The Lunar Society

Last night I had dinner at John’s house, a beautiful turn-of-the-century mansion on Gough Street, and a beautiful silver-haired man. John and I had a brief affair many years ago. His sister is the Catwoman. Every full moon, John hosts a dinner party for 10 men culled from various intellectual, artistic, and political circles for conversation, drink, and good food. I represented the artistic circle. He calls us the Lunar Society, after a similar group in the late 1700’s England which also convened on the night of the full moon, when the roads were lit for night-time travelers. So anyway, this was the 225th dinner. I’ve been going since, I think, 1989? The evening is highly structured, with cocktails at 7:30, dinner at 8. The theme of the evening was politics. Great. My suggestion that we forget about bombing Iraq and invade Israel and turn it into a secular state instead did not go over very well. Kevin McC was there. He’s currently adjudicating over the Barry Bonds 76th homerun baseball battle. Unfortunately, he couldn’t share. Jim H was also there, a lawyer closely associated with the Civic Center rehabilitation, and didn’t he run for something a few years ago? His mom died recently and so he was very excited about coming into a few bucks to do some remodeling around the house. Everyone else seemed very connected politically, even the cute little dudes, one of whom (didn’t have the chance to talk to him, though) seemed to be running for something. John typically starts off the dinner with a toast to the moon, and last night he focused on the feminine aspects of the moon, what a loyal companion she is to the earth, having never strayed from her orbit, and the romantic and secretive activities that happen under the light of the moon. The conversation that followed included discussion about the various ballot initiatives, Iraq, and a lot of trashy queen talk about local politics.