Category: It Happened to Me

On the way from Boston to Hartford, the Ginger Ninja and I stopped for lunch in Vernon to enjoy the food of her people at Rein’s Deli…

As with the Clam Box, this is much better road food than your typical fast food place will serve you. I opted for a tongue-and-swiss sandwich on rye with seeds, and shared some potato pancakes, baked beans and a lot of homemade pickles (which they serve free of charge).

While hanging out in the Boston area last week, the Ginger Ninja’s mom took us to The Clam Box in Ipswitch. The building was built to look just like a clam box, so I couldn’t resist taking photos…

The food at the Clam Box is classic New England fried seafood: shrimp, scallops, fish and of course, clams. You can eat in their dining room or on the picnic tables outside. You probably shouldn’t eat this stuff — it’s all deep fried — every day, but as a special treat, it’s far better road food than your typical fast food joint.

Here’s what I had for dinner: the whole fried clams platter, with a clam cake on the side…

If you ever pass through Ipswich, make sure you pass by the Clam Box.

For those of you who do a lot of road-tripping in the U.S., here’s something that you might find interesting — a map of the U.S. Interstate highway system, simplified in a fashion similar to many subway maps:

Click the map to see it at full size.
Map courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

This map is a creation of Chris Yates, and you can get prints of it from the “Toys” page of his site.

Last night, as the Ginger Ninja and I emerged from baggage claim at Peason’s Terminal 1, we saw a chauffeur from a car service holding up a sign that read: Gilbert Gottfried.

“Oh, crap,” I said to Wendy, “let’s get out of here.”

I should’ve taken a picture, but I was just too tired.

danah boyd making her “MyFriends, MySpace” presentation at the Berkman Center at Harvard, Tuesday, June 19th, 2007.

One of the things I got to do during last week’s vacation was go visit the place where the Ginger Ninja worked for four years (and where I met her!) — the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. We caught their Tuesday luncheon series and had the good fortune of meeting danah boyd, who gave her presentation titled MyFriends, MySpace.

I took notes and photos during the presentation — you can check them out on my tech blog, Global Nerdy.

It’s about 17 or so hours until my brother-in-law Andy Ramoniac and his fiancee Sue tie the knot. Since I expect that my hands will be full with groomsman, accordion and “chair lifting during the hora” duties, I thought I’d take this quiet moment to wish Andy and Sue my best.

In their honour, I present a poem by Ogden Nash…

Tin Wedding Whistle

Though you know it anyhow
Listen to me, darling, now,

Proving what I need not prove
How I know I love you, love.

Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;

Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren’t.

Far and wide, far and wide,
I can walk with you beside;

Furthermore, I tell you what,
I sit and sulk where you are not.

Visitors remark my frown
Where you’re upstairs and I am down,

Yes, and I’m afraid I pout
When I’m indoors and you are out;

But how contentedly I view
Any room containing you.

In fact I care not where you be,
Just as long as it’s with me.

In all your absences I glimpse
Fire and flood and trolls and imps.

Is your train a minute slothful?
I goad the stationmaster wrothful.

When with friends to bridge you drive
I never know if you’re alive,

And when you linger late in shops
I long to telephone the cops.

Yet how worth the waiting for,
To see you coming through the door.

Somehow, I can be complacent
Never but with you adjacent.

Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;

Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren’t.

Then grudge me not my fond endeavor,
To hold you in my sight forever;

Let none, not even you, disparage
Such a valid reason for a marriage.