– Anyone who questions the commoditization of baby-boom ideals need only reflect on the fact that I recently ate my breakfast at a hotel in downtown Milwaukee to the accompaniment of a Muzak version of Steely Dan’s “Monkey in Your Soul.” All popular culture begins in rebellion and ends in infomercials.
– I drove up to Connecticut the other day to see Goodspeed Musicals’ production of The Boy Friend and have lunch with Paul Moravec. We went to the River Tavern in Chester, a tiny restaurant-pub with wonderful food, in whose front window the waitress seated us. A few minutes later, a prosperous-looking businessman-yuppie type sat down at the next table, roughly two feet away. He ate in silence as Paul and I chatted away cheerfully and volubly about everything under the sun–the Pulitzer Prizes, my Louis Armstrong biography, his latest composition, the difference between opera and oratorio–and departed without a word before we were through.
A couple of minutes later, Paul called for our check.
“It’s been taken care of,” the waitress informed us with a grin. “The man sitting next to you paid for your lunch.”
We gaped speechlessly at one another. Then we burst out laughing, jointly left a big tip for the waitress, and went on our way.