The group “will be dining from the 'Plume' menu

Painful spending cuts may have led the White House to halt public tours, but President Barack Obama and Republican senators could need to loosen their belts, not tighten them, after their peacemaking dinner at a supers want Washington, D.C., restaurant on Wednesday. How swank? The eatery features a menu with a $1,776—per person—price tag, excluding tax and tip. you will know the thing on the china deals

Obama invited the GOP lawmakers to the tony Jefferson Hotel, home to Plume restaurant, in a bid to break the partisan logjam and forge a deficit-cutting deal. Plume is widely considered among D.C.'s finest.

The group “will be dining from the 'Plume' menu," a hotel source told Yahoo News.

So, alas, they may not be ordering the actual "1776" menu, or even the more-modest-but-still-lavish $85 menu—one dollar for every billion of the $85 billion in cuts slated to go into effect this year. Who's going to pick up the tab? White House officials wouldn't say on the record.

So what makes the $1,776 menu so special?

“It pairs the evening's ever-changing tasting menu with wines that date, collectively, over the past 237 years,” according to hotel spokeswoman Meaghan Donohoe.

“For instance, this could include a 20-year-old Champagne, grand cru white Burgundy, a Bordeaux from one of the five first growths, and a glass of Madeira from 1790,” she said. It sounds like something out of an "Indiana Jones" movie: the quest for a crystal that once helped sailors navigate the seas. But now researchers say the mythical Viking “sunstone” may actually have existed.

According to the Independent, their clue was a crystal found on an English shipwreck off the Channel Islands. The ship sank in 1592. Scientists say they believe the substance made of calcite and known as Iceland xpar, was used as a navigational tool alongside the compass. This tracks with ancient Norse mentions of such a tool, which probably existed as well.

Guy Ropars, reported the Independent, said in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society that the oblong-shaped crystal that they found “could really have been used as an accurate optical sun compass as an aid to ancient navigation."

He added, “It permits the observer to follow the azimuth of the sun, far below the horizon with an accuracy as great as plus or minus one degree.” Translation: The crystal could have served as a guide even on cloudy days or short Nordic nights. lurks around this debate over reform. cheap electronic cigarette you may need in this moment.

There have been references to the magic crystal in Norse literature, such as the Sagas of Icelanders, but no evidence had been found at Viking burial sites—most likely due to the practice of cremating the warriors, which would have destroyed the crystals.