Warmth!

Spring! Yay! Warm! Yay!

So off I went to lower Broadway to wander around (leaving it rather too late so that every single Japanese tourist was out - oh, well). But I had a lovely time. And I didn't even find a single piece of clothing that turned me on so much that I bewailed my state of poverty! This is a definite plus. Even Ann Taylor Loft was totally devoid of dresses that I consider wearable for me. You see, I think that the nicest thing about summer is that you throw on your underwear and a dress and walk out the door. If you have to then put on a cardigan because the dress is too bare, it sort of ruins the ease of the whole thing. (Yeah, yeah - I know. You need the damn sweater for the air conditioning.)

And of course I had to stop at Dean and DeLuca. How can you NOT stop at Dean and DeLuca? It was, as always, fascinating. I have a recurring dream in which I walk into the place early in the morning when they have just opened and the floor is still a little wet. I slip and fall, and the management (in order to avoid an expensive lawsuit) promptly offers me a $5,000 credit at the store. I buy a pound of steak, a dozen oysters, a pound of ham, and some cheese and realize I am now out of money.

This is fantasy land for foodies. $40 a pound ham. A 10 ounce can of foie gras for $75. $12 candy bars. Who on earth shops here? Obviously I know who shops here - the people who own those six bedroom lofts in Tribeca shop here, that's who. But oh, Lord - food never looked so good. Those glistening slabs of smoked salmon imported directly from Scotland, that fresh caviar, those breads...the fruit that looks as if every piece has been individually polished, even the tiny champagne grapes ($18 per pound). I always feel like Sarah Crewe in The Little Princess, cold and wet in an English winter, standing by the door of the bakery just to smell the aroma. Only in that scene, the nice motherly bakery owner gives her a hot bun. This never happens to me at Dean and DeLuca, damn it.

Proofreading here, I noticed that before I fixed it, I managed to spell Dean and DeLuca three different ways originally. That was interesting. Clearly I'm high on the $30 a pound veal chops.

And to think I almost had the place in the family. My sister-in-law was at one point more or less engaged to the guy who headed up Dean and DeLuca for some years. Unfortunately, she married someone else, for which I have mostly forgiven her - mainly because frankly, the guy was rather a whiny schlub and besides that, I like my brother-in-law very much. But when I think of the missed D&D Christmas gift baskets....sigh.

Love, Wendy