On Friday night, Laura and I had some friends over for burritos. Laura had found tortillas at the supermarket, but refried beans are evidently unavailable in Paris. So she bought red beans and we looked up a recipe for refried beans online. Now, the recipe said to mash the beans while frying them in vegetable oil for five minutes. So I heated the oil, and put the beans in oil. And we thought it would be good to add onions to the mix, and some spices. And I mashed the beans. Forty minutes later, I was tired of mashing the beans and decided they were done. And they turned out very tasty. But it took a lot longer than five minutes.

I went for a walk in the Parc Montsouris this afternoon. At 5:30 I started hearing loud whistles and I figured the police were trying to round up some hooligans who were up to no good in the park. But then the whistling continued and I realized the park was closing. I kind of wished the men who were blowing the whistles would also have announced, "Hey, the park is closing. Time to go." But all the French people seemed to know that the whistle-blowing meant it was time to go, and I followed their lead. On the way home I bought a baguette using all the change in my pocket, which amused the woman who sold it to me.

Tonight we returned to The Moose to watch football with P. The crazy model was there again, this time with two crazy model friends who were rooting for Seattle, against her beloved Chicago Bears. Apparently the Bear-fan model's name is Tanaze, and she speaks seven languages and has written a novel. I was struck by the excessive performance of American football fandom. I mean, they were really screaming at each other. It was like we were at the Cubby Bear, only there were some Seattle fans there, too. (OK, I have never actually gone to the Cubby Bear, so I'm basing my analysis on my imaginative reconstruction of what the Cubby Bear might be like. Most of my sports-watching in Chicago bars occurred at T's, while eating a $5 burger on Sunday afternoon. Oh, T's.) P's friend William invited me and Laura to join his "salon" and discuss Schopenhauer with him. We will see if that actually pans out.