Monday, June 13, 2005
'Hurry though, they're almost all out of 20th century': Armchair Gen. Savin Hill, on a secret scouting mission for the invasion of Canada, lets spill another secret while on a R&R break:
"Summer in Bar Harbor, and again, my secret is safe -- no one goes to Maine in early June and apparently word has not gotten out. An incredibly wet May has made the early June bloom look much like high summer - full, lush rhododendron flowers, lupins blooming like mad, etc. Some impressionist snapshots:
" * Built in 1928, the Criterion Theater movie house has literally not changed since it was built. In gloriously faded, impossibly musty and genuine Art Deco surroundings I shovel popcorn, slurp Coke and watch the Republic fall to Darth Vader. The late show is crowded by early June standards - nearly 20 people in the cavernous interior. Someone chooses to sit in my row, five seats away. I resist the urge to pelt him with unpopped kernels.
" * While sitting by myself in the theater on another night I make a mental note never to watch The Shining alone in that theater.
" * I teach a bartender how to properly make a Dark and Stormy: tall glass, ice, two-thirds ginger beer; invert a spoon, and slowly allow the Gosling's Black Seal to drape itself over the ice (so it floats on top of the ginger beer) - and garnish with lime. Never drink it with a straw - drink the dark rum straight off the top. Found myself increasingly talking like a pirate as the night wore on.
" * On another day I hike to a boulder hundreds of feet above Jordan Pond where I can see pine and birch forrests below, glacial deposited boulders strewn around me, the crystal clear pond. This was followed by lunch on the lawn of Jordan Pond of hot lobster bisque, cold curried chicken salad and the eggy goodness of a popover butchered with huge lashings of butter and strawberry preserves. It was a noble death.
" * At the Rite Aid, there's a soda fountain. Yes, a real one. Before you die, you have to have the root beer float there, with the root beer made from their own syrup concoction. Hurry though, they're almost all out of 20th century."
"Summer in Bar Harbor, and again, my secret is safe -- no one goes to Maine in early June and apparently word has not gotten out. An incredibly wet May has made the early June bloom look much like high summer - full, lush rhododendron flowers, lupins blooming like mad, etc. Some impressionist snapshots:
" * Built in 1928, the Criterion Theater movie house has literally not changed since it was built. In gloriously faded, impossibly musty and genuine Art Deco surroundings I shovel popcorn, slurp Coke and watch the Republic fall to Darth Vader. The late show is crowded by early June standards - nearly 20 people in the cavernous interior. Someone chooses to sit in my row, five seats away. I resist the urge to pelt him with unpopped kernels.
" * While sitting by myself in the theater on another night I make a mental note never to watch The Shining alone in that theater.
" * I teach a bartender how to properly make a Dark and Stormy: tall glass, ice, two-thirds ginger beer; invert a spoon, and slowly allow the Gosling's Black Seal to drape itself over the ice (so it floats on top of the ginger beer) - and garnish with lime. Never drink it with a straw - drink the dark rum straight off the top. Found myself increasingly talking like a pirate as the night wore on.
" * On another day I hike to a boulder hundreds of feet above Jordan Pond where I can see pine and birch forrests below, glacial deposited boulders strewn around me, the crystal clear pond. This was followed by lunch on the lawn of Jordan Pond of hot lobster bisque, cold curried chicken salad and the eggy goodness of a popover butchered with huge lashings of butter and strawberry preserves. It was a noble death.
" * At the Rite Aid, there's a soda fountain. Yes, a real one. Before you die, you have to have the root beer float there, with the root beer made from their own syrup concoction. Hurry though, they're almost all out of 20th century."
