Diner en Blanc

This one was totally under my radar.  It's really way too hoighty toighty for me, but still I find it interesting.  It's called Diner en Blanc, a spontaneous bring-your-own-dinner party where everyone wears white (that's the "en Blanc" part) and meets in a park, the exact one announced only minutes before it starts.  And they show up in droves:

Four thousand people showed up at NYC's Bryant Park last week to break bread and schmooze.  And they didn't just bring their own little picnic basket full of fried chicken....oh no!  They brought their own tables, chairs, table cloths, china, etc.

The concept started in Paris 25 years ago and is still going strong there today....

Now there are organized Diner en Blanc events in 40 cities around the world, with another 400 cities asking to have one organized in their area, too.

I can't imagine going anywhere dressed in all white.  I'm like that little slob kid in the Charlie Brown entourage who has a cloud of dirt and dust around him at all times. Best case I'd show up in "dirty gray" and be denied entry.  Maybe I'd better just stick with gourmet food trucks.  Their dress code is more to my liking.

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Is anyone besides me here in landlocked America keeping up with the America's Cup?  This is the sailing event where teams vie to take on the reigning champion, currently Oracle Team USA.  After a lengthy Louis Vuitton Cup series where Emirates Team New Zealand won the right to challenge Team USA, and then jumped out to a commanding lead (8-2), Oracle has come back strong.  Right now it is tied up 8 wins each.  The race today is winner take all.

The race will be televised on the NBC Sports channel at 1:15 pm Pacific Time, and on the free America's Cup app for iPad.  I don't know squat about the tactics and strategy behind sailing, but I just like the come-from-behind drama.  

It's like being behind by 5 touchdowns going into the 4th quarter, then somehow coming back and kicking a field goal as the final second ticks off to win.  Will that happen here today?  

I've watched most of the races so far and have become addicted.  *gettin' my nachos and cold beer ready*  :)

S

Yacht racing on the high plains, and I was there!

So last night K went to an "Arrivederci, love you / mean it" party for one of her co-workers who is going on to law school, leaving me home alone to fend for myself.  That didn't bother me at all as I actually enjoy my own company and had a plethora of books to read, a big-enough TV to watch, and more than one bottle of vino.

While channel surfing I stumbled across one of the Louis Vuitton Challenge Cup races from San Francisco.  This is the series of races that determines who the challenger will be versus the reigning champ Oracle boat in the America's Cup (yacht racing).  I was absolutely mesmerized by what these things can do!

This is Luna Rossa, the Italian entry.

What I didn't fully understand until they explained it last night, if the skipper is really on his toes and can balance his boat just right, these 72' catamarans can actually rise out of the water, riding on just a couple of curved foils (like underwater wings), the hulls never touching the water.  This reduces drag and enables them to go well over 40 mph. 

It seems to me they're as much airplane as boat.  It's like watching a ballet, the dancer precariously balanced on her tippy-toes.

I think things like this appeal to me so much because they are unlike anything I'll ever see here in Dallas, Tx, USA.  It's sort of like downhill skiing or the luge in the winter Olympics.

I wonder if people who live in the mountains ever just sit around and think, "Oh man, I'd love to see people walking on flat ground, just standing there....sweating.  I wonder if there's a cable channel that shows cool stuff like that?"

Have a great Saturday everyone.  I've gotta get going....I have a big day planned.  I'm gonna stand here on flat ground....and sweat.  :)

S

My career as an America's Cup sailor

Growing up near land-locked Dallas I was always impressed by what I didn't have....the ocean, and in particular sailing ships. They were just so foreign to anything I ever saw here.  All we have near me are lakes, which are usually packed with drunken redneck boaters doing stupid things....nothing I want any part of.  

In my yout I always looked forward to watching the America's Cup races on ABC's Wide World of Sports.  The America's Cup was the most prestigious event in sailing, and the boats were sleek racing yachts crewed by intrepid sailors hanging on for dear life.  To me they were the most beautiful, exotic things in the world.

One summer around this time we were invited to go with our friends Ingrid and Bill to Galveston Island where Ingrid's aunt and uncle had a beach house.  Best of all, they also had a sailboat, and I was determined to launch my America's Cup racing career in that little boat.  It wasn't much, but it was a start....a little tiny thing that was just big enough for two people.

It looked something like this.

I bought a book on sailing and learned all there was to know on the subject, or so I thought.  In my mind I could "reach" and "tack" and "run", all those nautical things I would need to know during The Big Race. 

After a few days lying in the dirt on the beach I broached the subject to Ingrid:  "Why don't we take your uncle's little sailboat out?  I know how to sail."

Always game in a sort of wonderfully ditsy way, Ingrid and I lowered our racer into the water and pushed it out a ways, then I raised the mainsail and we were off!  Down the canal, into the marina, then out into the open bay we flew.

I was doing nicely until I realized we were getting uncomfortably far from land.  Time to turn back. That's when I realized sailing into the wind was a lot easier said than done.  I tried to act cool, but Ingrid and I both soon knew it was time to start paddling.

After what seemed like forever we finally made it back inside the protected bay where the wind changed on me again.  I don't care which way I turned the rudder, my boat was going where it wanted to go, my input be damned.

And where it wanted to go was straight into a covered boat stall on the far side of the marina.  Somehow by the Grace of God I "sailed" straight into the only one vacant.  The relatively soft impact with the dock threw me out of the boat....into water about 4 feet deep!  It was a humiliating waist-deep walk back across the marina pulling that little boat with Ingrid still perched on top.

That day I learned a valuable lesson:   It's a very short walk from being a Hero to a Zero.

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Today I was reading about the Louis Vuitton Challenge Cup currently underway in San Francisco to determine the next America's Cup challenger.  Now their boats are huge catamarans and they're flying through the air about as much as they're skimming over the water.  Just amazing!

I'm still impressed!  Maybe in my next life.  *sigh*

Happy Independence Day everyone.  ;)

S