No Feast at Val Day

Funny how things change. There is no feast at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre event. For many years the Val Day feast was the premeire culinary event of the kingdom calendar. But feasts are a lot of work, as I well know, and they appear to have gone slightly out of fashion at the average event. Perhaps this is not a new phenomenon, as I can recall when I joined the Society (ahem) some time ago, that the eminent members of the time (and many of the early luminaries of the kingdom were still around to rub elbows with on a regular basis) rarely chose to dine at the average feast, preferring to go out for dinner with friends at nearby restaurants. My first feast I got to sit with Duke Finnvarr de Taahe, who was cheerful and friendly, but I realized afterwards that this feast was a special event, cooked by the Middle's leading culinary artist, Duchess Caellyn FitzHugh. (And it was good. Rather spoiled one for the average effort, I guess.) Often feasts have not seemed so glamorously attended as that one, although there are always exceptions. I remember how honored we felt when Baron Thorvald inn Grimmi and a crowd of Northwoods luminaries graced our head table at Stormvale's first feast in 1986. It was quietly pointed out to us that His Excellency "never" ate at feasts anymore, but that he quite liked ours. Possibly he was merely being polite, but then, that's what Barons do.