Pleasures and Pain
Clover, Our Self-Induced Hurt Locker, Sandwich Dreams, Authors we Love
The sun rose at 5:05 this morning and will set at 8:15 tonight.
June is a fickle month. After days so warm that some people were referring to them as beach days, we reverted to cold, gray, drizzle. The rain became such a constant I was kicking myself for not spreading grass seed on those bare patches of lawn during the brief bit of sunshine. Those areas would be green by now. Sun prevailed yesterday. But more rain is on the way.
After excavation work around our basement a few years ago, we ordered clover seed to spread on the exposed dirt. Now it is everywhere, blooming with little white flowers that attract bees. Clover is beautiful, with trifoil leaves that are more attractive than boring green grass. Clover is not a thirsty groundcover, and coupled with its attraction to pollinators, it is environmentally-friendly.
In the Garden
I am continuing to replant the borders with flowering plants deer don’t like. My battle defending my flowers is over. Foxglove, salvia, speedwell, cosmos, marigolds and nepeta all went in the ground this month. Deer don’t touch them.
Purple Japanese iris is showing nicely alongside orange Oriental poppies on the northern border of my fenced-in garden, and the purple catmint and pink and white poppies blooming along the side of the back porch are nothing short of glorious. More deer-proofing in action.
Pink and white cosmos have been woven between the perennials in the front of the house to add color all season long. Pulling into the driveway and seeing the fruits of my labor makes me happy.
Helping … and Hurting
We were out to lunch at Kitty’s last week – a perfectly cozy lunch spot for gloomy days – and saw tent cards on the tables explaining the dependence of Meals on Wheels by so many senior citizens. The kitchen crew at Kitty’s prepares the lunches that are then delivered by a cadre of volunteers Monday through Friday.
Meals on Wheels provides not only nutrition to senior citizens, but another kind of nourishment – social contact. The person who stops by mid-day to deliver a hot lunch is also providing conversation and a connection with the outside world that is so important to all of us, but diminishes in the lives of some people as they age, are less mobile, and see family and friends move off island or pass away.
Meals on Wheel is another program facing funding cuts as the current administration seeks to shred our social safety net with a proposed budget that is wending its way through Congress. It’s a particularly harmful budget, cutting funding to programs that deliver health care and food that lower income families and the elderly rely on, all so tax breaks can be extended for the ultra-wealthy. Millionaires and billionaires. It makes no sense. How many houses, cars, boats, luxuries of life does one need? Why not make the wealthy shoulder a bigger share of taxes so all can thrive?
I have a coffee cup I bought at the FDR Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y. on a visit to our daughter at Vassar years ago. The inscription is now faded, but it reads:
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
Those are the words of a president who gave Americans hope when so many were out of work and plunged into poverty during the years of the Great Depression close to one hundred years ago. Why aren’t our political leaders today embracing that ethos? We are backsliding.
And then there are the new tariff policies that promise to add more to the cost of goods we buy. I was on the boat about a month ago, chatting in line with a friend who was fretting about the impact of the president’s tariffs on a product her small, island-grown, company makes in Europe.
It’s not a luxury good, but something that costs under $100 and that I, and many others who own them, use every day. She told me that she was advised that the tariffs on a recent shipment had jumped from $1,000 on a $38,000 invoice to $17,000. Yikes! An that’s just the beginning of what we’re likely to see if these tariffs continue.
Saturday is the memorial service for Ted Anderson at 11 a.m. at the Unitarian Church. No doubt it will be standing room only. Ted passed away this winter at the age of 90. He was a model of how to live one’s life and give back to others. Ted was the long-time reverend of the Unitarian Church, served on the School Committee, was a volunteer firefighter, and aided his community in so many other ways.
Ted married us, christened our two youngest kids, lent a sympathetic ear and provided counseling in troubled times, even as he suffered heartache of the loss of two sons before they were fully men, both through separate, tragic accidents.
I am told that Ted wrote his own service before he died. Of course he did. I will look forward to inspiration in his words and those of others paying tribute to him while a thousand miles away the leader of our country is celebrating his June 14th birthday with a grotesque display of military might.
This “parade,” we’ve been told, was not the Army’s idea. The military had been planning a more dignified celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US Army with static displays and historic exhibits. Not tanks rolling through the capital as if we were in Moscow or North Korea. And not to the tune of over $50 million. What a waste.
The Best Sandwich on Nantucket
For several years I have been hearing, from both my husband and son, about the great sandwiches at Yezzi’s. When we all worked back at the newspaper in 2021, they would often head down Old South Road at lunch time for one of the “North Shore style” roast beef or Italian subs that Yezzi’s sold from its food truck. I finally tried a Yezzi’s sandwich this week, and they were right. Yezzi’s makes undoubtedly the best sandwich – of certain types – on the island.
Yezzi’s has moved its operation from a food truck to a building on Old South Road, expanded its sandwich selection and started an ice cream business, Three Scoops. Order online or at the window and take your sandwich to go, or sit at one of the picnic tables in an attractive cordoned off space. It’s a great deal, pricewise and for the quality and quantity, especially on this island.
I ordered the fried chicken sandwich, which is a chicken breast, brined overnight in buttermilk, fried till crispy, but juicy inside, and served on a big brioche bun with cheese, comeback sauce, pickles and whatever else you want on it. Delicious. And huge. I couldn’t finish it. I think it is, by far, the best fast-food sandwich on the island.
The roast beef sandwich is slow cooked overnight and features thinly sliced roast beef. It is no doubt influenced by the sandwiches the owners surely ate growing up on the North Shore of Boston.
The string of old factory towns and fishing villages that runs from Lynn to Gloucester know their sandwiches. Not only are roast beef sandwiches a tradition, but so are subs of all kinds.
My husband grew up in one of those towns and when visiting family there, we inevitably realize this is the way sandwiches are supposed to be made. The best that can be said about any place you eat that serves food you grew up on is to say, “This place gets it.”
The consensus here is that Yezzi’s gets it.
Their version of North Shore roast beef stands up to the best of them. The Italian subs are monstrous in size and made with beautiful premium Italian cold cuts. One Yezzi’s Italian is big enough to feed two people.
They offer chicken sandwiches, which you can get plain or spicy with Nashville hot sauce. And burgers, hot dogs and a few other specialty sandwiches fill out their menu board. To top it all off, Yezzi’s has by far the best onion rings I’ve had anywhere, ever. Honestly.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some excellent subs at 45 Surfside – their Italian is my favorite – and Henry’s Italian is pretty good too. But there’s something special about Yezzi’s.
Authors I Want to Hear
The Book Festival starts today. I plan to hear Geraldine Brooks (“Memorial Days,” “Horse”) speak Friday morning at 9 at the Methodist Church and may come back for Alice Hoffman at 1.
I should want to hear journalist Bob Woodward, speaking Saturday morning at 9 on his latest book about Trump, “War.” I’ve seen Woodward interviewed so many times on TV by noted journalists, that I’m not sure what Saturday morning’s talk will tell me that I don’t already know. But I may show up anyway on my way to Ted Anderson’s 11 a.m. service.
Carl Hiaasen, on the other hand, is someone I’d really love to hear, after watching the Apple TV adaptation of “Bad Monkey” with Vince Vaughn this winter. It was hilarious. Hiaasen is a journalist as well as an author. I’d like to hear how his work in the newsroom informs his work as an author. However, the timing of his talk is in conflict with the previously mentioned memorial service. I wish NCTV were filming all these talks.
Lastly, there is Molly Jong-Fast, whose book “How to Lose Your Mother,” chronicles what it was like growing up as the daughter of author Erica Jong (“Fear of Flying.”) Kate Brosnan is interviewing her at 1 p.m. on Saturday. I may show up for that. I’m familiar with Jong-Fast’s work as a journalist and commentator on MSNBC. I’d like to hear her reflections on something that’s much more personal to her.