Category: Memories

Suns Lose Bad but Psych Me Up

Posted on by Markman

I ended up watching the Connecticut Sun game last night. I was rooting for them to win since they traded most of their good players at the end of last season and they hadn’t won game yet. Leading most of the game, but towards the end had a major collapse and let the Lynx, who couldn’t get a basket for the life of them for a long stretch, were allowed to go on a 21-0 run or something like that. Talk about a choke job. My girl Mabley did good though, and the game itself was entertaining. Even though the Suns lost it did get me psyched about seeing a game in person this summer. I’ve decided not to root for teams actually anyway, just certain players, that way I can cheer on both Mabley and Veronica B (LD trainer’s daughter), over out in the west when they meet up.

I also like how these games go by quickly and it’s so much smoother than the NBA. I can’t quite explain it but it just seems like it’s a more pure form of basketball playing.

I’m currently on level 19 of Sokobird 2. Love these little brain teasers.

Witch Hazel Appears and Self Driving Cars

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A while back the town had some get a free tree thing to plant. Anyways LD signed up for it and although all the trees we originally wanted were gone, a specimen showed up today unannounced on the doorstep. An American With Hazel, a know that’s more of a shrub but we’ll find a place to plant it at some point and go from there. It’s a pretty good plant to have in the yard for the pollinators and such. We’ll need to consult this guide to get the most out of the plant, hopefully our green thumbs will prevail with this guy.

I forgot to mention this yesterday but as I was going to my dental appt checkup (everything was fine btw!) I happened to notice one of those Waymo cars driving next to me in bumper to bumper traffic down over at the Alewife area. Those are those self driving cars. I remember reading they were going to try them out around the metro area here. There was a guy in the drivers seat. The car itself is pretty unique looking with this big spinning dome thing on the top and spinning things on the four corners of the car, must be sensors of some kind I imagine. Here they come!

Mr. History Post #13: Squirrel Nuts!

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The Squirrel brand dates back to 1890 when it started as the Austin T. Merrill Company in Roxbury. Incorporated in 1899 as the newly named Squirrel Brands Salted Nut Company, the company’s ownership changed and two long-time employees, Perley G. Gerrish and Fred S. Green, began to run the business. As the company grew, it moved from its Boston location to Cambridge in 1903 and then to this building in 1915.

The company was here in Cambridge from 1915 to 1999.

Their popular flagship product was the “Squirrel Nut Zipper,” a vanilla, caramel, and nut taffy that supposedly was named after an illegal drink during Prohibition. The candy was always regionally popular, but it made more of a national comeback during the 1990s when a retro swing band named themselves the Squirrel Nut Zippers and gave out the candy at their performances.

When Hollis Gerrish, the son of the founder, died in 1997, he left instructions for the company to be sold. In 1999, Squirrel Brand Company was purchased by Southern Style Nuts and the operation was moved to Texas. Its leaving marked the departure of the city’s last major independent candy manufacturer.

My personal connection is that I can remember my late grandmother telling me when I was a kid that she worked there probablyaround the kate 1940s. (My mom might have also worked there at the same time for a while.) Everytime my granny would tell me of her time there I kept imagining in my head that famous I Love Lucy episode. My grandmother was on the line!

This one was for some of our memories together Grandma.

Added a new category called History to link all these history visit posts.

Gametime: Sokobird 2.

Sunday We Do Yard Work

Posted on by Markman

We were quite busy today getting a bunch of stuff done around the house. But first we saw a promotion from a local floral business that stated if you brought them 2 or more old vases you would get a free floral bouquet. So we looked around, found two old vases that we had no real attraction to keeping anymore and went down and met the folks. And got the free bouquet. Pretty good idea actually.

Then it was on the yard tasks. First before anything else, I put the AC up in the window because it’s going to start to be getting hotter. Then I went ahead and gave the outdoor grill a thorough cleaning, inside and out. I also cleaned down the patio table and LD planted more potter plants. Then we went over to the “prairie area” we have a weeded out there. Now the 100 year old lilies that we planted there a few years back will have more room to grow and prosper. I have to say they look really good and healthy so far, I guess they like the location. I then decided to go ahead and mow the lawns and edge the fences. That took a while since it’s a pretty big yard, but I like the job that I did. I left a spot in the middle of the lawn where some wild buttercups are in bloom for pollinators though. Once they’re done I’ll mow over them.

As a reward LD decided to take me to a place I saw on tv the other night that makes mochi donuts, an Asian specialty that I wanted to try. I got three different kinds but I think my favorite of the ones I got was the taro. Now it’s wind down and relax time as our bodies muscles are hurting! Escpeally mine after all that biking yesterday.

Saturday Morning City Bike Ride

Posted on by Markman
Took a picture of this church before the ride.

This morning was the annual spring bike ride that the city of Cambridge puts on that I try to do every year. This year’s theme was a tour of Cambridge’s off-leash dog areas. We also stopped at Fresh Pond for a water and restroom break and to hear from a guest speaker about the City’s biggest dog and wildlife hotspot. The ride was really good, mostly level terrain, with a police escort. If you weren’t near the front though I don’t think you’d actually know where the parks were because there wouldn’t be anyone to point it out to you as you rode by. This was a good 11 mile ride with about 115 participants. The best parts were the dogs that came along for the ride. After it was all over I headed to place a saw on Chronicle last week in my neighborhood that I wanted to try out, a Rwandan couple that has a coffee shop and serves coffee from their homeland, I must say it was pretty good! Would definitely go back and try some other things.

Below Listing:

  1. Cambridge city bike ride start
  2. Doggo on the ride
  3. Rest stop
  4. Wildlife by the Charles
  5. Back on the road
  6. Only time we can bike this underpass
  7. Again
  8. Drinking coffee from Rwanda!

Swinging into the Weekend Like…

Posted on by Markman

I was able to find a book of some of Edgar Allen Poe’s most famous stories in a little library while I was hanging around, It’s been a while sine I read those. This version looks to be nicely put together, with illustrations and editorial thoughts in the margins. Afterwards we picked up some more plants, which we’ll get into their pots this weekend, along with a stone cat figure that reminds of of Carson. Probably put it near where the bunnies lay their nests in the pot as he is the protector of the baby bunnies!

mr. History Post #12: Winter Hill Gang HQ

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It’s a church now, but the building at 12-14 Marshall Street, a landmark in the history of 20th Century organized crime, served as the headquarters for the infamous Winter Hill Gang.

With 12-14 Marshal St. as its headquarters, Winter and James “Whitey” Bulger directed a criminal organization that fixed horse races along the east coast, corrupted the Boston office of the FBI and provided the basis for an academy-award winning film (“The Departed” was loosely based on Bulger’s role as an FBI informant). From the 1970s until 1994 when Bulger fled Boston to avoid law enforcement, the gang rivaled the local Mafia in brutality and profits. And until 1980, when Winter went to jail and the gang moved to Boston, Marshall Street was the crew’s command center.

In 2008, the garage’s infamous trapdoor, which led to a basement where the Winter Hill Gang tortured or disposed of their rivals, was still intact. A significant place in the history of organized crime in the United States.

A Little Back Yard Love going On

Posted on by Markman

Yesterday was a pretty busy day! In the morning some guys we got to replace some of the falling fence panels in the back yard came by to remove the worst of the offenders. These panels are just so old and waterlogged, one even fell down. Those will be getting replaced piecemeal as time goes on. By the end of a week or two they should be done with the work. Good thing I had finally mowed the lawn a few days ago. We then had our previous massage lady come by and pick up the supplies she had left here, by now a few years ago, like her table and heater and bolster, and it was fun to reconnect. Maybe we’ll do a lunch or something in the future. We then hit the town’s garden flowers sale, something that we do every year. It wasn’t as big this year and it was a bit rainy but we got a few things. LD had a bunch of things to do while caught the Celtics game and then we planted the plants we got earlier, but then the sun had come out and it was a nice day.. We then cooked and baked some things as well, and I ordered a pizza. That’s that, a typical Saturday around here.

Mr. History Post #11: The Birth of Reddit!

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Mr. History post #11: Birth of Reddit.

Some of you might have seen this elsewhere but anyways in 2005, college roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian created Reddit from their apartment at 265 Elm Street in Davis Square, Somerville.

Today, their creation ranks as the 18th most-visited website in the world!

I grew up just a few blocks from this location and must have walked by it thousands of times, especially during that time, and I never even knew!

May the 4th Be With You!

Posted on by Markman

Started out the day walking a trail in Wellesley that I’d been meaning to do for quite some time but never got around to it until today. We had to be in the area so I decided to take the oppurtunuithy to get some steps in. The Fuller Brook Trail is really beautiful. Such a lovely trial to walk and enjoy.

After that I decided to treat us brunch over at The Cottage.

It was also Somerville Open Studios weekend so I decided to relive visiting the Museum of Modern Renaissance.

Finding the Daffodil Fields

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Finally got a chance to check out the Daffodil Field over down in Dartmouth. It’s at the end of a short hike over a scenic trail to get there. I believe there’s also something similar somewhere in Rhode Island which may be worth checking out some time. Anyways, according to local lore, the daffodils were planted by Raymond Pettey in the 1940s to sell during WWII when the U.S. was unable to get bulbs from Holland. The war ended and the flowers remained!

Hiking the Mattapoisett Rail Trail

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This scenic and spectacular mile that crosses the Mattapoisett River estuary, salt marshes, and Reservation Beach at the head of Mattapoisett Harbor connects neighborhoods and conservation areas with car-free biking and walking. I also caught a glimpse of an American Oystercatcher, a first for me!

This one is so awesome, especially where the river meets the sea!

The last few pics for from Ned’s Point Light which isn’t too far from the rail trail.

The Museum of Ice Cream

Posted on by Markman

Not generally a place we would normally check out, but we do like to shake things up and try something different now and again. This place surely was that. This was the kind of place you visit just once.

Currently Reading: The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty. I happened to see the author of this book doing a talk on C-Span after just flipping around the dial in a moment of boredom and it sounded interesting. I mean we all know the story but this traces the history back to the great-grandfather and all the previous fathers leading up to Alex. Come to find out, they’ve been pretty corrupt all along! When I saw how big it was I started to get a little daunted but the style is perfect and it’s easy to read. I recommend it, especially just to see how corrupt this family was from the start,

Mr. History Post #9: Mourning Victory

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Concord, Mass. In 1897, the Boston businessman James C. Melvin had commissioned a funerary monument from Daniel Chester French to honor his three brothers who had died in the Civil War. French was a famous sculpture who has stuff all over, including Lincoln sitting in his chair in the Lincoln Memorial and the Minuteman Statue in Concord among others. The massive figure of Mourning Victory emerges from the block of stone projecting two moods: melancholy, in her downcast eyes and somber expression, and triumph, in the American flag and laurel she holds high. French captured the sense of calm after the storm of battle, which must have referred to the pride, after the sorrow of grieving, felt by the surviving brother. It’s a pretty impressive tribute.

Since I was here I also checked out Author’s Ridge which has a bunch of famous authors buried there. The list of names of famous authors who died while living in Concord is impressive. There are Thoreau and Emerson, but also Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott and her family, and William Ellery Channing, all interred near one another.

Mr. History Post # 8: Black Dahlia and Jingle Bells

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he Medford Edition! I’m checking out a few origin stories today. First up, the birthplace of the Black Dahlia. It’s still an unknown grizzly murder mystery that baffles people to this day. Sadly, her childhood home was razed to make way for the Interstate 93 Rotary that abuts this spot. Poor Liz. Also, since it was so close, I also checked out where the Xmas tune Jingle Bells was supposedly written. The old pub is now an eyeglasses store. I’m trying to imagine two horse open sleighs skidding down Medford Center. 🤷