From my former days as a crazy clubgirl, I’ve ended up on a plethora of distribution lists about clubs and events and hoopla most of which I didn’t sign up for and have no intention of attending. But it makes for amusing reading sometimes, as today when I received a notice from Tastings Journal regarding a Valentine’s Day Dinner at Panache, which they refer to as “a serious hangout for media people and the gucci gulch set.”

Now, I try desperately not to follow the K Street crowd in anything, in spite of (or perhaps because) I work for a public policy organization, so the term “gucci gulch” was mystifying. At first I wondered, “Are they referring to ladies carrying stylish yet overdone handbags, did they perhaps misspell ‘clutch’? Or is this an odd homage to Elmira Gulch?” But no, this is an actual term for high-powered lobbyists that I’ve missed out on using. An homage to the book Showdown at Gucci Gulch — Lawmakers, Lobbyists, and the Unlikely Triumph of Tax Reform, it apparently refers to the Gucci-shod lobbyists crowding the halls of the Hill.

Now, this book was written in the late eighties, so the term is understandably dated (Honestly, do lobbyists wear Gucci shoes anymore? Did they ever? Does anyone in Washington? I mean, don’t you associate men wearing Gucci shoes with a different line of work altogether?). But what mystifies me even further is what some promoter must have been smoking in order to think that the use of this term would be an enticement for a romantic dinner… rubbing elbows with sharky lobbyists sure equals one rockin’ hot time!!