Friday Faves 2/27: Porter Square Books, The Town, Bowls, Beatles, and Back-Up Goalies
Best Activity
Porter Square: On Friday evening we went to Porter Square for dinner and then attended a book reading by the two Porter Square Book writing residents.
We had dinner at Christopher’s, which is right in Porter Square. It’s a really great spot, dark wood, fireplace, long bar, tons of beers on tap. A cozy warm place with a Cambridge vibe. Their food was good, and even just a few miles outside of Boston the price changed dramatically.
I’ve written about book stores on here before, I love them. One of my first dates with Tiff was in a book store before seeing a movie. Friday night was my first time at Porter Square Books. It’s delightful, and I left wishing there was a place like it somewhere closer to Charlestown. It had a cafe inside of it (picture above. Try the hot chocolate!), great book displays, cards, and puzzles.
The reading was really good. One of the authors wrote for young readers and the other one wrote for adults. It was an inspiring hour listening to them read their drafts. I was jealous of the young reader author because she beat me out for the residency, so really this entire trip was to check out the competition…
Best Watch
Barkley Marathons: I shared a link to an Outside Magazine article about this race last week, and this week I watched a documentary about the race. It’s an insane test of the human spirit. Lazarus, the founder, is a quirky dude. The application fee for the race is $1.60. If you’re a first-timer (they call them virgins), you have to provide a license plate from your state or country. The other payment is whatever Lazarus wants. The year this documentary is filmed the fee was one flannel shirt because Lazarus needed some shirts. He’s asked for socks in the past or white shorts. The race is like nothing I’ve seen before and Lazarus offers some incredible insight into the human spirit.
The Town: I moved to Charlestown just a few months before The Town came out. On Saturday night we popped some popcorn and gave it the old rewatch. The movie is great, highly entertaining. It also might be one of the most hyper-local movies I can recall seeing. The shots of Charlestown, the references, the shooting locations all make Charlestown. The movie also highlights some of the gentrification in Charlestown. Old Sully’s, a very local bar where they shot a bunch of scenes was turned into into condos a few years back. This was also Tiff’s favorite movie of the decade…
Best Listen
Sgt. Pepper: It had been a while since I listened to this album. I don’t have much to say about it other than the fact that it’s probably my favorite Beatles album.
Delphi Murders — Down the Hill: It's been too long (two weeks?) since I wrote about some morbid stuff for my best listen. This new podcast covers the murder of two teenage girls in Delphi, Indiana. This unsolved murder has some maddening evidence, including the voice of a man, the possible killer, on one of the girl’s snapchats saying “Down the hill.”
Best Read
Emergency Goalie Wins NHL Game: This is a really cool story about David Ayres, a zamboni driver, that played, and won, an NHL game this week for the Carolina Hurricanes. Yahoo.com
WikiLove: I used to have a love/hate relationship with Wikipedia as a teacher. It was the easy place for students to find info, but it also offered what I thought might be the worst of the internet: people-powered-info without much oversight. Over time, I realized the value of it as a quick way to begin the research process, and now it’s a site I visit every day. Wired.com writes about what makes Wikipedia so great in an internet filled with garbage. Wired.com
Best Social
Best Eat
Slow Cooker Chicken Verde: This might be the easiest recipe on the planet. You dump boneless chicken thighs, a can of verde salsa, garlic cloves, and some spices into a slow cooker. You can make it a little fancier by making your own salsa verde, but a good pre-made version will do you just fine. We tried our hand at making our own gordita crunch with the chicken as the filling.
Bacon Jammy Pizza: Sunday Funday takes on a different vibe when your friends have kids. They rarely occur anymore because, well, kids. However, this past Sunday we did a grown-up version of the responsibility defying day: we visited two Charlestown Open Houses with some friends and their 14 month-old. After perusing places we couldn’t afford we went to Brewer’s Fork for a snack and a beer. The four of us split the bacon jammy pizza. It’s a simple pizza: bacon jam, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. Between the weather, the beers, and the pizza, it was a solid Sunday.
Bowls: No, not a bong, it’s 2020. Just get some edibles. Seriously though, this past week I had some different versions of a bowl: Rice, grain, salad, burrito. All of them were delightful.
Best Drink
Sloop Brewing - Juice Bomb: I was the envy of the table at Brewer’s Fork when I ordered this beer; admittedly, I stumbled into the order based on the ABV. Brewer’s Fork has a knack for finding very strong beers and charging a lot of money for them. I was looking for the opposite, so the 6.5% was the best of the bunch. Everyone at the table took a sip of this NEIPA. It wasn’t hoppy, but had that hazy, cloudy look that most beers of their ilk have these days. If you live in the Hudson Valley near East Fishkill keep your eyes peeled. If you live anywhere else, figure out where you can drink it and go get it.
Best Plugs
The Random Division: Fantasy Suite week is always entertaining, throw in a “soft-ultimatum” from a virgin contestant, and it gets very interesting. Tiff and I recorded this pod from the couch because we’ve got a giant puzzle on our table (Porter Square Books purchase…). It made for a punchy episode, probably the best one of the season. iTunes.
The Imperfect Game: Both and I have now researched ten English soccer clubs. So we decide to build our “Dream Club” using only the ten teams we learned about. We pick a city, stadium, fan base, manager, and more. We could only use each club once, so it made for a fun conversation, and some debate, between us. iTunes.