IMPEDIMENTUM from the LATIN

The Senatus PopulusQue Romanum, the Senate and the people of Rome used a word...IMPEDIMENTUM...meaning "crap you had to haul around with you." We use the word today, Impediment, which means "gets in your way." When Roman soldiers went to war, they had to carry things with them to support their mission...armor, weapons, food, shelter, water, etc. A soldier could not just "go home" at night when his Phalanx had Crossed the Rubicon and have Mrs. Quintus Aurelius make him a sandwich. They needed things on their journey. Because they had to "Schlepp" all this with them day after day, year after year, they only took things that were absolutely essential, or that couldn't be found or pillaged at their destination. They accepted a reasonable well thought out IMPEDIMENTUM.

This is a metaphor for each of our lives. We drag things along with us, both material and emotional, all our lives. Things we had as children, or when we had an office, or whatever. We hold onto it as is it were NOT an IMPEDIMENT to our progress. It would be like the Roman soldier dragging his vineyard and stable behind him on a wagon. Not much use in battle. Clutter, Hoarding, Mental and Emotional Baggage... none of this sounds too appealing and yet we do not purge it.

In our modern times, we buy things we "have to have" that special purse, or shoes, electronic gizmo, and then we have to maintain it, insure it, store it. We build bigger closets in bigger houses to keep things we no longer use. We may think about them with some level of guilt, like I do about the swimming pool that needs weekly maintenance and we NEVER use. But that just produces more mental clutter to go along with the physical type. It snowballs and pretty soon, our things own us, and our worry and stress over whether our things will be stolen, or lost, takes over. The same applies to the non-material parts of our lives. Purge and de-clutter and the journey becomes easier. Just ask Quintus Aurelius.

IMPEDIMENTUM

Noun

impedīmentum (genitive impedīmentī); n, second declension

1. impediment, hindrance
2. (usually plural) luggage, equipage

RUNNING ISN'T FOR EVERYBODY

While it is true that a good mix of aerobic exercise and resistance training with weights give you the best results, there has to be some common sense when it comes to exercise. If you have bad knees, for example, you should consider LOW impact activities like swimming, bicycling, a shock absorbing treadmill, or an elliptical machine. Running can really aggravate arthritis of the hips, knees and back. Any extra body weight no matter where it is distributed, will increase the force across the joint by a factor of 3. So if you are say... 200 pounds, the force across your left knee just from simple walking is 600 pounds. When you impact your joint as in running, this increases significantly. Even normal joints can rebel when there is too much running or not enough time to repair the body with periods (days) of rest. Arthritic joints contain a very poor lubricant and not much cushion inside the joint. Heat builds up and this is felt as pain and inflammation. It might cause you to "give up."

The moral of the story is DON'T run if you have arthritis in your knees or "both hands". Stick with the low impact activities, and get fit without pain.

O M G Desperate Housewives season finale? really?

ROBERT FROST

1. The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

AROUND the ISLAND

Clearly, "our" island is not very large. There are some who could get island fever quite easily. But think about it. The world we come from where we spend the rest of our year...how big is it really? We spend so much of our time in our own homes doing those family things like playing with the kids, having dinner, doing housekeeping, making a few repairs, and watching TV. What difference does it make where you are. The only ZEN you find at the top of a mountain is the ZEN you bring there. Then why change locations at all? I think it comes down to that old migratory instinct that many animals including humans have. We are probably hard wired for it too in our genetics. Follow the sun, or in the case of Florida...run away from the sun.

We have cooler days and nights up here. This is not so important in May but come summer, that all important fact of life... the temperature of our environment, that thing that causes birds to fly south for the winter or bears to hibernate, is so comfortable here. Last summer we had a couple of hot weeks in the 90s and everyone ran out to buy an air conditioner. It did not last long like it would in Florida where "frying an egg on the sidewalk" is a real possibility. So as the expression "How's the weather?" goes, "It's great." And like in the poem "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, AND IT HAS MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE." Just like the weather. If there is one factor that changes peoples outlook, above all others, it is this one that is in sync with our biological makeup.

AMERICA's SWEET HEART

Jersey Shore is a TV show. In it there are several male and female characters who are now the fashion icons for America. Among them is Snookie, who reminds me of the Bronx girls we used to chase and always catch back when I lived in New York in my teens. As young men, filled with testosterone, we would ask the girls in our high school out on dates and would get all kinds of sales resistance. Your car was not good enough, you did not belong to the country club, or you were not a college boy (yet). Or, worst of all, "I don't kiss on the first 23 dates." Drive, walk, or take the subway a few short miles to the Borough of the Bronx and look for women that dressed like this, and have not changed their style in 50 years I might add. As we used to say "She is the kind of girl you could have a good time with even if you played your cards wrong." The song...I can't get no... satisfaction no longer applied once you crossed over from Westchester into the Bronx.

So, fast forward to 2011 and we have all sorts of reality TV programs that feature these same girls at various ages. The housewives of New Jersey for example. Cougartown is another. And I guess if you did not mind the constant sound of gum chewing and that accent, one could get used to the cleavage and pole dancer shoes. Maybe the younger guys of today have it figured out after all. We should go ask Debra LeFave.

LEAVES THREE, Leave Me Be

As the song goes "Poi-son-iiiii-veee, Lord, will make you itch." All over Nantucket, hidden among friendly and beautiful plants, this denizen of the garden lurks to spoil the day of some innocent bystander. Today we were walking down Beach Street toward town, past the high end White Elephant free standing houses. In the hedge along the sidewalk, sticking out just enough to rub against a passerby, LEAVES THREE...slightly red and shiny from the oil that gives most people, an itchy rash.

Now I don't think the people at the White Elephant, or for that matter at Something Natural, want their patrons itching and scratching and wondering where "that" came from. They just look past the noxious vine which hides among the friendly plants. So, I guess you have to keep your eyes open yourself.

If you do get some of the sap on you, wash as much of the oil off with a strong soap, I guess nowadays, dish washing detergent like DAWN that "cuts grease" might be a good choice. Then wash your hands again.And your clothes, and maybe your dog. Once the oil gets on these things it continues to be poisonous for years to you until it is washed away. Put some over the counter Cortisone cream on, because it is a reaction to CONTACT with the URUSHIOL in the sap. For those of us who are into that sort of thing, the botanical name of Poison Ivy is Toxicodendron Radicans. Her cousins, Poison Oak, and Poison Sumac, contain the same chemical. There are a few people who are not bothered by these plants. You are probably not one of them,. Be careful out there. Leaves three...leave me be. (Not all three leaved plants are poison ivy but err on the safe side.) Significant cases require stronger medications and a trip to the doctor. Most often, oral corticosteroids are prescribed.

ARCHITECT? FARMER?

Frank Lloyd Wrong. There is something unsettling about this house. I have been in houses where there are CATS everywhere but DUCKS?

Young children seem to see things we do not see or have been conditioned to not lump together, like buildings and ducks, Purple hats and yellow dresses... no wait, I saw that in Florida on more than one person. In fact it was a whole Red Hat club. Anyway, the clever use of the DUCK as an accent piece, like a Hummel figurine, or an architectural element does reveal a certain freedom of expression.

STAR WARS vs SEALS

COLOR

DIAMONDS and RUST (Joan Baez)

Botticelli's Birth of Venus (is this what Joan meant in these lyrics?)

(Words and Music by Joan Baez) I'll be damned Here comes your ghost again But that's not unusual It's just that the moon is full And you happened to call And here I sit Hand on the telephone Hearing a voice I'd known A couple of light years ago Heading straight for a fall As I remember your eyes Were bluer than robin's eggs My poetry was lousy you said Where are you calling from? A booth in the midwest Ten years ago I bought you some cufflinks You brought me something We both know what memories can bring They bring diamonds and rust Well you burst on the scene Already a legend The unwashed phenomenon The original vagabond You strayed into my arms And there you stayed Temporarily lost at sea The Madonna was yours for free Yes the girl on the half-shell Would keep you unharmed Now I see you standing With brown leaves falling around And snow in your hair Now you're smiling out the window Of that crummy hotel Over Washington Square Our breath comes out white clouds Mingles and hangs in the air Speaking strictly for me We both could have died then and there Now you're telling me You're not nostalgic Then give me another word for it You who are so good with words And at keeping things vague Because I need some of that vagueness now It's all come back too clearly Yes I loved you dearly And if you're offering me diamonds and rust I've already paid © 1975 Chandos Music (ASCAP)

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

Spring has sprung

The Bird is on the wing

But that's absurd

The wing is on the Bird

EVERYWHERE on Nantucket, flowers are in bloom. Daffodils and Crocuses in April, Irises and other vibrant colors this month. The Hydrangeas are waiting in the wings. They are leafy green now and the buds are growing. They next sprout greenish white flowers like Broccoli, which turn into red or Hydrangea-blue depending on soil conditions. They are everywhere and last for weeks. The grass is green. Most yards are surrounded by hedges. In the winter these hedges are leafless and with their thin branches are invisible. You can see every detail of the houses and yards. In spring, the hedges fill in so that they form a wall of green that brings privacy to each home.

This rebirth of nature here is so much more profound than in my native country of Florida where it is green or greenish-brown all year in my yard. Some Ixora flowers come out and the Oak trees first shed their old leaves and make a mess, then they drop truckloads of pollen and we all get bronchitis for 2 months. Then the leaves sprout. Most of the other plants, except for the Impatiens flowers which require constant watering and die in summer, look the same in all 4 seasons.

In Nantucket, winter is brown and leafless except for the occasional evergreen. In spring, everything flowers in all the colors of the Rainbow, trees and shrubs turn green, and Robins and Cardinals flitter everywhere. Boats come back into the empty harbor. People come out of their houses and tourists return. Shops and restaurants open up. Parking regulations kick in. Tops come off JEEPS. The change is profound.

I used to snicker when I heard my old neighbors "up North" talk about the change of seasons and their unwillingness to give that up and move to the land of one season, Florida. I reminded them with weather reports from home that it was 70 degrees in December while they were up to their derriere's in Snow. I guess I did not get it. We just stared to come north for the summer months a few years ago. I still don't want to be here in December. I would suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder and have to be on Prozac. But despite the cold and some wet weather we have had this May, and expecting something similar in September...I am really glad we came up early. Florida reminds me of the story..."Have you heard there is a new Playboy Magazine for married men? It's just like the regular Playboy except that the Centerfold is the same girl every month. Kind of like Florida Weather.

MODERN FAMILY

I (we) still watch most of the O'Reilly Factor on TV but have sworn off the other political shows. If I want to feel BAD, I'll just hit my thumb with a hammer. Instead, we have taken up watching a few sitcoms such as 30 ROCK and MODERN FAMILY.

30 Rock stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, neither of whose politics are my politics. Tina is the woman that played Sarah Palin on SNL. They are dyed-in-the-wool "lefties." Despite that, the show is Pee-your-pants funny. Tina Fey produces, writes, directs, and stars in it. All the things that could be funny about Saturday Night Live but usually are not because SNL's audience has morphed into stoned college students, can be found in 30 Rock.

Our other favorite half hour show is Modern Family. It is about members of a family.... the father, his second wife, his gay son and his significant other, his goofy daughter and her dysfunctional family of of texting-teenagers. The family members all live near one another. The father is played by the guy who played Al Bundy on another sitcom. His new wife is the unfortunate young thing in this photo, Sofia Vergara. Her character is that of an extremely beautiful woman, constantly in decolletage, with a flip side of crazy latina loud stubbornness. Think I-Love-Lucy meets Miss Argentina. In one episode she and her husband went next door to meet a new neighbor whose dog was constantly barking. The neighbor took one look at Sofia and said "You are a lucky man." The husband said "Wait a few minutes and see if your opinion remains the same." Shortly thereafter... Sofia's character goes off on a tirade that was like fingernails on a chalkboard. Funny Stuff.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

This in not only Memorial day weekend here in Nantucket, it is FIGAWI weekend. The stated reason for this three day beerathon is a boat race from Hyannis on Cape Cod to Nantucket, and then back, The sailors take this very seriously. Everyone else goes back to drinking. As I was walking on lower Main Street yesterday morning, the ferries were disgorging their cargo...throngs of young men and women looking to tank up, hook up, and probably throw up. The average age on the street appeared to be late 20s, One attractive young lady, already on her third "something with alcohol in it" leaned against a passing jeep filled with young men and said "Let the games begin." And she was not talking about boat racing. Urologists and Gynecologists will note an upswing in business by the middle of next week.

As you probably guessed by now, the Race weekend is not named after an actual indian tribe, though it sounds like it. The name, the legend has it, comes from the original race in which a huge fog bank engulfed the boats. It was before the days of GPS and other navigational aids that do not require visibility. More than one captain said "Where the FIGAWI?" and the name stuck.

IF YOU CAN'T stand the heat.....

I walked off to Old North Wharf this morning at 9am to visit with friends. The Kitty frantically called me about a half hour later to tell me to come home because they are tenting the house across the street 50 feet away and we are all going to die. I came home and looked across the street at a

House that was not completely tented. Blue tarps covered the perimeter and there was a big blower at the front door connected to 4 big gastanks. There were NO signs of danger or skulls and crossbones like the sign pictured here. I saw the truck and it's logo which read ThermaPure. I asked the workers if they used any poison gas or just high temperature. Fortunately they said NO TOXIC GAS... they superheated the house to 150 degrees to kill, not dry wood termites like we have in Florida, but post beetles, bedbugs, mold and mildew. The kitty can stop holding her breath. Being conscious of environmental toxins, I heartily approve of this method of ridding a home of critters. The people moved back in the same day.

CARD CARRYING GEEZER

Yes, I am one. For several years now I have positioned my snout at the Federal Trough to get my share of Social Security and Medicare. I watch with great interest as the debate rages on in Congress over the 14 trillion dollar debt and what we are going to do with it. The solutions have ranged from "Using fewer paperclips" to "Disbanding the Military and hoping for the best if we are attacked". The biggest sources of our financial implosion, Medicare and Social Security, are known as the 3rd Rail of Politics... you touch them and you die (politically). Anyone who gives it any thought whatsoever can plainly see that if SOMETHING is not done to reduce these two programs we are going to be up Yangtzee Creek without a paddle.

I have a simple proposal and that is why this will never be the solution that Congress chooses. Every year, move the retirement age out a few months until Both Social Security and Medicare don't kick in until age 70. And that's it. No one gets "cut off" or denied their sacred rights. they just have to wait a couple of extra years.... like people do in Canada and England or under Obamacare, when they need surgery. Life expectancy has been extended decades since the implementation of these two programs and yet the age of entitlement has remained the same, 65. Some elements of this have already been attempted but not in earnest. We need to get on the stick today because tomorrow is too late. We may have to wait until congress comes back from RECESS. They are home in their respective districts telling their constituents how much they are doing to make AMERICA a better place to live. Nero is practicing his violin.

FUSARO'S (gets a second chance)

Family style Italian home cooking? Not really. If a British cook were to cook Italian food...this would be the result. I still think they make a nice meatball. The plate of linguini was cooked to the correct firmness. The sauce? A real Italian would get up and leave. There were few if any spices and it was essentially tasteless. They did have some cracked red pepper in a shaker that helped a little.

The restaurant was filled to overflowing and every table and bar stool was taken. This may be New England but the patrons of the restaurant reminded me of the folks that go to an all-you-can-eat buffet in Florida. I guess they like the adequate volume of pasta and meat sauce and the plain salad. The lack of spices and flavor ensures that I am not going to return. Compared to Sophie T's, where they have robust sauce, the blandness of last night's food is what you would expect at a senior assisted living facility.

Our dining companions remarked that the ambiance of the restaurant matched the food well. Non-committal with no hint of ITALY. Middle American food, for middle Americans. If you want real Italian GUSTO, go somewhere else. The first experience at Fusaro's was generic. The return trip was worse. $100 for 4 adults 2 small kids, two glasses of cheap wine. Plus tip.

I MISS FLORIDA

TODAY we are going to the beach

A man was driving his pickup truck down the highway. There were a dozen penguins in the back. A police officer pulled him over and told him "Take those penguins to the zoo immediately."

The following day, the same man had the dozen penguins in his truck and the officer again pulled him over. He said..."I thought I told you yesterday to take those penguins to the zoo." The man replied... "Yesterday I took them to the zoo, today we are going to the beach."

If the kids are over their short term pediatric illness, which lasts 6 weeks when they give it to us, we will go to the beach today. Not to go into the water as there are still ice crystals at the shoreline, but to run around and pick up some shells. Or we can just play hide and seek.

EARLY TO RISE

Here in Nantucket, it gets light early and the birdies start to sing around 4:30 am. I awoke at that time and could not fall back asleep. I quietly went outside to the living room, turned on my computer, made coffee, and settled into my "spot"on the sofa. With a pillow in my lap an my laptop on top of that pillow, I took 2 hours of Law Enforcement online continuing education, wrote my blog, answered emails that I thought would not "ding" at the other end and wake up the recipients, and of course, drank my coffee. It is now almost 8 am, I have been up for over three hours and have been extremely "productive."

There are two kinds of people from a body-clock perspective... Larks, who are early risers, and Owls who like to go to bed late. I am a Lark but with a solid nap in the afternoon, I can stay up to midnight. The Kitty is more of an Owl and is still sawing logs in the bedroom as I write this.

GOLDEN HANDCUFFS

"Golden Handcuffs" is an expression that implies a forced obligation to do something in life even if you hate it just because you have great abilities in that subject. It is Golden in that the skill has great value to society, for example. Handcuffs imply that you do it against your will. A beautiful woman who wants to be a veterinarian is forced into modeling by society because of her physical gift. It even applies to things you used to do and enjoy but no longer have interest in. The "world" expects you to be their resource because you are good at it, even if you want to take a completely different direction. We see that when bright people flirt with running for office. Donald Trump or Mike Huckabee, for example. Somehow, regardless of personal expense, they owe it to their country to run for president because they "would be so good." Trump likes to develop real estate and Huckabee wants to be on TV. If they continue doing what they love, and do not do what they could be great at in the eyes of the electorate, they are disparaged. If someone has a long career in politics, or anything else, and they quit "to spend more time with their family" they must have a selfish agenda. Maybe they are getting out before they get indicted.

DOWN on MAIN STREET

The principle Retail street in Nantucket is called Main Street. For some nostalgic reason it is paved with round stones. This makes it easier to perform maintenance to the various pipes and wires that run underneath. You pull out the stones, do the work, then replace the stones. These workmen are doing just that. Driving on this street is an experience. It makes you question whether you have springs and shock absorbers on your vehicle.

All the people in the know, try to avoid driving on Main for more than one block. There are other East-West streets that can be taken but it requires forethought. So if you have a street in your town to pave and you want to drive faster than 5 mph, pave it with stones that are at least flat on one side, like on the left side of the photo. Then again, if you have a lot of pedestrians buying from the local merchants, perhaps round topped uneven stones that make you slow down, are just the ticket.

SARASOTA SUNRISE

This is the view I have when I write my BLOG in Sarasota in the early morning. I can't say I don't miss the view and the weather there this month is not AWFUL the way it will be over the summer months. In July August and September it is like living on the surface of the SUN. Up in Nantucket it has been a bit overcast but today it is 70 degrees and sunny.

The biggest difference for me is the ability to be outdoors in the sunshine and the clean air and walk and walk for miles without being drenched with perspiration. After I sign off this morning, I will walk about a mile or two and bring my bike to Harvey Young's shop for a spring tune up... air in the tires, lubricate the chain, and check the brakes. I love my outdoor life. It reminds me of my childhood up north when my shoe leather and my bike were the way I got around.

WELCOME to AMERICA, here's your unemployment check

I did not look this up but according to all the news I hear on TV, people who are out of work here in Ah-Me-Ree-Kah can get 99 weeks of unemployment payments. During that time they of course can work off the books for cash and thus "double dip." If there were EVER an incentive NOT to work, it is this protracted provision of money by our government. What are we SWEDEN? No wonder our president will probably get reelected. Who wouldn't vote for a guy who pays you for two years for NOT working. Add the group who gets paid for not growing corn, the companies that get paid subsidies for not drilling for oil, and you have the makings of an electoral Landslide. Change in our pockets that we can believe in.

I don't know if you have been following the Republican fiasco known as "Am I gonna jump in the race for president?' We had The Donald (Trump) decide to run. He had some good BROAD ideas and suggested he would bring business expertise to the office of President. When it was discovered that his hair could not fit in Air Force One, he dropped out. Then there was Governor (FOX TV celebrity) Mike Huckabee whose erstwhile reason for not running was "God wants me to stay on FOX" but which translated means "I don't want to take a pay cut and move to a bad neighborhood in DC." We are left with two charming and beautiful women in the race... Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman. Both of them are at least as intelligent and knowledgeable as our current president at the time of his election but the Liberal press will make mincemeat out of these two because EVERY gaff they make will be front page news unlike Senator Obama's past history which was swept under a Persian rug by a complicit Media.

So unless the Republicans run Casper "the MORMON" Milktoast as president and take the chance that "anyone but Obama unless they are too out there" is the winning formula, we are gonna have FOUR MORE YEARS of indecision and waffling, not to mention the Socialist agenda. Expect a second term for a guy who will get nearly every Jewish vote in America even if he bombs Tel Aviv, a solid Black vote, the half of the Latino electorate that does not own car dealerships in Miami, and that all important Teacher's Union vote. Dress your kids warmly as they WILL BE dragged out to an Obama Rally by their teachers so they can watch the political process to better their education.

The Adventures of MOMMY BAA

Traveling can be stressful. Traveling with twin 3 year olds and all of their "stuff" can be Stress on Steroids. The kids were real "troopers" and arrived in Nantucket without incident. Enough equipment for Seal Team Six accompanied them. When all was unpacked, the favorite toy of one of them was "missing in action." OMG. Where is Mommy Baa (a sleep sheep from infancy) ?

She had been left back in Sarasota. Now this could have been "Nightmare on Elm Street" but thanks to the love, affection, and creativity of their mother, my daughter, we learned that Mommy Baa was visiting friends and would arrive the following day. I figured it would be easier to GET another sleep sheep from Amazon but it was explained to me that the kids can tell which one of their sheep is the REAL Mommy Baa just the way a mother Penguin can find her baby among all the other similar looking (to us) Penguins.

The FedEx guys brought Mommy Baa overnight and a day later, She appeared on the front door step... the joyful shouts of the rightful owner..."Mommy Baa!" could be heard a block away. This is a family tradition, this attachment to favorite stuffed animals. My daughter took Schmooey the Seal off to Harvard. Maybe that's the origin of one of my many emotional problems. After all the moves we made around the country, I can't find Peckadabobble anywhere. Now if only we had FedEx back then...mmmmmm.

ARNO KIDDING ME?

Just across Main Street in Nantucket from a restaurant where I have NEVER had a bad dinner (Even Keel) is a restaurant (ARNO'S) Where I have never had a good one. This is the place I reported on last year for their under-stair bathroom with the dark painted ceiling where, if you pee standing up, you hit your head.

We were tempted by their pre-season 1/2 price ENTRE' sale to go there last night at 7. You get even less than you pay for even at 1/2 price. We were a party of 6 and sat in a dark corner. At first I though that when the waiter came over immediately to take our drink order his response was just disappointment over our not ordering 40 dollars worth of drinks. By the end of the evening I came to find out that he was either a Zombie, or in a coma. The service was very slow. It took us an hour from the time we ordered our food to the time it came. When it finally arrived, perhaps they were doing us a favor by the long delay. If I were not with friends, I would have walked out after the first 1/2 hour. BY THE WAY, at 7pm on a night the advertised 2 for one entres they were OUT of 3 of the choices...Ribs, Rib-sys steak, and Salmon. WTF?

Now for the food. Two people ordered the Petit Filet which came on the same plate you would get IF you had a plate for a dinner roll. I ordered the Pizza of the Day which did arrive hot so I know they meant TODAY. It fit on a small plate. I had my Stanley Power Lock tape measure in my pocket because we were shopping for a small table to fit in a limited space earlier that day. . This accurately measured 8 inch pizza was $15 before the discount. It was not memorable for any other reason other than its price.

I will not go back to this place for dinner ever again even if someone else is paying. The service is bad, and the food is overpriced and average even for Nantucket. The 41 in their name is either their entre' price or how long it takes them to get it to you from the time you order. Go across the street.

iPAD therefore I Am

It is early morning on an overcast day in Nantucket and the Kitty and I are sitting on two ends of the same sofa in our living room typing furiously into our laptop computers. Other times when we are at home and not on walkabout all over the island, we read books. My good friends who have e-readers all have opinions about which one to get. Most prefer the Kindle because they like to read outside in bright sun at poolside or in their favorite lounge chair on the patio. There are a million books you can get from Amazon for about 1/2 what the book would cost in paper form in a bookstore. The iPad from Apple is the first choice among people who want a reader but also want to do other things like manage their photographs. The price differential is significant. The iPad starts at $500 and runs up to $1000 if you want maximum memory and the ability to fully connect the way and anywhere a cell phone does, as well as Wi-Fi. We have Wi-Fi or wireless router internet here in our place in Nantucket as well as in our other home in Florida. The Kindle costs $138 for the middle of the road small screen model.

So, I guess I am soliciting feedback here from readers of this blog. Which one of these fine devices is the preferred one for doing mostly reading indoors? Or is that too limiting and I should expect more from an e-reader?

JESSE STONE aka TOM SELLECK

One of my favorite actors is Tom Selleck. I used to watch him religiously on MAGNUM, P I where he played a private detective in Hawaii. Somehow he was able to cram his large frame into a 308GT Ferrari. He has been in several movies where I thought he was great and so did the Hollywood press and the people who bestow awards on actors such as The Golden Globes. Most recently I have watched him in 2 hour made for TV Movies including the Jesse Stone series. Last night was the 7th one. During his hiatus from filming the weekly cop-drama "Blue Bloods" which will be back next year, he is filming the 8th installment of his 2 hour TV movie series about a police chief in a small Massachusetts oceanside town.

Part of his popularity, with me at least, is that his characters all are very proficient at what they do, despite huge personal weaknesses, or as in the case of "Quigley Down Under", his ethics get in the way of his doing what he was hired to do and he becomes the enemy of some powerful criminal boss. Clearly a character flaw and something that would get in his way Big Time if he were to run for political office.

On top of all that, he is politically a libertarian and has held onto his strong opinions going against the mostly liberal tide in Hollywood. For example, he is a spokesman for the National Rifle Association. In Hollywood, where even actors who have made fortunes playing cowboys with six-shooters and cops and robbers with Glocks, are fiercely and hypocritically "Anti-Gun" he is unyielding in his stance for individual liberty over the power of the state.

Nantucket WINE Festival

The Kitty and I went to an event or two at the Nantucket Wine Festival. While neither of us is an oenologist (wine expert) we do enjoy a glass of wine every night with dinner. So when we got the chance to go to a tasting from the Sandeman vineyard, who specializes in tawny Vintage port, we jumped at it. Especially because it was at the White Elephant, so near to our home.

I never know what to wear to these things so I put on Newport blue slacks and a Nordstrom blue check dress shirt. The speaker who is a Sandeman family member wore a blazer and jeans. Damn. Once again I overdressed. He was waaaay more studley, even for an englishman.

We tasted 4 different vintages of Port... 10-20-30- and 40 years old respectively. Between sips we cleansed our palates with Irish Golden Kerry cheese and bread... and a sip of San Pellegrino water.

Personally I preferred the younger Ports as they did not taste as sweet. The Kitty liked the older ones. Since the prices were more or less 40-60-80 and 100 dollars a bottle, I am fine with the younger one for economical reasons as well. PLUS... if you open a bottle of the 10 year old port, you can keep it for months. The older one tends to oxidize faster and has to be consumed within a few days. I heard it from Mr. Sandeman, so it must be true. And he had the confidence to fly from Portugal to Nantucket for a couple of days, and give his presentation in style. I enjoyed the day.

Wrun, Spawt, Wrun

Massachusetts regional accent.... unmistakeable. Rs are pronounced at times as if you need speech therapy. O is an AW as in SPOT pronounced SPAWT. Sure is shuwah, CAR is cah. And best of all Harvard is Hahvahd. Where does this come from? Historically, this area was settled by English people whom I am sure brought their accents with them.

If you listen the Jamaican Patois, such as is so often heard in Nantucket and on Bob Marley records you can link it back to Old English. Then of course there are the bastardizations that occur as in American dialects in which for example ASK is pronounced AXE. All this has an explanation I am sure, it is just not immediately apparent.

The hard part of all of this is that it is WICKED hard to be understood sometimes if you have a regional accent, y'all, and you want to buy a Burgah in Nantucket.

FUSARO'S Italian Restaurant

The Kitty and I went to FUSARO's on Old South Road the other night. Actually we went two (2) nights but the first time we could not get in because the line was around the block. On our second attempt we shared a plate of spaghetti and meatballs and a glass of "house" Chianti.

First the good stuff. The owner, Tom Fusaro, was on scene watching over the operation. He came to our table and was a nice pleasant fellow who has lived on Nantucket for 30 years. Our waitress, Jennifer, was also very nice but neglected (or was it their policy) to bring us bread or ask us if we wanted any Parmesan-Romano grated cheese sprinkled on our meal. We ordered a glass of Chianti which came quickly along with two glasses of water without ice. The meatballs were the BEST ON NANTUCKET. Tender and delicious made (and we believe it) from an old family recipe. A mixture of veal, pork, and beef, baked then cooked in sauce. Just like my grandmother would have made if she were Italian and not Hungarian. The spaghetti was cooked Al Dente (just firm enough) and was not as large as I would have expected but adequate. The sauce was flavorful but a little thin. It is as if they neglected to adequately drain the pasta and this diluted the sauce. Good flavor, did not adhere to the noodles well enough.

Now for the critical side. The meal was 13 dollars which was fair, especially on Nantucket where you have to take a second mortgage to go out to some restaurants. The wine was 8 dollars a glass. It was a skimpy pour of house chianti. If you are going to serve jug wine at least make it a decent volume for the money. I would guess that the wine quality was in the below 8 dollar store-retail category which makes the 6 glasses per bottle pour quite the profit center for the restaurant. When you enter the restaurant, the door to the kitchen is open right next to the ramp from the parking lot. As the old saying goes, "Never approach a restaurant from the rear." Their kitchen looked clean but nevertheless.

They have been open for 3 weeks. As usual, the volume of business would be expected to fall off with time, (may rise with the influx of tourists) unless the place is a great value, fun to go to and the food is yummy. The food needs just a little minor change, the wine is not a great value, and the service was acceptable. Where's the bread and the grated cheese? Spend an extra NICKEL and make the pasta portion a little larger. Drain the pasta better so the sauce (gravy) is not watery. Pour a real 2/3 glass of wine. Offer grated cheese and a bread basket. Put ice in the water pitcher. Keep the meatballs the same, they are blue ribbon winners. Tom's grandma was a meatball master.

We will be going back and I will give my review to the owner, because I CARE that they do well and I can keep going there for the season. I think my suggestions would be helpful or I would not have written them. I wish this restaurant success. If these minor course corrections are not attended to, devotees of real italian food may be dissuaded from revisiting.

ASSOCIATED PRESS: The world is still here

OAKLAND, Calif. — The hour of the apocalypse came quietly and went the same way — leaving those who believed that Saturday evening would mark the world's end confused, or more faithful, or just philosophical.

Believers had spent months warning the world of the pending cataclysm. Some had given away earthly belongings. Others took long journeys to be with loved ones. And there were those who drained their savings accounts.

All were responding to the May 21 doomsday message by Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer who has built a multi-million-dollar Christian media empire that publicizes his apocalyptic prediction.

"I had some skepticism but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God," said Keith Bauer — who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3,000 miles to California for the Rapture.

He started his day in the bright morning sun outside the gated Camping's Oakland headquarters of Family Radio International.

"I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth," said Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver who began the voyage west last week, figuring that if he "worked last week, I wouldn't have gotten paid anyway, if the Rapture did happen."

According to Camping, the destruction was likely to have begun its worldwide march as it became 6 p.m. in the various time zones, although some believers said Saturday the exact timing was never written in stone.

He had been projecting the apocalyptic prediction for years far and wide via broadcasts and websites.

In New York's Times Square, Robert Fitzpatrick, of Staten Island, said he was surprised when the six o'clock hour simply came and went. He had spent his own money to put up advertising about the end of the world.

"I can't tell you what I feel right now," he said, surrounded by tourists. "Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly because we're still here."

JESUS SAVES, MOSES INVESTS

Last year on Nantucket, I encountered this very nice and sincere young man on the sidewalk on Main Street. He had a camcorder and collected short videos in which the subjects, myself among them, were asked "Where go you go after you die?" There were no obvious signs that this gentleman was a born-again Christian and I presumed it was more of a scientific pursuit. Yesterday I ran into him again and he is the same nice guy he was last year. This time the conversation eventually wandered into "faith based" salvation. As you may know, "Born-Agains" among others, believe that it is not through your deeds that you are saved and will eventually go to heaven to be with Jesus ("Where do you go after you die?") it is 100% though your faith as in "I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior." Accept this and you are born again and will go to Heaven after you die. Simple, straightforward, and incontrovertible, with no wiggle room for Reincarnation, working your way into Heaven by giving all your wealth to the church, visiting the sick or incarcerated, NADA.

The usual "What if" questions arose in my mind... what if this is true and I am deluding myself into believing my Catholicism and its deed based dogma is guaranteeing me a one way ticket to Hell? On the other hand, What if all religion is a bunch of Hooey and the New Age folks are right that we are a cloud of energy and we just get redistributed again and again... like Stardust.

Let me tell you a story from about 35 years ago. I had just arrived in the town where I lived since then and practiced medicine and raised my family. I had "had it" with the Catholic Church but not with Christianity. I heard about a breakfast group that met at the hospital one morning a week. I went. The leader was an old time family doctor who had demi-god status *(possibly he was an elder or deacon in the most common denomination among us) within the group for some reason. The subject of alcohol came up. The leader piped up that all drinking was wrong and alcohol was the Devil's weapon against man. And he was not just talking about the Irish. Being new and not realizing that anything I could say would be heresy, I reminded the speaker of that famous story in the Bible, "The Marriage Feast at Cana" in which Jesus, a guest at the wedding, came to the rescue when the host ran out of wine. Jesus turned water into wine, and not just any wine, but it was so good that the guests remarked "Usually they serve the best wine first." The older doctor said "It was not wine it was grape juice." I said to myself, "Sure, people in the ancient middle east drank grape juice with their meals." That was the last time I went to the breakfast club.

Anyhow, I have since that time been suspicious of any man who lives his life by ONLY ONE BOOK.

RUN, FOREST, RUN

Life is like a box of chocolates. I heard it in a movie so it must be true. Anyhow, Forest Gump was filled with aphorisms and wisdom far in excess of the ordinary flick. SO, let us assume that Life is indeed a matter of choices made from the options "in the box." That presumes that all the choices available are within that box. And we know that can't be true and yet we stop our quest at the edge of that which is held in that confined space. At least most of us do. Unless you come from a family of singers and songwriters, going into the music Biz is "stepping outside the box." The same might be true for a migrant farm worker's child becoming a medical doctor. For the rest of us, we tend to live lives within certain pre-conceived confines. Choosing a neighborhood with good schools, driving a car that gets good mileage, entering a career that offers income and security. We choose from inside the box lest we get a dog-doo wrapped in cellophane instead of dark chocolate macadamia nut. Taking chances and going out on a limb... too risky.

It is never too late to escape the box and do something ELSE. Alternatively you can do that thing you do so well that pays the rent in a more adventurous way. Or at least change it up every once in a while to avoid burnout. Do not telegraph your intentions as the push-back will be nearly irresistible. Everyone in your life has an image of you in their heads. They know where you should be and what you should be doing at all times. You have one life and it belongs only to you and no one else. You may invite others in and love them and care for them, but at the end of the day, you are born alone and you die alone, unless you are in India in which case they throw your wife on the funeral pyre with you. Probably not gonna happen here.

APPS from APPLE

If you have an i-Phone or an i-MAC or any other Apple computer or cell phone product, you know what APPs are. (Other phones and computing products use them too, but nothing like an iPhone.) They are little programs that do some really clever things. I have APPs that give me the weather, scan price tags, allow me to dictate emails, and about 50 other things. I know some people with many more. Most are free and some can cost from $.99 on up. When I turn on my phone, along the bottom, the menu shows me that there have been updates or upgrades to my APPs almost every week. This constant improvement is appreciated but I have to allow this to happen and wait for each of the APPs to do its thing. I can just imagine how long it would take if I had lots of APPs.

I think that there is price to pay for all this technology. It takes a piece of every day just updating software, waiting for things to boot-up, and then there is the incessant SPAM that comes in through every electronic crevice.

HA HA

A mushroom asks a beautiful woman for a date. She tells him " I don't date mushrooms." He replied "Why not? I'm a Fun Guy."

BREAD and CIRCUS

Aren't we all modern and everything sitting in our living rooms watching 500 channels on our flat screen TV. Every sport on the planet at our fingertips. Thanks to the educational system you are probably unaware of the been there-done that nature of your existence. In Ancient Rome, they had this big stadium called the Coliseum. The lives of the people were pretty intolerable. There was unemployment, hunger, and the Barbarians were at the gate. Rulers being what they are, anxious to remain in power, discovered that if you take the people's minds off their miserable lives and entertain them and keep their bellies full they will not Storm the Bastille and chop off your heads like in the French Revolution.

Those in power in our country are generally inept and self serving. We let them stay the course and keep their jobs (?) because the system keeps us entertained. We have all those sports and clever (?) reality shows on TV and a McDonald's on every corner. Rather than being hungry we are obese. Rather than being discontented with our taxes going to shore up governments in countries half way across the globe who hate us, we sit on our couches and root for the team of our choice. Three seasons a year at least. Bread and Circus. The Romans used it to control their people. As Reagan used to say... "Here they go again." But then again if you were educated recently in America, you probably don't know who Reagan was, so "Never mind,"

WATER which is too pure, has no FISH

What the heck does that mean? When I say it, it is an attempt to convey "Everything in moderation, including moderation." Or said another way, "Don't try for perfection, you won't get there, and in addition, it is not ideal. Too much perfection and purity stifles life."

Sea water is teeming with life. Microscopic organisms are eaten by tiny animals, who are in turn eaten by larger animals and so on up the chain until Mr. Great White Shark has his lunch. The little left over pieces fall to the ocean floor and become food for bacteria, microscopic life etc. The whole thing works quite nicely in nature. We don't like nature very much. We sterilize everything, Wet wipes are everywhere. We take antibiotics for the common cold. We shield ourselves from the sun, the air, and the rain. We drive in air conditioned cars with the windows rolled up. And now the final straw... we no longer touch or talk to one another we send text-messages and emails, and look at one another on our smart phones and laptops. We are perfectly isolated, and that's the problem.

WHY DO WE DO WHAT WE DO?

" For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?"

Whether in business where dog-eats-dog or in the way we abuse ourselves while we chase some lofty goal, do we stop and ask the question..."What price am I paying to get what it is I think I want? Is it costing me my family, my honor, my health?" Just in my circle of friends, I know young people with awful things happening to them. I am sure you do too. Will they say at the end of their days... "I wish I had spent more time at the office." ??? Or would we all be better off if we were happy with what we have and spend time on the best things in life... which as we all know... are free?

STRESS... your worst ENEMY

I have taken more than my share of online questionnaires relating to health and longevity. Of course they ask about weight and exercise, smoking and drinking, and family history. The number one question that plays the biggest role in life expectancy and health is about STRESS. If you are like our president, NO DRAMA OBAMA, your longevity jumps significantly. You know who you are. You probably do not need to take an online test to know that you internalize all sorts of problems, worry about everything, see the world as a dangerous place, and KNOW that the sky is definitely falling. Even the old Chicken Little fable taught that lesson. Unfortunately we have not absorbed the wisdom of Aesop and others and the results in America are obvious. We eat to de-stress... the so called "comfort food." We drink and take drugs. And we try to lose ourselves by vicariously living through the physical activity of others. Instead of being physically active ourselves we sit on the couch and watch others play sports. Then we yell..."We Won."

Whether you are looking on WebMD, or Blue Zones, or any serious website about your health, the number one determinant of a long and healthy life is your level of stress, most of which is self imposed. In countries with the greatest happiness level and advanced longevity, there are no Gold's Gyms, GNC stores, NutraSystem diets, or psychiatrists. They eat food that comes from trees and farms, and from the sea. They get their exercise by working and walking and riding bicycles. And they just don't stress over the crap we do. A nap, or siesta, is part of every day. Meditation and easy exercises like tai Chi and yoga are preferred over heavy weight lifting. We have a lot to learn. Fortunately we have some models to emulate that will help us live a more care-free life. These models are called little children and dogs.

SEATBELTS and LONGEVITY

Yesterday a friend of mine offered me a ride from the Wharf Rat clubhouse to a restaurant about 10 blocks away where I was going to meet the Kitty. He took pride in his 25 year old car. It did indeed have a patina and took ALL the worry out of getting a parking lot ding, if you know what I mean. As I got into the passenger side and he threw all the crap he had on the seat into the back, I hunted for the seat belt-shoudler harness. He said "You don't need a seatbelt we are only going a few blocks and no more than 20 miles per hour." I found the belt and put it on without any "lectures" on physics. I saved that for this column.

If you are sitting in a car that is going 20 miles per hour, how fast do you think you are going? And if the car stops suddenly because it hit a brick wall or worse yet another car going 20 mph in the opposite direction, how fast will you continue to go? The answer is "If you do not have your seatbelt on, you will continue going forward at 20 mph and will hit the dash and windshield at that speed." It may not kill you, but your dentist and plastic surgeon will be able to pay their alimony payments more easily.

And the moral of the story is... part of being healthy is paying attention to a few little things every day that generally lead to increased longevity. Fastening your seatbelt is one of those.

Now for a little bit of physics... the energy your body has to absorb when it hits something immovable is related to your weight times (x) your velocity SQUARED. That means that the impact at 20 miles per hour is not TWICE that at 10 miles per hour, it is 4 TIMES as much. This multiplier gets worse the faster you go. Many things in science are like that. When you see reports of an earthquake and they say it is 5.6 on the Richter scale, one that is 5.7 is not just a little worse. It is not like a CD rate. When you hear about hurricanes, a category 5 is much much worse than a category 4 because of the velocity of the wind, which like the speed of your car, multiplies the damage. The same is true for hearing damage from increased decibel sound, and on and on.

To summarize.... put your seatbelt on even if you are just backing you car out of the garage to wash it. Get in the habit. And do not underestimate the "low" speed accident. People spend a lot of time on makeup and going to the salon for hair styling, fashion, and teeth whitening. We lead with our faces in our everyday life. Don't let a low speed accident ruin all your hard work.

The PERFECT Food

If you want to kill yourself. Sure, I love them too. I try not to let the waiter bring them to the table because I have very little sales resistance once the lovable little critters are there on my plate staring at me. Out of sight, out of mind. And there are just so many you can steal off you neighbor's plate before they smack your hand. It represents three of the important food groups (for bad health)... salt, grease (probably the unhealthiest kind) and starch. Health-conscious people know about the "White Menace." No , I am not talking about Gary Bussey, I refer to White Rice, White Potatoes, and White Bread, all of which are absorbed very quickly through the stomach and rush into the blood stream as sugar... promoting a high, followed by a low, then a need for another "fix (there is such a thing as carb addiction) and eventually...obesity and Type-2 Diabetes. All this from a simple bag of fries? You betcha.

So is this an absolute prohibition? Should life be like that? I don't think so. The old ZEN expression applies: "Water which is TOO PURE has no fish." Personally I find deprivation to be annoying. You gotta have some fun and some guilty pleasures some times. Fries with every meal? Every Burger? Rethink that. Eat the meat, skip the bun and the fries, or in Mobster terms... leave the Gun, take the Cannolis.

SUGAR and SALT

Not long ago I overheard a young man who was all worried that he might have contracted AIDS from a one-night-stand with an attractive but libertine young woman. He could not wait to be "tested" to see if he was "negative." If he were negative, his expectation was to continue sowing his wild oats. This is fuzzy logic. It may sound ridiculous to us but think about how most of us think about disease. We eat all the sugar, carbs, and salt we want until we go to the doctor and he/she tells us that we are PRE-hypertensive (high blood pressure) or PRE-diabetic (high blood sugar) and then we go about our merry way doing the same old things until one day we go back and we have "crossed the line" and we are now really Hypertensive or Type-2 Diabetic. Once that line is crossed a cure is far more difficult than before. If you go to the doctor and pre-hyperension is diagnosed, it is up to you to make some changes that will bring those numbers down. You are supposed to have a blood pressure of 120/80 or less. If it is above this, then go out any buy yourself a home blood pressure tester (Sphygmomanometer) and take your pressure often. They are cheap and effective. Keep track of your diet and stress and your "numbers." Watch your salt intake because salt makes your blood pressure higher IF you are prone to hypertension. Decrease your food intake because any level of obesity leads to hypertension. Don't let the doctor put you on medication and think that is all you need. These medications are not without their risks and side effects. Your pressure may be dangerously high and medicine MIGHT be the correct thing BUT if you think you can just continue eating, smoking, not exercising, and being stressed out and the medicine will take care of it, then you are headed for a fall.

The same goes for PRE-diabetes that is also related to the same poor lifestyle choices... no exercise, obesity, and too many carbs and sugars in your diet. There is a meter for this too, but it is less common in ordinary households. It is a simple device that involves a tiny drop of blood from a small "stick" of a finger or elsewhere. It instantly tells you how much sugar is circulating in your bloodstream. You do this first thing in the morning "fasting" before you eat or drink anything. Normal Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS) is around 80. If it is above this, up to 120 you may be PRE-diabetic. Above that... you may need to be medicated and that's when the side effects begin. You can get this meter at your local pharmacy. Buy the little one that is easy to use and needs almost no blood. Consider the Freestyle Lite.

Being diabetic, or hypertensive makes you VERY much more likely to have a heart attack, stroke, neurological problems with your legs, or have Erectile Dysfunction. Of course there's a pill for that too but treating the symptom is not treating or preventing the disease. You want to prevent these sort of things. Your health, like your finances, are ultimately your responsibility. No one has greater "skin in the game" that you. Your doctor only cares when you are sitting in the exam room. Your spouse cares until something important comes up like picking the kids up at school. Speaking of kids... you do want to see them graduate from school (s) and get married some time in the future, don't you?