Chilly Morning; Birds in the Leaves; J Cheever Loophole; Friday Lunch: "It had all the ambiance of a World War II aircraft hanger in Greenland..."

Another chilly morning. When I got up at around 7:20, the Atomic clock signaled that it was 55 inside and 40 outside. But there's a cloudless, blue teacup sky, so maybe the temp will slowly rise.

As I was standing in the kitchen preparing my cheese toast and looking out the back window, I noticed there were dozens of medium-sized birds pecking away at the leaves. (I've also come to the conclusion that the backyard is slowly getting larger.) Alas, my avian knowledge is severely limited. These visitors had a large rosy bosom, with a gray back and white tufts on either side at the tail.

The bosom reminds me of that of the junoesque Margaret Dumont of the Marks Brothers' movies whose mammillarian abundance would prove challenging to even the most adroit Olympian skier. One of my all time favorite short cinema reviews of one of their movies is from "The New Yorker's" "section on "Going on About Town - Movies - Now Playing' section about "At the Circus": " Groucho as J. Cheever Loophole. Not one of their best, but they do get to shoot Margaret Dumont out of a cannon."

Friday at lunch time, I visited a new Chinese buffet at the rabbit's warren of commercial sites at the crossroads of Lakeland Commons, Dogwood Place and Dogwood Place on Lakeland Drive. This area is the philosophical successor to the mall, instead of shops facing inward, everything here is turned to the outside. With three major shopping sections and about a dozen stand alone units comprised of multiple businesses.

The buffet was in a neo-industrial modern rectangular-based polyhedron with unobtrusive steel roof beams and silvery exposed boxy air handling conduits. The floor is some type of nondescript. darkly tinted material. The buffet was under a metal umbrella device lit by slender multi colored glass and metallic hanging lamps. The buffet was split into four semi-circular areas following the contour of the overhanging umbrella with a central multi-tired circular platform for salads, fruit and desserts.

If ever there was a place lacking warmth, this was it. It had all the ambiance of a World War II aircraft hanger in Greenland with none of the amenities such as a wooly parka, mittens and heated socks. I also realized that eating Chinese buffet food is liking eating water cress sandwiches.at a wedding reception. There's nothing that seems to resemble an actual meal. You're supposed to fill up on strange little servings of myriad dishes. Chinese buffets are notorious for using every part of an animal including the chicken's squawk. And for re-cycling food. A tray may be whisked away, but the same food will reappear mixed with some newer portions.