#16 Boston Days With Races - September 24, 2004
No, not what you guys think, I have not yet succumbed to seeking out shady betting parlors and racetracks for my after-hours and weekend entertainment. Not yet, at least. So far Boston and its surroundings are still offering an amazing medley of ways to self-indulge, let loose, get stimulated and have fun.
Last Wednesday, my friend Deborah, a Boston native, came into town, and I met her and her brother Allan at the S&S Deli Restaurant, a Cambridge favorite near Inman Square, that has been around since 1919. According to one restaurant review "families, couples and hung-over college students flock here for the all-day breakfast and deli food. The lox will cure what ails you." I decided to go for the Matzo Ball Soup in honor of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which was the next day, great choice.
Thursday was race day, again, this time in form of the "Blues Run" - organized by the Somerville Striders Athletic Club. The race was 4.2 miles and went along the Charles River in Cambridge, followed by the "Big Pig BBQ" and tunes by the Cat Sass Band (I know, I know, try to pronounce this one fast a few times, and after a couple of beers). Important things first though, I put on a somewhat stellar performance with an astonishing time of 9:41 Minutes per Mile (this is compared to 11 Minutes per Mile during last week's run - for those of you fast runners, who are laughing at my pitiable efforts). I was so excited about my time! The BBQ was impressive and the band livened up the crowd with some nice tunes. Mosquitoes also enjoyed this muggy night out and after they had me for dinner, I walked around in a Benadryl-induced daze for the next few days (not that that's a bad thing!).
The Striders run every Thursday, and have a nice and relaxed approach to their runs except for when it comes to punctuality maybe: "Every Thursday Night 7:10PM sharp and I mean sharp as a pencil!!")Their Web site is equally carefree and loose - here are some instructions on the races: "How Far - 3.223657890 miles and all flat. Blizzards, locusts, spider invasion, thunder & lightning, power failures, they run out of the Harpooooon, nothing will stop us from running or walking!!! And we have all shapes and sizes - no ability denied here or snickered at!!! The course is primarily flat with a few gentle rolls - one hill up Holland Street - it is reasonably marked but if you get lost we will send out the Massachusetts National Guard to get you - they will bill you for this! The highlights of the course are Powderhouse Blvd and the Minute Man Bike Path both part of the course - it is urban terrain so be ready for traffic - red lights & a few bums in Davis Square trying to squeeze a few bucks off of you."
Friday I visited the Red Hat Cafe on Bowdoin and Cambridge Street to see a little of the Red Sox - Yankees game, which got interrupted by rain several times, and as soon as the Boston players consulted a higher power and delighted audiences with a rain dance, those Yankees were toast! This is how we win ball games, people! Baseball and Boston are traumatically intertwined, and you can't help but get emotional around this time of the year. "Anti-Yankee" garb pops up all over the place, and you better don some Sox outfit or else. The newspapers feature headlines such as "Bring on those Bronx Bums," and "This is where the rubber hits the road!"
The Red Hat is one of my favorite pubs here in Boston, full of history too, the pictures on the walls depict the original Scollay Square (http://www.bambinomusical.com/Scollay/History.htm). The Red Hat is a comfy bar with friendly folks, and it is also easy on the pocket book. Mondays and Tuesdays are best, when the price of chicken wings drops to 10 cents each!
Saturday, once again, brought rain, the effects of yet another hurricane hitting the East Coast, and that was pretty much all there was - rain, rain, rain and rain. Good time to read an entire book I thought, and retired to my couch for the day. In the evening though, I did get stir-crazy and headed out to Charlestown with my friend Elaine to visit the Warren Tavern, not only a place for good beer, but once again, you guessed right, history!! (http://www.warrentavern.com/history.htm). Apparently, after the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775 (http://www.masshist.org/bh/), this was the first place to be rebuilt! Those people had their priorities straight, I say. The Warren Tavern was the place where several historical celebs came for "refreshments", among them Paul Revere and George Washington.
The weather improved drastically for Sunday, and I headed out to Shrewsbury to see Linda #1 and do some hiking. We drove to Callahan State Park near Framingham, Massachusetts (http://www.mass.gov/dem/parks/call.htm), where we enjoyed some very nice and not too crowded trails, met horseback riders, one snake, a grasshopper and some very nice dogs. We ended the day with some retail therapy at the Natick Mall and a delicious dinner at Linda and Roger's house.
This week has been zipping by, Monday and Wednesday night with some running along the Charles River Esplanade, and on Tuesday night, Linda #3 and I went to the Comedy Connection (http://www.comedyconnectionboston.com/). I had a couple of free tickets, and we enjoyed a night of stand-up comedy, most of it pretty funny - Robbie Prinze was the host for the night, and he is an absolute natural! There are some great comedians coming to the Connection in the near future, Dom Irera, Tommy Davidson, Colin Quinn and Kevin Nealon are on the list.
I just returned tonight from my first class at Harvard Extension - I am taking a class on the biology of cancer, and I am now a bona fide student!! The campus is beautiful, of course, and I don't know what possessed me to drive to Cambridge to the class, but I ended up getting a parking spot right in front of the building where my class was (which means that I pahked the caah in Haav'd Yahd!). I am not taking the course for any credits, so I will not have to take exams, which is giving me some free Thursday nights!(http://www.harvard.edu/).
My weekend plans include a softball game (just watching at a safe distance, maybe I will hide under the bleachers) - hoping the Beacon Hill Civic Association can do a three-peat and clobber the Back Bay Team again; a race on Sunday - Run of Hope, a fundraiser for the MGH cancer center (Thanks to those of you who have sponsored me!! - Still can use donations, there is time for those of you who want to donate). Sunday night I am heading to Switzerland for a cancer conference and a couple of days with my family, and will return on October 4th.
I wanted to add a little unconventional sapience, but will abstain from it this time. There are always some funny bits in the Beacon Hill Times provided by "Answer Man" - he does have all the answers and none of the facts. Having no more facts or answers, I am signing off!
Au revoir my friends, I will hail from Geneve!
Pet:)
Last Wednesday, my friend Deborah, a Boston native, came into town, and I met her and her brother Allan at the S&S Deli Restaurant, a Cambridge favorite near Inman Square, that has been around since 1919. According to one restaurant review "families, couples and hung-over college students flock here for the all-day breakfast and deli food. The lox will cure what ails you." I decided to go for the Matzo Ball Soup in honor of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which was the next day, great choice.
Thursday was race day, again, this time in form of the "Blues Run" - organized by the Somerville Striders Athletic Club. The race was 4.2 miles and went along the Charles River in Cambridge, followed by the "Big Pig BBQ" and tunes by the Cat Sass Band (I know, I know, try to pronounce this one fast a few times, and after a couple of beers). Important things first though, I put on a somewhat stellar performance with an astonishing time of 9:41 Minutes per Mile (this is compared to 11 Minutes per Mile during last week's run - for those of you fast runners, who are laughing at my pitiable efforts). I was so excited about my time! The BBQ was impressive and the band livened up the crowd with some nice tunes. Mosquitoes also enjoyed this muggy night out and after they had me for dinner, I walked around in a Benadryl-induced daze for the next few days (not that that's a bad thing!).
The Striders run every Thursday, and have a nice and relaxed approach to their runs except for when it comes to punctuality maybe: "Every Thursday Night 7:10PM sharp and I mean sharp as a pencil!!")Their Web site is equally carefree and loose - here are some instructions on the races: "How Far - 3.223657890 miles and all flat. Blizzards, locusts, spider invasion, thunder & lightning, power failures, they run out of the Harpooooon, nothing will stop us from running or walking!!! And we have all shapes and sizes - no ability denied here or snickered at!!! The course is primarily flat with a few gentle rolls - one hill up Holland Street - it is reasonably marked but if you get lost we will send out the Massachusetts National Guard to get you - they will bill you for this! The highlights of the course are Powderhouse Blvd and the Minute Man Bike Path both part of the course - it is urban terrain so be ready for traffic - red lights & a few bums in Davis Square trying to squeeze a few bucks off of you."
Friday I visited the Red Hat Cafe on Bowdoin and Cambridge Street to see a little of the Red Sox - Yankees game, which got interrupted by rain several times, and as soon as the Boston players consulted a higher power and delighted audiences with a rain dance, those Yankees were toast! This is how we win ball games, people! Baseball and Boston are traumatically intertwined, and you can't help but get emotional around this time of the year. "Anti-Yankee" garb pops up all over the place, and you better don some Sox outfit or else. The newspapers feature headlines such as "Bring on those Bronx Bums," and "This is where the rubber hits the road!"
The Red Hat is one of my favorite pubs here in Boston, full of history too, the pictures on the walls depict the original Scollay Square (http://www.bambinomusical.com/Scollay/History.htm). The Red Hat is a comfy bar with friendly folks, and it is also easy on the pocket book. Mondays and Tuesdays are best, when the price of chicken wings drops to 10 cents each!
Saturday, once again, brought rain, the effects of yet another hurricane hitting the East Coast, and that was pretty much all there was - rain, rain, rain and rain. Good time to read an entire book I thought, and retired to my couch for the day. In the evening though, I did get stir-crazy and headed out to Charlestown with my friend Elaine to visit the Warren Tavern, not only a place for good beer, but once again, you guessed right, history!! (http://www.warrentavern.com/history.htm). Apparently, after the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775 (http://www.masshist.org/bh/), this was the first place to be rebuilt! Those people had their priorities straight, I say. The Warren Tavern was the place where several historical celebs came for "refreshments", among them Paul Revere and George Washington.
The weather improved drastically for Sunday, and I headed out to Shrewsbury to see Linda #1 and do some hiking. We drove to Callahan State Park near Framingham, Massachusetts (http://www.mass.gov/dem/parks/call.htm), where we enjoyed some very nice and not too crowded trails, met horseback riders, one snake, a grasshopper and some very nice dogs. We ended the day with some retail therapy at the Natick Mall and a delicious dinner at Linda and Roger's house.
This week has been zipping by, Monday and Wednesday night with some running along the Charles River Esplanade, and on Tuesday night, Linda #3 and I went to the Comedy Connection (http://www.comedyconnectionboston.com/). I had a couple of free tickets, and we enjoyed a night of stand-up comedy, most of it pretty funny - Robbie Prinze was the host for the night, and he is an absolute natural! There are some great comedians coming to the Connection in the near future, Dom Irera, Tommy Davidson, Colin Quinn and Kevin Nealon are on the list.
I just returned tonight from my first class at Harvard Extension - I am taking a class on the biology of cancer, and I am now a bona fide student!! The campus is beautiful, of course, and I don't know what possessed me to drive to Cambridge to the class, but I ended up getting a parking spot right in front of the building where my class was (which means that I pahked the caah in Haav'd Yahd!). I am not taking the course for any credits, so I will not have to take exams, which is giving me some free Thursday nights!(http://www.harvard.edu/).
My weekend plans include a softball game (just watching at a safe distance, maybe I will hide under the bleachers) - hoping the Beacon Hill Civic Association can do a three-peat and clobber the Back Bay Team again; a race on Sunday - Run of Hope, a fundraiser for the MGH cancer center (Thanks to those of you who have sponsored me!! - Still can use donations, there is time for those of you who want to donate). Sunday night I am heading to Switzerland for a cancer conference and a couple of days with my family, and will return on October 4th.
I wanted to add a little unconventional sapience, but will abstain from it this time. There are always some funny bits in the Beacon Hill Times provided by "Answer Man" - he does have all the answers and none of the facts. Having no more facts or answers, I am signing off!
Au revoir my friends, I will hail from Geneve!
Pet:)
posted by My Boston at
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