Cue the Twilight Zone music ...

EL - It could be that you're delusional. Why else would you fall asleep watching the Ravens? Oh, wait, it was the Ravens - yawn.

And, as member of the Robert Collective, I (kind of) resent your diss on our beloved Owl.

ROFL

EL -- there's a rotating series of 5 photos (or thereabouts) in the center of the home page. Maybe your home computer lacks Flash or some other software that is installed on your office computer? (Of course, this assumes that you used two different computers.)

As for the missing Chowhound post, it turned up in the Google cache of that page, and read as follows:

Bistro Blanc post grand opening comments?
For those who were able to make it out to Glenelg, MD for Bistro Blanc's grand opening weekend July 25-27th thank you so much for your patronage. Does anyone out there have comments or feedback? The website is up and running at www.bistroblancmd.com. We would love to hear what you have to say.
[Posted by] dsteil1 [on] Aug 05, 2008 12:24PM

I knew you'd come through. Thanks! Interesting. Firefox plays it, but not Safari. EL

The slide show on the web site is working this morning and the menu sure looks good.
I await further information,

The menu does look pretty good. The typos on the main page (right side) are a little off-putting though.

menu's ?
dinning ?

Piano Rob wrote, as member of the Robert Collective, I (kind of) resent your diss on our beloved Owl. But PR, EL knows better than anyone else how many personalities OMG displays here. Some days it's me, maybe a Robert or two, and multiple OMG manifestations, I'm convinced. He talks to himself (or herself, as the case may be) ...

The wine (by the glass) list looks uninspiring and overpriced (to me).

Both the menu and the wines by the glass seem to be simply more of the same. Certainly not worth the drive. Why don't some of the restaurants in the area try and offer something different on the wine by glass? With nitrogen and vacu vins it's not like you have to worry about the wine going bad quickly. Maybe a top ten of the most unusual wine by the glass overings. Of course if you can get $25 per glass for an overripe, overoaked CA Cabernet then why try selling Cahors, Bandol, Cornas, St. Joseph, Gigondas, etc.?

And who is the "K & C Stores, Inc." that has reserved all rights to the website? Is this a "dba Bistro Blanc?" They obtained a permit in February to make alterations to the kitchen and add men's and women's rest rooms.

RiE -- K&C Stores, Inc. has done business at the location (3800 Ten Oaks Road, Glenelg) for several years. From what I can gather from Google Maps, the location is a small strip shopping center. In May 2005 and May 2006, Howard County did health inspections for "Glenelg Wine & Spirits" at that location -- not sure if that business has morphed into Bistro Blanc.

It turns out that K & C Stores, Inc. has filed trade name registrations with SDAT both for "Bistro Blanc" and for "Glenelg Wine & Spirits", as well as a lapsed registration for "Little George's Country Store" at the same address. A Google search for the address turned up a "George's IGA" and a "Little George's Country Meat Store" at that location.

Speaking of quantum indeterminacy, Dahlink when you wrote: "EL knows better than anyone else how many personalities OMG displays here. Some days it's me, maybe a Robert or two, and multiple OMG manifestations, "

the first few times I read it, I thought you were saying some days you (and a couple Roberts, etc) were OMG personalities.

Bourbon Girl: I'm still reading it that way.

Quantum indeterminancy? Hmmm, I don't think there are meds for that. Maybe Abilify, just because it sounds so enabling. Does Enablify exist yet? Fingers crossed. Until Chino and Snickers return, I'm stuck with myself making up puzzles. I do like the idea (not really) that I could be almost everyone on the blog, even if it is truly insane. I think you overestimate me. Plus hurting the feelings of all the genuine Roberts and other out there. Quantum indeterminacy, yeah.

As far as I can tell, I've always been me. :)

Rob in PCB, in Blogland apparently your identity is up to others. Hmmm.....?

Like Rob in PCB FL, I am an original. An original what, I won't say. There's never been any Owl Meat Gravy in me. (Oh dear, that somehow doesn't sound right.)

Be safe, Rob in FL!

Rob in PCB FL -- your attempt to distinguish yourself from the other members of the Robert Collective reminds me of the Far Side cartoon in which one penguin, in the midst of a flock of identical penguins, starts singing, "I've gotta be meeeeee ..."

Okay, my apologies, all. My comment didn't come out quite as it was intended.

The number of Roberts is odd. I even know of one regular whose name is Robert, but posts under an alias. Very strange indeed.

I even know of one regular whose name is Robert, but posts under an alias. Very strange indeed.

What's strange about that? My name is Robert, but I was posting under "Bucky," which is a diminutive of my last name.

Eventually, the cache of being a Robert on this board will fade, and it will be considered cliche to be associated with the name.

the cache of being a Robert

You've got a bunch of spare Roberts in a closet somewhere?

Hal -- I think RoCK was referring to a disk cache of Roberts, so that, if you hit the "refresh" button in your browser while on a given D@L web page, a new comment from yet another Robert will magically appear.

Yes, hmpstd, I'm sure that's what RoCK meant, but I had such a good laugh at the mental image of all those Roberts coming out of a closet, much like clowns from a tiny car at the circus.

Just like the Comcast "Save a load of Benjamins" ad where they open a crate and out come a dozen or so Benjamin Franklins.

It's amazing what fun can be had from one simple spelling error.

Rosebud said: Yes, hmpstd, I'm sure that's what RoCK meant

No, I'm sure that's not what he meant at all.

Hal -- agreed, but it's unclear whether Rosebud got the joke.

Rosebud: "All those Roberts coming out of the closet." And the only thing you thought of was clowns in a tiny car? For shame! There, EL, publish this on the print version of the Sandbox! ROFL

OMG - "the number of Roberts is odd." Does that mean there is an odd-number of Roberts? Or that the number of Roberts is unusual? Or are you inferring that we who are Roberts/Robs/Bobs are indeed odd? Hmmm???

Robt't/TBRS - glad you "came to your senses" altho I also enjoyed you as Bucky.

Ah, the rare Venn diagram where word nerd intersects with computer geek. Bravo lads.

Oy vey...more delightful wordplay. You know, if we keep on acting like nerds, geeks and dorks, we are just asking for the guys on one of the Sun's sports blogs to come over here and give us all wedgies.

There is a parallel universe to this blog and its Roberts.

There was a spider plant in my office that was rescued from near death (not my fault) by a colleague, who took it away from me and named it "Bob."

Then several people took cuttings and now we are propagating baby Bobs like nobody's business. Sometimes someone will call theirs "Robert" or "Roberta." I named mine Bucky.

Like our office Bob and his progeny, I still think most, if not all, of the Bobs, Robs, Roberts, etc. originate from the same source.

RoCK said: Oy vey...more delightful wordplay. You know, if we keep on acting like nerds, geeks and dorks, we are just asking for the guys on one of the Sun's sports blogs to come over here and give us all wedgies.

Well it's you're fault, RoCK. You started the whole thing by misspelling "cachet".

it's you're fault

I hate it when I do that. :-(

Today I won a gift card to Culver's Butter Burgers for making the 300th comment on another blog I frequent. I didn't think anything could top that.

But now I find out there's a plant in Bourbon Girl's office named after me.

(He starts weeping...)

I am touched. Touched, I tell you.

What's a Butter Burger? EL

For some reason, I always thought caché in French was pronounced cachet with the “et” pronounced as in croquet; the meaning conferring a characteristic feature or quality indicating prestige. I have always used the word correctly when speaking, but wonder how I used the word in writing.

Should I blame my teachers in the 50s and 60s? But then, what does it matter.

Ms. Girl: I know (okay, met) 2 of the other Rob's and neither was me (much to their relief.) Our Florida & wilderness Rob's we can only accept by their word. But we are not from the Family OMG, really.

EL asks, "What's a butter burger?"

What a timely question, Elizabeth.

Culver's Butter Burgers is fresh, tasty food served up with a great big side of nice, as you will see here.

Why a timely question? Because you and the younger Ms. Gailor are headed deep into Culver Country on Thursday.

I dare you. I double-dog dare you.

BTW, congratulations. EL

Like our office Bob and his progeny, I still think most, if not all, of the Bobs, Robs, Roberts, etc. originate from the same source. BG, I've met at least two of the Roberts in real time, and they were very distinct personalities and had nothing to do with OMG, as far as I could tell.

And, having met Dahlink (at the same gathering at which she met RtSO and RoCK), I can assure the Sandbox that Dahlink is NOT just another Owl Meat manifestation.

For some reason, I always thought caché in French was pronounced cachet with the “et” pronounced as in croquet;

Yep. é is pronounced like a long a (way) is in English. Cachet is pronounced the same way.

There was a time I knew all the French pronunciation rules (that time is long past), but I do remember that a terminal 'et' is the same as 'é'.

Rosebud: "All those Roberts coming out of the closet." And the only thing you thought of was clowns in a tiny car?

Actually, no. It was the only thing I thought appropriate to write.

Hal -- agreed, but it's unclear whether Rosebud got the joke.

hmpstd - there needs to be a symbol for 'tongue firmly in cheek'...

So you've all had a meet-up? (I just chuckle when I hear that term...I had never heard it until I started reading D@L.) I guess I vaguely remember something like that when I was going through the archives.

Was Owl Meat there? EL? And, here's the key question...did you exchange email addresses, so you can talk behind our backs?

I'm not an Owl Meat personality either.

hmpstd, you made me laugh out loud with the Far Side reference. I remember that one!

Here's a question for the other Roberts: How many of us are left-handed?
I am.

The discussion of cache/cachet brought to mind the words filet and fillet. My mother was convinced that the former applied to meat as in filet mignon, whereas fillet (pronounced "fill-it") was used for fish. My huge Random House dictionary indicates that fillet is pronounced both ways but in cookery it is usually "fill-ay." The word filet, according to RH, is relegated to the mignon. Discuss.

The Sun style is filet for beef, fillet for everything else. EL

Right-handed.

How many Roberts sing in the key of R, like I do?

Left-handed here, thus always in my right mind.

Rob't/TBRS: Being the musician that I am, I sing and play in all keys. Also, I've been to one of two Sandbox meetings that I was aware of. The first, which I could not attend, was brunch in Fells Point; the second was at the Owl Bar for Happy Hour. I don't know of any other "scheduled" meetings. We'll never know if EL was or will be present, will we?

RoCK: Today's City Paper article on the Sun mentioned this: "These days the downtown newsroom generates the stories, images, and blog posts that wind up on the Sun's web site, but the people responsible for putting them up on the site currently work out of Cross Keys." Hmmm, are you secretly the keeper of this coven?

No it's a real restaurant I work there its really nice. we just opened so you may have caught us in a transition period no one is at the restaurant for dinner to take a reservation until 4 so you may have also caught us at that time. I love the restaurant and hope you find your way out to it, honestly there is nothing quite like it.

I also noticed various comments on the lack of diversity or flare on the wine list. The by the glass wine list is merely that a list of by the glasses we offer. In truth the wine bar has hundreds, believe me I know I did the original inventory, of bottled wines on the wall. all of these wines are available to the restaurant goer. we also offer one of the few Eno-matic machines around. this machine allows you to sample a 1, 2.5, or 5 oz. bowl of the wines in the machine, that are continuously restocked and interchanged.

You know there's no prize for being not me, just as there is none for being the be of seemingly me.

========================================

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.
.....
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab
and my loitering.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

The last scud of day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

OMG - Your posting name had me LOL for quite a while. Then I started humming a tune (original, natch) to the words in your poem. May I have your permission to set your text/lyric to music?

(btw - you forgot PCB FL)

you could put those words in a song but you may find you will be sued. he didn't write them it is a poem from the 1800's http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15755

A poem from the 1800's is probably out of copyright, so hum that tune, sing those words.

The first line of my comment is a play on Wallace Stevens' "Emperor of Ice Cream" ("Let be be finale of seem")

The rest is Walt Whitman. I'm sure he would be delighted by any musical treatment of "Song of Myself".

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15755

I thought it suited the moment.

OMG now it's my turn:

Marry Me!

LEC asked (a while ago): "Should I blame my teachers in the 50s and 60s?

Actually, you should thank them, whether in person or posthumously. There is more to a good education than preparing for and passing tests.

EL and Piano Rob, besides the fil- and fillets you mentioned, in wood- and metalworking the blend between two surfaces is also called a fillet, as in the way an airplane's wings are blended into the fuselage.

Whitman's work is indeed in the public domain. I recall having to set a pericope of one of his poems to music as a composition assignment. It was one of the most difficult tasks I had to endure - not to mention one of the ugliest pieces of music I have written. The student mezzo cursed me for my overtones.

I have no idea what you just wrote PR, but okay. I'm sure that Whitman would want everyone to sing his song of himself. Just a hunch.

Bistro Blanc took a few weeks to find their feet, but I have been there several times since their opening, and have been thrilled with the food and service. The menu is fresh and seasonal, and I always have at least one thing that really blows me away. (Try the pig and fig, seafood coconut soup, lobster risotto). The wines by the glass are admittedly pricey, but the food is downright reasonable for what you get! Worth a drive from Baltimore? Maybe. But for Howard County residents, this should definitely be on the short list of places to check out.