Month: June 2025

Happy Flag Day

A company of Revolutionary War re-enactors, one of whom has a sign reading "No Kings."

The photo above shows what the Minutemen were fighting for during the Revolutionary War. They wanted no kings, no dictators, no emperors. They wanted the right to rule themselves, without having some old rich guy, someone who thought he was more important than they were, telling them what to do. That’s what the American flag stands for — no kings, no tyrants, no dictators.

And now, two hundred and fifty years later, King-wanna-be Donny is trying to establish a new monarchy and tyranny. But here in Massachusetts, where the Revolution began, we still don’t want any kings. We still don’t want some old rich guy, someone who thinks he’s better than we are, telling us what to do. Way back in 1776, Thomas Paine described people like King-wanna-be Donny as insolent, poisoned, ignorant, and unfit:

“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interest, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.”

On this Flag Day, remember the original meaning of the American flag: no kings, no tyrants, no dictators.

Happy Flag Day!

Fishing

Crossing the Border St. bridge, I looked out over Cohasset Harbor. Someone was fishing the whitewater where the tide was running out over the rocks into the harbor. When I got safely across the bridge, I stopped to look, and saw that he was using a fly rod. Mostly I see people using bait and spinning gear. This is the first time I’ve seen someone fly fishing in Cohasset Harbor.

The thought that immediately came into my head was that I’d have to tell Dad about this next time we talked. I gave my head a figurative shake — Dad died nine years ago, I wasn’t going to be talking to him about this. I mean, yes, I could talk with him about it in my imagination, but he wouldn’t be able to tell me whether he had ever gone fly fishing in saltwater (he probably had) and if so, what flies he had used and what he had caught.

Old habits die hard. For the last seven years of Dad’s life, I was living three thousand miles away in California. The last two years, he couldn’t talk any more. Up until then, I’d call him most Sundays, and we’d talk for an hour or so. I wasn’t doing much fishing while I lived in California, and Dad wasn’t doing much fishing those last five years. But we both still thought about fishing and we both still liked to talk about fishing, if either of us had anything new to say. So it’s not surprising that when I saw that guy fly fishing, I’d think about talking it over with Dad.

Here it is, nine years after he died, and there are still a bunch of things I’d like to talk over with Dad. And maybe I’ll go fishing on Father’s Day.

White Rabbit Candy

Kara brought back White Rabbit candy from her visit to China. She gave me a small bag to try.

The candy starts off as very firm, becoming chewy as it warms up in your mouth. There’s an edible inner wrapping made of glutinous rice, which addes to the texture. The original flavor is very mild, milky and vanilla-y, and not very sweet. Interesting. I found out that the candy originated in Shanghai, and I find it reminiscent of the mildness of other Shanghai cuisine.

There were many flavors in the small bag Kara gave me, not just the original flavor. From what I can find out online, there are at least 16 flavors: Original plus Banana, “Brown creamy,” Chocolate, Coffee, “Cooling” (mint), Durian, Lychee, Maize (corn), Mango, Matcha, Osmanthus, Salty plum, Wasabi, Red Bean, Yogurt.

Some of the flavors I liked a lot. One of my favorite flavors was wasabi — it had just a touch of wasabi, not too spicy, a nice contrast to the underlying milky mildness of the candy. My other favorite flavor was what’s called “cooling” (what I’d call mint) — which also provided a nice contrast to the underlying flavor of the candy. Red bean was a little odd to my Western palate, but I did like the way it reminded me of dim sum red bean buns.

Other flavors I didn’t care for as much. Osmanthus was only faintly floral, and overall too bland for my tastes. Matcha didn’t work for me — I guess if you like boba tea this would be good, but I like my matcha unsweetened and with no milk.

The best thing about White Rabbit candy is its mildness. It’s not too sweet; by contrast, I find most American candy far too sweet. And the flavors are subtle, not overpowering like some American candies.

Small paper-wrapped candies on a table top.

Another washtub bass update

I’ve expanded my 2019 post on washtub basses to include two electrified instruments.

You can go read the expanded post, or just click on the image below to check out a video of Barbara LePine’s electric washtub bass in action.

A woman playing washtub bass, and a man playing guitar
Screen shot of “Bucket Babs” playing her washtub bass in her band “Porter McClister’s Box and Bucket.”

More photos below….

Continue reading “Another washtub bass update”

Cohasset ukulele festival

Our twice-monthly ukulele group will be hosting a half-day ukulele festival on Sunday, October 5, 2025. More info here.

This entirely free event is being sponsored by my employer, First Parish in Cohasset, in cooperation with the Cohasset Historical Society. We’re able to make this a completely free event, thanks to a grant from the Gleason Music Fund at First Parish, in-kind support from both First Parish and the Historical Society, as well as a generous anonymous donation. We’re also on a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant application submitted by the Historical Society — if that grant comes through, we’ll be able to increase accessibility with an ASL interpreter for the final concert.

If you’re in the Boston area, hope to see you there. Even if you don’t play ukulele, come join us for the free concert at 4:30.

A graphical flyer telling about the uke festival.
Click on the image above for a PDF of the flyer.