Sunny Sundays in Washington

One of the constant joys in Washington is the Sunday morning Farmer's Market at Dupont Circle (two blocks from our flat).  I start out rushing to the furtherst stand (blocking the entrance to the Colombian Embassy residence) to make sure they still have a couple of their superb crab cakes.  So ascertained and purchase effected, I then proceed to the young blonde lady who sells wonderful Boston lettuces at $5 a head.  Then one of the French sourdough breads at $6.50.  That's a lot of money for simple bread, no matter how good.  But I suppose they don't have that much of a turn-over.  However, it shows how far this country has progressed since the days of Wonder Bread, that air-filled pap most Americans dined on merely a half century ago.  Wendy also takes care of peaches, apples and other fruits.  Tomatoes we skipped because a whole bucketful of that red delicacy is awaiting us at Allan Gerson's house this afternoon.  He offered it to us when he came to dinner last night--in return for Wendy's driving him to the airport so he can fly to join his wife Joan (author of a ceaseless row of Jewish cook books) in Martha's Vineyard where they will spend the rest of the summer.  I went to that fancy holiday island only once--to interview John Updike while covering the book beat at the NYT.
Allan is one of our more intelligent 'conservative' friends.  He once served as legal counsel to Amb. Jean Kirkpatrick.  As a result he told me this priceless story. 
He and Kirkpatrick (a doctrinaire - but intelligent - conservative who then was the U.S. envoy to the United Nations) had been invited by the Argentine Ambassador to a luncheon in honor of the foreign minister--Muniz, I believe.   When he picked her up to drive to the Department, she confided that throughout lunch Muniz had 'mumbled something about Malvinas, Malvinas'.  She conceded sh had not the slightest idea what he was talking about.  Nor did Allan.  Less than a week later they found out when faced by one of the worst diplomatic embarrassments the Reagan Administration experienced in relation to its foreign policy. 

Enjoy the week-end, what's left of it. 

Onkel Hank.