Episode 61: They Know Something

The Wild, Wild East
Our scant hillside acre here in the Valley has been home over the years to chipmunks, skunks, raccoons, woodchucks, copperheads, rabbits, possums, and squirrels. Last winter, a fox took up residence in a brush pile down our hill, and a platoon of flying squirrels moved into our attic, proving reluctant to leave. Every May, a snapping turtle drags herself 100 yards up the hill to deposit her eggs in our lawn. We spot blue herons, egrets, and trumpeter and mute swans at the edge of our river, and eagles and osprey flap past our rear windows. A red-tailed hawk has taken to perching on the railing of our deck. Deer, needless to say, treat our flower beds as salad bars, and Eastern coyotes have made meals of them in turn.
That's nothing.
Three moose have wandered through the northern part of our county in recent years, black bears and wildcats have been photographed, and now, a mountain lion has reportedly extended his range to within a few miles of our front porch.

We live only 45 minutes from Times Square.

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The Governor Speaks

* "Until I'm president, it's going to be hard for me to verify that I'll think I'll be more effective."

* "I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically delineate based upon whatever."

* "People shouldn't read into venue locations someone's heart."

* "There's not enough people in the system to take advantage of people like me."

* "If you're asking me as the president, would I understand reality, I do."

* "I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is underestimating."

No, the above quotes weren't from the governor with the designer wardrobe. These were utterances of George W. Bush during the 2000 campaign.
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Have you noticed the proliferation of financial analysts and pundits on cable and broadcast TV who have chosen to shave themselves bald? No doubt they believe this makes them look manly, or at least cool. It works for Michael Jordan, after all. But the fact is, white guys can't pull off that look.

They look like thumbs.

************************************************************************************* Berkshires Remix "Leaf peeping" is a phrase that makes me gag - repeatedly, given that it is much beloved by the multitude of local New England tourism authorities and I've been writing about the region for twenty years. Those same flacks would have outlanders believe that the annual changing of the foliage lasts a couple of months or so. In fact, it is a band of green to crimson to rust that rolls down from Canada over a few weeks, lingering only a few days in each locality. Native connoisseurs nitpick that today was nice, "but you should have been here yesterday at 2:30."
In the Berkshires, that colorful arrival and departure peaks for three or four days either side of Columbus Day, October 11th. We rented an apartment in Great Barrington for a week starting Sunday, the 12th. The timing was perfect, for this, one of the best foliage seasons in years. From top (the Vermont border) to bottom (Connecticut), the colors were magnificent.

We took full advantage, driving a little over an hour north to North Adams and MassMOCA (1040 Mass MOCA Way, 413-662-2111), an adventurous contemporary art museum specializing in massive installations that can't be contained in most venues. The current special exhibition has an ecological theme, part of which invites visitors to insert their heads into hanging terrariums. Ballet, film, and various live performances fill out the schedule. After lunch, we stopped off at the Clark Art Institute (225 South St., 413-458-2303), a museum and research center in Williamstown. A more conventional repository characterized by impeccably mounted permanent and temporary exhibits of works from the Renaissance to the late 20th Century, it has recently added the Stone Hill Center, which has a couple of galleries for temporary exhibits.
In Stockbridge, the Norman Rockwell Museum has expanded physically and embraces an ever-wider vision of the sorts of art that can be associated with its main man. Featured on our visit were a special exhibition of a political satirist, Rockwell's original cottage studio recently moved here, and an invitational show of free-standing outdoor sculptures on the theme of "Gates".

The packed summer calendar of classical music, jazz, art shows, and theater thins out after Labor Day, but art venues and live performance centers continue to mount events through the cold months, slowing to a near halt only from January to March.

Eating Out Great Barrington is the shopping and dining center of the southern Berkshires, with boosters claiming over fifty eating places - perhaps so, if they're counting every pizza joint and Chinese takeout. Certainly there are enough worthy restaurants to eat out with satisfaction three times a day for a week. "Funky" was a word invented for the Helsinki Cafe (284 Main St., 413-528-3394). The two-room interior evokes a Rumanian (ok, Finnish) gypsy tea parlor and the menu incorporates an unpredictable jumble of dishes ranging over quesadillas, stir fries, borscht, falafel, and latkes. Despite those leaps in fancy, most of what comes out of the kitchen is at the very least acceptable and often quite good. Service is amiable, if scattered. Figure about $50 for two. There's a music club next door under the same management.
A lowish Zagat rating to the contrary, we quite liked Aegean Breeze (327 Stockbridge Rd., 413-528-4001). Its Greek card sticks to such traditional dishes as plaki (sea bass baked in a clay pot), spanakopitta (phyllo stuffed with spinach and feta), kebobs, keftedes (meatballs), and grilled octopus. For lunch, the large appetizer serving of assorted mezedes - several tangy spreads served with warm pita - obviates the need for an entree. Figure about $70 for dinner for two, but with these big portions you might not need more than one course.
Pearl's (47 Railroad St., 413-528-7767) aspires to a Manhattan steakhouse vibe, but with elbow room and servers who don't snarl. Leave the nastiness to foodie websites replete with amateur reviewers who seem to have taken a dislike to the entire experience. If they were expecting Sparks steakhouse, they have a point - experienced, hyper-professional chefs and waiters aren't thick on the ground in The Berkshires - but cracks like "incompetent", "duck like leather", and "very poor" are intolerant and unjustified. Bugger them. If you want a chunk of decently cooked beef or fish with appropriate sides, you can do a lot worse and not a whole lot better in these parts. You might want to settle for a sandwich in the comfortable bar. Otherwise, dinner for two is about $70.
Nearby Allium (42 Railroad St., 413-528-2118) has two rooms, with formal dining on the left and what amounts to a small plates wine bar on the right. We opted for the latter, where we chose cod fritters drizzled with red pepper aioli and the field salad with Basque garroxta cheese and serrano ham. Figure about $75 for a full dinner for two, about $35 for an appetizer meal with wine.
At the south edge of Great Barrington, a south Asian couple has taken over a former pizza parlor, which they half-renamed Aroma Bar & Grill (485 Main St., 413-528-3116). It took them a while to replace the photos of Tuscany on the walls, and the replacement decorations haven't much enhanced the gloomy ambiance. Persevere, for the food that issues from the kitchen is fresh, aromatic, and tasty. Samosas, marinated fish and chicken tikkas, and sixteen breads baked on the premises are among the best choices from a long, long menu.

If a romantic liaison or commemoration is in your immediate future, you can do much worse than a short drive to the quiet hamlet of New Marlborough and the Old Inn on the Green (New Marlborough Rd./Rte 57, 413-229-7924). "Old", it is, parts of the building dating from 1760. At dinner, the only illumination is from fireplaces and candles on the table and in sconces. Owned by an accomplished chef and his female partner, the menu is sophisticated without verging on weird, and if you're so inclined, the seven-course tasting menu is memorable. Service is equal to the challenge. We're talking about your basic $180 dinner for two. Save a few dollars with the midweek prix fixe menu, but that might be when the big honcho takes a night or two off.

Occupying a corner space near the entrance to Mass MOCA in North Adams, the casual Cafe Latino (1111 Mass MOCA Way, 413-662-2004) is spare in decor and fixtures but venturesome on the table. While the menu is labeled "Nuevo Latino", the kitchen staff doesn't don a culinary straitjacket each morning. They have been known to offer Japanese-Peruvian meals, for example, and other cross-cultural touches regularly appear, as with the latitapas, which join Spanish piquillos with black-bean hummus and chorizo. Still, among the most popular dishes are quesadillas and fish tacos. Fridays and Saturdays, they bring in jazz combos.

Save at least one meal for Bistro Zinc (56 Church St., 413-637-2745) in Lenox, my favorite of all the Berkshire possibilities. For one thing, in a region where restaurateurs are routinely closed at lunchtime or in winter, or two or three days a week, or whenever the owners feel like it, Zinc is open all year, every day, from 11:30AM to 10PM. Stop in for a drink and a snack in the barroom (which is as large as the main dining room), for the prix fixe ($13-$16) lunch, or for a full-out dinner of updated Gallic standards. That includes steak frites, foie gras, coq au vin, tuna tartare, and diver scallops, all prepared with care (cranky Zagat reviews notwithstanding). Service admittedly isn't a high point, the luck of the draw ranging from friendly and efficient to distant and touchy.

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