Last night we were taken to Morton's Steakhouse and fed massive amounts of cow and potato and creamed spinach and some unusually large stalks of asparagus which reminded me of in Sleeper when Woody Allen is staggering around with an enormous banana and being chased by a giant chicken. There are a lot of different words for big, and all of them are appropriate for describing what takes place at Morton's Steakhouse.

We got there early and sat in the bar and talked to the bartender who was really top quality. The kind of bartender who makes you want to sit there all night and drink mixed drinks and come up with some problems so you can cry on his shoulder. There was a bottle of cognac in a glass case with a lock. It is apparently the most expensive kind of cognac in the world and contains "elements" which are more than 110 years old. Whatever that exactly means.

At any rate that bottle of cognac cost $2100 and one tiny drink would cost $150. Whoever buys the last drink from the bottle gets to keep the bottle itself, which is very elaborately carved and has a fleur de lis on the stopper. Apparently, there is a lot of working the angles around the last drink, with people trying to show up at Mortons as the level in the bottle is getting low and then outbidding each other for the last four or five drinks. So far they've gone through ten bottles in five years, but things have slowed somewhat, what with the boom ending and all.