Dave Brigham's Blog, page 15
February 23, 2012
Sick
Despite the mild winter, or perhaps because of it, I've been living in a sick ward for the last few weeks.
Everybody has had some sort of cold/cough/chest congestion/phlegm in that period. That's fine; I can deal with that, and everybody else, while perturbed at all the hacking and nose-blowing, was OK with it, too.
But then Amelia's congestion turned into an ear infection, and since that time, things have tipped toward the dark side.
After a week's worth of amoxicillin, the poor girl developed ...
February 13, 2012
Woods
I'm not at all religious, but this is a place where I'd sit down and listen to a sermon. Located in Dover, MA, the Abigail Draper Mann Woodland Worship Center is operated by the Dover Church. The church is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, which is remarkable. Miss Draper Mann died in 1875 and willed property in the town to the Second Congregational Society. The Society eventually built a parsonage for the minister.
I assume that in order to honor the fine woman for her large...
February 2, 2012
Beard
I'm ambivalent about my beard. I didn't grow it for any particular reason. It's not a playoff beard, although I won't shave it before the Pats win the Super Bowl this Sunday. It's not for warmth, as this has been an unusually warm and snow-free winter. It's not to go undercover, although if my Neighborhood Watch asked to do so, I would in a heartbeat. It's not a spite beard, to annoy anyone.
It's just a beard. During a normal week, I shave two or three times -- I'm a stay-at-home dad, so...
January 26, 2012
Allegiance
This Hot Stove season is like any other for me: I pay some attention to what the Red Sox are doing, cursing certain moves (letting go of closer Jonathan Papelbon), happy with others (keeping Big Papi on board, signing Ellsbury for another year), clueless about some (is Cody Ross any good?) and confused by a few (why so many potential closers...when you could have held on to Cinco Ocho?!?!).
I learned years ago not to get too wrapped up in what happens during the off-season. On Opening Day...
January 20, 2012
Book review: The Art of the Heist
As someone who often has a hard time making small talk at a cocktail party, I admire people whose cups overflow with self-confidence. Well, in person I might not admire them after a few minutes, but certainly reading a cocky person's account of all the daring, crazy, illegal things he's done in his life, that I find interesting.
Such is the case with Myles Connor Jr.'s memoir, The Art of the Heist. I breezed through this book in less than a week, which, considering most of my reading is done o...
January 16, 2012
Keep On Rockin' In the Seacoast
One of the first things I did when I moved to Dover, NH, in August 1988, was go to a bar in nearby Portsmouth to see Ed's Redeeming Qualities. I loved their sloppy folk music -- created with ukelele, violin, acoustic guitars, and percussion consisting of rice in a coffee can -- and their funny, albeit sometimes poignant, lyrics. I also fell quickly in love with Portsmouth.
I don't recall the name of the bar where I saw the band, but it was intimate and inviting and felt like the right place...
January 6, 2012
"The Women" Review
This week, I finished reading T.C. Boyle's The Women, a long, fascinating and often-times sordid account of world-famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his wives, mistresses, children and trials and tribulations surrounding his family and professional lives.
While I became totally engrossed in the fictionalized tale, narrated by a Japanese intern who worked for Wright -- the melodrama of Wright's paramours, his financial struggles, his MAMMOTH ego, the tragedy that spills forth near the end...
January 1, 2012
Happy New Year!
Hope everybody had a great New Year's Eve. We hung out at Beth's sister and brother-in-law's house, eating great food, drinking great bevvies and playing really fun Wii games. Now it's time to put away all the new toys, games and books, undecorate the house and get back into the regular groove.
We've had a really good vacation -- the kids got all the things they wanted for Christmas -- a Nintendo 3DS for Owen, goldfish and Hungry Hungry Hippos for Amelia were the "must haves" -- we visited wi...
December 25, 2011
December 19, 2011
Hit or Miss: Crippled Pilgrims
With a name like Crippled Pilgrims, it has to be good!
Perhaps, just as in the classic "Saturday Night Live" sketch that riffs on the longtime Smucker's advertising slogan ("With a name like Smucker's it has to be good!") with products such as "Painful Rectal Itch," "Nose Hair" and "Death Camp," early '80s D.C. band Crippled Pilgrims figured using a somewhat offensive-sounding name might distinguish them from the crowd.
They certainly sounded different from the artists that were topping the cha...
