02138.com blog

The morning’s email reminds me that things are humming along, same as it ever was, in my old home town. Nothing like moving away (not to mention moving to what is likely the closest spiritually antipodal venue to Cambridge: Philadelphia; going from tight-ass village to cloacal flood plain) to get some needed perspective. Like being […]

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I used to like to say, to friends (who were always far more indulgent of the, OK, sometimes obnoxious personae, as my friend Ezra Pound would call them, that I would adopt from to time), “God I hate to be right.” Well, the following doesn’t make me right, but it does substantiate (and give permission […]

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No regrets here, as the news reaches me finally, mid-afternoon (because I’m now in another market—one with a team that clinched its division, has killer pitching, and an even better record than the Yankees… the pitcher business should tell you all, all by itself), and the NYTimes, which is my print news source (paper, the […]

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…Yes, there’s a smell emanating from West Cambridge, and it isn’t goats. But more later, after I look into it.

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Jody’s Lemon & Rosemary Chicken with herbs and garlic Haricots verts with kalamata olives and garlic sautéed in EVOO Heirloom tomatoes with local mozzarella [Fiore di Nonni] 2006 Jean-Luc Colombo Viognier “La Violette”

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[written 2009 July 31 Co-posted on the Per Diem blog] What is strange about produce shopping in France were all the apples available throughout the summer. I don’t know where they were coming from, as I didn’t buy anyway. My cling fruit juices were flowing as is appropriate. The pears were only barely beginning to […]

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The preponderance of the reviews here [on Yelp] appear to be from transients. This isn’t surprising as the neighborhood immediately surrounding The Biscuit is a haven for graduate students mainly from Harvard and Tufts. Though they’re smart enough, God knows, they make up for abundance of brains by a deficit of taste.

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Thanks to my friends Tse Wei and Diana, I got a little bit of heaven in the gritty wilds of Allston-Brighton.

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Today’s NYTimes has 101 very quick (ten-minutes or less) “summer” meals (registration required to read NYTimes online)—one or two-line recipes—from Mark Bittman, the self-styled “Minimalist.” Basics are a necessity in the repertoire of anyone who makes any claim to being able to cook, but even the basics are elusive to a great many people. Bittman […]

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The local bakery, located just over the line in Somerville (zip code 02143), has changed its name. Originally “Toscanini & Son” (the first name change after the founding owners, who called their place Panini—yet didn’t sell sandwiches, even from their yeasty breads, until the very end of their tenure—sold to the present owners), the name […]

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