Phat Phives

Our Five Favorite Places That We Visited Last Week

Monday: Free Soup And Games Night At Hope And Olive Restaurant, Greenfield, MA: Every first Monday at the start of each month, Hope and Olive, in conjunction with Gill's Wagon Wheel Restaurant, provides free soup, dessert, and bread to its customers in return for a donation to a local non-profit organization, such as the Survival Center in Turners Falls, that the Hope and Olive and Wagon Wheel collaborative has chosen to benefit. Not normally open on Monday nights, Hope and Olive hosts this monthly gathering, and it is a treat indeed. As you enter the building, the warm and cozy atmosphere greets you, with comfortable booths, warm, rich colors, and the sounds of laughter and community spilling from all corners of the restaurant. The bar stays open for specialty drinks, but water is provided for free, along with soup, bread and dessert. The soup is always luscious and blends interesting and exotic flavors, such as root vegetable with ham, spicy sweet potato, and corned beef and potato. On each Soup and Games Night, they provide two different kinds of self-serve, all-you-can-eat soup. The bread is also very good; I suspect that it's home-made. Hope and Olive also provides a tray of free dessert, such as brownies, cookies, and pastries, to accompany your meal. To top it all off, you can enjoy games with your family and friends while you eat. Hope and Olive provides some games, but you are welcome to bring your own from home. The best part of the evening is the various sounds of games and fun filling the space. It's great that the kindly folks at Hope and Olive and the Wagon Wheel bring the community together for some much needed fun in a way that benefits the entire community.

Free Soup and Games Night starts at about 5 pm and ends around 9.

Hope and Olive is only usually open on Mondays, only for Free Soup and Games Night on the first Monday of each month. Otherwise, they are open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner. I suggest you come by another time, too, and not just for the free Soup and Games Night, but to enjoy their full menu, full of amazing food!

--LGP

Hope to see you there!

Valley Muse

The Craft Fair Moon

The days are shorter, the lights are dimmer. Now it is time to get ready for the big day.

Ideas have been floating about our heads for months; now we must put them together and make our lists: what we'll need to gather, what we'll need to do.

Over the summer, while we walked the beaches at Campobello Island, we stuffed our pockets and bags with all sorts of rocks. We packed them up and drove them home, where we washed and sorted them, setting aside the most beautiful ones. These, we turn into rock magnets to sell at the craft fair, or give as gifts at Christmastime.

The Campobello beaches provide me with sea glass as well as rocks, which I fashion into necklaces by wrapping wire around and around until it looks just right.

In the woods, I collect acorn tops to use as caps for the flower fairies and tree sprites I make. At home, I gather together silk flowers for dresses and clothes, pipe cleaners for bodies and arms, beads for heads, and yarn for hair. I start to piece together all the elements into colorful flower fairies and tree sprites, and finally, when they are done, I hang them on branches of a pine bough that I've put in a clay pot filled with more Campobello rocks.

We bake granola, chocolate chip bars, and make chocolate peppermint bark. We package everything in bags with labels we've made. We turn our favorite art into art cards and package them in sets of three. We write up bits about our art and ourselves so that when people buy something of ours, they know who made it and where it came from. My brother puts the finishing touches on his sculpey creature magnets and his Santa cards. We've worked hard. --DRP

The Kid's Craft Fair takes place this coming Friday, December 7, from 4:30-8 pm in the River Garden on Main Street in Brattleboro, VT. Over 60 kids of all ages--mostly homeschoolers--are registered to take part. The Fair takes place during the first Friday Gallery Walk and the kick off to Brattleboro's Holly Days celebrations, that last all weekend long. Hope to see you there!

Phat Phives

Here's what's on Luke & Dom's playlist this week:
1. Rhianna w/Ne-yo--Hate that I love you
2. Chris Brown--Wall to Wall & Kiss Kiss Kiss (w/T Pain)
3. Musiq Soulchild--B.U.D.D.Y.
4. Kanye West--Good Life
5. Common/John Legend--They Say

Here's what's on Mom's:
1. Raul Midon--Pick Somebody Up (single)
2. Angie Stone--Play with it (single)
3. anything by Anthony David/Hamilton
4. Ayo--Joyful
5. Martin Sexton--Seeds

Boggle-licious words of the week!

1. roc: Dominick remembered this word from the Age of Mythology PC-game. A roc is a legendary bird of great size and strength, believed to inhabit the Indian Ocean area, and able to carry 100 tons--that's a lot of fish! A roc is a carnivore, so perhaps the 100 tons would be in large mammals--humans? The roc glided over the rough seas in search of prey, its wings blanketing the ocean below, where a herd of blue whales swam dwarfed and darkened by the roc's shadow.

2. seel: this one seems legendary as well, and seems at least to have its origins in some archaic custom. It's a verb, meaning to close the eyes of (as a hawk) by drawing threads through the eyelids. The archaic meaning (because the previous one was so modern) is, quite simply, to close up (one's eyes). Ouch. I seeled my eyes as the sunlight's glare pierced and burned.

3. rube: a fun word, like dola or gary, I suppose, that traces its roots to the name Ruben (the only Ruben I've ever known was Ruben Kincaid from the Partridge Family), or even a particular person named "Ruben" who must have been enough of a piece of work to engender comments, comparisons, and finally, this memorialization, however infamous, of his unsophistication: n. an awkward, unsophisticated person; rustic; or a naive or inexperienced person. George Bush often appears to be a real rube, in appearance, behavior, and speech.

4. sate: We all know the word satisfaction, as in "can't get no...," but do you know the word "sate"? v. to cloy with overabundance, glut; to appease by indulging to the full. This holiday season, I plan on sating myself with all the sweets I can get my hands on.

5. pate: rhymes with sate, means head. "Cover your pate!", Mom always says, "before you get cold and miserable."

6. gast: This would have been handy at Halloween: v. to scare.

7. olio: n. a miscellaneous mixture. Sounds like a cafe' to me. We liked to eat at Cafe' Olio, because there was something for everyone.

8. S-O-N-E What 3 and 4-letter words can you make with these four letters?
one
nose
ones
son
noes (plural of no)
sen (yen)
sone: n. subjective unit of loudness for an average listener equal to the loudness of 1000 Hertz sound that has an intensity of 40 decibels above the listener's own threshold of hearing. Huh?

Weekly Muse

Plunk!

The firm grip of the golf club
may give anyone who plays calluses and blisters
but gifts the avid and devoted golfer
a touch that is
soft, warm, and encouraging

Blocking out
the excitement, anxiety, tentativeness,
and the voice in the head
that comes to you with reminders of
all the little things that perfect the swing

The taste of excitement fills the body
as the golf ball rockets off the clubface
miles onto the fairway.
Strutting across the course, feeling invincible,
you slow down to take in the moment

As the golfer lines up the putt
the amazingly bright colors of the autumn leaves
come into view, distracting,
blurring together to form an array of
reds, yellows, oranges, and every color in between

Plunk!
the unforgettable sound of the golf ball
rattling the cup
enlivens and excites the heart
causing it to skip a beat

The smell of the first frost
fills the body with coolness
you shiver as you walk up the last hole
weary that this might just be the last day of golf
you are glad that it was such a nice round

You say your goodbyes
to the colors, smells, sights, and touch of golf
now walking up to the green you cry out in anguish
as the golfer's least favorite season
lays its last finger around you.

(LGP)

Wish we had done it!

A hilarious, spot-on translation of cat conversation...

Phat Phives

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This is one of those stories that takes no effort to read, that calls to you in the middle of the night, washes over you and seeps into your soul. The Book Thief is an amazing book, offering up a beautiful story that unfolds within the lives of unforgettable characters at an unforgettable time--Nazi Germany on the brink of WWII. The tale is told in small bits, a rationing of pain and beauty--easier to digest? Perhaps. The narrator? Death, as a surprisingly comforting, warm voice that took me in and opened my eyes into a world of friendship, love and bravery amidst loss and despair--a welcome perspective on those who lived within Nazi Germany, but were deeply unsettled and aggrieved by the events of the time, and inspired to risk their lives to save a life. These are my promises: that this book will grip you from the start, with characters that tumble and grow and gain speed and depth and become something you'll want to follow to the ends of the earth. Such was my impatience that I awoke at 6 this morning to keep reading, and ended up finishing the darn thing, and now it is done, and my sadness has taken over. No doubt this story, with its richly sculpted, beautiful, enduring characters, will stay with me forever. A must read for teens, adults, and as a read aloud for ages 9+. (ESG)



2. Chuck, NBC, Mondays, 8-9 pm. My favorite new show, about a nerdy, but charming Buy More employee, named Chuck. Sounds like a bad Comedy, right? Chuck was sent a disc that when injected into his computer revealed all the government' secrets in images that he was able to put together. Whenever he revisits one of these images in real life, he suddenly has a flash, giving him the undercover information on that particular object. He is recruited, because of his special ability, to a team of two that work for the government as spies and investigators. Chuck struggles with holding onto his life at Buy More, which is very funny and, yes very much like a comedy, while still being effective with his alter ego work job as a federal agent. The show successfully combines Comedy with Action, weaving in suspenseful relationships. Looks like a good episode coming up, I suggest you tune in!... (LGP)



3. The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by Stephen Mitchell. This is considered to be the "oldest story in the world," and was originally written on clay tablets in cuneiform about 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia, now Iraq, the first civilization. The epic tells the story of the king Gilgamesh, who rules over the great city of Uruk with tyrannical power and might. In his quest for immortality, Gilgamesh undergoes a transformation of heroic, mythic proporations. The story is full of his adventures (with and without his friend Enkidu), his run-ins with mythological creatures and the many gods of Mesopotamia, his raging sadness, and his ultimate understanding of what it means to be human. This particular version includes a lengthy, interesting introduction with information regarding the history of the story, the king, and the translations itself, as well as insight and analysis. I would recommend this for anyone over the age of 10, but primarily for teens and adults, (Gilgamesh and Enkidu have quite the sexual appetites), even though I'm only 8 and I thought it was very, very good. Here's an excerpt:

Shiduri said, "Gilgamesh, where are you roaming?
You will never find the eternal life
that you seek. When the gods created mankind,
they also created death, and they held back
eternal life for themselves alone.
Humans are born, they live, then they die,
this is the order that the gods have decreed.
But until the end comes, enjoy your life,
spend it in happiness, not despair.
Savor your food, make each of your days
a delight, bathe and anoint yourself,
wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean,
let music and dancing fill your house,
love the child who holds you by the hand,
and give your wife pleasure in your embrace.
That is the best way for a man to live."

(DRP)

4. Dan in Real Life, starring Steve Carell. We watched this movie just yesterday afternoon, and were pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Here's the plot in a nutshell: Dan, whose wife has died of an undiscolsed illness about four years ago, is busy raising his three daughters by himself while he writes his advice column and hopes for syndication. During their annual visit with his large, loving family in their awesome, rambling, cedar-shingled seaside New England vacation home, he meets an intriguing woman at a bookstore and instantly falls for her. She admits that she is in a rather new relationship, alas, and has to rush off, but gives him her number anyway, so that they can "finish their conversation." A short time later that morning, they meet again--at his parents' house--but not before he's told everyone that he's met someone amazing. Turns out, she is his brother's new girlfriend. You can imagine the awkwardness that ensues--hilarious, touching, and suspenseful. Dominick liked it because "it was very funny, but also frustrating and sad, in that not everything went as smoothly as you wanted it to." Luke liked it because "of the situation Dan was in and how he dealt with it, and how all the times when he could have gone one way and he went the other way and how that affected the outcome of the story." And Liz liked it because "it wasn't animated, and noone was killed. Actually, it was really good--the setting (house, seaside New England, and the dynamics within the family fold) was very familiar, and Steve Carell was amazing." Amidst all the schlock that's out there, it was a nice find. (DRP/LGP/ESG)

5. Freaks and Geeks on DVD. A criminally short-lived TV series from the 90's, Freaks and Geeks takes place in 1980, and focuses on Lindsay, a former mathlete and good girl who has decided to try on a more interesting wardrobe of friends--the Freaks--as she moves through the often daunting and bruising social landscape of high school. Her younger brother, Sam, and his friends, Bill and Neil, a trio of beloved Geeks, offer up a hilarious counterpoint to the Freaks, as the two worlds often collide. Watching Freaks and Geeks makes the whole family laugh. It also offers up interesting little tidbits for discussion: keg parties, non-alcoholic beer, spin the bottle, falling in love, smoking pot, and getting egged on Halloween by your big sister and her friends. It's a great tapestry of endearing characters and very funny story lines, all woven together with the threads of the usual idiotic social hierarchies and taxonomies that make high school so unbearable--and wickedly funny. There's nothing close to it on TV anymore, though many of the actors have gone on to other series and film work. (DRP/LGP/ESG)

Bottom Feeders

Here's a new category: Bottom Feeders, or, things that we think are undeserving of their elevated status, whether a popular movie, book, cd, idea, trend, or just about anything else. This week's award goes to a movie we watched the other night, a 2001 flick called Save the Last Dance. The movie, filled with stereotypes, nauseating predictability, and bad acting, tries to capture the life of a white girl ballerina, who has recently lost her devoted mother and movie with her musician-absentee father to the inner city, which is filled with all sorts of cliches and stereotypes. She falls in love with an African-American young man, who, despite his obvious intelligence and desire to get into Georgetown U., still hangs with the "bad boys." He wants to go to Georgetown so he can get into med school and become a pediatrician, but his life is riddled with the complexities of urban living--and more cliche's and stereotypes than can usually fit inside one character: he at once embraces and rejects his bad boy past and surroundings--somehow he has wormed out of having a rap sheet, even though he should, by all accounts, have one, so he can wear his hip badness on his pate while still working his way towards higher aspirations; his sister, younger than he, has already had a baby, who is being raised by her grandmother, for the most part, while she goes to high school during the day and hip hop clubs at night; his "bad boy" friend, caught up in the tightest stranglehold of city and circumstance, is not a good person and is undeserving of his loyalty, which makes him nearly risk everything to fight his street rivals and save his street cred ass; and his girlfriend, whom he refocuses on her dancing dreams, is the classic white and nerdy girl with glasses, old grandma clothes, and awkward and stilted dance floor moves. Her dancing, supposedly good enough for Julliard, is quite frankly terrible. Her audition dance incorporates classic ballet and her more recent hiphop acquisitions--obviously symbolic of her new fusion of cultures and worlds. What happens next is unbelievable and unreal (sorry, we won't give it away). Oh well. At least the lameness is consistent all around. Save yourself the misery--rent a different movie!

Phat Phives

Boggle-icious! Words of the Week

We love playing Boggle. Sometimes we stumble upon combinations of letters that sound like they should be words, so we have to look them up in the dictionary, and sometimes they are words, and sometimes, well, they should be!

Here are five from this week's Boggle-ing:

1. FAY
We had a wonderful cousin named Fay. She lived in Amherst, and died not too long ago. We miss Fay--her warm smile, her sense of humor, and her sharp wit. She had an exuberance for living her life that was admirable, and inspiring. She was part of the Reed family; her father was our great-grandfather's brother. Their mother was a Fay. Little did we know there are other fays in this world...

a. fay=(v) to fit or join closely or tightly

b. fay=(n) faith

c. fay=(n) fairy or elf

d. fay=(adj) resembling an elf

Cousin Fay did have an enchanted quality about her, and her name suited her well. Change the 'a' to an 'e', however, and it's a whole different story:

2. FEY

a. fey=(adj) doomed; marked by a foreboding of death or calamity

b. fey=(adj) visionary; marked by an otherworldly air or attitude; crazy, touched

c. fey=(adj) excessively refined, precious; campy

3. FIE
Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Be he 'live, or be he dead,
I'll grind his bones to make my bread.

So it turns out that the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk was really quite disgusted by the smell of poor Jack.

fie=an expression of disgust

4. LEA OR LEY

Over the lea we go! We also stumbled opon this word while fishing for words in a game of Boggle.

lea\ley=grassland or pasture

5. SLOE

Whenever you find these four letters linked together on a Boggle board, remember that you can make these words: SOLE, OLE, LOSE, and SLOE, as in Sloe Gin Fizz. My parents always thought that the Sloe was just a misspelling of Slow--some dimwitted, drunken bartender's mistake, perhaps. But no.

sloe=(n) the small black fruit of the blackthorne. Fruit is described as being "globose and astringent."

If you are sloe-eyed, you have either soft dark bluish or purplish black eyes, or slanted eyes.

Sloe gin is a sweet reddish liqueur consisting of grain spirits flavored chiefly with, you guessed it, sloes. It has nothing at all to do with the sudden turn in the overall pace of life when a sloe gin fizz is ingested, alas.

AND, if you happen to have an extra S on the board that you can use, don't forget to write down LOESS: an unstratified usually buff to yellowish brown loamy deposit found in North America, Europe, and Aisa, and believed to be chiefly deposited by the wind. Yeah!

Thanks to the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary for all those kick-ass definitions!

--LGP and DRP, with some minor tinkering from ESG

Day Trippers

Finding the Happy Woods: a Tale of Two Antique Stores in Keene, NH

It's funny how some days turn out: how a bad day can turn into a good one, with a little patience and humor.

My family and I had gone to Keene, N.H., to go antiquing and shopping, and to get something to eat for lunch. On our way, we stopped at a long, one-story building called the "Knotty Pine Antiques." Inside, antiques filled the room in neatly organized rows. Blotches of blue splattered the white walls. In the center, a woman in her 70's stood ripping apart a meat sandwich with her silver-filled mouth. My mother smiled at her and said, "Good morning." The woman did not say hello. Instead, with her mouth full, she squawked, "Ma'am, you'll have to leave your bag outside." My mom's bag, a purse-sized backpack, which she wore on her back at the time, had brown and blue zipper stripes. "What, but this is my purse!?," my mother stammered, in a confused voice. "We have a policy," snapped the woman stubbornly. Her face was narrow and sharp. "So I guess I don't buy anything? . . ." my mom muttered. "Well, you can bring the money in, but you have to leave the bag outside." Her voice was cold, her stare penetrating. "How distrusting. . .," my mom mumbled to no one in particular. Finally, my dad said, in a low voice, "Do you want to go?" "Yes, I want to go," my mother pronounced. My brother and I whispered to to each other, "Wow." We were all stunned. And we giggled all the way to the car.

Taking our seats, we all traded our feelings about what had just happened. The woman's rudeness had made us feel very unwelcome. We agreed that we would never go there again.

We drove to Colony Mill Marketplace, a brick building filled with lots of shops and restaurants in downtown Keene. First, we lost ourselves amidst sour pumpkin gummies, strawberry licorice, and Harry Potter jelly beans in a candy store. Then, we grabbed a quick lunch at an Asian restaurant in the small food court on the bottom floor. Finally, we made our way past hat and shoe shops, clothing stores, and a fun store with hilarious George Bush playing cards, then up the stairs, and into an antiques store.

We weren't sure what to expect. As we sauntered into the store, we heard the warm voice of the woman at the desk, "Hello, are you looking for anything in particular?" At the same time, we stumbled upon the sign that asked customers to leave their bags at the front. My mom still had her purse on her back, but the woman did not say anything. "Hi, we're just looking, thanks." We began to slowly pace ourselves down the aisles, savoring every stop as we looked at cool prosthetic eyes, Wedgewood pottery, a Mongolian knife, and a five thousand dollar Native American statue hand-carved out of wood. It felt good to finally be able to browse all the cool things in an antique shop without feeling like we were not supposed to be there.

By the time we made our final stop of the day at the bookstore next door, we were eager to sit down and relax with a book before hitting the road for home. It had been a long day for us travelers. It started off a little rough, but we managed to plug the hole of rudeness and find the trail into the happy woods.

--DRP

Local Bites

Cafe' Koko Restaurant Review

Café Koko, resting in downtown Greenfield, has become our preferred dining place for a decent and swift lunch, when we are in the area. Having recently undergone a face-lift, the corner cafe' has become a less tawdry and dark place than it used to be, thanks to a few vital modifications. Signs have been posted around the building's perimeter preventing loiterers, who used to hang outside the café and smoke, from diminishing the atmosphere. Also aiding the café’s atmosphere are ceiling tiles decorated by local artists and everyday people, such as my brother and his horseback-riding camp, consisting of three people, each individually painted a section of the tile of life around the stables. My favorite tile is a lively painting of two aliens peeking down at you through a trompe l’oeil hole. Art work displayed on the walls is changed every so often and helps provide an interesting background. The building also has wireless, and outlets next to a row of tables certainly attract extra customers. The atmosphere does have its downside, though, with its petite and unstable tables, barely allowing enough space to fit two plates, let alone three, with drinks and silverware.

The fairly choice-friendly menu welcomes customers who will be willing to try something unconventional, although you can get some of the regular café lunches, such as a turkey club sandwich, some traditional salad choices, and soups, but you will be more satisfied with the food if you go with something more eccentric. The Omni is one of my favorite choices, with crisp bacon, lettuce, tomato, pesto, avocado, and sprouts, all served on a bagel. Although it’s a “breakfast” sandwich, it will leave you feeling full at any time of the day. Their chocolate chip cookies with walnuts are some of the best cookies around, and they also have lots of other fresh deserts, ranging from maple kissed cornbread to rich chocolate treats.

This particular day, I ordered soup in a bread bowl, a new choice on the menu. My favorite soup from past experiences was Grandma’s chicken, so I went with that. My brother ordered the same thing and my mom ordered a small side salad with curried chicken salad. The person taking our order at the counter needed extra help spelling “miso,” and we could tell she had been newly hired. The food was ready rapidly, as usual. We grabbed a row of seats at the sun bar, which is one of the only places to sit with three or more people. I quickly observed that there was no broth in the soup; the bread had soaked it all up. It was a disappointment, for the broth is usually what makes it such a great soup. Left in the bowl was shredded chicken, a bit insipid without the broth, and mushy carrots. The bread was horrible, partly because it was drenched in broth, but also the quality of the bread was poor. Over all, my and my brother’s meal was disappointing. My mom’s salad was not any better. She noted that the dressing, usually very appetizing, was too vinegary, and instead of miso, it tasted more like bad balsamic dressing. Ironic, that when I review the café, we get the worst food we have ever gotten there. Usually, the food is quite good. Even though I gave Café Koko a so-so review, I would advise you to try it if you are in the area, but do not order soup in a bread bowl! This is not by any means a destination restaurant, but you might enjoy the food there…most of the time!

--LGP