Banana Republic jeans meet Diaspora Judaism

Just got back from the local bar, with my roommates. For whatever reason, a formerly $7 martini is now $9. While this may be a sign that the neighborhood is, as rumored, up and coming (hear that, stubborn Manhattanites? We're cool too, we, too, overpay for drinks.), it was, frankly, an unwelcome surprise, and the fact that one bartender said $8 and the other countered $9 made things all the more confusing. And yes, a man randomly walked up to us and asked us if we wanted to buy "Banana Republic jeans." One of my roommates suggested that this was code for drugs. I pointed out that I have two pairs of honest-to-goodness Banana Republic jeans I do not have any use for, that my mother also had no interest in (thus their reason for being here in the first place) and suggested that perhaps this man had, conveniently, raided our home and taken the offending items out onto the streets and, it seemed, bars of Brooklyn. We did not offer to buy, and so heard nothing more on the subject.

The main conclusion we came to, however, was that bars should offer peanuts. (Especially bars in not-super-trendy parts of Brooklyn that charge $9 for a martini, but I digress.) So, along these lines, I (no, actually Katherine) found the smoked almonds I got at a store on Atlantic Avenue (where, I would guess, my politics might not have been so popular) a while ago, so now it's sort of the old-fashioned bar experience, but in two courses rather than one, and a good deal more gourmet/ethnic.

For what it's worth, I'm currently trying to write about a thousand different things, all at the same time. Unfortunately, legalist and cheapskate that I am, my version of speed is a diet Coke I got free at Duane Reade from one of those caps on a previous bottle of diet Coke that meant the next 20oz bottle would be free, still in the refrigerator after what must have been at least a week. Hmm, intellectual aspirations and cheapness... do I detect some "Diaspora Judaism?" Yes I do, yes you do, but some things just are what they are, and fighting them isn't worth the bother.