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Hotel Review: Boston’s Verb Hotel Gets 4.5 Fresh Towels
Prefer to listen? Just click for the audio version.
Hotel reviews are based on a Fresh Towel rating. Five means a top destination, one means check in at your peril.
Welcome to the first hotel review. It’s being added to my restaurant reviews (1-5 Yums), and my general travel reviews and blog posts.
Like a lot of people, we’ve been traveling a lot since the removal of pandemic restrictions. We’ve been to Delaware, Atlantic City, and we’ll be heading to California and Las Vegas soon, as well as taking a cruise to Canada in October that arrives back in Bayonne, NJ, on my birthday!
I was especially prompted to kick these off because we’ve come to Boston to visit one of Frank’s oldest friends (who takes the ferry to Provincetown every year in August when we head their for our annual time share). Frank booked us into The Verb Hotel, and I was wowed!
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Sue Katz’s Film Review: The Oscar-Nominated Live Action Shorts
By Sue Katz
The following is reprinted with permission from Sue Katz: Consenting Adult
The Live Action shorts are my favorites. There are also Animations and Documentaries, which are a treat as well. I always assume that the people involved with making shorts are less likely to have resources and support, and more likely to have a point of view that hasn’t been fully explored by big filmmakers.
In past years, I’ve been aggravated by Live Action shorts because they were violent, vicious, war-themed, crime-themed – in short, same ole, same ole.
This year, all five films have a humanity to them that made for both easy and interesting viewing. After I turned 75 I decided that I would allow myself not to finish a book or a film that did not have a single character I could give a shit about. I found myself empathetic to each of these stories.
THE ONE I THINK MIGHT WIN
Eirik Tveiten’s “Night Ride (Nattrikken)” takes place on a Norwegian tram that has been hijacked by a Little Person when it was too cold to wait a half hour for the driver, on his break, to let her in. What starts as playing “driver,” ends up in a mad ride. She stops and picks up passengers, but when a transwoman rider is attacked by some dickheads, she has to make a daunting decision. -
Review: Frida Kahlo’s ‘Pose’ Exhibition at Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum, by Sue Katz
This article is reprinted with permission from Sue Katz: Consenting Adult
By Sue Katz
Sue Katz I’m on a mission to check out the many small museums in this area of Massachusetts. This rainy Saturday was the perfect timing for my first visit to the Rose Art Museum. Their modern and contemporary permanent collection is extraordinary – every piece of the highest quality. Stunners from one wall to another, with women and people of color now heavily represented.
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Restaurant Review: The Golden Pheasant Inn, 5 Emphatic Yums
By Mark McNease
Restaurant reviews are based on a 5 Yum scale, 5 meaning put it on your must list, 1 meaning avoid at all costs.The Golden Pheasant Inn
763 River Road (Route 32)
Erwinna, PA 18920
(610) 294 9595
Website: goldenpheasant.com
Spend Meter: $$$$+
Service: Excellent
Another Sunday, another outstanding meal. I don’t expect them all to be this good, but when you go to the Golden Pheasant Inn you can count on the standards being high. Located in Erwina, PA, just about twenty minutes from our home in rural New Jersey, the Golden Pheasant is a nearby taste of excellence. My husband Frank and I rode there with our friends and neighbors Phil and Jim. We were going out with them regularly before the pandemic put a stop to life as we knew it. Now that restrictions are being lifted, spring has arrived, and we’re all vaccinated, it was time for another delightful dinner out, this time indoors.
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Restaurant Review: The Black Bass Hotel, 5 Yums with a River View
By Mark McNease
Restaurant reviews are based on a 5 Yum scale, 5 meaning put it on your must list, 1 meaning avoid at all costs.The Black Bass Hotel
3774 River Road
Lumberville, PA 18933
(215) 297-9260
Website: blackbasshotel.com
Spend Meter: $$$$
Service: Excellent
Now that we and our friends have all been fully vaccinated, it’s time to get out there and enjoy each other’s company again. What better way to do that than with a fine meal in a fine restaurant?
My husband Frank and I have been getting takeout on Sundays for many months. It’s the end of my work week (Thursday through Sunday), and I’ve been determined not to cook, clean, or otherwise tax myself after putting in four days at the job. Once the pandemic started a year ago we followed all the precautions and restrictions, and with a few exceptions for outside dining last fall, we’ve been taking it easy with takeout.
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Steve Hayes: Tired Old Queen at the Movies – The Clock
In MGM ‘s wartime romance, THE CLOCK, director Vincente Minnelli takes future wife Judy Garland out of the musical spot light and into the arms of soldier Robert Walker for her first serious, romantic drama. With a supporting cast headed by Keenan Wynn and James Gleason, it’s a delightfully tender and touching, romantic travelogue of New York during World War II and did much to establish Garland as a serious actress. You ‘ll be beguiled by the chemistry of Garland at her loveliest and Walker at his sincerest. – Steve Hayes, Tired Old Queen at the Movies
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Restaurant Review: Martine’s Riverhouse Restaurant, 3 ½ Yums (New Hope, PA)
Reviews are based on a 5 Yum scale, 5 being must-go, 2 being save your money, 1 being call an ambulance.
Where: Martine’s Riverhouse Restaurant, New Hope, PA
Price: $$$
Fun new word: RiverhouseSo it is two words or one? Is the ‘H’ capitalized or not? I found it both ways on their website and their Facebook page. That can happen when you make up words – it’s tough to know which is catchier.
My husband Frank and I made it across the Delaware River to New Hope, Pennsylvania. We parked in Lambertville, New Jersey, and walked over the bridge, since New Hope decided several years ago there would be no free parking anywhere in town. It’s Delaware River Towns Restaurant Week and both communities are nestled on the river. It’s a spectacular place to live. Art and progressive politics are in the air, but there’s something for everyone. Last night that something was dinner at Martine’s.