August 24, 2003:

Tall woman, pink prom dress, surveys the party from the top of the stairs.

"I had a thing with him," she says, pointing to a seven-foot blonde man in a white tuxedo. "He was crazy."

After barely a pause she continues. "I slept with him for a few weeks," she says, pointing to one of the musicians. "He was an asshole."

A moment later she points to a woman in a crinoline hoop skirt and white clogging boots. "We flirted for months before we finally did something about it," she says. "She was a bore."

A shortish, balding man smiles as he passes. She says of him, "We had a thing a couple of years ago. Manipulator."

She goes on like this for much of the evening. None of the people she points out is especially attractive; none has anything to say.