Itsy Bitsy Lexwegia

I enjoy Wee Sma Lex for a number of reasons. First of all, it’s my first opportunity to socialize with the season’s novices. We’ve gone to MHL/CFL events by now, but that’s mostly drive down and drive home and debate in the middle. Or tab in the middle, if you’re me (which you’re not). But at WSL, we have a couple of meals, and you actually get to know one another beyond the limits of the debate paradigm. Who’s vegeterrible, who eats eyeballs, who forgot to bring money, etc. Vinny T's had recently become our Friday night venue after a mere ten years of the Chinese restaurant had convinced me that the Chinese restaurant sucked. I had been pulled in by the buffet aspect, which made splitting the check a breeze until the Panivore came and ate her own bagels, thus upsetting the dumpling cart. This year it turned out that Vinny Ts was replaced in substance if not in form by a joint called Boca somethingorother. Their shtick is family portions, which means that every dish feeds a couple of people, except the desert, which feeds everybody. This proved to be a lot of fun, especially the desert, which was a brownie sundae the size of a small OOer. Not bad. On the return trip, of course, we stopped at Reins, the deli outside of Hartford that everybody who ever passes through Hartford somehow knows to stop at. This year no records were set in the matzo ball soup competition, but after last year, maybe everyone has given up trying. And this year no one attempted to buy the barrel of pickles, as Alli did last year: I think she’s still living on them up there at that dump she calls her college. In any case, tradition is tradition, and Reins is a big part of the tradition. Even the Panivore can find things on the menu to enjoy (although this year she was at Glenbrooks).

Another reason I like WSL is that the kids get housed for the first time, which breaks them in on that. Also, I get to hang out with CP and Sara, and we may have come up with some scheduling changes for next year amid our gossiping about all and sundry. And as far as the debating is concerned, the Sailors get to compete against a whole ’nother universe removed from our normal rivals, which is always a good thing. So, a lot of benefits. The only down side is that WSL is in Lexington, and it takes a bunch of hours to get there. This year, because our number was small, we went in an SUV, which was a little odd but, admittedly more comfortable (at least for me in the front seat, where I kept falling asleep). My only real complaint was that the driver liked having the radio on, and she had an uncanny knack to adjust the volume so that, a) you couldn’t hear the music, and b) you couldn’t hear anyone talking. Whatever. Driver rules when it comes to things like that, and far be it from me to rock the boat. Or the bus. Or whatever. Notorious as I am for my own musical entertainments when I’m the driver, I don’t think I’ve earned the right to complain about others.