Dangerous Laughter

Finished this one before our trip to San Francisco. I had never heard of Milhauser before, but the blurb on the cover about being by the same author as "Eisenheim the Illusionist" allowed me to talk dad into buying it, he having enjoyed the film The Illusionist so much. The book sat on a shelf for a while until I finally started it after having read the final story from the compilation "The Wizard of West Orange" in Best American Short Stories 2008 and "The Invasion from Outer Space" on The New Yorker website.

So - yes, I loved this book. I want more - I'm so hungry!

Because I am lazy, I'm going to quote and revise the facebook review I wrote about the book:

Millhauser is a master at taking oft to overused genre material and re-instilling it with wonder and philosophical relevance. Reading Millhauser is like taking a long vacation in the twilight zone and never fully returning to reality.

Birthday Cake chez R&J's

Saturday July 31st (evening):

I think the picture says it all this time around - srsly.

Blissful Cuisine at Plum Tree Inn

Tuesday August 3rd (Lunch [with the parents - from here-on-out: the prants - in Chinatown]): I have been falling behind on my blogging, so forgive me as I do my best to play catch-up and recall exactly how these past meals had me feeling once they found their way inside me. Stopping off in LA Chinatown on the way home from San Francisco, we had lunch at this sweet restaurant we'd eaten at twice before called Plum Tree Inn. The food is well-worth the waiter's insistence on calling you "boy", as in: "and what would the boy like to drink?". To be fair, we didn't have that waiter again this time, but I could see him serving other tables and I looked quickly away whenever he passed by. So we ordered the corn soup, "Shrimp with Honey Walnut", lemon chicken and snow peas with water chestnuts. Everything was delicious. I feel it's important to point out that the walnut shrip is different from other walnut shrimp dishes because it is simply glazed in honey instead of being drenched in a sweet mayonaise sauce. Not that this makes it superior - any walnut shrimp qualifies as my favorite Chinese dish, but this one is simply unique. Everything else is pretty much what you'd expect from a Chinese restaurant however, and this is a good thing.