Bush's Novgorod
Martinis in hand, the gang gathered around the roaring fire in the great room. Bone-chilling weather mandated both the fire and the Martinis. Blessedly, we have enough encyclopedias lying around our farms and ranches that we can, if we are Internet-phobic, access tons of information. Charlotte, who comes from Belgium, where the possibility of bringing to trial international shady characters who abuse human rights is held to be one of the country's finest qualities, tonight astounded us by comparing the paranoid, pathologically megalomaniac George W. Bush to Ivan the Terrible, whose syphilis also rendered him paranoid and pathologically megalomaniac.

Like Bush, Ivan also poured death down on tens of thousands of human beings, torturing to death 60,000 people in the city of Novgorod in 1569. Today, the United Nations has condemned the gulag Bush has instituted at Guantánamo, Afghanistan and Iraq. By tonight, over 100,000 innocent Iraqis will have perished because of Bush's tactics of torturing and spraying innocents with napalm and depleted uranium. How many U.S. citizens have died, á la Ivan the Terrible, because Bush sent them to invade an innocent country? How many U.S. citizens have lost their minds, their limbs and their sight? Crazy á la Ivan the Terrible, Bush is spending $7 billion dollars a month on a war that was never warranted in the first place (and even with that whopping number of dollars Bin Laden, thank you Dubya, is alive and well.)

How Did The Novgorod Massacre Occur?
Well, exactly, exactly, like Bush, Ivan had an "inner group" his hand-picked oprichniki, people "who were devoted to his orders and encouraged (like Rumsfeld, Rice, Cheney, Rove, etc.) to rape, loot, burn, kill and torture, in the Tsar's name." Outsiders, those who boldly opposed Ivan the Terrible were branded zemshchina, probably the XVIth Century's equivalent to We, The People; We, the liberals and the truly compassionate who oppose invasions begun by the criminally, pathologically, megalomaniacal inept.

Well, Max said, at least Ivan had the excuse of having syphilis. What excuse is Dubya going to give history for having slaughtered, maimed and tortured so many? What is his excuse for costing us $7 Billion dollars a month?

Condoleezza (Condosleazza) Rice in The New York Times
Just this week, the woman who once referred to the president as her husband, was telling The Times that things were really, honestly, going quite well in Iraq. Improvements as far as the eye can see! Maybe she ought to drag her husb….. and the two should shack up and rent a low-rent apartment in Baghdad just to see how swimmingly things are going. Heck, then they could even keep better control of the torture that is still going on at Abu Ghraib. Imagine, "Condi" in Iraq with her Ivan!

Charlotte the Chef
Charlotte really had the stage tonight, but being the expert organizer she is, she also was in charge of dinner tonight and wasn't ruffled in the least when the dinner gong was rung by one of the teenagers.

Her first course, our appetizers, consisted of small Smoked Salmon Frittatas. Charlotte had baked these hours before dinner, hence her total ability to get dinner organized and served on time. She and Max had been wanting for a long time to try a new sparkling wine from New Mexico of all places, and tonight her Frittatas gave them the opportunity to let us taste this new sparkling wine, a nice dry Brut, non-vintage Méthode Champenoise from the Gruet Winery in New Mexico. Her next course, straight from her country of origin, Belgium, was a superb Onion Soup with Gruyère Croutons and Porcini Mushrooms. She and Max thought we'd be well served by staying with the same sparkling wine through the soup course, and of course they were right.
Because of the influence on her cooking by Max, Terry and Art, Charlotte not only prepares us exquisite European dinners, but now she also indulges in her new favorite: Mexican cuisine, and no, she doesn't fall into the trap of it has to go with beer.

Max, despite the chill, had the Viking Ultra-Premium 53" grills going on the porch, and at Charlotte's request had them going with Manglar wood and palm fronds, in order to assist Charlotte in preparing Pescado Sarandeado, or Mexican grilled/barbecued "pargo fish," or sea bream, which is used because the fat in the skin of this fish keeps it from drying out. Charlotte told us that she had been taught how to make this dish in the state of Nayarit, and there had learned that in Mexico, cooks use a lot of a soy sauce really native to Mexico, called Salsa Maggi, by the Swiss giant Knorr Suiza, and also an exquisite canned tomato and chile sauce that is famous enough it can be found in most U.S. grocery stores. The brand is "Pato." These sauces she used in copious amounts to marinade the fish and also to "mop" it on again once the fish was on the grill. Together with her exquisite tortillas, our "luxe" fish course was eaten with our fingers, in tacos. However, true to her style, she served us wine, not beer, selecting a California Monteviña Pinot Grigio from her and Max's wine cellars. What a splendid food and wine pairing, and such succulent fish.

Next, Charlotte had some strawberry sorbet for us, as an interlude between the fish course and the wonderful meat course that was to come.
Max once again braved the cold to grill Charlotte some Chile Rubbed Flank Steaks. When they were done to perfection, he brought them inside, sliced them across the grain, and mounded the slices on several platters. Then, we were invited to once again make tacos with Charlotte's flawless tortillas.

On the side, we had Mexican rice, perfectly fluffy and cooked, as it should be, with diced carrots and with peas. Bowls full of her inimitable black beans with shaved Chihuahua cheese completed our plates, and paired with a spicy California Zinfandel, the 2002 Quivira Vineyards, Anderson Ranch, Dry Creek Valley, well, it was perfection.

We had eaten plenty and decided not to have any dessert. We were anxious to back to the great room, enjoy the fire, the kids and our after-dinner coffee. After a meal like this, even old George the Terrible was forgotten, as well he should be.

Summary
Whether it's Ivan the Terrible or Godzilla, bad behavior is bad behavior, and George W. Bush's behavior is truly reprehensible. He has dragged us through the dung in the gutters of the international stage, and pictures of his torturing minions keep popping up, the latest just the other day. The United Nations is formally asking him to stop those practices and we, as citizens of the old United States, find it embarrassing that we would even stand accused of being the nation on earth that most practices torture. Can regime change come soon enough?