cambridge seems to be holding a city celebration. that is to say a celebration of the city of cambridge. i saw on sale in the montrose spa, where i had gone in to buy a sandwich, t-shirts in black, white or grey, proclaiming on their front: 02138 - CAMBRIDGE. no slogan (virginia is for lovers!) just the zipcode and city name. caps and mugs are also available. this amuses me more than it should.

montrose spa was out of corned beef, so the woman making my sandwich substituted roast beef in my reuben sandwich. roast beef, swiss cheese, saukeraut, russian dressing on toasted rye bread. it really is rather good. i congratulated myself, while reflecting that i would never have got it if not for julian. julian, i found out, was reading marcel moring's in babylon, so i immediately asked him to remind me about the snow storm in the opening chapter and to describe the food they had. "fried potatoes, salted beef, saukeraut, baked apples" and i thought of larders stocked to the ceiling and howling snow and wanted a hearty northern european meal, full of potatoes and salted meat, or even just the rosti at marche, with the sausage spirals.