I think we technically qualified as a horde tonight, such were our numbers. We were: Adrian, John T., Cathy, Dean, John L., Jeff, Cindy, Lindsay, Don, Ferne, and myself — Tomek. At my end of the table — the cool end, of course — we discussed the glories of yard work, fat woodchucks, some deer, literary allusion (which evoked for me my favorite Fry & Laurie skit on language), Cops, the militarization of police, racism, the irrationality of nationalism and identity-based pride, ethnic food festivals, phallus flutes, the evolution of “coming out of the closet,” and Frost Farm. As always, a good time was had by all.
The Corner Booth, Writing-(noun & verb)
Write Free or Die 
One of my favorite exercises in allusion is the “millihelen,” which will be familiar to some as the unit of female beauty sufficient to launch one ship. I love this joke because of its multi-layered allusion. When I mentioned “cultural literacy” last night among my allusive peregrinations , I was referring to the probability (or not) that one’s peers, contemporaries, and companions will understand what one is talking about, not only on a literal level, but also in terms of the underlying references. Obviously, it’s easy to go off the deep end and be obscure, but it’s also easy to surprise oneself – having to explain, for example, not only about Troy (I had used Priam in an example to Cathy, but Helen is an even more familiar figure from the same milieu) but about Faust and about Kit Marlowe.
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