Do dah doo-do, do dah doo-do...

[avram]

I resolved yesterday to sketch more people in public. I’m carrying around this sketchpad and markers, I might as well use them. And my current subway reading is John McPhee’s Irons in the Fire, a book of non-fiction essays (the title essay is about a cattle brand inspector in Nevada), so I don’t really have to worry about losing the narrative thread if I wind up drawing instead of reading for a few days.

Small turnout at Games Club last night, lots of folks out of town. I played a little Set and a couple of games of Limits, both of which I did terribly at. I still like the intensity that Limits provides, but I’m convinced more than ever that it’s a game where your progress is based largely on the ability of the player sitting next to you. If there’s a player who consistently under-counts cards, then the player sitting to that player’s right will probably win.

Afterwards it was a small group of three people (as opposed to our usual six or eight or more) who headed out to Tom’s Restaurant. Tom’s has been made famous by Seinfeld and Suzanne Vega, but not because the food’s any good. They’ll do OK for standard diner fare — eggs, toast, bacon, burgers — and the egg creams and shakes are good, but the more ambitious fare should be avoided. Josh once ordered some lamb chops that turned out to consist almost entirely of fat. It’s popular mostly because it’s the only restaurant in the neighborhood of Columiba University that’s open all night on weekends.