bleacher views

Get ready for chowdah season

In Boston, you don’t drink the Kool-Aid, you swallow the Red Sox “chowdah.” Youngsters, used to winning World Series and bringing home Super Bowl trophies, may not know the feeling. But we old timers, we know what that “chowdah” tastes like, and we keep trying to swear off it.

Still, we swallow it, hook, line and clamshell, over and over again. Our Puritan ancestors would have figured we were paying for some past sin, but I think it just comes with the territory.

Let me try to give a hint of what the whole thing feels like. Say you were getting married. You had reserved the green church on the Fens for the occasion. The reception reservations were all set. The food was ordered, and the champagne was on ice.

Came the big day, and you walked up to the altar at home plate, hoping that everything would go according to plan but having this itchy feeling at the back of your neck — you know, that creepy, crawly little niggle that said, “Don’t count your trophies before their time and always expect the other foot to fall. You are, after all, a New Englander.”

And just as it seems that things might work out, your spouse-to-be tugs at your arm and says, “You know, this is not what I meant at all. This is not it, at all.”  (OK, maybe Prufrock said it first, but it sounds better than what I can come up with.)

Then, “POOF.” You look around, and the big green church on the Fens is empty, the guests have gone home, the dugouts are deserted, and the season is just plain over and done with.

And you are looking around in consternation and saying, “What happened? Where did everyone go? We have all this champagne, and I’m all dressed up.”

Oh well, that’s life in the big city by the airport. I guess we have to light up the hot stove and wait for next year. It’s not like we haven’t done that before, but this was such a nice run, and it would have made such a nice story.

“BOOM.” Did you hear that, I think it was the sound of the other foot. Chowdah anyone?

 

Millerton resident and Maine native Theodore Kneeland is a former teacher and coach — and athlete.

bleacher views

Latest News

'Gather' at Troutbeck

'Gather' at Troutbeck

Romane Recalde speaking about her new business at Gather.

Natalia Zukerman

Hosted by Jason Klein and Sascha Lewis, an ongoing series called “Gather” at Troutbeck in Amenia brings together a curious crowd of local entrepreneurs, artists, and others with a story to tell for an intimate midday chat. On Thursday, Jan. 16, floral designer Romane Recalde, owner of the newly opened Le Jardin in Amenia, took center stage to share her journey from modeling in Miami to cultivating flowers in the Hudson Valley. Gather is a place to share stories, swap advice, and celebrate some of the unique businesses that make our area vibrant — all with a delicious lunch on the side. The gatherings are unconventional in the best way, with no agenda beyond good conversation and community building.

Recalde’s story isn’t just about creating a flower shop; it’s about a complete reinvention of self. “I hated Miami so much,” said the French-born Recalde, recalling her time in Florida before moving to New York. She worked as a model in New York, and eventually met her husband, James. Their pandemic escape to Turks and Caicos turned into a six-month stay, which in turn led them to Millbrook and finally to their home in Amenia, where Recalde’s connection to nature blossomed.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

Mad Rose opens ‘Assembled’ exhibition

Mad Rose opens ‘Assembled’ exhibition

Mad Rose Gallery’s “Assembled” exhibition opened Saturday, Jan. 18, with a public reception.

The eclectic exhibition — on view until March 2 at the gallery on the intersection of Routes 22 and 44 in Millerton — gathers together work from a group of diverse artists with decades of experience between them. The exhibition itself is true to the name, featuring photographs, sculptures, drawings and mixed media works in all shapes and sizes.

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit

The fragile bonds of family: a review of Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters'

The fragile bonds of family: a review of Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters'

Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters' is written with such verve and poetic imagination that it’s hard to fathom how it could be the author’s first novel. Ms. Lerner, 64, has worked for three decades as a literary agent, editor, and non-fiction writer, but at some point during the Covid pandemic — without any forethought — she sat down and typed out the first line of the novel exactly as it now appears in the book, and then completed it without telling anyone what she was up to.

The novel takes place over twenty years — from the 1970s into the ’90s — and is a kind of guide for that era. It reads like a memoir accompanied by some bouncy dialogue, but is actually a work of what’s called autofiction in which Lerner mixes her own experiences — including her own struggle with mental illness — with things she simply makes up. The fictional narrator is Amy Shred, the younger of two sisters in an upper-middle-class, secular Jewish family living in the suburbs of New Haven, Connecticut.

Keep ReadingShow less
books

Lazy, hazy days of...winter?

Lazy, hazy days of...winter?

This small stream is fishable, despite the wintry conditions. It probably won't be a pleasant or productive experience, but it can be done.

Patrick L. Sullivan

When syndicated columnists run out of ideas they do one of two things.

First they collect the last couple year’s worth of columns and call it a book. These are published to great acclaim from other syndicated columnists and show up in due course in gigantic, ziggurat-shaped mounds at Costco for $4.98 a pop.

Keep ReadingShow less