Today is Thursday, March 28, 2024. It’s getting late here since I went to Trivia Night at the Rove, a restaurant right here on Austin Street. I had intended to do this after attending one last week and meeting a former neighbor there who encouraged me to come tonight. So I did – without Elliot. He was too tired from driving to Huntington, Long Island, during the nasty weather we had all day. Starting from having breakfast at the Golden Reef Diner, on Sunrise Highway, we wended our way to Target, located on East Jericho Turnpike, where we stocked up on nonperishables like Bounty towels and toilet paper. We then drove to The Next Chapter, a bookstore on New York Avenue, in Huntington. I gave myself less than a half hour to browse the entire store, so I quickly picked up an interesting memoir called The Film Club, written by Canadian writer David Gilmour who bonds with his troubled teenage son over watching films together. It was first published by Thomas Allen Publishers in September 2007.

From there, we drove to Sweetie Pies on Main Street, located in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, which is a coffee and pastry shop that we have frequented several times before. We both had coffee – Elliot, iced, while mine was hot – and shared an apple crumb cake.

By the time we got back, it was close to 5, so I had little time to have dinner before walking to the restaurant for Trivia Night. I just had enough time to warm up some leftovers from last night’s dinner at White Radish.

Then I said goodbye to Elliot and Atticus and walked to Rove. When I got there, it was a little after 6 and no one was there yet. I took a seat by the bar and ordered a ginger ale. What a big drinker I am, right? Within minutes, my former neighbor came in and greeted me and sat down. Other trivia members came in and sat down around us. By 7:06, we were on our way: Trivia Night began!

The contest was divided into three sections with various questions focusing on the arts, pop culture, geography, history, and the like. I’m proud to say that I proffered several correct answers during the night. The contest, as you would expect, got harder after the first section. I think we got only two questions wrong in Part 1. From there, it got progressively worse. The only question I can recall is this one: what profession did painter Vincent Van Gogh originally want to pursue before becoming a world-famous artist? My colleagues on the team offered “architect” as the answer, but I had suggested “the priesthood” was the correct answer. You guessed it: the answer was “pastor.” So I was originally correct and I wasn’t even that confident that this was the answer. However, on other questions particularly targeting geography, I would have liked Elliot to be there playing with us. Altogether, we were eight people all assembled around a common purpose: to win. But that we did not do! We came in third, I believe. However, it was a lot of fun.

I hope to make this event a regular one if I can – with or without Elliot.

Today the sitting president appeared with two former presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, for a high-profile fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall right here in Manhattan. The three presidents sat for a conversation with late-night host Stephen Colbert. Tickets, I learned, for the fundraiser ranged from $225 to $500,000. In an online CNN article on this event, it was announced that some of the highest-dollar guests would have their photographs taken with the three presidents by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. Too bad I couldn’t be there. It appears that there were more than 5,000 donors who attended the event. I learned that the fundraiser raked in $25 million, which is excellent, given that the Orange Jesus is having difficulty matching Biden’s fundraising amounts. This figure represents the most successful single political fundraiser ever in terms of dollars raised. Around a third of that $25 million came from small-dollar, grassroots donations of $200 or less made online, sources familiar with the fundraising efforts told CNN.

I just hope the Republican Party becomes bankrupt because of the Orange Hemorrhoid hemorrhaging money for them. They deserve it for placing all of their broken eggs into the Trump basket!

Stay safe and be well.

This gargantuan Easter bunny greeted us at Sweetie Pies on Main Street where we went after stopping at The Next Chapter.