Word: bec
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...like the fattest casts of all. "Le Bec-Fin, please," I told the Bell Atlantic operator. (Quick bit of background: Le Bec-Fin is Georges Perrier's legendary hotspot, a Philadelphia institution. Often mentioned in surveys as the best restaurant in America - bar none - it had been booked solid for days, primarily by GOP lobbyists, governors and congressmen...
They keep their promises, these Bec-Fin people. Precisely 15 minutes later, we were seated in the salmon-and-gilt main dining room. The place was packed with men in high-end suits and women in cashmere sweater sets, and I experienced a moment of panic, wishing I'd had a chance to pick up my pearls before I'd set out. Not to worry; the staff were warm and welcoming, even to the underdressed, and the fat cats were meowing and purring too much to notice...
After a brief perusal of the biggest menu I have ever seen, we listened to the longest list of specials (is that what they're called at Le Bec-Fin?) I've ever heard. Another 15 minutes later, the descriptions finally ended, and we got down to the serious business at hand: Deciding whether the man sitting directly across from us was, in fact, Oklahoma governor Frank Keating - or merely a clever imposter...
...supposed to be harder in life than to watch your friends become very successful. But when I visit Erich and Max, instead of being consumed by jealousy, I slip into the flow of discussion, debating what kind of weaponry a Paladin should wield or the advantages of the bec de corbin over a standard battle ax. The nuances of games come naturally to me. And spending time with them takes me back to those afternoons at play. That's what these guys do all day, play games. For a moment, I regret the path I took, of becoming a writer...
Does any of this have any practical use? Perhaps. Beams of BEC atoms might be used to inscribe exquisitely small circuits onto the ultra-compact electronic chips. The atoms might also be put to work in ultra-precise atomic clocks. So far, the list of applications is not very long. But, says Oxford's Burnett, "it's like the beginnings of laser technology. It's a solution in search of a problem." Given the thousands of ways lasers are used today, that sounds pretty promising...