The Whip, Sangraal, And The Lake Of Piety

At one of the Christmas parties last week, two guys gave the hostess a gag gift (consisting of a negligee and a riding crop), then told the following story: they were out, with kids in strollers, to get her some gift, and they were at a loss for gift ideas so one called his wife at work. She replied that she was busy and "just get her something slutty."

So, off they went to an adult novelty store at the mall, where one guy -- big, heavyset, large beard and shaved head -- waited outside with the strollers while the other went inside. He asked the clerk for something slinky in a certain size, "for a friend," and she kept looking dubiously at the big dude outside with the strollers, and trying to steer him toward the larger outfits...

There was much juvenile snickering of an adult nature, and later the talk turned to merkins. Now, I knew what a "merkin" was (you'll have to look it up yourself) from Gravity's Rainbow, but not everyone there was as well-read, so the discussion got interesting once again -- but I now believe I'm also the only one in that crowd to see Dr Strangelove. Anyway, just for laughs I looked up "merkin" in Wikipedia the other day, and found this quote from Lolita:

"Although I told myself I was looking merely for a soothing presence, a glorified pot-au-feu, an animated merkin, what really attracted me to Valeria was the imitation she gave of a little girl."

So then I had to look up "pot-au-feu," and found -- that's what I've been eating for dinner these past few weeks! What I had for dinner tonight. Small world.

Anyway, the reading material at the dinner table is Rat Scabies And The Holy Grail, where our intrepid adventurers have just arrived home from a second trip to Rennes-le-Château. Not sure what they ate, but they are discussing the very real possibility that the whole set of Grail-shaped mysteries centered on the town could just be one very elaborate hoax, albeit one so large and complicated as to be a paranoid wonder in and of itself -- like, oh I don't know, maybe the Trystero...

That's what's in the kitchen; Gravity's Rainbow is my current bathroom reader. I happen to be doing some bathroom reading, not even going to bother explaining what's going on but all of a sudden there's a passage about the Grail. And the circle gets tighter...