I sat at the bar at the Lady Killigrew and watched the Sox on a flat-screen, high def TV. I was waiting for Steve, who had taken the scenic route over on his scooter, enjoying the vistas of the late afternoon sun on Blue Meadow Road. Outside people were sitting […]
Being a restaurant owner is tough. I read in today’s Boston Herald about a good intentioned chef owner of a high-end Italian place in Braintree who got punished by his customers for trying to recoup some of the costs of providing glasses of water to diners. Joe Viola figured out […]
It’s been a weird Spring. It is almost never warm and sunny; instead we get these dregs of what feels like March, or the bluster and overcast skies of late fall. I am sure that I am joined by all of the citizens of Massachusetts in wishing that it would […]
Last night while Cindy was on the phone I grabbed the TV remote and surfed to a program about chickens. It was all about the chicken business, and about people who love these creatures dearly. One Virginia man rhapsodized about the funny noises his backyard flock emits, and how he […]
Smokers are getting boxed in even more tightly. A story in last night’s WSJ said that Congress is poised to put the tobacco industry under the regulation of the FDA. To some people in the business, this actually is a huge win for tobacco’s biggest company, Altria, because it freezes […]
As I sat in my parent’s backyard in the dappled Sunday sunlight, we talked about what we liked, and what we felt about our lives. I felt lucky to be thinking excitedly about going back to work the next day, and how great it is to love what you do […]
We drove up to Chris and Susan’s farm to celebrate his 57th birthday, and arrived to a porch full of people sipping wine and mingling with dogs and cats. On the grounds of their 17-acre farm were a parade of baby donkeys, a freshly shorn llama and a bevy of […]
I never knew that there were so many different kinds of ice, and that the ice makes a huge difference in how a drink tastes. I learned this last night as I was falling asleep and read an article by Wayne Curtis in the Atlantic. He cites a NYC bar […]
On my way out of S. Deerfield, I stopped by the cafe at 8 to pick up a cup to go. Seeing only one car in the parking lot, I groaned, oh no, no, not again! But yes another call-out, so I had to rescue my lone employee facing a […]
We had a expedition the other day when I had to try and replace my lost cellphone. Amazingly, on a 1/4 mile stretch of West Springfield road there are stores for all four major cellphone companies, so it was easy for us to shop and compare. Each has its own […]
I have been enveloped in dreams about Saudi Arabia since I began reading this compelling book about an American woman doctor who lived there. I just finished a chapter in which the dreaded Mutawaeen are tipped off to a bunch of doctors and westerners having a dinner at a local […]
Now it’s crunch time. It’s that moment when it can go either way…I’m at the precipice, deciding about how I will continue this morning routine. I’m in the bathrobe, on the laptop, and Cindy is busy getting dressed. We’ve had our coffee, I’m draining my second cup. So do I […]