Friday, March 1 and Saint David’s Day, the feast day of the patron of Wales and, well, David Littler!  David of Wales lived in the sixth century.

Restaurants in NYC include Pangea; Mie for sushi; Friend House (Asian, downstairs from us); Mexican at El Cantinero (excellent food on University Place) and MaryAnn’s for margaritas.  Near Cabrini Hospital is Tang Noodles, a Chinese noodle shop, and Mumbles for dinner (bland but inexpensive and a wide selection).  Also, Texas Rotisserie & Grill (a decent burger and great fruit salad; have the ribs).  Bryan makes his incredible homemade lasagna.

Saturday, March 2 and a quiet evening with So Graham Norton on BBC America, originally broadcast the week before Christmas 1999.

This episode has European artists Gilbert & George and the delectable Adam Rickett from Coronation Street.

Sunday, March 3 and I call Jeff Marshall and Alli Wong about their surprise engagement; it wasn’t entirely spontaneous (as Jeff says, “planned spontaneity”).  He had already purchased a ring without Alli; this is unusual, but Alli said it’s just perfect.  Queer as Folk has a nice plot line developing between Emmett and the pickle baron.  Of course, being a soap opera this is bound to turn out badly.

Monday, March 4 and since Bryan is on his fifth day of the flu, we go to the emergency room at Cabrini Hospital.  It is normal pneumonia; he stays the week as they give him intravenous antibiotics.  At least he has a nice private room with a great view (see picture).  So I play Florence Nightingale.  [This link is on the personal website of Country Joe McDonald!]

Tuesday, March 5 and I study for my Financial Analysis mid-term at New York University as I pursue my Master of Science in Publishing.

Wednesday, March 6 and my first appointment at the dental offices of Fredric Weber and Spencer Lew.  X-rays show no cavities after almost two decades!  There is also a new episode of The West Wing focusing on a birthday party for the First Lady (Stockard Channing as Dr. Abigail Bartlet).  The best scene involves Abbey and a group of women excusing themselves and getting drunk.

Thursday, March 7 and we watch Must See TV together; actually, Bryan at the hospital and me at home with phone calls during the advertisements.

Friends is interesting, Leap of Faith looks good in its second episode, and Will & Grace has Suzanne Pleshette again as Karen’s mom.

Friday, March 8 and Bryan is released from his hospital stay.  To celebrate, we go to Pangea for fried calamari, and then spaghetti bolognese for him and carbonara for me.

I listen to Vernon Handley’s version of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Job: A Masque for Dancing [check August 26, 2000 for commentary on different versions of it].

Saturday, March 9 and can this be a harbinger of the apocalypse? William Shatner has his own website.

I go shopping for new discs by Enya (read my review on April 13) and Alanis Morrisette, as well as the widescreen DVD of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband with Rupert Everett.

Sunday, March 10, Bryan gets a book on Stickley furniture and then it’s off to Stickley, Audi furniture to get a Schiffman mattress, and K-Mart for new Martha Stewart pillows and sheets. CBS airs French filmmakers Gedeon and Jules Naudet’s controversial 9/11 hosted by Robert De Niro, with footage of the World Trade Center attacks.

Monday, March 11 and six months ago a terrorist attack destroyed the World Trade Center and killed more than 2,800 people.  “We can’t do enough,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.  “We can’t say the right things.  But let us never forget those that we have lost.  Let us not lose sight of what we have to do again.”

Michelle Petersen invites us to her apartment in Battery Park City to witness “Tribute in Light” at 6:55 pm.  Luminous ghost towers were created by the positioning of 88 high-powered searchlights; soprano Jessye Norman sang “America the Beautiful.”

Tuesday, March 12 and on the left, we see actors who played Superman throughout the years:

George Reeves (1951-57), Christopher Reeve (1978-87), Dean Cain (1993-97) and Tom Welling (2001-).  Yes, there is a new episode of Smallville.

Wednesday, March 13 and in Episcopal news, Saint Bartholomew in Atlanta has called the Diocese’s first openly gay rector.

The Very Rev. William “Mac” McCord Thigpen III is scheduled to start April 28; he will be joined by his partner of seven years, John Lavier.

Thursday, March 14 and Bryan’s über-boss at HSBC has invited him to lunch to celebrate their promotions at Virgil’s.

I lunch at Torna Sorrento with my father (he has eaten lunch there every day for years); his foreman laughed when I told him I had their pasta puttanesca.  “How could I guess?  That’s what you always had!”

Friday, March 15 and I get two discount discs, one of Vaughan Williams’ “Mass in G Minor” (along with some other choral works) and Antonin Dvorák’s “Slavonic Dances” by the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell.

Saturday, March 16 and we drive to Lambertville NJ [see also May 2000 and January 2002] and an auction at David Rago.  Then cross the river into New Hope PA and drive west to the Bucks Beautiful Garden Fair in Doylestown.

By 4 pm, we drive north towards the Poconos.  In Bethlehem we found a great showroom of Mission oak, Stickley and Craftsmanstyle antique furniture, appropriately named “Strictly Mission.”  Their owner is J. Wynn Phillips, a garrulous and gregarious man.

Next is our reward.  Dinner at Everybody’s Café in Stroudsburg:  For appetizers, we split three tapas, a duckling leg in black cherries, shrimp kebabs with pesto and tomato sauces, and pierogi stuffed with pork with horseradish sauce.  Bryan has the kebab assortment for an entrée (one each of shrimp, chicken and beef over linguine) while I have the steak and shrimp in cornmeal with mushroom gravy.  Please note that it’s BYOB, so we had mango iced tea, then rhubarb-strawberry pie for dessert.  The total bill was only $63.

If we can find a cheap hotel we’ll stay overnight and come back here for Sunday brunch.  And since one of our favorite bars, the Rainbow Mountain Resort, was just up the road we headed to Marshalls Creek.

We stayed at Werry’s Cottages, and did our discount shopping at Odd-Lot, as well as Pocono Candle and the Christmas shop.  You have to visit the two web pages for our previous visits (February 1999 and Christmas 1999) for the full tour of this area.

Sunday, March 17 and we returned to Everybody’s Café in Stroudsburg for brunch.  I had the Colorado apple and cashew salad with raisins, celery and red cabbage in a lemon dressing; in my continuing search for non-alcoholic substitutes, I had a Sioux City Ginger Beer (so strong it had to be diluted with seltzer).  Bryan had the three egg omelet prepared Irish style with mushrooms, followed by raspberry mango cheesecake (not mixed, really side by side).  The total bill was $21.

Unfortunately, Vitale’s Antiques may be out of business.  However, we did investigate Lavender & Lace, a place with higher class attitude than antiques, and the Olde Engine Works.  Now that was a great find; originally a turbine factory decades ago, it had over a hundred different booths, each one with interesting and intriguing items at reasonable prices.  Yes, we bought a beautiful piece of McCoy art pottery!

Back home, we watched Queer as Folk and Chris Isaak on Showtime.

Monday, March 18 and the motherboard on my computer dies.  That means the week’s diary notes will have to be handled by pencil and paper!  Hmmm, handwriting … how does one do that again?

My parents join Bryan and I for dinner at Pangea.  Both of the owners were there; Stephen was as gracious as ever and Arnoldo turned out to have spent time in Italy and charmed my father with his crazy Cuban repartee – in Italian!

As for the menu that evening, my father had an arugula salad with mozzarella cheese, followed by spaghetti with little clams and marinara sauce.  Mom had bruschetta and the roasted bistro chicken, Bryan had the fried calamari and spaghetti Bolognese, and I had steamed mussels followed by the chicken breast in mustard sauce special (with sides of garlic spinach and bean and mango salad).

Finally, as icing on the cake, my friend Tony Jewiss+ was there with two friends from New Zealand.  I hadn’t realized that my parents had never met him; in addition, I also forgot that they had been to New Zealand and loved it.  So they all got along!

Tuesday, March 19 and after accounting class, on a new episode of Smallville, actor Joe Morton returns as guest; I’ve heard rumors of the show being cancelled.  If it is, it’s because the writing has veered more towards horror movie than the problems of youth feeling like outsiders (the moral of Superman for all these years).  We’ll see what happens.

Wednesday, March 20 and aliens are hunting down indigenous creatures for recreation on a new episode of Enterprise (“Rogue Planet”); and Leo (John Spencer) debates old friend and Air Force officer Gerald McRaney on an episode of The West Wing.

Thursday, March 21 and I buy a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion 751n with Windows XP and the upgrade of Microsoft Office; it has a 1.8 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 80 GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM, and CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives.  It’s just over a thousand dollars at Circuit City.  I looked at Compaq (just didn’t care for it; it reminded me of a Chrysler), Dell and Gateway (just too bland), and Sony (I didn’t feel like paying a couple of hundred more just for the name).

Friday, March 22 and we watch Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson (along with Jerry Stiller and Jon Voight) in Zoolander, rather silly but fun.

Next up is K-PAX with Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges.  Interestingly, the DVD has a different ending than the one in the theaters!

Saturday, March 23 and it’s perfectly gorgeous outside.  I listen to a few episodes of Saturday Night at the Movies.  What?  Oh, the film parodies that Dave Wohlman and I created as an intro to the Saturday evening programming on Boston’s WBCN for Oedipus.  Boy, were they good!  Props and much respect (what do they say now?) to Carla Nolin and, later, Kerry Waldron, who provided some of the distaff talent (when I wasn’t in voice drag!).

Palm Sunday, March 24 and the Academy Awards; Donald Sutherland and Glenn Close are the announcers at the new Kodak Center, Woody Allen make his only appearance at the ceremony (to introduce a short on New York City by Nora Ephron), Sidney Poitier and Robert Redford get career awards.

Of course, Whoopi Goldberg goes through her amazing costume changes.

Oh, and this is a poor excuse to mention the television series Bagdad Café with Whoopi Goldberg and Jean Stapleton.

Monday, March 25 and I stop at Virgin Records and find that magnificent Michael Praetorius that I reviewed in November (Lutheran Mass for Christmas Morning).  Bryan works late so we don’t see each other before I leave for marketing class; remember, I am pursuing my Master of Science in Publishing at New York University.

Tuesday, March 26 and I purchase a Decca double-cd of Liszt’s “A Faust Symphony” and the “Dante Symphony.”  You may remember that I heard the latter on WQXR in November, but this is a different version.  Later, my Financial Analysis class at the School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

Wednesday, March 27 and on this day, Dudley Moore dies (Bedazzled is my favorite film), then Milton Berle; then Billy Wilder.

In the evening, “Acquisition” is a new episode of Enterprise which introduces (remember, the show is a prequel) us to the Ferengi.  But not to new actors!  It seems that at least two of them (Jeffrey Combs and Ethan Phillips) were actors in previous iterations of the franchise!

Laura Dern guests as the new poet laureate of the United States dealing with the responsibility of an artist to the truth on a new episode of The West Wing.  A new episode of Law & Order revolves around the diamond market; a dealer lets his only son get murdered, just to maintain his “seat at the beggars’ table.”

Thursday, March 28 … He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?  [Micah 6:8]  It is the first day of Passover and Maundy Thursday in the Christian calendar.

In the evening, Friends has guest star Alec Baldwin and there are new episodes of Leap of Faith and Will & Grace with guests Sydney Pollack and Blythe Danner.

Good Friday, March 29 and I find myself outside the doors of Calvary/Saint George parish and their Good Friday noon service.  This is a “blended” parish; services are mainly held at Calvary, located on Park Avenue on the corner of 21st Street.  This one has very moving meditations on the perception of failure and the strength of poor stone (relating the story of the 12th Century French cathedral of Tours).

Saturday, March 30 and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (or, the Dowager Queen, or the Queen Mum or Mums, etc.) dies.  In general, I think most of us will miss her more than any of the rest of the monarchy!  Bryan and I go to the International Auto Show.  It’s a restful evening watching So Graham Norton; we’re asleep before the resurrection.

Easter Sunday, March 31 and Bryan and I attend church at my parish, Trinity Episcopal in Cranford NJ.  Remember your New Jersey history; George Washington crossed here, at the shallow water known as Crane’s ford (most of the farm area of the time was owned by the Crane family, still prominent in Cranford).

The rector (my friend the Reverend Craig Wylie) was shocked as saw us!  Celebrating with him was Barbara English and her husband, the church’s new deacon, Rowland Bonadie; the choir, led by Jim Lenney, wore their lovely deep violet cassocks, a gift of my mother.  Craig+ redacted a famous Easter sermon by John Chrysostom (“Golden Tongue”) which included a call-and-response with the congregation.

By 1 pm, we were at my parents for the traditional holiday dinner of lasagna and roast chicken.  Along with Bryan and various Lombardis, there were eight of us and we had a lovely time together.

Laudetur sancta Trinitas, Deo dicamus gratias.  Praise be to the holy Trinity, now and for evermore.

In January, we took the high road with an excerpt from Tennessee Williams; last month we took a fifty-question personality test.  This month we’re going low brow with the latest cute boys from current advertisements.  Maybe I can try to rescue this by mentioning the Commercial Closet and asking you to donate to their cause?

According to their site, “Commercial Closet is a unique, non-profit education and journalism project that proactively reaches out to ad agencies, corporations and the world-at-large to create change through reflection on its collection.”
 

From left to right, we have the latest models (and links) for Nautica jeans, Calvin Klein underwear, Phoenix Wealth Management, and Sisley.  Finally, don’t overlook the fact that the cover of a magazine is its most prominent advertisement, so this is my paltry excuse to show Brad Pitt on the cover of the December 2001 issue of Vanity Fair.

© 2002 Anthony Francis Vitale for T.V.O.D. throughout the known universe

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