What happens when you bring together a slew of ingredients that are relatively disgusting when they stand on their own, but are divine when combined? You have a properly crafted reuben sandwich, a favorite at The Gull Reef Club.

I’ve had reubens at many restaurants and found that there are some significant differences in construction from place to place, much of it dependent on geography. It saddens me to report that I’ve not found a place in the south that makes a reuben the way I prefer them. Good thing Mike knows how to do them up properly.

A proper reuben consists of cooked, sliced corned beef, sauerkraut, swiss cheese, thousand island dressing, butter, and -the essential key – dark, pumpernickel rye. If the bread isn’t nearly black, throw it back. Fry your sauerkraut slightly before assembling it onto the sandwich to get out some of the moisture. Butter your pumpernickel like you were making grilled cheese. Assemble the sandwich, minus the thousand island. Fry the entire sandwich until crisp and the cheese is melty. Serve with the thousand island on the side for dipping. See? Lots of almost gross ingredients come together to make the world’s most splendid sandwich.

Guess what I had for dinner?

I’m here at the Inn watching David Gregory host MSNBC’s live coverage of the Pope’s visit to the States. Gregory went to introduce his guest, Dan Gilgoff, and said instead, ‘Now we go to our guest, Bob Geldolf.”

He quickly corrected himself. I could hardly hear the correction over my peals of laughter. My sides ache.

Word is that Charlton Heston has passed away. Points to nemov, nighttimer, and Cyan in the Death Pool.

Cyan – you’re leading now. I supposed some sort of morbid congratulations are in order. All hail, the lead Angel of Death Cyan!