I just came back from a wonderful fancy dinner in the shaded arched passages of the old Balboa Park in San Diego, a lovely ancient restaurant known as Casa de Prado, newly restored and reopend. We were meeting old shipmates and friends--the publisher of a major alternative health magazine, and a columnist for the local paper who plays the best blues harp in town(husband and wife).
Well, I had gotten all excited about finding the Mudcat and had told them about it a few weeks ago; and then I told them about Åine's wonderful challenge with the news story about the incensed cuckoldee, whose errant husband ended up hanging out on a drain pipe at a motel; and how I had written a song for AIne's Challenge and gotten a prize and yadayadayada. You know how it is with old friends -- you babble all your news over wine, and this was my news.
Well, much to my surprise, as the dinner drew to a close, the waitress was seen to draw near bearing a flaming platter with a fancy triple-layered Mousse (down, 'Spaw!) and candles, and the word "Congratulations!" spelled out in chocolate around the base.
The waitresses knew the whole story and the celebration had Mudcat resonating all through it. Got to blow out the candle and all that in the middle of this real fancy restaurant; so shucks, Aine, you started a major marketing campaign and none of us even knew it!
WHo else has tales to tell of the creeping, seeping fame of the Mudcat around the world!