Japanese food, like things in Japan, is usually a bit more expensive than other lunch choices. Yesterday we parked ourselves in downtown Amherst and discovered what you get for this slightly higher price. It turned out to be a good value at Arigato Sushi and Hibachi, at the top […]
January is coming at us, like a comet that we can’t stop. I already feel that familiar dread that I once felt as a young salesman, worried about how we will all make it through the year’s toughest, bleakest month. But we always did. I worked in the late ’70s at […]
Google promised before it went public to “not be evil.” But again and again, I am seeing signs that this monolith has decided that there is no limit to how much power they seek and it’s hitting up against public backlash that no, they can’t just have it all. They […]
So it’s all over. The anticipated Christmas holiday with its requisite feasting, gifting, opening, houseguests, holiday music, suspension of diets, consumption of eggnog and too many brownies, the tattered living rooms of yesterday, the smell of balsam and the fires in the fireplace, the tinsel strewn and the tree slightly […]
It’s about as nice a day as I can think of. I’m holed up in the mancave, a most excellent song is playing on the laptop (Chris Joss, You’ve Been Spiked!) and I am thinking back about blogs written on Christmases past. Isn’t this time of year different, and special? […]
Six hours ago, I had lunch with Ed at The Hangar in Amherst. I am still so full I refused a very tempting dinner of grilled chicken…I just can’t imagine eating for a long, long time. That’s because I ingested the regular–monster-sized nachos with chicken, which for $6.99 comes on […]
My old friend David Sokol is playing in his band that plays Kinks songs on Friday night at the Iron Horse. I asked him about the gig and about his favorite band. It’s called “Back Where we Started,” and is billed as their last gig. Why the Kinks? what is so special […]
We’re getting to crunch time in the holiday marathon. This is the week of Christmas parties; today a woman on Facebook said she was putting on glitter, just a little, since an office party loomed at the end of the day. We look around the house and try to figure […]
When you walk into Elmer’s store in Ashfield and pick up a menu, you begin to get a sense of Nan Parati’s sense of fun. It’s her menu–filled with double entendre, puns and jokes that harken back to her New Orleans roots. Ashfield has never been as cool as it […]
Every few weeks, I drive to Amherst to have lunch with my old friend Ed. He suggested that we share some of our finds with our blog readers, so herewith is the first installment of a new feature on Readuponit: Lunch reviews of local eateries. Today’s lunch was at Miss […]
We met on the Gill Common with good intentions. Songbooks were passed out, a few practice numbers were run through. Then it was time to share the season’s good cheer with the citizens of the village. In a group, including youngsters and a dog on a leash, we made our […]
Last night I flicked on Netflix and found a program called “Two Weeks of Hell.” It was about the test that potential Green Berets have to go through to simply be admitted into the even more rigorous training program that only a handful of them will be able to pass. […]