Must Have Been The Calamari

This is carpaccio from the Meatball Kitchen. It'll make sense in a minute.

On Saturday, when the guy paid The Great Plotnik in cash for the first batch of Craig's List electronica sold out of the The Great Plotnik World Headquarters, Meatball Kitchen and Archiver of Old, Dusty Electronic Devices That Apparently They Will Still Buy In Europe, Plot checked the $100 bills to make sure they were OK. He's heard a lot about new, counterfeit $100 bills from North Korea and Iran, the Axis of E Pluribus Unum...but these bills were old and folded, and not stinking of fresh ink, and the sale was effectuated.

Still, as soon as the guy left, Plotnik decided he and Ducknik should go out to dinner. He invited along one of his new $100s.

So last night The Plotniks ate at Delfina's. The calamari and the raspberry/nectarine crostata were divine, everything else was Good, But.

Plotnik's Restaurant Law #1 says that if he can cook it better, he doesn't want to pay restaurant prices to eat it. If he orders carpaccio, it better be better than carpaccio at the Meatball Kitchen. At Delfina's, The calamari, the crostata and the draft Anchor Steam passed that test, but the tuna, the fishy pasta and the kale did not. They were Good, But.

Then, in the middle of the night, Plotnik had this dream: He has an old car and he has to try to fill it with gas. He comes to a tiny gas station in the middle of nowhere and has to pay before he pumps. When he reaches into his wallet, all he has is a $100 bill. The service man looks at the bill and says 'This is fake,' and hands it back. When Plotnik looks at the bill it looks like bad Monopoly money -- the obviously mimeographed image of Ben Franklin is sideways and smudged and it's not even green but purple. He has no other money.

Then, a wolf chases a horse tied to a rope and the whole thing gets really crazy. Must have been the calamari.