Seattle is in full bloom, which means it is time for out-of-doors
grilling at the Steen household. Unlike those fly-by-night amateur
chefs who have hopped onboard the namby-pamby “hamburger sandwich”
craze that’s sweeping the nation, I am hard at work preparing the only
comestible worth barbecuing: blood sausage. Of course, one cannot trust
the blue-collar bumblers down at the corner butcher shop to prepare
blood sausage correctly, and so I make mine from scratch, the
time-honored and traditional Portuguese way.
First, one must hang a vigorous, still-kicking sow from its hind
legs. Second, the windpipe of the pig must be slit (taking great care
not to perforate the esophagus, lest the partially digested contents of
the swine’s stomach befoul the final product), and the blood must be
collected in a silver bucket. While stirring the blood so that it does
not clotโthe stirring must be done with one’s hand rather than a
spoon, to keep the fluid pureโthe other ingredients (barley,
salt, garlic) are added, and the whole body-
temperature mixture is
immediately stuffed into a casing and tossed on the grill for 14
minutes or so, turning once.
The reason I have shared my favorite springtime recipe is because
The Stranger persists in sending vegetablarians like MEGAN
SELING to review restaurants. Ms. Selingโwho by choice does not consume meatโis not the intended audience for a
Mediterranean restaurant. Though tempted by veal and lamb, she persists
in eating weeds, roots, and berries, then reviews the establishment as
though she consumed anything resembling a satisfying dining experience.
This is clearly unacceptable, and I would like to invite Ms. Seling
over for a nice plate of blood sausage to tempt her palate over to the
side of the virtuous (which is to say, the carnivorous). Once you have
sated yourself on A. Birch Steen’s sausage, Ms. Seling, you will know
true satisfaction.
In more serious matters, DOMINIC HOLDEN assaults four good, decent
Washingtonians who are fighting the good fight against deviate
marriage. I trust that Mr. Holden will roll out of bed at noon tomorrow
to find himself served with four pious, righteous lawsuits after this
kind of irresponsible “journalism.” For shame, Mr. Holden: You cannot
just print whatever you want and call it truth. If you went to
journalism school instead of pursuing sodomy as a lifestyle, you would
know that.
In the section of The Stranger devoted to “music,” ERIC
GRANDY takes seriously the caterwauling of one “Juan MacLean,” who is
no doubt an undocumented worker of some sort. As if that bit of
flagrant illegality wasn’t enough, LINDY WEST befouls the “book”
section by writing crass homosexual pornography. Too gay by far, Ms.
West. I assume that Dan Savage was titillated by your shameless smut
and so has allowed you to keep your job for another week. The sensate
world weeps a bitter tear at this news.

Oh, dear Mr. Steen. He is truly a gentleman of the old school persuasion. In my dreams, I see us sharing a wonderful home at Olympic Manor: Him pounding out his furious missives on the IBM Selectric, me enjoying my morning brandy-and-soda and a Virginia Slim out on the patio while I ignore the domestic help.
Oh, and I’d be wearing a pair of Pucci lounging pajamas.
Wait, this isn’t a joke?
Consistently the funniest part of the Stranger.