Lost in the weekend blitz of Winter Olympics, Valentine’s Day, President’s Day and the Chinese New Year – cheers to all you kindred Tigers out there – was the news yesterday that America took the America’s Cup back. There was a time, a generation or so ago, when any news of the America’s Cup was everyday bubbler conversation in Rhode Island. The way Texans talk rodeo, Rhode Islanders spoke sailing.
Local reporters covered the regattas, the parties, the intrigue and the celebrity sightings in Newport with a verve normally reserved for shenanigans at the State House. It was Newport’s claim to fame on the global sports scene, the site of the Cup defense from 1930 to 1983, when Australia finally broke through and defeated the Yanks from the New York Yacht Club in a thrilling seven-race finale. I say thrilling. There were many who equated the thrill of watching sailing with the thrill of watching Astroturf grow. But most Rhode Islanders have a thing for boats, even if they only keep one in their driveway. Wind and wave, line and sail run in the blood here. There’s a yacht on the back of the state’s commemorative quarter. Fort Adams in Newport hosts the Museum of Yachting and the Herreschoff Museum in Bristol features the America’s Cup Hall of Fame. So even though the America’s Cup was always a kind of oceanic bowling for billionaires, many Rhode Islanders felt a kinship because they sailed the same waters, understood Narragansett Bay’s hazards and vagaries, and probably even knew someone on the crew of one of the yachts. Someone who grew up in our coves learning on sunfish and sailing through our winters with the frostbiters.
Like all international sporting competitions, the America’s Cup has always been politicized and stigmatized by more off-the-water drama than on. There have been scandals, charges of cheating, bad sportsmanship, countless legal battles over the interpretation of the Deed of Gift and many memories of a drunken Ted Turner stumbling through the streets of Newport after winning with Courageous. Even the latest America’s Cup was a disputed affair, marred by court challenges, culminating in a rare, best-of-three, head-to-head duel because the sides couldn’t agree on the rules for a traditional regatta involving multiple teams.
Among the oddities of the Cup is that since 2003 it has been held in Switzerland, a land-locked country. The Swiss staged their races in Valencia, Spain before BMW Oracle boss Larry Ellison representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco won it back for America yesterday. You’d think that San Francisco would be the frontrunner to hold the next Cup race, but so far Ellison seems open to the idea of defending in Newport in a 2013 regatta, marking the 30-year anniversary of America’s first loss. San Diego’s also in the mix, but even though Newport long ago got over losing the Cup, there are still a few old salts around who would like to see it come back, if only to see the New Zealand sailors perform the haka again.
What is your favorite America’s Cup memory?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Our Funny Valentines
The week leading up to Valentine’s Day can be fraught with peril. So here’s some advice: If you see a barbershop quartet getting out of Mini Cooper in the parking lot, hide. ‘Tis the season for “singing valentines,” when barbershop quartets from the Providence Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society fan out across southern New England like guerilla Cupids, spreading love in four-part harmony wherever they’re told to go.
Days of Wine
Of course, if you’re more into cliché than humiliation, Rhode Island has several ways to woo that special someone. For wine, why not buy a bottle from one of the Ocean State’s three vineyards – Newport Vineyards in Middletown, Sakonnet Vineyards in Little Compton or Greenvale Vineyards in Portsmouth? Joel Stein of Time magazine didn’t much care for the wine in Rhode Island when he tried a bottle of vidal blanc from Sakonnet Vineyards in 2008. He gave it a “good” rating but otherwise qualified that by saying the wine “isn’t too bad,” is “sticky-sweet” and noted that he’s “had better vidal blancs, from New York and Canada.” He followed that up with: “I don’t think vidal blanc is such a great varietal to begin with.” Never answered the obvious question: Then why did you pick that one to drink? It’s not like it’s our only varietal. And by the way, what kind of person uses the word varietal? Here in Rhode Island, we like our wines like our chowders – white, red or clear. No varietals. Just colors. And labels. Labels are very important to the quality of a wine. After all, Stein could have tried In the Buff Chardonnay from Newport, notable for its portrait of a nude woman on the bottle, based on the famed French painting “La Verite.” Greenvale has a classy-looking, leisurely 2007 Skipping Stone white on offer, while Sakonnet turns out its popular Rhode Island Red, with a label created by a team of graduate students from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Mostly Stein was upset because he said the state’s name was too hard to find on the bottle, appearing below the words “Southeastern New England.” He didn’t know southeastern New England was a thing. It is. As distinct from northern New England as Wales is from Scotland. One place is known for clam shacks, quahogs, flat land, sandy beaches and casinos, the other is mostly lobster pounds, moose, mountains, rocky shore and bean suppers.
And Roses
For roses or favored flowers, how about getting tickets for the R.I. Spring Flower & Garden Show, one of the few remaining spring flower shows in the country? This year the indoor gardens will be on display at the Convention Center in Providence from Feb. 18 to 21. As always, look for the Exeter-based R.I. Wild Plant Society’s exhibition, designed by Judy Ireland. Those folks spend a year planning for the next one, digging out earth and shrubs and loose timber from former Sen. Chafee’s place on Route 102 and storing some of the detritus in their own houses over winter. It’s the Rhode Island equivalent of those New Orleans krewes working on Mardi Gras floats, masks and costumes. (Speaking of which. Congrats to the Saints!)
And Chocolate
For chocolate, there’s only one real choice: Sweenor’s Chocolates. The company began when Walter Sweenor started making sweets in his basement kitchen in Cranston to make a little extra money during World War II. Sweenor’s Open Fire Candies launched as a shop in Garden City in 1955. Rhode Island’s largest chocolate manufacturer is still there, along with satellite shops in Wakefield and Charlestown. They make all of the traditional chocolates, along with distinctive chocolate crosses ($1.39 per) and a “Best of RI” set that includes a large chocolate lobster with two chocolate quahogs ($3.25).
Rhody Valentine
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Half Shell would like to send a cyber-valentine to the Providence Awesome Foundation, a group of Rhode Island philanthropists committed to awarding $1000 every month for the next couple of years to an individual or business that comes up with the “most awesome idea” bringing joy, excitement, spontaneity and innovation into the state. Like many things in Rhode Island – including Legal Seafood, the Red Sox and the Bruins – the first Awesome Foundation started in Boston. But Providence business leaders quickly formed their own chapter and have already awarded two “awesome grants” to Rhode Islanders. The first went to Otto D’Ambrosio, a Pawtucket guitar-maker who is building a guitar as big as a stand-up bass, which he will bring to state parks and playgrounds for children to play. Last month’s prize went to Stephanie Burbridge, a Providence hair stylist, who pitched the idea of hosting a Rhode Island version of the popular Picture Discovery Channel’s quiz show “Cash Cab.” Burbridge plans to drive around the city for a day in a taxi, giving fares a chance to answer questions about Rhode Island and Providence for cash prizes. As we’ve said before, “awesome” is the second most awesome word in Rhode Island, just after “wicked,” but this is even a more awesome use of awesome than normal.
To whom or where would you send a Rhody valentine?
Days of Wine
Of course, if you’re more into cliché than humiliation, Rhode Island has several ways to woo that special someone. For wine, why not buy a bottle from one of the Ocean State’s three vineyards – Newport Vineyards in Middletown, Sakonnet Vineyards in Little Compton or Greenvale Vineyards in Portsmouth? Joel Stein of Time magazine didn’t much care for the wine in Rhode Island when he tried a bottle of vidal blanc from Sakonnet Vineyards in 2008. He gave it a “good” rating but otherwise qualified that by saying the wine “isn’t too bad,” is “sticky-sweet” and noted that he’s “had better vidal blancs, from New York and Canada.” He followed that up with: “I don’t think vidal blanc is such a great varietal to begin with.” Never answered the obvious question: Then why did you pick that one to drink? It’s not like it’s our only varietal. And by the way, what kind of person uses the word varietal? Here in Rhode Island, we like our wines like our chowders – white, red or clear. No varietals. Just colors. And labels. Labels are very important to the quality of a wine. After all, Stein could have tried In the Buff Chardonnay from Newport, notable for its portrait of a nude woman on the bottle, based on the famed French painting “La Verite.” Greenvale has a classy-looking, leisurely 2007 Skipping Stone white on offer, while Sakonnet turns out its popular Rhode Island Red, with a label created by a team of graduate students from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Mostly Stein was upset because he said the state’s name was too hard to find on the bottle, appearing below the words “Southeastern New England.” He didn’t know southeastern New England was a thing. It is. As distinct from northern New England as Wales is from Scotland. One place is known for clam shacks, quahogs, flat land, sandy beaches and casinos, the other is mostly lobster pounds, moose, mountains, rocky shore and bean suppers.
And Roses
For roses or favored flowers, how about getting tickets for the R.I. Spring Flower & Garden Show, one of the few remaining spring flower shows in the country? This year the indoor gardens will be on display at the Convention Center in Providence from Feb. 18 to 21. As always, look for the Exeter-based R.I. Wild Plant Society’s exhibition, designed by Judy Ireland. Those folks spend a year planning for the next one, digging out earth and shrubs and loose timber from former Sen. Chafee’s place on Route 102 and storing some of the detritus in their own houses over winter. It’s the Rhode Island equivalent of those New Orleans krewes working on Mardi Gras floats, masks and costumes. (Speaking of which. Congrats to the Saints!)
And Chocolate
For chocolate, there’s only one real choice: Sweenor’s Chocolates. The company began when Walter Sweenor started making sweets in his basement kitchen in Cranston to make a little extra money during World War II. Sweenor’s Open Fire Candies launched as a shop in Garden City in 1955. Rhode Island’s largest chocolate manufacturer is still there, along with satellite shops in Wakefield and Charlestown. They make all of the traditional chocolates, along with distinctive chocolate crosses ($1.39 per) and a “Best of RI” set that includes a large chocolate lobster with two chocolate quahogs ($3.25).
Rhody Valentine
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Half Shell would like to send a cyber-valentine to the Providence Awesome Foundation, a group of Rhode Island philanthropists committed to awarding $1000 every month for the next couple of years to an individual or business that comes up with the “most awesome idea” bringing joy, excitement, spontaneity and innovation into the state. Like many things in Rhode Island – including Legal Seafood, the Red Sox and the Bruins – the first Awesome Foundation started in Boston. But Providence business leaders quickly formed their own chapter and have already awarded two “awesome grants” to Rhode Islanders. The first went to Otto D’Ambrosio, a Pawtucket guitar-maker who is building a guitar as big as a stand-up bass, which he will bring to state parks and playgrounds for children to play. Last month’s prize went to Stephanie Burbridge, a Providence hair stylist, who pitched the idea of hosting a Rhode Island version of the popular Picture Discovery Channel’s quiz show “Cash Cab.” Burbridge plans to drive around the city for a day in a taxi, giving fares a chance to answer questions about Rhode Island and Providence for cash prizes. As we’ve said before, “awesome” is the second most awesome word in Rhode Island, just after “wicked,” but this is even a more awesome use of awesome than normal.
To whom or where would you send a Rhody valentine?
Monday, February 1, 2010
Rhody Universe: Union Jacked
A recent letter to the editor by North Kingstown’s Gary Padula in the ProJo pointed out that if you want to buy Rhode Island Coffee, you have to go across the pond. While Rhode Islanders and coffee go together like Rhode Islanders and lottery tickets or Rhode Islanders and pothole survival or any number of cultural oddities that distinguish us from the Other 49, it turns out that, when it comes to java, we don’t own our own naming rights.
Rhode Island Coffee isn’t exactly the Starbucks of the British Isles. There are five coffee roasting shops by that name in England. So if you’re ever in Altrincham, Warrington, Stockport, Bolton or Burnley, you can try a cup and let us know what you think. Most amusing is the company’s mission statement or “Ethos”:
Wow. As a native Rhode Islander, I hardly recognize my homeland in that paragraph. But they’ve sold me on the coffee. Still, if flying to England is a bit out of the budget for this year, and you’re tired of the Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, Sip-N-Dip crawl, there are a couple of Rhody coffee roasters dedicated to the art of blackening the bean, including New Harvest Coffee Roasters in Pawtucket and Ocean Coffee Roasters in Newport.
Also, coffeehouses can be found in nearly every community. A few of my favorites: The Coffee Depot in Warren (my local hang); The Beehive Café in Bristol (best food); Java Madness overlooking Salt Pond in Wakefield (best outdoor atmosphere); Main Street Coffee in East Greenwich; Felicia’s on Post Road, also in East Greenwich; Jitters Café in North Kingstown; Sophie’s on the South County Trail in Exeter; Stone Soup Coffeehouse in Pawtucket (best live music); Seven Stars Bakery on Hope Street and The Coffee Exchange on Wickenden Street, both in Providence.
What’s your favorite Rhode Island coffee hang?
Seekonked Again
Just a stone’s throw away from my hometown of Barrington lies the strange land of Seekonk, Mass., where hidden treasures like the Caratunk Wildlife Refuge share space with the ravages of Route 6 left behind by the Sprawl Monster. One man’s wasteland is another man’s profit center, so the strip is where folks go whenever they have the urge to shop at the big box stores and eat at the chains. It’s where I often stop for gas on my way to South County – which is how I found myself one day last autumn pumping unleaded next to the Wienermobile. The relatively cheaper gas prices at the Seekonk Hess Station are the reason I go, even though it means enduring one of the worst (and loudest) outdoor speaker music situations in New England. I’m not sure what satellite Hess tunes into, but if anyone has a spare cosmic death ray lying around the house, I’d pay big bucks to blast that orbiting jukebox into premature space junk. There have been times when I’ve only filled the tank up with a few Washingtons, just enough to make it to Wakefield, because I couldn’t listen to the song any longer.
While on the subject of Seekonk, the Caratunk refuge is worth the trip – although anyone afflicted by poison ivy should avoid it, since the place is infested. And does anyone else remember the Hitchockian scene last winter, when at dusk the skies over the Seekonk strip darkened in clouds of starlings, performing their distinctive sky dances before the birds settled, one by one, on utility wires stretching as far as the eye could see? For a few weeks around the winter holidays, starlings swooped in noisy and acrobatic flourishes, squeezing wing-to-wing on the overhead lines above the asphalt-and-concrete wonderland now tattered and wearing “Everything Must Go” signs. What happened to all those birds this year? Is the economy that bad? Has anyone checked inside the boarded-up Circuit City lately?
Rhode Island Coffee isn’t exactly the Starbucks of the British Isles. There are five coffee roasting shops by that name in England. So if you’re ever in Altrincham, Warrington, Stockport, Bolton or Burnley, you can try a cup and let us know what you think. Most amusing is the company’s mission statement or “Ethos”:
Have you ever been to Rhode Island? If not, you’re missing a treat. Think of the famous Newport Folk Festival, a coastline dotted with lighthouses and fisherman’s piers, endless forests and beautiful wild scenery. It’s the antithesis of the big city. Friendly, welcoming people, hearty natural food, a place of enjoyment and relaxation – just what Rhode Island Coffee is all about. When you visit one of our stores, however long or short your visit, we want you to feel welcome, to relax, and enjoy yourself…think of the early morning mists swirling around the sands of Narragansett Bay, at the heart of Rhode Island.
Wow. As a native Rhode Islander, I hardly recognize my homeland in that paragraph. But they’ve sold me on the coffee. Still, if flying to England is a bit out of the budget for this year, and you’re tired of the Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, Sip-N-Dip crawl, there are a couple of Rhody coffee roasters dedicated to the art of blackening the bean, including New Harvest Coffee Roasters in Pawtucket and Ocean Coffee Roasters in Newport.
Also, coffeehouses can be found in nearly every community. A few of my favorites: The Coffee Depot in Warren (my local hang); The Beehive Café in Bristol (best food); Java Madness overlooking Salt Pond in Wakefield (best outdoor atmosphere); Main Street Coffee in East Greenwich; Felicia’s on Post Road, also in East Greenwich; Jitters Café in North Kingstown; Sophie’s on the South County Trail in Exeter; Stone Soup Coffeehouse in Pawtucket (best live music); Seven Stars Bakery on Hope Street and The Coffee Exchange on Wickenden Street, both in Providence.
What’s your favorite Rhode Island coffee hang?
Seekonked Again
Just a stone’s throw away from my hometown of Barrington lies the strange land of Seekonk, Mass., where hidden treasures like the Caratunk Wildlife Refuge share space with the ravages of Route 6 left behind by the Sprawl Monster. One man’s wasteland is another man’s profit center, so the strip is where folks go whenever they have the urge to shop at the big box stores and eat at the chains. It’s where I often stop for gas on my way to South County – which is how I found myself one day last autumn pumping unleaded next to the Wienermobile. The relatively cheaper gas prices at the Seekonk Hess Station are the reason I go, even though it means enduring one of the worst (and loudest) outdoor speaker music situations in New England. I’m not sure what satellite Hess tunes into, but if anyone has a spare cosmic death ray lying around the house, I’d pay big bucks to blast that orbiting jukebox into premature space junk. There have been times when I’ve only filled the tank up with a few Washingtons, just enough to make it to Wakefield, because I couldn’t listen to the song any longer.
While on the subject of Seekonk, the Caratunk refuge is worth the trip – although anyone afflicted by poison ivy should avoid it, since the place is infested. And does anyone else remember the Hitchockian scene last winter, when at dusk the skies over the Seekonk strip darkened in clouds of starlings, performing their distinctive sky dances before the birds settled, one by one, on utility wires stretching as far as the eye could see? For a few weeks around the winter holidays, starlings swooped in noisy and acrobatic flourishes, squeezing wing-to-wing on the overhead lines above the asphalt-and-concrete wonderland now tattered and wearing “Everything Must Go” signs. What happened to all those birds this year? Is the economy that bad? Has anyone checked inside the boarded-up Circuit City lately?
Monday, January 25, 2010
Rhody's Believe It or Not
During the last week of used book life for Myopic Books of Wakefield, I rummaged through the shelves and found a few treasures, including a bound collection of photocopied pages of cartoons from Paule Stetson Loring. Titled “This Really Happened in Rhode Island,” the volume represented “cartoons that have been presented in the Providence Evening Bulletin” as “compiled from items contributed by readers from all parts of the state.”
Loring, who died in 1968, was a Wickford resident, an artist for Yachting magazine and a longtime cartoonist for the Providence Journal-Bulletin Co. His “This Really Happened In Rhode Island” series has a “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” quality, since they illustrate anecdotal items submitted by Rhode Islanders that were meant to be true, but probably were not seriously fact-checked. Anyway, their charm had little to do with veracity, and everything to do with Loring’s ability to capture the state’s quirkiness in odd incidents, gravestone epitaphs, strange encounters and historical notes – a handful on every page – squeezed inside a line drawing of the basic Rhode Island puzzle-piece shape. Each tidbit and illustration also received a credit line from the reader. All of which made his cartoons a popular feature among notoriously myopic Rhode Islanders. Note also that his cartoons appeared in the Evening Bulletin, which is no longer published, even though Rhode Island was one of the few places in the country where the evening paper outsold the morning paper. (As I remember it, most folks read their paper when they got home from work. So they considered the morning paper “old news.” No kidding. This really happened in Rhode Island.)
Here are a few of my favorite “This Really Happened In Rhode Island” moments (with contributor credit included for posterity):
In 1688 a man was fined heavily for planting a peach tree on Sunday in Providence. (Arnold Galiano, Providence)
In 1840 bath tubs were denounced by doctors and Providence officials charged a water tax per tub. (Judith Halliday, Greenville)
During the winter of 1894 there was horse racing on the Blackstone River – one could skate to Uxbridge from Woonsocket. (E.L. Lemery, Woonsocket)
Spencer Greene was nearly drowned by falling under an open spigot of a whiskey barrel. (Mrs. John Albro, West Greenwich)
During the Gale of 1815 a 520 ton East India ship was torn from her moorings and left high and dry against the Washington Insurance Building. (Leonard Donovan, Bristol)
Just an R.I. hill billy custom – stringing up Johnny cakes for future use. (Mary Darling, Barrington)
The Rawson Fountain Society in 1772 provided the first public water supply for Providence. Wooden pipes were used. The pipes were found in 1922, 150 years later, and in perfect condition. (Mrs. B.V.W., Providence)
Clara Herreshoff (age 14) of Bristol has a rooster that follows her to school, plays dead and rides on her sled. (Alexander Cioe, Barrington)
Michele Felice Corne was the first American to eat a tomato. He raised it at his garden on Farewell Street. (Newport)
Frank McCabe owns a letter addressed to: “Apponaug, Rhode Island. Please deliver this letter to housekeeper for and niece of Mr. Briggs who lives in the sixth house on the right hand side of the street leading to East Greenwich and beyond the bridge who has a sixth sister.” (West Greenwich)
Several years ago an election was won in North Providence when the warden of the losing party ate the winning ballot. (Fred Heap, Centredale)
The Providence Public Library once attached chains to their books. (Mary Slater, Providence)
The first student to be enrolled at Brown University was William Rogers in 1765. (Milton Levy, Cranston)
Sun shining through jug of water on porch sets fire to Barrington house, owned by Earle Davis. (A. Fulmschneider, Barrington)
It was a law in Providence that a horse might not be put to a gallop between the houses of John Whipple and Pardon Tillinghast. (J. Muratore, Providence)
The first insect zoo in America was initiated and conducted by a Rhode Islander, Brayton Eddy. (Emilia Robson, Providence)
It once rained fish in Olneyville. (Laurence Mortensen, Providence)
In 1658 wolves preyed on livestock in R.I. At Warwick (a reward of five hounds) was offered for the death of one large wolf. (Clara Hess, Warwick Neck)
(1908) Pig raised by Charles F. Hambley of East Providence was so big a horse couldn’t drag it. It weighted 1043 pounds, seven feet, four inches long. (George Bourne Jr., East Providence)
On Wednesday July 17, 1935, the lights all went out when a heron got tangled up in the wires near Bonnet Shores. The bird had a wingspread of six feet. (Scott Solomon, Saunderstown)
Charles Whipple was told by his father to go and get a pail of water. His father sarcastically warned him not to be gone more than a year. Whipple went out and went away. He returned exactly a year later. Picked up the pail and brought it into his house. (Matt Harpin, West Warwick)
It’s our world and you’re welcome to it
As befits a state with a history that is little more than a running caricature, Rhode Island has a roster of cartoonists in its annals, including Frank B. Lanning, Jr., who served as sports cartoonist for the Providence Journal-Bulletin Co. from 1937 to 1982, and Don Bousquet of Bonnet Shores, whose cartoons have appeared in several books, magazines and newspapers, including every week in The Independent.
What Rhode Island anecdote would you include in a new edition of “This Really Happened In Rhode Island?”
Loring, who died in 1968, was a Wickford resident, an artist for Yachting magazine and a longtime cartoonist for the Providence Journal-Bulletin Co. His “This Really Happened In Rhode Island” series has a “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” quality, since they illustrate anecdotal items submitted by Rhode Islanders that were meant to be true, but probably were not seriously fact-checked. Anyway, their charm had little to do with veracity, and everything to do with Loring’s ability to capture the state’s quirkiness in odd incidents, gravestone epitaphs, strange encounters and historical notes – a handful on every page – squeezed inside a line drawing of the basic Rhode Island puzzle-piece shape. Each tidbit and illustration also received a credit line from the reader. All of which made his cartoons a popular feature among notoriously myopic Rhode Islanders. Note also that his cartoons appeared in the Evening Bulletin, which is no longer published, even though Rhode Island was one of the few places in the country where the evening paper outsold the morning paper. (As I remember it, most folks read their paper when they got home from work. So they considered the morning paper “old news.” No kidding. This really happened in Rhode Island.)
Here are a few of my favorite “This Really Happened In Rhode Island” moments (with contributor credit included for posterity):
In 1688 a man was fined heavily for planting a peach tree on Sunday in Providence. (Arnold Galiano, Providence)
In 1840 bath tubs were denounced by doctors and Providence officials charged a water tax per tub. (Judith Halliday, Greenville)
During the winter of 1894 there was horse racing on the Blackstone River – one could skate to Uxbridge from Woonsocket. (E.L. Lemery, Woonsocket)
Spencer Greene was nearly drowned by falling under an open spigot of a whiskey barrel. (Mrs. John Albro, West Greenwich)
During the Gale of 1815 a 520 ton East India ship was torn from her moorings and left high and dry against the Washington Insurance Building. (Leonard Donovan, Bristol)
Just an R.I. hill billy custom – stringing up Johnny cakes for future use. (Mary Darling, Barrington)
The Rawson Fountain Society in 1772 provided the first public water supply for Providence. Wooden pipes were used. The pipes were found in 1922, 150 years later, and in perfect condition. (Mrs. B.V.W., Providence)
Clara Herreshoff (age 14) of Bristol has a rooster that follows her to school, plays dead and rides on her sled. (Alexander Cioe, Barrington)
Michele Felice Corne was the first American to eat a tomato. He raised it at his garden on Farewell Street. (Newport)
Frank McCabe owns a letter addressed to: “Apponaug, Rhode Island. Please deliver this letter to housekeeper for and niece of Mr. Briggs who lives in the sixth house on the right hand side of the street leading to East Greenwich and beyond the bridge who has a sixth sister.” (West Greenwich)
Several years ago an election was won in North Providence when the warden of the losing party ate the winning ballot. (Fred Heap, Centredale)
The Providence Public Library once attached chains to their books. (Mary Slater, Providence)
The first student to be enrolled at Brown University was William Rogers in 1765. (Milton Levy, Cranston)
Sun shining through jug of water on porch sets fire to Barrington house, owned by Earle Davis. (A. Fulmschneider, Barrington)
It was a law in Providence that a horse might not be put to a gallop between the houses of John Whipple and Pardon Tillinghast. (J. Muratore, Providence)
The first insect zoo in America was initiated and conducted by a Rhode Islander, Brayton Eddy. (Emilia Robson, Providence)
It once rained fish in Olneyville. (Laurence Mortensen, Providence)
In 1658 wolves preyed on livestock in R.I. At Warwick (a reward of five hounds) was offered for the death of one large wolf. (Clara Hess, Warwick Neck)
(1908) Pig raised by Charles F. Hambley of East Providence was so big a horse couldn’t drag it. It weighted 1043 pounds, seven feet, four inches long. (George Bourne Jr., East Providence)
On Wednesday July 17, 1935, the lights all went out when a heron got tangled up in the wires near Bonnet Shores. The bird had a wingspread of six feet. (Scott Solomon, Saunderstown)
Charles Whipple was told by his father to go and get a pail of water. His father sarcastically warned him not to be gone more than a year. Whipple went out and went away. He returned exactly a year later. Picked up the pail and brought it into his house. (Matt Harpin, West Warwick)
It’s our world and you’re welcome to it
As befits a state with a history that is little more than a running caricature, Rhode Island has a roster of cartoonists in its annals, including Frank B. Lanning, Jr., who served as sports cartoonist for the Providence Journal-Bulletin Co. from 1937 to 1982, and Don Bousquet of Bonnet Shores, whose cartoons have appeared in several books, magazines and newspapers, including every week in The Independent.
What Rhode Island anecdote would you include in a new edition of “This Really Happened In Rhode Island?”
Monday, January 18, 2010
Ambrosia, Rhody-style
Tonight Crazy Burger in Narragansett will make its television debut at 10 p.m. on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-ins & Dives” program. The restaurant began on Boon Street in 1995, creating an alternative vibe with an eclectic menu that caters to vegetarians and carnivores alike. This evening, owner/chef Michael Maxon and TV host Guy Fieri will hone in on three of the restaurant’s most popular dishes – the Luna Sea Burger, the Whassupy Burger and the Pacific Rim Rolls Appetizer.
Crazy Burger’s Andy Warhol moment got Half Shell salivating over some of our favorite signature dishes in the state. They include the Hall of Fame Chowder at The Boathouse in Tiverton, a bowl of creamy chowder - made from baby Maine shrimp, chourico and corn - that I hope to find at the counter in the Cloud Nine Pub in Heaven one day. (Although lapping it up while overlooking a summer sunset on Mount Hope Bay may be as good as it gets in this life.) The pot of plump steamed mussels in coconut milk, curry leaf and chili at The DeWolf Tavern in Bristol would also qualify, along with the roasted butternut squash quesadilla with black beans, jack cheese, avocado and a side of salsa at The Garden Grille, just over the Providence line in Pawtucket.
Two standouts for cheese lovers would include every variation of cheese board (with wine) at The Cheese Plate in Warren and the grilled cheese sandwich or the bowl of mac-and-cheese with linguica at The Red Fez in Providence.
The list would include pretty much anything alive and chilling at the raw bar at Hemenway’s in Providence (or any of the bisques and chowders, for those who prefer their mollusks and fish in a hot bath), the huevos rancheros (or whenever they make the jambalaya or Cajun asparagus soup) at The Bluebird Café in Wakefield, and (especially around St. Patrick’s Day) the corned beef sandwiches at Patrick’s Pub in Providence. Thayer Street must-eats include the gyros served “Soup Nazi” style (in the manner of ordering, not the attitude) at East Side Pockets and the baingan bharta and aloo paratha at Kabob and Curry.
I could go on forever – the seafood paella at The Cheeky Monkey in Narragansett, the Giant Lobster Roll, stuffies (baked in scallop shells rather than quahogs) or any of the bisques, stews or chowders at Blount Clam Shack, served from trailers amid mounds of broken shells on the Warren waterfront. (There’s another location at the old Crescent Park Loof Carousel in Riverside. Both are open seasonally.) I’m also partial to the hot ‘n’ sour soup and any Szechuan dish served with the trademark Oceanview rice at The Oceanview Chinese restaurant, which adds to the Rhode Island quirk-o-meter with dishes like Narragansett Surprise in a location that has no ocean view whatsoever. Let’s see…the lobster ravioli at Venda Ravioli in Providence, the pulled pork plate at Becky’s BBQ in Middletown, the Cajun scallop soup at The Mews Tavern in Wakefield…somebody stop me. It’s time for lunch.
What signature dishes belong on a “Best of Rhode Island” menu?
Crazy Burger’s Andy Warhol moment got Half Shell salivating over some of our favorite signature dishes in the state. They include the Hall of Fame Chowder at The Boathouse in Tiverton, a bowl of creamy chowder - made from baby Maine shrimp, chourico and corn - that I hope to find at the counter in the Cloud Nine Pub in Heaven one day. (Although lapping it up while overlooking a summer sunset on Mount Hope Bay may be as good as it gets in this life.) The pot of plump steamed mussels in coconut milk, curry leaf and chili at The DeWolf Tavern in Bristol would also qualify, along with the roasted butternut squash quesadilla with black beans, jack cheese, avocado and a side of salsa at The Garden Grille, just over the Providence line in Pawtucket.
Two standouts for cheese lovers would include every variation of cheese board (with wine) at The Cheese Plate in Warren and the grilled cheese sandwich or the bowl of mac-and-cheese with linguica at The Red Fez in Providence.
The list would include pretty much anything alive and chilling at the raw bar at Hemenway’s in Providence (or any of the bisques and chowders, for those who prefer their mollusks and fish in a hot bath), the huevos rancheros (or whenever they make the jambalaya or Cajun asparagus soup) at The Bluebird Café in Wakefield, and (especially around St. Patrick’s Day) the corned beef sandwiches at Patrick’s Pub in Providence. Thayer Street must-eats include the gyros served “Soup Nazi” style (in the manner of ordering, not the attitude) at East Side Pockets and the baingan bharta and aloo paratha at Kabob and Curry.
I could go on forever – the seafood paella at The Cheeky Monkey in Narragansett, the Giant Lobster Roll, stuffies (baked in scallop shells rather than quahogs) or any of the bisques, stews or chowders at Blount Clam Shack, served from trailers amid mounds of broken shells on the Warren waterfront. (There’s another location at the old Crescent Park Loof Carousel in Riverside. Both are open seasonally.) I’m also partial to the hot ‘n’ sour soup and any Szechuan dish served with the trademark Oceanview rice at The Oceanview Chinese restaurant, which adds to the Rhode Island quirk-o-meter with dishes like Narragansett Surprise in a location that has no ocean view whatsoever. Let’s see…the lobster ravioli at Venda Ravioli in Providence, the pulled pork plate at Becky’s BBQ in Middletown, the Cajun scallop soup at The Mews Tavern in Wakefield…somebody stop me. It’s time for lunch.
What signature dishes belong on a “Best of Rhode Island” menu?
Monday, January 11, 2010
News menagerie
Two for the Rhode
Forbes magazine recently declared Rhode Island to have the safest drivers in the nation, begging the question: Are you sure that news wasn’t first published in High Times?
For the last couple of weeks, the digital signs over Rhode Island’s highways have advertised “DMV CLOSED WEDNESDAYS.” Given the rampant closings and limited hours at Department of Motor Vehicles facilities in the state, the line just got a little bit longer and the bureaucratic abyss just got a little bit deeper for the safest drivers in the nation. If Dante had been a Rhode Islander, he would have added a DMV level to his Inferno, somewhere between the “Wrathful and the Gloomy” (Level 5) and “Heretics” (Level 6).
Catnip
News that a Glocester couple has been keeping a mountain lion in a cage for years made the front page of the ProJo. The Chepachet lion was shipped out of town recently, leaving the residents of northern Rhode Island, who occasionally rang the doorbell and asked to see the lion, with one less thing to do.
The most surprising part of the story wasn’t the caged lion, per se, but the fact that suburban Rhode Island has become a veritable wilderness of exotic creatures. There’s even a “zedonk” (cross between a zebra and a donkey) munching on a lawn in a menagerie next to the Hotel Manisses on Block Island. A DEM permit is required to own exotic wildlife and officials are less likely to issue them after last year’s horrific incident when a Connecticut chimpanzee mutilated a woman. But in the meantime there are a few creatures to keep an eye on, including yaks in Little Compton, a Patagonian cavy and South African crested porcupine in Hopkinton and kangaroos and a zebu on Block Island. Rhode Island has long been a haven for lawn animals, mostly of the pink plastic variety, but it turns out that the Ocean State is its own little “Animal Planet.” Which makes you wonder what’s really in those weiners.
Never forget
The Chepachet mountain lion continues a long tradition of big game shenanigans in the village, where the only claim to fame is the fact that someone shot and killed an elephant there almost 200 years ago. The elephant, known variously as “Betty,” “Little Bett” and “The Learned Elephant,” came from Calcutta, India and was only the second elephant to walk on the North American continent. She spent four years visiting towns from the Carolinas to Maine. Her owner claimed that even bullets couldn’t pierce her hide. So local men shot her and found out otherwise. The poor pachyderm was struck down while crossing a wooden bridge on the Chepachet River on May 25, 1826. Local dignitaries put up a commemorative plaque on the bridge for the 150th anniversary, which coincided with America’s Bicentennial. Now each year the anniversary is commemorated in the village as “Elephant Day.” Some historians consider the incident to be the tipping point that led to the formation of the American circus.
This week’s question: What is your most memorable Rhode Island driving experience? (Bonus points if it involves an elephant or a zedonk.)
Forbes magazine recently declared Rhode Island to have the safest drivers in the nation, begging the question: Are you sure that news wasn’t first published in High Times?
For the last couple of weeks, the digital signs over Rhode Island’s highways have advertised “DMV CLOSED WEDNESDAYS.” Given the rampant closings and limited hours at Department of Motor Vehicles facilities in the state, the line just got a little bit longer and the bureaucratic abyss just got a little bit deeper for the safest drivers in the nation. If Dante had been a Rhode Islander, he would have added a DMV level to his Inferno, somewhere between the “Wrathful and the Gloomy” (Level 5) and “Heretics” (Level 6).
Catnip
News that a Glocester couple has been keeping a mountain lion in a cage for years made the front page of the ProJo. The Chepachet lion was shipped out of town recently, leaving the residents of northern Rhode Island, who occasionally rang the doorbell and asked to see the lion, with one less thing to do.
The most surprising part of the story wasn’t the caged lion, per se, but the fact that suburban Rhode Island has become a veritable wilderness of exotic creatures. There’s even a “zedonk” (cross between a zebra and a donkey) munching on a lawn in a menagerie next to the Hotel Manisses on Block Island. A DEM permit is required to own exotic wildlife and officials are less likely to issue them after last year’s horrific incident when a Connecticut chimpanzee mutilated a woman. But in the meantime there are a few creatures to keep an eye on, including yaks in Little Compton, a Patagonian cavy and South African crested porcupine in Hopkinton and kangaroos and a zebu on Block Island. Rhode Island has long been a haven for lawn animals, mostly of the pink plastic variety, but it turns out that the Ocean State is its own little “Animal Planet.” Which makes you wonder what’s really in those weiners.
Never forget
The Chepachet mountain lion continues a long tradition of big game shenanigans in the village, where the only claim to fame is the fact that someone shot and killed an elephant there almost 200 years ago. The elephant, known variously as “Betty,” “Little Bett” and “The Learned Elephant,” came from Calcutta, India and was only the second elephant to walk on the North American continent. She spent four years visiting towns from the Carolinas to Maine. Her owner claimed that even bullets couldn’t pierce her hide. So local men shot her and found out otherwise. The poor pachyderm was struck down while crossing a wooden bridge on the Chepachet River on May 25, 1826. Local dignitaries put up a commemorative plaque on the bridge for the 150th anniversary, which coincided with America’s Bicentennial. Now each year the anniversary is commemorated in the village as “Elephant Day.” Some historians consider the incident to be the tipping point that led to the formation of the American circus.
This week’s question: What is your most memorable Rhode Island driving experience? (Bonus points if it involves an elephant or a zedonk.)
Monday, January 4, 2010
Hockey Talk
If there was such a thing as a hockey edition of the running feature, “You Know You’re A Rhode Islander When…” it would go something like:
Outside of Bruins-Canadiens, it doesn’t get any better than Mount St. Charles vs. Bishop Hendricken.
If a pond isn’t frozen, you’ll find a tennis court.
When the substitute teacher never showed up, you played eraser hockey with yardsticks in junior high school.
You sat behind the chicken wire at the old Rhode Island Auditorium.
You think “Slapshot” is the funniest movie ever.
You buy your pucks at Manny’s.
Back in the Stone Age, when I was a kid, the Big, Bad Bruins were the most popular sports team in New England. Our hockey roots don’t run as deep as Quebec’s, but only Minnesota and maybe Michigan match this region’s puck-loving intensity in the Star-Spangled 50. So on New Year’s Day, when the Fenway Park diamond went white, and the Boston Bruins beat the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime at the Winter Classic, a lot of Rhode Island was watching. Despite the close score, the game wasn’t a classic, but Mother Nature got the winter part right. It was played on crisp day sandwiched around a weekend of snow. Baseball and hockey, New England’s two most primal passions, morphed together into as pure a celebration of sport I’ve seen around here since Lonnie Paxton made snow angels and Patriots fans spontaneously erupted in synchronized snow-throwing during two of the previous decade’s football-with-a-blizzard-chaser games.
It wasn’t always like this around here. Back in the 1800s, while Canadians were busy refining the sport of hockey, New Englanders were the undisputed masters of a game called ice polo. According to the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica (published in 1911):
Rhode Island’s legacy in hockey evolved rapidly. Brown University played the first game of intercollegiate ice hockey in the United States, drubbing Harvard, 6-0 on Jan. 19, 1898. Eighteen natives have gone on to play in the National Hockey League. And for 51 years Providence had a franchise in the American Hockey League called the Reds that played in the raucous old Rhode Island Auditorium. (Some people called it the Rhode Island Arena. Part of the confusion was that the building featured the word “Auditorium” on the marquee and “Arena” on the facade.)
Named after the state bird, the team developed a loyal following. But it wouldn’t be Rhode Island unless there were a few quirks: Outside the state, the team was known and marketed as the Providence Reds. Locally, most folks called the club the Rhode Island Reds. Also, when the team became affiliated with the New York Rangers (perhaps the most despised Bruins rival after the Montreal Canadiens), locals seemed to have no problem rooting for players as Reds then against them as Rangers – at least when they competed against Bobby Orr and the gang about an hour’s drive north.
The Reds are gone now. The modern Bruins have their farm club firmly entrenched in Providence, but the feeling isn’t the same. At the Auditorium, sometimes you couldn’t see the ice by the third period because of all of the cigar and cigarette smoke. And when the building replaced the chicken wire with Plexiglass, if the Reds were losing (which they usually were in those days), fans would start chanting “Bring back the chicken wire!” Ah, old time hockey.
Like most of Rhode Island’s once-great landmarks, the Auditorium was reincarnated into a parking lot. If you’re interested in how the game was played there, check out the DVD “When the Reds Ruled the Roost.” Otherwise, what old Rhode Island landmarks do you miss the most?
Outside of Bruins-Canadiens, it doesn’t get any better than Mount St. Charles vs. Bishop Hendricken.
If a pond isn’t frozen, you’ll find a tennis court.
When the substitute teacher never showed up, you played eraser hockey with yardsticks in junior high school.
You sat behind the chicken wire at the old Rhode Island Auditorium.
You think “Slapshot” is the funniest movie ever.
You buy your pucks at Manny’s.
Back in the Stone Age, when I was a kid, the Big, Bad Bruins were the most popular sports team in New England. Our hockey roots don’t run as deep as Quebec’s, but only Minnesota and maybe Michigan match this region’s puck-loving intensity in the Star-Spangled 50. So on New Year’s Day, when the Fenway Park diamond went white, and the Boston Bruins beat the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime at the Winter Classic, a lot of Rhode Island was watching. Despite the close score, the game wasn’t a classic, but Mother Nature got the winter part right. It was played on crisp day sandwiched around a weekend of snow. Baseball and hockey, New England’s two most primal passions, morphed together into as pure a celebration of sport I’ve seen around here since Lonnie Paxton made snow angels and Patriots fans spontaneously erupted in synchronized snow-throwing during two of the previous decade’s football-with-a-blizzard-chaser games.
It wasn’t always like this around here. Back in the 1800s, while Canadians were busy refining the sport of hockey, New Englanders were the undisputed masters of a game called ice polo. According to the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica (published in 1911):
Ice Polo, a winter sport similar to Ice Hockey, is almost exclusively played in the New England states. A rubber-covered ball is used and the stick is heavier than that used in Ice Hockey. The radical difference between the two games is that, in Ice Polo, there is no strict off-side rule, so that passes and shots at goal may come from any and often the most unexpected direction. Five men constitute a team: a goal-tend, a half-hack, a center and two rushers. The rushers must be rapid skaters, adept in dribbling and passing and good goal shots. The center supports the rushers, passing the ball to them or trying for goal himself. The half-back is the first defense and the goal-tend the last. The rink is 150 feet long.
Rhode Island’s legacy in hockey evolved rapidly. Brown University played the first game of intercollegiate ice hockey in the United States, drubbing Harvard, 6-0 on Jan. 19, 1898. Eighteen natives have gone on to play in the National Hockey League. And for 51 years Providence had a franchise in the American Hockey League called the Reds that played in the raucous old Rhode Island Auditorium. (Some people called it the Rhode Island Arena. Part of the confusion was that the building featured the word “Auditorium” on the marquee and “Arena” on the facade.)
Named after the state bird, the team developed a loyal following. But it wouldn’t be Rhode Island unless there were a few quirks: Outside the state, the team was known and marketed as the Providence Reds. Locally, most folks called the club the Rhode Island Reds. Also, when the team became affiliated with the New York Rangers (perhaps the most despised Bruins rival after the Montreal Canadiens), locals seemed to have no problem rooting for players as Reds then against them as Rangers – at least when they competed against Bobby Orr and the gang about an hour’s drive north.
The Reds are gone now. The modern Bruins have their farm club firmly entrenched in Providence, but the feeling isn’t the same. At the Auditorium, sometimes you couldn’t see the ice by the third period because of all of the cigar and cigarette smoke. And when the building replaced the chicken wire with Plexiglass, if the Reds were losing (which they usually were in those days), fans would start chanting “Bring back the chicken wire!” Ah, old time hockey.
Like most of Rhode Island’s once-great landmarks, the Auditorium was reincarnated into a parking lot. If you’re interested in how the game was played there, check out the DVD “When the Reds Ruled the Roost.” Otherwise, what old Rhode Island landmarks do you miss the most?
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