The Crucifier

Yesterday was my 49th birthday.  Danielle McArthur, Lynn Riser and I celebrated at the Metropolitan Grill, a steakhouse in downtown Seattle.  A lovely spot, I have to say, with outstanding service and food, but price-wise it's kind of a special occasion, once a year place (in my opinion).  At any rate, this was the second consecutive birthday I spent in Seattle after enjoying the previous 16, 17 or however many exactly (I don't care to count) in either San Francisco or its surrounding environs (Sea Ranch at least one year).  Next year, when I turn 50, I plan to do so in San Francisco at the House of Prime Rib, which was a regular birthday spot for me in the past.

When Danielle and I left San Francisco in June, 2011, among the other beads and baubles that made the journey along with us was a stack of cocktail napkins from a variety of my favorite SF bars and restaurants, including HOPR.  If you follow this blog at all, you will likely be aware of a couple of things, but one of them almost certainly is this - I like to present crosses in a variety of ways.  Type in the word "cross" in the search feature and you'll get quite a list ("centurion" will also bring up some crosses as well).  Now, of course, Lynn Riser is aware of this penchant of mine.  In fact, I have drawn crosses of a sort in his home in Tacoma (see posts dated 6/30/12 and 7/3/12).

And so because next birthday I plan to dine at the House of Prime Rib, I took three HOPR cocktail napkins along with us to the Met last night, kind of a forward nod.  (And, yes - I appropriated four Met coasters to bring along with me to HOPR in 2013.)  Now two of these HOPR napkins were pristine; I gave them to Danielle and Lynn at the bar.  But one of them did have a small, crude cross addition (see photo below - that was from an April, 2011 farewell dinner I had with Peeber right before D and I left SF).  I kept that one for my drink.  When we moved to the table, the napkins accompanied us to make their final stand.  Lynn, however, didn't realize my napkin had any additions.

Our fantastic waiter, Reggie, introduced himself to us and asked about cocktails; looking down at my napkin he made reference to me as "The Crucifier".  Lynn looked up at him and said, in essence, "But that's what he does, he draws crosses.  How could you possibly know that?" And, for a second or two, through Lynn's eyes, I experienced the tiniest approximation of, let's call it, "notoriety" - the illusion that somehow my crosses (and their connection to me) had made their way out into the world, to a place beyond the scope of these humble pages.  I kind of liked it.

Onward...


IBL:mm