Binging with Babish, beef tenderloin.

The title is filet mignon but that's a small part of it.

I'm glad YouTube is back online. It went down last night and everybody was all, "What? What? What happened to Youtube? Is this a terrorist attack? Does this mark the beginning of the end of the world?" And by "everybody" I mean everybody. Across the whole world.

While the rest of us were going, "Ha ha ha ha ha. Punks."

Bless the internet. Bless cellphones.

I lost contact with a longterm friend after another friend died. I think about him a lot but never act on it. I never call. Never write. Neither does he. He dropped out.

Then I thought, you know what? You gotta get off your butt and make contact. Invite him to dinner. You must live while you're alive. Organize something small. Invite a few others. Vacuum the floor. Go around dusting surfaces and objects. Clean up the dead plants on the terrace. Wipe down everything spotless. So I did.

But the phone number didn't work and the email address didn't work. I called around and got new numbers. The new numbers seemed to work, but there was no response. Left messages, left emails. A few days went by and I'm thinking, "Did this guy die too? Did he move? Did he return whence he came?" Then suddenly a few nights ago, bing, email. The guy responded from Croatia with the most pleasant delightful message. His charm comes through better than it does in real life. Like he came back to life again. He had been cycling in Italy. He'll be back next week and delighted to have an excuse to come into town.

Internet made that possible.

The plan is sorted. I had so much fun with those beef and pork tenderloins I'll do that again. It's a very good idea. I'll repeat earlier successes. I'll load up the plates with fruit and berries; kiwi, apple, watermelon, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, grapes, avocado, whatever they have that is nice, and large dollop of strong blue cheese dressing packed with buttery Maytag blu cheese, thick gloppy dressing that I make here myself, and not let them blend on the plate, to touch with fruit and slices of tenderloin as you go. So each individual decides bit by bit how elements are combined as they eat them. All those familiar and pure taste sensations changed by touch of blu cheese for a thousand new possibilities bite after bite. It's a mind blower.