The Champagne And Club Sandwich World

And then all of a sudden a thing is right there before your eyes in reality – rather than just on the net!

And the reality teaches you a great big lesson.

A Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato sandwich can be staggeringly good. That is, if it is made with the right kind of bacon, and if the mayonnaise is top notch. To hell with all this stuff nowadays about salt. It's got to be made PROPERLY in order to be any good.

But if it is good it is sensational.

Of course in the old days this thing was known as the 'club sandwich' and it might have had all kinds of other things in it too. My personally preference is to add a few thick slices of white chicken breast.

In a day and age of great pretentiousness – hey just look at the Fed – there are those who seem to believe you have to go to a Michelin 3-star restaurant in order to open a decent champagne with a meal, and that just simply isn't the case.

Chicken goes with champagne. A few bits of chicken in a first class BLT (therefore 'plus chicken') and you can certainly justify getting out the Mumm or the Veuve Cliquot.

And what a satisfying course all of that is!

There is 15 kilos of gold-leaf spread all over the newly renovated Bolshoi Theatre - so we are told - and the carillon bells ring out at each premier night of a new ballet or opera. The beautiful red velvet drapes hang against the sides everywhere and of course also over the private boxes, and a huge glittering chandelier dazzles atop it all inside the main hall. There, indeed you can open the great champagnes and imbibe the scents of Robert Piguet's Bandit French perfume and the effluvia of the underarms of Russian mistresses and second wives in their Imperial Bargunzinskya Zobol coats...

The function of money as expense, is never matched by its ability to reward. The scale of reward from a great BLT and a glass of even vin ordinaire, is exponentially 'off the scale' as they say compared to its dollar cost. Although I'll admit that a well-prepared night at the opera or ballet equates. But only equates, mind you, in the sense that it too goes exponentially 'off the scale' of value for money. The two sorts of things are good, put it that way. And I never resist either, when opportunity puts them in my way. They are both very very satisfying experiences.

Best to All,

Calvin J. Bear