into a fetal ball, sleep fourteen hours a day, and play video games in between classes while trying to convince Courtney to watch X-Files with me at 1:00 in the morning when I should be studying.
Sounds good.
Anything called Black Death has got to be good.
--Anthony Bourdain
