Saturday, July 20, 2024
Republican insiders supposedly labored to convince Donald Trump that Hannibal Lecter is a fictional character and thus not able to be his running mate. https://www.yahoo.com/
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The Upper West Side’s Power Couple drove up to Amherst, Massachusetts today with two goals in mind. Tomorrow, we will see grandson Boaz at his camp on visiting day. Today, we are spending time with Barbara Alfange as she organizes her move to a new residence.
The three of us had dinner at Johnny’s Tavern, 30 Boltwood Walk, Amherst, a joint familiar from earlier visits. It’s fairly dark, befitting the pub atmosphere. Its 30 or so tables filled up and the noise level rose as 6 o’clock approached.
The food was as good as I remembered. We shared a truffle kale Caesar salad with ample anchovies ($10). Both women had a rare tuna sandwich, so attractive that I almost snatched it away ($16). However, I was sufficiently distracted by my plate of fried chicken, three boneless pieces in a delicious, peppery crust, with buttermilk gravy and sides of mashed potatoes and collard greens ($24). Worth a return visit
Sunday, July 21, 2024
Page 259, “Desert Star” by Michael Connelly, published 2022, “a bullet had clipped the upper helix of his left ear. It was about as near a miss as he could possibly have had. If the bullet had been an inch more on target, he’d be spending the night in the morgue.”
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We took our camper for a shopping trip to a nearby Walmart and then to Rondeau’s Dairy Bar, 1300 Ware Street, Palmer, Massachusetts, a major local landmark. It has about three dozen homemade flavors, but it bans soft serve. You won’t miss it, choosing among monkey butt, Oh Joy!, Forest Lake mud and several less familiar flavors.
I had two very generous scoops, orange pineapple and rum pudding which was loaded with candied orange peel ($7.25). Since we missed lunch at the camp, this abundance served us well, although it prepared us for an early dinner.
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We stayed overnight at the Trainmasters Inn, 1292 South Main Street, Palmer repeating our visit from last year. It’s a charming place, designed to evoke the railroading past, originally built two centuries ago. In fact, the owners also own and operate the Steaming Tender, 28 Depot Street, once the town’s railroad station, lovingly restored as a restaurant.
This all made sense after our server told us that seven railroads used to serve Palmer, going north and south and east and west. This all ended in 1971, offering the opportunity to repurpose the building into its present form, steamer trunks, a fabulous old switchboard, a hand car, a coach car, a coal tender scattered around. The only active connection to the past came at 6:20 PM, when an Amtrak train came flying through on the way to Boston.
As guests of the inn, we were given whiskey bread pudding desserts gratis. This followed a bowl of New England clam chowder ($8) and a lobster roll ($27) for me. Week-old French fries were a bit of a drawback. Frequent refills of Diet Coke were a plus.
Monday, July 22, 2024
The maiden name of my beloved maternal grandmother Esther Malka Goldenberg was Harris. Might we be related?
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Although it offers a very wide variety of omelets, pancakes, waffles, and French toast accompanied by bacon, ham, sausage patties or links and corned beef hash, I kept it simple, three scrambled eggs ($4.50) with grilled cornbread ($3.50). A good American breakfast, no hint of bagels or lox.
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
When asked about possible running mates for Kamala Harris including Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, I noted that her husband and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s wife are Jewish. “Jews in the bedroom, not on the ballot.”
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I got a shot in my hip this afternoon, which is supposed to improve my forward progress from crawling to trudging. If nothing else, it excuses me from the next four sessions of physical therapy.
Thursday, July 25, 2024
Drop everything and get tickets to “N/A”, a new play by Mario Correa. You know that after food, politics is my great interest. This play, positing Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, brilliantly illustrates the tension between ideological fervor and tactical leadership. The portrayals are true to life and the rhetoric may well have been lifted from the public record and some occasional private asides.
Terrific Tom invited me to the theater tonight and I am so grateful that I was able to see this important work. While it is centered on Democratic Party politics, a Republican Party version is imaginable, a wily Mitch McConnell versus a go-for-broke Matt Gaetz, although I am not sure that I would encourage anyone to spend money on seeing them.
Friday, July 26, 2024
Baruc S. periodically gets home here to visit his family from his job in Colombia. That gives us the opportunity to catch up over a meal, of course. We had lunch at Moon Kee, 2642 Broadway, my third visit in its first year. The food was very good, on the whole. We shared everything as mandatory in any Chinese restaurant worth visiting.
We had har gow (steamed shrimp dumplings) ($8), scallion pancake ($8), roast duck ($24) and shrimp fried rice ($16). In fact, the food was excellent except for the inevitable fattiness of the roast duck. On the other hand, I wonder what the duck would say about me.
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