New Thing #105: Arcade Fire

I asked Justin if he knew of any music from Quebec, since I knew there would be a Music Monday while I was in Canada. He told me that Arcade Fire was from Montreal.

I didn't think that was any good, because my mind was focused on Quebec City, where I was headed.

Then it dawned on me that Canada has provinces, and Montreal is in the same province as Quebec City...the province of Quebec.

And I thought that was just perfect.

It may be unfair to say the New Thing here is Arcade Fire - really I only focused on two of their albums - 'Neon Bible' and 'The Suburbs'.

But it is fair to say they are new to me - I knew nothing about them. Well, I remember when 'The Suburbs' came out - it got a lot of attention - but I had never listened to any of Arcade Fire's music.

And actually, as I listened to these two albums, the biggest surprise to me was that there was a female voice on some of the tracks. Turns out, the band is fronted by a husband and wife.

And, as I looked up more information on them, I remembered 'The Suburbs' being such a big deal that year because it won big at the Grammys. And there was an attention-grabbing interactive video for 'We Used To Wait' that allows you to include the home you grew up in as part of the scenery. (Joke's on them - I ran it, but the house I grew up in, though at the same address, looks completely different due to a renovation. Not quite the nostalgia they were going for...but still pretty cool.)

Justin told me he liked these two albums a lot - he said 'The Suburbs' "is very good as an entire album. For sheer song goodness, though," he wrote, "I prefer [Neon Bible]."

I agree with him. Here are some of my own thoughts:

The first thing I thought when I listened to 'Neon Bible' was how much I was reminded of The Killers. (But I don't know who came first. Maybe for many people The Killers remind them of Arcade Fire.) I feel like I've heard 'Keep The Car Running' before, and I thought 'Antichrist Television Blues' sounded very Bruce Springsteen-esque.  My favorite of the songs, I think, was 'Intervention' - I like the organ intro a lot and the song overall is good.

I don't know that I had a particular favorite from 'The Suburbs', but I liked 'City With No Children', and I thought it was interesting that there are two 'Part II' songs on the album...and I liked 'II' better than 'I' in both cases.

But overall I really liked Arcade Fire. I know I'm late to the scene, but that's why I'm doing this. There's one other studio album by the band...what I've learned from these two albums is that I might have to look into that one.

New Thing #104: Butter Cake

On Friday my family and I went to California Pizza Kitchen...or CPK, as it seems to have been rebranded. We were at the mall taking care of another New Thing, and sometimes we like to hit CPK while we're there.

And I'm always a little disappointed by the lack of menu options there - I always expect there to be more.

But there were a couple of new items being offered this time around - one of them being this dessert: Butter Cake.

First of all, I am just so glad there was a dessert I had never had before, otherwise this would be a boring entry about the new bread the restaurant has.

(Not that this is all that much more exciting...but there was really nothing about the bread that set it apart. And while we're going parenthetical let me state that I have nothing against CPK - I understand their bread and butter [no pun intended] is their pizza, but I'm just not into their brand of flat pizza. And not considering that really limits the menu.)

So let's talk about Butter Cake. It sure is buttery. And I don't think butter is the only ingredient...because there is a ton of sugar in that thing. It got really sweet really fast. It should be Sugar Cake.

Our server recommended it with ice cream on top. I'm glad I had that to offset the taste. It was good cake, but it was a little much with the sweetness. It was very much like the shortcake part of strawberry shortcake.

Except much sweeter.

New Thing #103: Flying A Kite

Friday was terrible weather around here. Raw.

Wet.

Windy.

Good for nothing.

Except, maybe, flying a kite.

An activity which I had never done before.

The fifth grade classroom recently came into possession of a kite.

It has sat through the winter, untouched, in a corner of the classroom. On Friday, with winter-esque gusts of wind blowing on the field, the students decided it was time to bring it outside.

Their style of flying a kite was to take a running start and launch it into the air, then run around with it trying to keep it aloft.

It looked like a lot of fun.

And that has been the extent of my kite experience: Looking. Many a summer's day in Montauk at the beach there would be one or two kites flying over the sand or the water, tied to someone's beach chair or anchored by a stationary beachgoer. I always noticed them, but didn't give kite-flying much thought.

Friday that changed. I decided to get in the game.

Of course, the kids were all excited by the idea that I wanted to fly it. I took the string (we didn't have one of those string holders), gave it a little running start, and held it while the winds did their work.

It was a pretty cool experience.

But the string was ripping up my hands and the kids wanted the kite to be run across the field - and I wasn't feeling that active.

So I handed it back over, ending my first kite-flying experience on a high note. (Which is to say it didn't end up in a tree.)

I am intrigued by the possibility of purchasing a kite for some summer fun with my girls.

But I will make sure it has the string holder.

And without 30 fifth graders standing around, I might be a little more inclined to run around with the kite.

New Thing #102: Oh, Canada!

I think I spent a couple of hours in Canada back in 2001 or so. My sister-in-law was living in Syracuse, and we took a drive over the border for an afternoon.

We ate at a restaurant, I think we took a look at part of Niagara Falls...I don't exactly remember.

But I do remember that as the only time I've ever left the country.

Until now.

For the next three days, I'll be in Quebec.

It's kind of a big deal for me. As I've already mentioned, for the first time in my life I have a passport and I'm looking forward to using it and spending a few days surrounded by another culture.

I'm helping to chaperone a school trip, and I suspect I would have been interested in this trip anyway...but the fact that the offer came in a year that I was trying New Things sealed the deal.

New places (hotel, museums), new food, new experiences - I'm looking forward to sharing with you about it next week.

Until then, I have a couple of other New Things scheduled to keep you occupied until I'm back in the States.

New Thing #101: Taking My Daughter To Ballet

One of my wife's many many many tasks that help make our family go is taking our middle daughter to ballet class. This happens on Wednesdays, a day on which she does not work.

Except for this week.

This week was just flat out crazy.

And, usually, if there's craziness, it's on my end, and my wife is the one who ends up picking up the slack.

This time it was my turn.

Here's what happened.

I was responsible (in the first part of the day) for our two youngest daughters. They went to their school (I barely snuck in a haircut in the time between pickups...it is very hard for me to find the time for haircuts), then I picked up the older of the two to go to ballet.

In the afternoon I went into work and then took home my oldest daughter.

But let's talk about the ballet.

First of all, brag alert: My daughter is quite the ballerina. She follows directions well, and it was fun to see a sneak preview of her performance. (Yes, a performance. I'm going to have to sit through an hour-and-a-half of a ballet recital for what looked like a 3-minute segment that will feature my daughter.)

But watching my daughter dance was only part of the experience. The other part was listening to the moms of the other kids gossip. Boy, did they gossip.

Apparently their children's daycare has stopped serving alcohol at events. Oh, but they don't care. Their husbands seem to care, according to them. But, no, understand, they're not alcoholics. They just would like there to be alcohol. They don't really care. But now they're not going to go to any more of the get-togethers.

I didn't know whether to enjoy the conversation, or feel bad about eavesdropping, or be appalled at how they could easily be talking about me if I was still teaching in that town. But I certainly didn't have any desire (or knowledge of the subject matter, if we're honest) to join in the conversation.

I just sat and watched the ballet, as my daughter followed the directions and listened to the teacher...and their daughters did whatever the heck they wanted to.

New Thing #100: 100 New Things!

I like celebrating milestones. And 100 New Things is a milestone.

My only worry embarking upon this initiative was that 365 seemed like a really big number.

But I'll say this - if it all comes as easily as the first 100 did, we're going to be just fine.

I figure 100 is a nice, round opportunity to take stock of the first 100 New Things.

There are  a few (well, more than a few) things I haven't had a chance to follow up on in the course of these 100 Things. So we can take care of that now:

• It started on January 2nd and continued straight through the end of March: I took a lot more winter walks this year than ever before.
• I did not win the Mets T-shirt contest. Here's who did. It's fine, though. I couldn't make it to that game on Social Media Night anyway.
• Sticking with baseball, I didn't love my tweet-a-day for the month of March way of publishing my baseball picks. Also, by the time I published, for example, my Yankees pick, it was outdated - they had so many injuries I probably would have changed it if possible. But I had already made my picks. I couldn't make changes. No one challenged me on any of them, though, no matter what had happened in spring training. So I'm pretty sure no one was reading them. My World Series pick - Nationals over Tigers - was the same as many of the baseball experts - that's the first time in a few years my pick has been the same as the popular opinion.
• I made a big deal out of the fact that Buster Olney re-tweeted me when that happened. I don't want to make such a big deal out of this, but he also replied to one of my tweets. On the eve of the baseball season I asked him if the podcast would still be Monday-Friday. (Because, as I've mentioned, I don't know how he finds the time to do all of this, and I thought during the season there would be no way he could keep it up.) He responded "Yes..." I, of course, interpreted that ellipse as him thinking, "Why wouldn't it be, you idiot?"
• I don't want to make too much out of this, either - but I was ahead of the curve on the Billy Joel singing with a student thing. That video took off in the week or so after I published it. Maybe I'm becoming a trend-setter.
• Are you listening to 99% Invisible yet? It's really tremendous. It's not entirely about design and architecture...well, it kind of is, but not how you think. For example - episode #28 is about opening credits for movies and TV shows. It's good stuff. And the title? Apparently it comes from a Buckminster Fuller quote, if that means anything to you.
• You may be wondering if I have a favorite New Thing so far. Good question. I do - it's this one.

My friends have commented on my positivity. I'm sorry. I generally like things. My friend Kevin suggested I do a theme week - New Things I Don't Like. I suppose it's a possibility...but first I'd have to start not liking things. Which would be a New Thing in and of itself...so I guess it wouldn't be bad.

Thanks for following along this far - 265 more to go. And I'd love it if this were more of an interactive site - please feel free to leave a comment or get in touch with me another way - I'd love to hear from you and know what you think. Thanks for reading.

New Thing #99: What's A Stevedore Again?

As you can tell by looking at the picture below, the top left (northwest, in crossword-speak) corner of my New York Times Sunday crossword is kind of a mess. I'm still not convinced the words I have in there are 100% correct.

One of the keys to that corner was 23-across: "Stevedore, at times."

And here's a common problem of mine when it comes to crosswords: sometimes, with the obscure words that pop up in the puzzles every so often, I forget what they mean shortly after completing the puzzle.

So today's New Thing - committing the word 'stevedore' to memory.

If you look at the picture of my attempt at the northwest corner, I have the structure of the correct answer for 23-across: L - - D - R. If I was guessing, which I didn't on this particular puzzle (and since I've now looked up an answer I've officially waved the white flag on this week's crossword. It's one of my quirks - no external help or you forfeit the crossword.), I would have guessed "Leader". But I would have guessed wrong.

Perhaps you knew this: Stevedore is a term for the loading or unloading of a ship. (Or the noun: the individual or firm responsible for same.) So, obviously, we're looking for "Loader" at 23-across.

This is one of those learning style things - I'm hoping that by writing about stevedore, I'll never again forget what it means...on the crossword-specific occasions I may ever come across the word again.

It worked when I wrote about the Scottish word "Tartle". (Which has yet to come into play as anything useful worth knowing.) And I'm sure this won't be the last new word I address with more than 260 New Things left to write about.

Maybe the next time it'll be a word that I can actually use in conversation.

New Thing #98: Next To Me

I was in the car with the family last week and we switched past the popular music station. The Top 40 show was on...the one that Ryan Seacrest hosts.

He played an interview with this singer - I didn't catch who she was, but I heard an accent - and then played her song.

I thought it was someone else, and as I listened to the song I was convinced I knew the singer.

Turns out I didn't - it was Emeli Sande, who I'd never heard of, and the song was called 'Next To Me'.

I don't know how long the song has been out around here (it's been a hit in the UK, I think). I got the impression from the interview that it was brand new, but I came across a video from the Jimmy Kimmel Show where she performed it in February.

Regardless, it was the first time I heard it.

I think it's catchy.

And I'm not sure exactly why - maybe timing, maybe just the way it feels - but I think it's going to be huge this summer.

And I like when I'm in on the ground floor of one of those huge summer hits.

New Thing #97: University Pizza

There's a little shopping center a couple of miles from where I live. It has a liquor store, an ice cream shop, a bagel shop, and a pizza place.

I think there are other storefronts, but to be honest, we don't spend a lot of time over there.

Which is probably fine by them - it's located across from Framingham State University, so I don't think my family is their target audience.

My point, though, is that the pizza place recently moved...and in its place, another - University Pizza -  opened.

We got a menu in the mail this week...and on Saturday, I decided to check it out.

Due to circumstances not worth mentioning here, it was me and my youngest daughter together for dinner Saturday evening.

I decided to call in an order for pickup - one of my go-tos: A bacon cheeseburger.

The first thing I noticed when I got there to pick up was the interior - it looked great. The former pizza shop at that site was kind of dingy. It seemed old. It wasn't exactly dirty...but it felt small and crowded.

University Pizza seems to have expanded the location. I don't know if they took over something next door and knocked down a wall or what...I didn't spend enough time in the other place to know how much bigger this one is. But there are new tables, a new table layout - It definitely seems like it was designed to try to become more of a hangout for the college kids.

I was there a little before 6pm on a Saturday, and there were only a couple of college-aged girls and a family with young kids besides the young staff (who I also imagine come from the college). I'm not sure how long it's been open, but I do know it's open late...so maybe it draws a later crowd.

As for my burger:

That's a pretty big burger. It was a good price (again, catering to the college crowd, which works for me too), and as you can probably tell by looking at it, it was plenty filling. The fries were a touch seasoned, but not overwhelmingly so, which I liked.

So the burger passed my test. When I go to a pizza shop, though, my usual order is a chicken or eggplant parm sub...so that will be next. (I went with the burger this time because I was sold on it in their menu.)

Then it'll be time to test the pizza. There's a thing about New England pizza - it's really thin and greasy. I like thick and doughy pizza. (It's a point of contention between me and my wife, who grew up with the imitation pizza and mistakenly thinks it's superior.) Right now I have one shop nearby that has the pizza I like - everywhere else's is bad.

I'm almost nervous to try University Pizza's pie...because that will be the tell-tale sign of whether we'll be joining the Framingham State kids at University Pizza more often than just for the occasional sub or burger.

New Thing #96: Coining A Nickname

I came up with a nickname while watching the Mets the other night. It was Wednesday night, and they won 11-2.

They got contributions from a few of their young players - prime among them Matt Harvey, who is so fun to watch.

But this nickname is not about him.

It's about the guys who contributed on offense: Ike Davis and Lucas Duda both hit long home runs...and of course, David Wright was in the mix as always.

David, Davis, and Duda?

I might start thinking of them as the Killer D's.

I know - it's not terribly original...but what nicknames are, really?

Baseball has seen the Killer B's of Houston...the Killer D's are clearly a play off that.

I'm just publishing this before someone else does. I want to be the first to have the unoriginal idea.

It's a lot of wishful thinking - because there's a lot of wishful thinking surrounding Davis and Duda. It's not often that they have had big games together - I don't know the numbers, but Wednesday could have very well been the first time they both homered in the same game.

But if the Mets are ever to have a big year or some great success, they're going to need some bats to come alive...and Davis and Duda will have to be a big part of that. David Wright is one you can count on being a contributor. So we're OK there.

If the Killer D's are slamming home runs, with the pitching the Mets have at the major and minor league levels, we're shaping up for an exciting future for the Mets.

If they aren't contributing, then the Mets won't be doing well.

But the nickname might still fit. Rather than the baseball, it'll be Mets fans' hopes falling victim to the Killer D's.

New Thing #95: A Passport

I'm leaving the country. Well, not immediately.

Or permanently.

Just for a weekend.

I'm helping chaperone a school trip to Canada.

And that means, for the first time ever, I needed a passport.

So I got one.

The postal worker who helped me through the passport process was THE MAN.

I can not stress this enough to you. You always hear about the disgruntled postal worker...and I've certainly seen my share of them - both in New York and Massachusetts.

John, at the Framingham Post Office, was most certainly not disgruntled. He went out of his way to be helpful to me.

I got to the post office at about 4:30 one weekday afternoon - just late enough in the process that I was worried I wouldn't get my passport in time for the trip. When I walked in I saw a sign that said they only did passports until 4pm. But I also saw that the guy in line ahead of me was doing his passport with who I later found out was named John.

I  made eye contact with John and said, "Can I get a passport done?" He shook his head. I'm not ashamed. I whined a bit. I told him this was the earliest I could get out of work and get to the post office. (I also noted the website doesn't specify passports are only until 4. That might have won me reconsideration.) He looked at the packet in my hands and said, "You have everything in order?" I nodded. He told me to wait to the side.

It's no small feat to have everything in order. Birth certificate, copies of both sides of your driver's license, copy of your social security card...if you get mugged on the way in to the post office to take care of your passport you might as well change your identity, because someone else is taking it over.

So that helped smooth the process and make it go quick. John knew that...and I tried to be helpful throughout. I was even willing to pay for a rush order...he insisted I didn't need to.

He was right. I got my passport with at least three weeks to spare.

I wanted to hug the guy. Or tip him or something. And I felt badly as I was leaving. Because the person behind me in line got the postal worker to John's right. And she asked him if she could still apply for a passport, even though it was almost 5 o'clock.

She was turned down.

New Thing #94: Vitamin D

When I broke my non-going-to-the-doctor streak a couple of years ago, it was a much healthier experience than when I ended my dentist office absence a couple of years earlier. I received a pretty much fully clean bill of health.

The one thing the doctor thought was worth mentioning was the fact that my Vitamin D levels were a little low.

(He did see fit to mention that, since it was mid-April in New England, this wasn't unusual. Vitamin D is related to getting sunlight...and that doesn't happen much between November and April in New England.)

Anyway, the doctor recommended I take some Vitamin D...so I do that now.

But that's not the New Thing.

The New Thing is that I just had to get a new bottle of Vitamin D vitamins. (Is that redundant? I don't mean it to be.) And it was right on schedule.

What do I mean by that?

Well, I like to play a little game with my vitamin bottle. The previous kind had 300 or so vitamins in it. I got it last May or so. And since I take one a day, I figured it would be around mid-March when I would need a new bottle.

See how that goes? It's like a math problem (at the beginning) and a memory test (at the end) wrapped into one.

(I play a similar game with the black garbage bags that I leave for the trash pickup. Our current pack had about 60 in it - which, depending on how many weeks we just use one and how many weeks are 2-baggers, will last us well into the summer..maybe even the fall.)

So the new bottle has just 100 vitamins in it. That means when it runs out, it will be close to my birthday.

And then I'll start a new game. Happy Birthday to Me.

New Thing #93: Beat The Streak

There's not much more I love in the world than the dawn of a new baseball season. There's a certain beauty to seeing everything reset to zero - wins, averages...everything.

Besides the on-field games, though, there's the off-field fun.

And the return of a new baseball season means the return of one of my favorite games - Beat The Streak.

It's a simple game - you pick a player each day. Your goal is to build a hitting streak - so if that player gets a hit, you pick someone to get a hit the next day. And so on...all season long. (Until late August - I usually stop playing when a 56-game hitting streak is no longer viable.)

Each of the past few years the game has gotten progressively better.

It started as a fantasy game on the mlb.com website. Then it became an app, which made it more convenient to play. Then it allowed you to 'double down', meaning you could pick two players a day if you wanted.

This year - and this is what makes it a New Thing - you can take a day off. Or an unintentional day, anyway. It used to be that if you skipped a day, your streak would be reset to 0. (To be honest, I feel like years ago this wasn't the case - but maybe with the addition of 'double down' they added this too. I don't remember.) Now, if you forget to submit a pick, you can pick up where you left off.

Another New Thing - it appears one of my favorite places (Dunkin' Donuts) has taken over sponsorship of the game. I think it used to be Scott's Lawn Care...Dunkin' taking over can't be anything but good for the game.

My longest streak ever, I think, was 12 games. My biggest problem these days is preventing myself from thinking making two picks a day isn't the easiest thing in the world. (I should have had a 2-game streak after the first two days of the season, but both days I pushed it and selected a second player...both of whom went hitless.)

I need to learn to pace myself.

Which I'll do. It's a long season.

But that's the beauty of the early part of the season. Because right now there's nothing leading me to believe that this won't be the year I build a 56-game hitting streak.

New Thing #92: 1716 Eggs Benedict

For the past couple of years on Easter we've gone to brunch at an inn in Concord, Massachusetts that dates back to 1716. There's an all-you-can eat brunch buffet, and it hasn't exactly featured a ton of variety.

In other words, it's the usual brunch fare - omelet station, meat carving station, breakfast foods, some desserts.

This year, though, there was something different.

Among the offerings was something called '1716 Eggs Benedict.'

Instead of poached eggs on an english muffin, they were on top of a pancake...with some bacon mixed in there.

It was a new twist on a dish I love - I'll always order Eggs Benedict if it's being offered...and whether it's a different topping or something different with the sauce, different places have different minor variations.

But the constant is usually the bread - english muffin, or portuguese muffin (I think that's what it's called...and I suppose those should be proper nouns, but I'm not really sure) - but I'd never seen a pancake before.

It struck me as soon as I saw it on someone else's plate. My sister-in-law sat down with it and I asked her if they had the poached eggs at the buffet already poached - you don't usually see that. And she said, "It comes like this." She meant it came poached atop the pancake, but I thought she just meant poached.

I guess it makes sense: If they're re-creating a dish from 1716 - I suppose you'd have a pancake under the egg and not much fancier bread.

But it's 2013 now. The pancake is a novelty for my Eggs Benedict.

Given the choice, I'll take my english muffin.

English muffin. Yeah, it should be capitalized.

New Thing #91: Overwhelmed and Home

We'll call this an April Fool's Day 2-for-1 Music Monday special. These aren't necessarily two new songs - they've both been around for a while.

But I bought them both over the weekend and as a result I heard them both all the way through for the first time.

One is 'Overwhelmed', by Tim McMorris.

The other is 'Home', by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

I'm willing to bet you've heard at least one of the songs.

I've never heard 'Overwhelmed' on the radio, but it's certainly had its share of play over the TV airwaves. You may recognize it from this Sam Adams commercial:

I really liked the song the first time I heard the commercial, but I only just finally downloaded it for the full version. The commercial gives you a pretty good flavor of what the full song is like, but that's OK. It's a really sweet love song.

'Home' is a song I think I heard first on the radio. Then it popped up in an NFL commercial.

It's another song that I looked forward to hearing in the commercials, but only just decided to add to my personal collection. (I was surprised to find that what I heard on the radio is a shortened version - the one I downloaded is extended.) I also had a conversation this week with someone where this song came up...so it reminded me how catchy I found it.

It's rare that I am moved to make a purchase of a product by commercials. Sometimes I try to resist it, especially if the ads are particularly aggressive.

But what's funny is, I think I've always been a sucker for the songs featured in the commercials. I'm going to say it began with Apple iPod commercials a while back - I feel like they've ushered in this new wave of using catchy music to draw attention to their TV ads.

So I downloaded two songs I like. If I was feeling super adventurous this weekend I might have gone for the full albums. But I wasn't.

New Thing #90: The Final Four Court

Depending on when you read this on Sunday, the college basketball season will be either at or very near its Final Four. A few years ago the NCAA went away from using the regular arena floors at each of its tournament sites and used the same NCAA-themed courts at all of the sites.

The only difference was that on the baselines you could read which city was hosting that group of games.

I always wondered whether they painted over the original floor or how they went about making all of those courts the same.

Earlier this week I came across a video that showed how it was done.

This is the company responsible (Connor Sports?) for creating the floor that will be reconstructed in Atlanta next week for the men's Final Four. I assume the process is similar for the other 20 (or however many) early-round sites.

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did:

New Thing #89: Scoreboard Sports Bar & Grill

Last week I told you that I was going out to watch the first night of the NCAA Tournament. That was new, and as it turned out, we went to a place I had never been to before to watch the games.

It's called Scoreboard Sports Bar & Grill, and it's in Woburn, Massachusetts.

Unfortunately, that's a hike from where I live - but that was about all that was inconvenient about it.

The set-up is great - there are tables throughout the dining room that are surrounded by TVs.

The friend I was going with said it was a great place for the basketball, since they would have all of the games on multiple TVs...it was indeed a great place to watch the Tournament.

(Except for some inexcusable reason, they had a couple of TVs tuned to ESPN and ESPN2 for the majority of the evening - one was showing NFL Live and the other a cheerleading competition. That's bush league stuff for the opening days of the Tournament. I will say, though, that the hostesses were great about coming around and turning the TVs to whatever channel was requested. While we're on the subject of other sports during the Tournament, I guess this is a big place to gather and watch the Bruins, because they were featured prominently, competing with the basketball. The place seems to do a lot of cross promotion with the Bruins, but you'd think for the opening night of the Tournament they might have held off on the hockey.)

I'm not sure how great of a spot this would be to watch other sports...and the food wasn't the greatest I've ever had. I don't even know if they have the Sunday Ticket, but it's out of season so I guess there wouldn't be signage anyway. But the layout of the place was such that it might be worth the trip to watch the Jets the occasional Sunday I felt like taking a ride for some football.

The staff was nice - I was the first of my friends to arrive and I occupied a booth for more than one person for longer than I should have been allowed to. But they didn't hassle me. That's a big score in my book.

Woburn is too far of a trip for me to make this place a regular hangout. I left earlier than I would have liked because I had a long drive home ahead.

But it might be worth going back to the Scoreboard for the NCAA Tournament, in part because of an important fact I haven't mentioned yet: It's located on the ground floor of a Crowne Plaza Hotel.

So the next time I go to watch some basketball...I might just get a room and save myself the drive home.

New Thing #88: Liar & Spy

I guess I've been doing more reading lately. It's also funny how some of these New Things come in waves.

For more than 80 days, no books...and then two in one week.

This one is called Liar & Spy, and it's a book for middle schoolers.

But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it.

And I did.

First, a word about the author. Her name is Rebecca Stead, and I became a fan a couple of years ago with a book called When You Reach Me, which is kind of science fiction-esque, with a great story that I won't say any more about because it's that good and I don't want to ruin any of it on you.

Liar & Spy is a much different book, but it has a similar amount of mystery that builds to a big reveal at the end.

And it's quite moving, which I didn't expect from this book.

I think I read about When You Reach Me in the New York Times Book Review, and sought it out on my own afterwards. It won the Newbery medal in 2010...I'm not sure if that was before or after I read it.

Funny thing about the Newbery Medal, now that I think about it. One time in elementary school we were given bookmarks that listed all of the Newbery Award-winning books. I went down the bookmark and crossed off the books I read. (I want to say this was in 1986 or so, because Sarah, Plain and Tall stands out in my mind. This memory made me go look up some of the books - here's a list of the award winners.) For those of you who know me well, this was probably one of the first times I had one of those all-to-common-now obsessive needs to cross things off a list.

If you're reading this and judging me for reading a lot of children's books you need to understand two things: 1) I'm a teacher, and this is part of my job, and 2) there are a lot of excellent, excellent children's books out now. It's incredible. I'm sure they're better now than when I was a child.

This book was an option for summer reading for students - I think it's too mature for the audience we were thinking about...but I'm glad I got to read it.

And it's interesting that I read it the same week I wrote about George Saunders' Tenth of December. Because here's the deal - I appreciate those short stories for what they are. But when it comes right down to it, maybe I'm better suited to children's stories. I like closure - I need my stories wrapped up in a neat bow.

Even if they do make me want to cry.

New Thing #87: Whitening Pre-Brush Rinse

I'm not all that in love with my dentist's office these days. I think I'm going to have to give you a little dental history here.

It's not something I'm very proud of.

But I think in order to tell you about the pre-brush rinse that I'm going to write about I'd better give you the full picture.

There was a large period of time, spanning my college years and those shortly afterwards, where I didn't see a dentist. Those years also happened to be the years in which I drank soda like it was water.

It's not like it was totally by choice.

Well, the soda drinking was by choice. (Though, in fairness, I worked a lot of overnights, and soda at all hours helped me through that.)

But the dentist thing - I don't even know if I had coverage for a period of time. And then, when I did have coverage, I didn't want to go because I was convinced any dentist who looked at my teeth was going to yell at me for how horrible they were.

Fast forward to: I get married, and my wife gets me to see a dentist. The dentist does not yell at me - in fact - she's super-nice. I really liked this dentist. I had a cavity or two, I had a root canal or two (it's terrible when you lose count of the root canals you've had...I think I had one in my early college years...or late high school?...then again one or two recently), but then she had a baby and I had to start seeing the dentist who owned the practice.

According to all accounts, he's a good dentist. But I had such a bad experience with him one time that I wrote it all down. Here's what I wrote on February 8, 2010:

Since it's fresh in my mind, my public service to you. In case you're unsure whether or not you had a bad visit to the dentist, compare with mine, which has to rank among the all-time worst: 

1) You get there at 6pm for a regular 6-month cleaning. You leave at 8pm.  2) You sit at 3 different x-ray machines before anyone tells you why.  3) You are told you need a root canal.  4) In an effort to show you why you need a root canal, the dentist puts little plastic sticks into your gums to highlight the problematic tooth for (yet more) x-rays.  5) The dentist breaks one of the said plastic pieces inside your gum.  6) He asks, "You sure you're OK with all this?" as he digs to retrieve the piece of plastic. (My response: "Pain-wise, I'm fine." I didn't get into the inconvenience factor.)  7) The hygienist has a look like she might pass out. (I know the look, trust me.)  (Aside - I have concluded that I possibly have a super-human tolerance for dental pain.)  8) The dentist apologizes to you...repeatedly.  9) You leave the dentist's office with a prescription for amoxicillin.  10) When you show your wife the affected area, she says, "Whoa! There's a hole in your mouth!" 

All of this came to mind last week because I had another not-so-great appointment - this time with the dental hygienist. I was there for an hour-and-a-half for the regular cleaning and she was really beating around the bush. Clearly I had a problem but she didn't want to commit to telling me that I had a problem. She wanted me to come back to see the dentist (who wasn't there). She thought maybe my caps from the root canal were loose...but I think she couldn't think of any reason why this could have happened, and she was thinking, liability-wise, she didn't want to come out and say it herself. She wanted the dentist to take responsibility.

(Shortly after leaving the office, as I thought about how things could have gone so wrong, I remembered that while playing basketball in the fall I fell face-first to the gym floor. I had a fat lip, but really no other damage. Or so I thought. I now suspect I knocked some caps loose.)

Anyway. That's the history. Believe it or not, I've had some really good appointments in between the root canals. I pride myself on how well I take care of my teeth - I suspect, had I not done such a good job in the 'dark (non-dentist-seeing) years', I would have been in much worse shape when I went back to the dentist.

Except for one thing: staining.

I've stopped drinking soda, for about 5 years now, I think. But now I drink tons of coffee. And that stains the heck out of my teeth. At my last two appointments, the hygienists suggested a whitening pre-brush rinse - two separate hygienists suggested it and both raved about it. Luckily for the second hygienist, the suggestion came in the year I'm trying new things...so there it is.

The rinse is very soapy. It's too early to tell if it's working, but it's an interesting sensation - it seems to get everything all lathered up in there before the toothbrush comes into play. What's really weird is that it's very bland - other than the froth it has no effect on my mouth. It almost dulls the mouth. But then, when I use Listerine after I brush, that feels even stronger than usual after the whitening rinse.

(I do worry sometimes that when I finish flossing and pre-brush rinsing and brushing and mouthwashing in the morning that it will be time to start the process over again because it's almost bedtime. It's becoming an ordeal.)

In conclusion, it may be time for a new dentist. (That would be an interesting New Thing for the fall when I have my next 6-month appointment.) My wife and I just discovered the dentist I used to like so much has her own practice now - maybe I'll switch back to her.

Thanks for reading this one. I guess I had some stuff to get off my chest. I didn't mean for it to go on as long as one of my dental appointments.

[I need to tell you that I originally wrote this Tuesday night, before my Wednesday appointment. But I saw the new 'other' dentist in the office on Wednesday, and she was great. She didn't think the crowns had any big problems. Clean bill of dental health. Me and the dentist are cool. I didn't want to change the post, though, because I wanted you to get a picture of the angst the dentist has brought me.]

New Thing #86: Chicken Salad On A Croissant

It's time for a little Dunkin' Donuts love. For a little over a year now (I think) they've had some lunch sandwiches to go along with their breakfast sandwiches.

I think at some point I had the ham and cheese and the grilled cheese.

I figured those weren't such a huge leap for a breakfast place that offers similar sandwiches on the breakfast menu.

I love chicken salad, though, and I was always curious how it would be at Dunkin' Donuts.

So on Saturday, I tried it.

Unless otherwise specified, the chicken salad comes on a croissant.

So there's two levels here of what I enjoyed - first of all, the chicken salad was great. It was the right consistency - not too thin, not too thick.

Then, the combo with the croissant was really tasty.

I never really think of croissants as bread for sandwiches - now, I've decided, it's worth considering.

Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast is a once-a-week deal at my house. (It used to be much more often for me, but I've really come to value getting up early enough to have my eggs in the morning...it really sets me up to have a good day. If I don't, I get a headache and start to lose steam earlier in the day than the days I do have a good breakfast.)

Dunkin' Donuts for lunch is definitely not going to get the once-a-week treatment.

But it is nice to know that when I'm in a bind, which happens sometimes in the summer, I have an alternative to pizza for a quick lunch that I'll enjoy.

And I can get a coffee to boot.