Cape Wind Flies

Ira Flatow had an excellent interview this last Science Friday with Cape Wind‘s Jim Gordon and Denise Bode of the American Wind Energy Association. Cape Wind finally has the go-ahead to complete America’s first offshore wind farm on Nantucket sound.

Here’s the interview:

Cape Wind Project Moves Forward

Be sure to listen to the callers. Having just learned about the escalating disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, I couldn’t help but come away from the interview with a feeling that the show had been professionally “hit” by the oil lobby. Or maybe it was disinformation orchestrated by the Institute for Energy Research of which Denise warns. Or perhaps those were actual angry NIMBY Cape residents pretending to have more noble concerns.

Either way, I wasn’t buying it. Jim deflected the arguments with the nonchalance of over-learned routine.

Congrats to Cape Wind.

Opening Day At Fenway

Just saw the jets (finally) fly over Central Square, so here is Nick Mills’ ode to the team, the park, and the town.

Opening Day at Fenway

It’s opening day at Fenway
And a thrill is in the air
The champs are back in town
And there’s a hum in Kenmore square
The long cold winters over now
The snows have gone away
The sun is getting higher
And it’s warmer day by day
Emerging from our overcoats
Like moths from our cocoons
We spread our wings and point our hearts
Towards April, Mays and Junes
When the seasons full of promise
And the field’s full of dreams
And the old ball yard on Yawkey way
Is bursting at the seams.

It’s opening day at Fenway
And the fans are streaming in
From Southie, Newton, Roxbury
From Everett and Lynn
The ushers in their bright red coats
Are dusting off the chairs
The boys are selling popcorn
And yelling up and down the stairs.

It’s opening day at Fenway
And by some peculiar quirk
Some thirty thousand people
Have the same day off from work
Ten thousand aunts are sacrificed
On the alter of opening day
Their funeral processions
All end up on Yawkey way
The seats are filling up now
The opening pitch is near
The bleacher bums get settled with
Their plastic cups of beer
For some fans it’s their first game
For some perhaps their last
But all are here united
With the glory’s of the past
They gaze upon that green expanse
Where heroes played the game
Williams, Yaz and Manny
And more of lesser fame.

It’s opening day at Fenway
The pitchers on the mound
The patch of earth in Boston
once again is sacred ground
Heroes of tomorrow and ghosts of yesterday
Line up along the foul line
as the anthem starts to play
Now the rabble in the bleacher seats
Takes up the ancient call
It rumbles through the grandstand
And rattles off the wall
Play Ball the thirty thousand call
Let the game begin
It’s opening day at Fenway
And the Sox are gonna win.

Porter Square Nikuman

Until yesterday I hadn’t had good nikuman for years; not since I lived in Tokyo. Last night, however, I discovered, buried beneath the escalator in Porter Square Station, a small newsstand selling freshly steamed pork nikuman.

Of course, I should really say baozi since these were authentic Chinese steamed buns. Served, oddly enough, in a plastic glove.

Oddness aside, they’re delicious.  If I passed through Porter Square every day I could imagine a stop at the newsstand quickly becoming a breakfast habit.

Boston’s Christmas Castle.. FOR SALE?!

Came across this on Zillow today and couldn’t believe it.  It looks like the Christmas Castle is on sale, and has been for the better part of the year.  A steal at 2.2 million.

I plan to swing by later this week and see if the lights are up.  Though I for one enjoyed last year’s bizarre spectacle of lights, I suspect that Jamaica Plainers just might be getting a little more sleep this Christmas.

Boston’s Bizarre Christmas Castle

Imagine a three-story tall castle-shaped Lite Brite flanked by a small army of seven-foot inflatable Weeble-Wobble-like iconic Christmas sentries… and you may just barely be able to grasp what it is like to stand before Dominic Luberto’s “Castle of Christmas” in Jamaica Plain on the outskirts of Boston.

Boston Christmas Castle

The “Castle” was pretty impressive last year, when the lights alone appear to have cost about $10,000 dollars. But this year its over the top. Literally. Atop Luberto’s $2 million dollar domicile this year sits a ten-foot high 650 pound illuminated gold crown.

Apparently back in November the city was after Luberto, stating that the crown is a permit-requiring structure. Luberto claimed it to be just a “temporary Christmas decoration.” He must have won; the crown was still up when we went to see it last night.

Even more bizarre than the display itself is the fact that Luberto seems to be using it to advertise his own version of Where’s Waldo.

An illuminated sign out front, finddominicdecorating.com, points to a self-published book available from AuthorHouse.com.

finddominicdecoratingcom.jpg

find-dominic-decorating.jpg

The “Free Preview” paragraph on AuthorHouse proudly declares:

Hi kids! This is your friend Dominic. I’ll decorate my Castle for Christmas. Can you guess which decorations I will use? Dominic will love to paste some of the book pictures but this program doesn’t let us do that.

Woah.

So with marketing collateral like that, what else could I do? I ordered a book from my friend Dominic. Hopefully the program will let him send it to me.

Oga’s Japanese Cuisine

An authentic Japanese bento is the last thing I expected to find in Natick.

Oga’s Japanese Cuisine

Following a seminar about the crazy healthcare reform laws that have befallen Massaschusetts, we decided to stop by Oga’s in Natick to see what the rest of the Boston Japanese community was raving about. Wow, we weren’t disappointed.

Oga’s Sushi BentoThough Oga’s looks pricey for dinner, a formal (read: “fancy-ish”) bento box lunch was only about $12. I had a fairly good tonkatsu pork bento (complete with cabbage and sauce), and Miho a really spectacular sushi box lunch.

Oga’s can be a bit far out of Boston on the highway, but worth the trip. Best bento I’ve ever had in the US.