Outside a giant woodpecker is chomping suet at Cindy’s feeder. He is so big he can barely fit on the feeder, as he gulps down big bites of fat. It is still frustratingly cold, hovering at 35 degrees, and we are about to go out and do our Saturday chores. […]
What makes a restaurant really special? Is it the way it feels when you walk in? Is it the lighting, the music, or is it the guy who greets you in French? Last night I discovered it’s all of these things as we celebrated Cindy’s birthday at Chez Albert in […]
I was traveling once with a fun guy named Kevin McCarthy, who with his wife Sue does a weekly travel radio show. I asked him what his favorite sport was, and he replied ‘open wheel racing.’ It took me a second to realize what he was talking about was F1, […]
To Charles Robert Jenkins, five decades of his life were all a mistake. That’s because when at age 20 as a sergeant serving in Korea, he thought if he could just jump over to the North Korean side, they would pick him up and send him back home to North […]
In Today’s Daily Mail, I read a long story about the legendary editor and journalist Bill Deedes, who left a trail of stories, a bitter family, and an aura of mystery when he died at 94. His legacy was of an indifferent grandparent, lousy husband, devoted friend and brilliant writer. […]
Snow rage…it’s a new term that I found on Reuters today. I well remember walking into the wind, snow blowing so hard when I visited Quebec City in February. From the dispatch… ‘Last Sunday, a man in an upscale Quebec City neighborhood became so upset a woman from a snow […]
Last night at Costco, we heard that they are rationing 50 pound bags of wheat. “If somebody wants to buy more than a few bags, they check to see how many they usually buy and if it’s too high they can’t get it,” the cashier told us. She didn’t know […]
I get sent a lot of stuff because people want us to write about them on the website. As these gifts pile up, I notice clearly the ones that I care about and those that I don’t. I must say that today’s Fedx parcel exceeded my expectations, and both surprised […]
We turned on the new lights at the cafe this morning, beaming a gloriously bright light at the sleepy hour of 6 am when it still feels like 5 am, dark, cloudy. I hope that when people drive by and see those big lights on they will notice the cafe […]
Off today to New York to see Isabella perform in a play. But first, I’ve gotta share the story from the WSJ about the University of Southern California’s latest and hottest basketball prospect. He’s 5’10”, never played a full season of high school ball, and averaged just 8.6 points a […]
Poking around on the collection of Western Mass blogs known as Blognewsnet.com/pioneervalley, I found the very passionate and truly funny blog written by Larry Kelley. Larry and I have known each other, mostly through people we both know in advertising and business, for many years. Like me, he takes this […]
We met our friend Chris at the Apollo Bar and Grill last night in Easthampton, and the place was packed. They’ve recently added the word bar to their name, but fortunately, that means only one new TV and like last time, it wasn’t even turned on. We got a good […]