Arigato Sushi and Hibachi Offers Big Lunch Value for a Little More $
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 Bears Down Like a Comet, and We Strive to Regain Altitude
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 is Proving to be a Greedy and Evil Anti-competitor
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 […]
Post Christmas, a Relief that’s Palpable
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 […]
Christmas Memories from Years Gone By
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? […]
Lunch at the Hangar, Where Massive Platters Prevail
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 […]
Muswell Hillbillies’ David Sokol Talks Kinks
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 […]
Christmas Brings the Unexpected and the Expected
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 […]
Ashfield Joins the Cool Towns with a Cajun Festival in February
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 […]
Lunch with Max: Miss Saigon, Downtown Amherst
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 […]
Singing Christmas Carols to Empy Doorways and Barking Dogs
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 […]
Carry a 1000 lb pole, Walk Eight Miles through Dark Woods–to Wear a Beret
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. […]
Being Reminded of Your Flaws Always Stings
There are times when I have to abandon my usual excess of joyfullness and realize that some days just suck. I had a bummer day yesterday and it got worse…I was relieved by sleep and to wake up with a new slate full of less grim prospects for the day. […]
“Limitless”: What a Little Pill Can Do
Eddie is down on his luck. He’s a struggling writer with an advance to make good on. But people who run into him on the street think he’s homeless when they see his tangled hair and scraggly beard. His apartment is a dump, his girlfriend has flown the coop…then he […]
Fall Means Two Things: Leaves and the Pats
In New England leaves are as much as a part of life as the Patriots. Of course they came along a few years earlier, but who among us here in the Great Northeast doesn’t have their own struggle with what falls from above? Of course some of us live in […]
Soap Makers Conspire to Fix Prices, But Can’t Resist Deals
It’s a soapy sudsy world of deceit: In France, a conspiracy was uncovered recently that saw the major makers of laundry detergent including agreeing on not lowering prices and barring Buy-one-Get-one specials between 1997 and 2004. There was even a cartel with codenames, according to a story in today’s WSJ. […]
Bob Pollitt’s Matakana Market Kitchen: Seven Days, All Meals
Bob Pollitt made a big move about eighteen months ago. He sold his five cafes in and around Bristol, England and moved with his teenagers and his wife all the way down to Matakana New Zealand. Today he’s enjoying running the biggest and busiest restaurant in this town that’s a […]