New penance for starving writers: black-pepper oatmeal cookies (from Scotland, culinary capital of the universe). I have them with sencha tea.
My companion du jour says they aren’t sweet, aren’t delicious and are way too expensive (only available at Villa, in Bangkok). Neither has she any use for hair shirts or unheated garrets.
Actually, in Bangkok all garrets are unheated, at least by human design. Same goes for the penthouses, for that matter. What do starving writers and gouty moguls have in common, at least locally?
Anyway, the point is this: Collin says the local Villa Supermarket was unplundered by the local hi-so rabble. I got there not long after he and Sara added to their emergency horde—and normally I wouldn’t be caught dead in such a bourgeois establishment, unless I had some money—and what do I find? All the water and rice anybody could ever want, for reasons that escape me, but all the black-pepper oatmeal cookies are gone, probably to some gouty mogul.
I didn’t realize you had an emergency horde. Do you rent them out for parties?
Quite right. Jack’s a writer. I’m a writer and editor. Right, Jack?
Yeah, yeah. “Horde”, “hoard”… you’d never know the difference if you heard it in a blues song. Did you guys really get up at this insane hour just to blog? My excuse? Hey, I’m just getting in. Don’t even need an excuse, since the curfew didn’t finish till 5am. One more day of curfew to go, if the current tranquility persists. Fingers crossed.
Writers are supposed to starve. It stimulates creativity. You had better copyright the term “gouty moguls.” It would be a good name for a rock band.
A hip-hop band, maybe, with beer bellies and floppy trousers dragging around their ankles. They could smoke big cigars as they perform.
Jack, did you mean to write hors d’?
Dear HIgashikamiyama-san, I’m afraid your comment has gone over my head, a common event among starving writers, who are notoriously light-headed and prone to confusion. Plus it’s really early in the morning, here in Bangkok. Cheers
I meant to say Dear Heck. As I said, light-headed, not yet awake.