My friend: So what’s on tap for you tonight?
Me: I’ve been invited to a warblogger dinner.
My friend: As what, the token leftie?
Me: Centrist. I’m a radical centrist.
My friend: You’re sure you weren’t invited just so they could…well, sacrifice you to their god?
Nonsense. I’m the guy who’ll do the on-stage spanking at Bondage-A-Go-Go and whom you can still take to meet your parents the day after. I get along with everybody, I always know which fork to use and I’ve had all my shots. That’s why they invite me to all the good dinner parties. To paraphrase the famous summary of my hero Ferris Bueller: “The hippies and warbloggers, radicals, neocons, suits, anarchists, SUV drivers, tree-huggers… they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.”
(My friend Deenster is probably rolling her eyes as she reads this. She hates it when I invoke The Bueller, and I’ve done it twice today.)
The bash took place at the Tuscany Cafe, a nice little Italian place located in that row of charming restaurants on Baldwin Street, nestled in a tree-lined pocket residential neighbourhood and crawling distance from my house. There were about a dozen attendees, among whom were Kathy “Relapsed Catholic” Shaidle, Rick “Movieblog” McGinnis, The Meatriarch, Mark Wickens, Dr. Weevil and Mark Weisblott (I’m sure I’m missing some names and URLs — let me know and I’ll update). The whole thing was organized by David “Ranting and Roaring” Janes, who did a wonderful job as host.
Being a gathering of conservatives, everyone had a job, good hygiene and a preference for eating meat, and no one threatened to launch into bad poetry or performance art (they did ask me to play a tune on the accordion before I left). The conversation was good, and was largely personal rather than political — a lot of getting-to-know-you chatting, questions about the New Girl Incident and I think Noam Chomsky, who figures very strongly in right-wing demonology, was mentioned only once (although that mention brought a collective groan from the table).
It was a lovely evening with some great folks, and it was a pleasure meeting all of you!
Thanks again to David Janes for organizing the event and inviting me!