David Norton Stone's Blog

2015: The Clamcake Year in Review

In 2015, we said goodbye to some old favorites and welcomed a few additions to the world of Rhode Island clam shacks.

7 Seas Chowder House in Warwick near Rocky Point is listed on a few online sites as "permanently closed". I will miss its screened dining room decorated with potato sacks from all those spuds used in the chowder.

Yesterday's in Newport is now itself a nostalgia piece. Since 1974, it was a cozy place to have chowder and stuffies year round, but alas has no tomorrows, since it closed in the fall.

Perhaps in recompense, a new clam shack opened smack dab in downtown Newport: the Perry Mill Clam Shack. I didn't get a chance to try it last year, but am pleased to see a take-out window option right on Thames in case there's a traffic jam blocking my way to Flo's.

Iggy's Creamery and Boardwalk opened in June and made Oakland Beach even more of a destination by adding a table service option for enjoying Iggy's clamcakes, chowder and other fare with a million dollar view of the Bay, as well as an ice cream shop serving doughboy sundaes.

Most thrillingly, movie nights at Rocky Point included food trucks, allowing me to eat clamcakes and chowder again at Rocky Point. Can a new shore dinner hall be far behind?

I proposed just that when I was a speaker at the Warwick Rotary Club in March and argued that any plans for Rocky Point's future must include clamcakes and chowder.

In other news, there is a movement afoot in Wickford to revive the Quahog Festival there. There is talk of live music, a parade and a best stuffie competition. No word yet on whether the quahog fashion show will be brought back. But I'm working on a pillbox hat decorated with clamcakes just in case.

Finally, and personally, in 2015 I began work (with co-author Christopher Martin of quahog.org) on a new book for Arcadia Publishing titled Images of America: Rhode Island Clam Shacks. That should keep me busy and salivating through 2016!

Happy New Year and thanks for your companionship in celebrating Rhode Island's glorious shellfish heritage.

The Top Dozen Clamcake, Stuffie and Clam Chowder Events of 2014

As the year fritters away into its final days and we begin the countdown to 2015 and the reopening of our favorite clam shacks in a few months, I'm continuing my tradition of selecting the top clamcake, stuffie and chowder events of the departing year. These are the top dozen clammy highlights of 2014:

12. On June 27, 2014, calamari is named the official Rhode Island state appetizer. Later that same day, clamcake, stuffie and clam chowder are asked for their reactions "No one obeys the law in this state," clamcake scoffs. "Calamari needs a law to be loved?" Stuffie mocks. "I don't know about them, but I'm boiling about it. I'm really steamy. It's a hot potato. Let's be clear, I'm seeing red. This isn't just spilled milk," says clam chowder.

11. Buddy Cianci runs again for mayor of Providence. Clamcake, stuffie and chowder consumption shoots way up until November as East Siders stress eat.

10. Business must be up at clam shacks and seafood restaurants, because Iggy's expands, Matunuck Oyster Bar adds a second floor and I'm back on Weight Watchers.

9. Rocky Point Clam Shack opens in a souped up (chowdered up?) trailer on Post Road in Warwick, and brings back the beloved orange chowder and small clamcakes. The Rocky Point name proves a huge draw as lines to order are as long as those for the Flume during a heat wave.

8. In the year's best clamcake hack, The Newport Lobster Shack introduces Lobster Belly Bombs, which are like clam cakes but studded with lobster meat. These rich fritters are only $4 for a half dozen, so try them some weekend when the shack starts selling cooked food again in the spring. But after a lordly lobster lunch among the Newport mansions you may be asking along with the Dowager Countess, "What's a weekend?"

7. Horton's Seafood in East Providence closes after being in business since 1945. Its ardent fans hope the dispute with the city can be worked out and that this institution that fed and employed so many will return.

6. In March 2014, Don Bousquet retires from drawing his weekly comics for the Providence Journal. This is no laughing matter for those who raced to the Sunday paper funnies for his often quahog-themed jests about hefty Rhode Islanders.

5. On June 29, 2014, the Chepachet Union Church reenacts the Trolley Day ceremony that had occurred a century earlier when the trolley from Providence first arrived in Chepachet. They serve the same lunch of chowder, clamcakes and watermelon that was served a hundred years ago. These are the rarest chowder and clamcakes in Rhode Island, occurring only every hundred years. And, traditionalists, you may want to sit down. The chowder the church served in both 1914 and 2014 was...red.

4. The stuffie comes to New York City! A restaurant called the Clam at 420 Hudson Street serves a cherrystone stuffie. But why is it that with countless restaurants serving every global cuisine, Manhattan is only in 2014 discovering Rhode Island?

3. 2014 had its tragedies, including a fire that closed the recently opened Palmer River Clam Shack in Rehoboth. The owners plan to rebuild and reopen. I will be among the first in line when they do, because clam shacks are more than a business, they are a passion to those who own them and deserving of support.

2. The third annual Quahogger's Jamboree takes place on June 11 at the most quahog-celebrating library in the state, the Warwick Public Library. Real fishermen are there, as well as a quahogging boat and a special appearance by me, David Norton Stone, reading from my book Clamcake Summer and taking about my quest to find the best clamcakes, stuffies and chowders in the state. I ask the quahogger who is there for his favorite chowder recipe. He responds, "I use whatever is in the refrigerator that day." He promises to take me out quahogging in his boat in the spring. That should be the top highlight of my 2015 list!

1. Clamcakes are chosen as the quintessential Rhode Island thing in the I Luv RI bracket competition. People voted for the clamcake over Del's, the saugy, New York system and even, in a titanic first round face off, the stuffie. My life's work is validated!

Happy 2015 everyone. Please share your own favorite clamcake, stuffie and chowder moments of 2014!

We Are All a Little Peculiar

Let me answer the big question first. Yes, there is a lot of new information about Huguette Clark in Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of an American Fortune, by journalist Dedman and Huguette's cousin Paul Newell.

I thought I already knew the whole story about the woman with three of the most expensive homes in America who didn't visit them for decades, instead choosing to live in a small hospital room, even though she was healthy. But Huguette leaps out of these pages like no other recluse since Edie Beale. She ought to do for wearing six layers of Scottish cashmere sweaters over a hospital gown what Little Edie did for statement scarves. The difference is that Huguette died with $400 million, while Edie's Grey Gardens went to the cats.

Most surprising to me was to learn about Huguette's talent and vocation as a painter and I, for one, am very envious of the collector who picked up her portrait of a geisha for $104 on eBay in 2010. One small detail that I loved was that in the home Huguette bought in New Canaan (and never slept in once) she built an addition (a painting studio above her bedroom), with the balusters of the staircase leading up to it carved to look like paintbrushes. Even her much derided passion for dolls and dollhouses was part of a lifelong art project and one that, even in her final years, she devoted incredible time and connoisseurship to, corresponding with artists around the world and petitioning the Emperor of Japan to use a special protected wood.

As someone who lives near Newport, Rhode Island, where the Gilded Age still sits astride the present, I was fascinated to read how Senator Clark amassed his fortune and how he chose to spend it. His daughter Huguette, born in 1906, came close to perishing on The Titanic and survived 9/11, which gives you a sense of the depth of her life story.

Everything that seemed ridiculous and sad about this woman in the news reports about her "discovery" and alleged neglect seems, after reading this book, understandable and even laudable. She had love of every kind in her life, gave away millions at a whim, and preserved her apartments and homes for ghosts, yet still died with her capital intact making numerous savvy business decisions and art investments completely on her own. Each of those decisions yielded immense profits.

Somewhere, Huguette is having the last laugh with one of her dolls.

Note: I received an advance reader's copy of this book from the publisher.

Nick Jonas, Miss Universe and Clamcakes: A Love Story?

Last weekend, Miss Universe, Olivia Culpo, brought her friend Nick Jonas home to Rhode Island to meet her parents and, just as importantly, to introduce him to some of the foods of her native state.

Olivia brought Nick to Iggy's Doughboys & Chowder House, a popular clamshack in an historic section of Warwick called Oakland Beach, where they ordered from the takeout window like regular folks.

As the author of a book on clamcakes called Clamcake Summer, I hope Nick had the privilege of tasting one of those deep fried balls of clam-studded dough that, in Rhode Island, are essential to "Chillin' In The Summertime." I enjoy speculating about the famous people, like Nick, who may have fallen in love with clamcakes on visits to the smallest state.

Jacqueline Kennedy spent summers at her stepfather's home in Newport, Hammersmith Farm, and married John F. Kennedy at St. Mary's Church in Newport. If she ate clamcakes, I'm sure they turned to something fancier like clam fritters or beignets at the touch of her elegant fingers.

Taylor Swift has bought a "cottage" in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. I speculate that she settled there rather than in the Hamptons or Martha's Vineyard because she wrote "You Belong With Me" about clamcakes.

Figure skater Michelle Kwan was recently married in Providence to a scion of Rhode Island's Pell family. Maybe one of the reasons she fell in love with Clay is because she likes to reward herself with a clamcake and chowder combo after landing a triple-triple combination.

Anthony Hopkins filmed Meet Joe Black at the Aldrich estate in Warwick, Rhode Island. I like to imagine Hopkins ate his clamcakes with some fava beans.

Emma Watson studied at Brown University. If she is as smart as Hermione Granger, her favorite snack with butterbeer is clamcakes.

Nick Jonas has endeared himself to Rhode Islanders by eating where we eat and what we eat. I hope the next photo Nick unveils of himself on Twitter will show him proposing to...a clamcake.

How Gore Vidal Helped a Young, Unknown Writer

Many stories will be told about Gore Vidal in the coming days. Here is one that reveals the generous character of the man.

In 1998 I wrote a novel about a secret society in the Navy. With no literary connections, I was at a loss about what to do next. The writers I most admired were Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal. Gore Vidal was the only one still alive, so I wrote to him and asked if he would read my novel.

I knew you could write a letter to a writer care of his or her publisher, not that I had ever done that before, but in Vidal’s case I actually knew his address. He lived in a villa in Ravello, Italy. I addressed my request to Gore Vidal, La Rondinaia, Ravello, Italy. I had no real expectation that a letter so vaguely addressed would reach him and, even if it did, that he would agree to read my book. Vidal was at the height of his fame and was, no doubt, constantly asked to review books by real published authors and to give them his imperial approval.

A blue airmail envelope promptly appeared in my mailbox with a very short note inside from Gore Vidal asking me to send the manuscript to him. I sent the typewritten novel to him immediately and life stopped while I waited for him to write to me again.

Amazingly, he read my book as soon as he received it and wrote back to me that it was quite a story, with all sorts of reverberations. Its staccato style and short chapters reminded him of an old fashioned screen treatment (Vidal was also a screewriter), but he wasn’t sure who might be interested in publishing it. He suggested I write to a film producer he had worked with and tell the producer that Gore thought he would like the book.

The secret society in my novel (The Great Lovers) is named for a poem by Rupert Brooke, and the characters worship that British poet, once known as the handsomest man in England. Gore wrote that Brooke’s girlfriend Cathleen Nesbitt had appeared in two of his plays, dished about her and said that she was fascinating on the topic of Brooke. Here I was corresponding with my icon who had a personal connection to the literary icon my characters revered.

Gore said he was sure I would get a response from the movie producer, and he was not wrong. The producer also asked me to send the manuscript, thought it was wonderful (Hollywood hyperbole) but, at that time, military court-room dramas were out of favor and he didn’t feel as though he could interest a studio in it. Separately, I had signed with a literary agent, but Gore was correct that it would be a hard book to sell to a publisher. I stopped counting after it was rejected by a dozen.

I wonder now what it was about my novel that inspired Gore Vidal to devote his very valuable reading time to it. He was born in West Point, served in the army and his play The Best Man has a back story about an investigation at a military base. He also wrote the screenplay for Dress Grey, about a murder at West Point. So perhaps it was the military milieu that intrigued him. Or maybe it was the fact that the characters in the book are court-martialed for mutiny. The New York Times obituary today points out that Vidal loved conspiracy theories, particularly ones that involved him. One clue is that he wrote to me that court-martials for ridiculous reasons are all too common.

I wrote a few more times to update him on my lack of success with publishers and producers, but eventually our correspondence ended. Although I continued to write fiction, I went to law school not long afterwards. Although no one else in the world called me a writer, I continued to call myself one thanks to Gore Vidal.

That is why when, just a few months ago, I finally published the novel Gore Vidal read and championed in 1998 (Trial of Honor: A Novel of a Court Martial), I dedicated it to Gore Vidal, who wrote so lucidly about honor, both personal and national. His generous response to me, a young writer offering his work to his hero, reveals the warm heart beating within the prickly literary lion.

Four Characters Respond to the Military's Suicide Epidemic

The suicide rate among active duty military members is at an all time high this year, outpacing combat related deaths.  This is a development that would be of great concern to the members of The Great Lovers, the secret society I write about in my novel Trial of Honor.  I decided to interview my main characters, Tate, Rayna, Jennifer and Chavez, about this crisis in the military.  

DNS: The defense secretary wrote a letter to commanders last month stating that they can't tolerate any actions that belittle, haze or ostracize service members seeking counseling.  What do you think of that?

Tate:   I think our late leader James, who started the Great Lovers, would say people shouldn't be hazed or belittled for any reason.  But I think this goes along with our principal that people in the military should be Great Lovers.   Not in the romantic way, but in the sense of fighting brutality, hatred, prejudice and of being caring and helpful to one another.  

Rayna:  James said we need new ideals for the new ways in which war is fought.  That includes compassion for those who are temporarily struggling.

DNS: The NIS believed that James himself had committed suicide and murder, which eventually led to your own court martial for mutiny.  Did you ever think James was suicidal?  

Rayna:   James was under a lot of pressure being gay in the military during Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  But he loved life and the Navy and would never hurt another sailor or himself.   None of us ever bought that lie.

Chavez:  Don't forget that when we first entered the Navy and during most of the time described in Trial of Honor, we were in a peacetime military.  Back then none of us knew the pressures of being deployed to combat time after time.  James was squared away, but today even someone as strong as him would be tested.

Jennifer:   Don't forget the economic pressures a lot of people are dealing with now too.  It's a double whammy.   Fighting a war thousands of miles from home while you also try to fight off foreclosure and bankruptcy.

DNS: It's taken a long time for the story of The Great Lovers to make it into print.  Do you want to tell people why?  

Tate:  As the narrator of the story, I'll tackle this one.  In 1998, when the book was completed, it was perceived as a pretty strange concept that the military should be more loving, so to speak.  A lot of publishers laughed at it and thought the Tom Clancy crowd would be turned off by James's being gay.  Film studios were a little more interested, and thanks to a very powerful media personality who liked the book a deal almost happened.  But then we languished in David's closet, so to speak, while he went to law school and started a new career. In the past 14 years, though, with the sacrifices our country has asked military members to make, the civilian world expects that the military should be as open and tolerant as the civilization it protects (and attempts to project through its power).  David thought The Great Lovers' time had come again.  

DNS: It's not the same book I wrote in 1998.   When I rewrote it this year and self published it, mainly as a monument to the ending of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, I made it a bit gentler on the old military.   

Chavez:   Meanwhile we've been fighting wars.  Are you going to tell the rest of our story?    What happened after the court martial?  

DNS: I'm thinking about a sequel.  In the meantime, Jennifer, don't  you have some news?  

Jennifer:  I got married last month in New York.  My wife Maggie and I read Rupert Brooke poems to each other as part of the vows.   Most of the other officers from my ship were at the wedding.   

Tate:  And so were the rest of the Great Lovers.  

Chavez:  And James was there in spirit.

DNS: Thank you all.  Now more than ever all sailors and soldiers must be Great Lovers.

My First Book Signing: A Fantasy Come True With Some Lessons

It is every author’s dream, but perhaps more so for an indie author like me, to have his or her first book signing. In connection with the publication of my book Clamcake Summer: One Man Eats Every Clamcake in Rhode Island (Or Dies Frying), I recently was able to hold court at a table with a stack of my books and schmooze with readers.

I thought other independent authors and even readers might be interested in my experience and whether I found that it lived up to my expectations. The short answer is yes. However, there were some aspects of the signing that were different from my fantasies, and some lessons I learned will be valuable if I ever have a second book signing.

The signing took place at a church (not my own) which was holding its traditional May Breakfast on May 1. My book opens with a description of the clamcakes served at this breakfast, so it seemed like a very appropriate venue for a signing. As many as a thousand people attend the breakfast each year, so it was a great opportunity for me to reach readers. I had attended service the Sunday before the Tuesday event to meet the people who volunteer at the May Breakfast and to drop off the books. The breakfast was scheduled from 6 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., and I promised to be there the entire time signing books.

The organizers did a wonderful job setting things up. A table had been prepared for me in the church sanctuary with fifty books arranged in neat piles ready to be signed. People waited in the pews of the church for tables to open in the hall for breakfast, and I was between them and their scrambled eggs, ham and clamcakes while they waited. In addition, the master of ceremonies would mention me and my book (”The world’s foremost authority on clamcakes is here…”) whenever he came out to announce that more people could go in for breakfast. In addition, signs advertising the book signing had been placed on each of the breakfast tables. Honestly, what indie author, or one published by a major house, could ask for more?

LESSON NUMBER 1: Five hours is a long time to schedule for a book signing. Although there were plenty of people who bought books in that period, there were frequently long stretches of time when I was sitting with nothing to do. Interestingly, most books were purchased before 8:00 a.m. by the busy workers who came in and ate quickly before heading to their jobs. Perhaps they had the most disposable income for books. In any case, five hours is a long time to be sitting in one place, and I think it would have been sufficient to restrict the signing part to two hours at most.

LESSON NUMBER 2: Be careful about your giveaways. I had the bright idea to give vintage clamcake bags from my personal collection to everyone who bought a book. When I mentioned I wanted to do this to the organizer the morning of the breakfast she looked a little nervous. “People will use them as doggy bags,” she said quietly. This is an all you can eat breakfast (with a “no doggy bags” policy) and my brilliant marketing ploy could have led to an awful lot of food walking out the doors! I’m glad I mentioned it to her first. I quickly hid the bags under my coat!

LESSON NUMBER 3: You meet some really interesting and funny people while you are signing books. While I was there, I met a local historian whose work I admire. He gave me his card and invited me over to his house sometime. Someone asked if I was related to Jonathan Livingstone Seagull! There is a seagull on the book cover and my last name is Stone, but really? Someone else requested that I inscribe the book to the local library. She intended to donate it there. This was a wonderful community-minded gesture and great publicity for the book. Two kids came running out of the hall with the May Breakfast program and asked me to autograph it. “You want me to sign the program, not the book?” I asked. That’s what they wanted, so I have them the best signature of the day. “I don’t want to see this on E-bay tonight, kids,” I called as they left with their father. Ultimately, most of the people who bought the book were members of the church who had already welcomed me with open arms but now were welcoming my book as well. They even invited me to come to one of their bell ringing rehearsals when they heard I was once a member of a bell ringing group in college. I went to the rehearsal the following Sunday (but that’s another story—or song!)

LESSON NUMBER 4: Prepare for the unexpected. At the busiest period, when the hall was filled with hungry May Breakfasters, and my family and friends had arrived to lend me encouragement, a reporter for the state’s largest newspaper wandered up to the table, checked out the book and started to take notes. Then she proceeded to interview me at length about the book. The next day, on page A4 of the Providence Journal, in a well-illustrated article about the May Breakfast, my book signing received prominent mention. I sold quite a few additional copies of the book when that article came out, showing that the publicity of a book signing can have other, collateral benefits.

LESSON NUMBER 5: Have a pad handy so people can write the names they want inscribed. This is something you want to get right. Also, have an idea for a standard inscription (mine was “A dozen best wishes” since clamcakes are usually served in a bag of a dozen) but ask people if they would like something special. Quite a few people asked me to inscribe books to family members living out of state with notes encouraging them to come back to Rhode Island for clamcakes. One man wanted the book dedicated to his infant great-grandchildren with the hope that they would grow up to love clamcakes like great-grandfather.

Finally, a signing is a great chance to get to know your readers. Writing will not be such a lonely occupation (or hobby) for me in the future me as I summon up the faces from that special day when I try to envision the audience for my words.

P.S. Use a nice pen. I used a BIC and got grief for it!

A dozen best wishes, David

Ticket No. 1

Next to clamcakes, my favorite thing about Rhode Island is May Breakfast.  It's hard to make non-Ocean Staters understand what a big deal May Breakfast is here.  One of my first jobs out of college, and before I went to law school, was working as a paralegal for a law firm in downtown Providence.  I will never forget the lavish May Breakfast the firm treated us to at the rooftop ballroom of the Biltmore Hotel.  Walking over to the hotel that morning, it seemed like everyone else was headed to breakfast too.  When May 1 falls during the week, don't try to call a business in Rhode Island.  We're all out eating, and when we do get back to the office, we'll find a carnation or other flowers at our desk, courtesy of the boss.  It's the original 99% holiday.  We'll call you back in the afternoon, once we've digested, if we feel up to it.    

Yes, May Breakfast is an institution here, and the greatest May Breakfast of all is at the place where this tradition started, the Oak Lawn Community Baptist Church in Cranston.  We all have dreams.  Some are immense and out of our power to attain, like buying the winning three hundred million dollar Powerball ticket when we go to the market to buy some rainbow sherbet.  Others are more modest and, with tenacity and patience, we might just attain them.

Let me tell you about a dream of mine that finally came true on Tuesday, May 1, 2012.  In the spring of 1984, when I was a slightly homesick freshman in college, I read an article in the New York Times by Betsy Wade about the tradition of May Breakfasts in Rhode Island.  It was thrilling to see my home state written about in the Times.  Ms. Wade wrote at length about the May Breakfast at Oak Lawn, where they served clamcakes alongside the scrambled eggs, ham and apple pie.  Then she mentioned that the buyer of Ticket No. 1 had arrived at 5 a.m., and that over a thousand tickets had been sold that day.  I made a promise to myself that morning that someday I would not only go to that clamcake-serving May Breakfast, I would be the first person in line and get Ticket No. 1.  

I have been to that May Breakfast, just like I promised myself, but I have never managed to obtain the golden first ticket.  After reading this, you probably won't be surprised to learn that when I wrote Clamcake Summer, a book about my quest for the perfect clamcake, I opened it with a description of the May Breakfast at Oak Lawn Baptist Church.  I had been speaking recently with the organizer of the May Breakfast about doing a book signing at the breakfast this year as a way to help raise more funds for the church.  In the course of making those plans, I revealed to the organizer my dream of someday getting Ticket No. 1.  

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a moment.  Then she said, "David, I'm putting Ticket No. 1 in an envelope for you right now".   She made my dream come true simply because I asked.  I don't know what makes me happier, finally getting that ticket, or that someone could be so kind.  

So if you were at the May Breakfast at Oak Lawn on May 1, you saw a man with a ridiculously happy smile signing books.  It was my first book signing, and I had Ticket No. 1.   Already it was a day beyond belief, but then they let me make a batch of clamcakes myself!  

To my new friends and, hopefully, future readers at Goodreads, if you are curious about clamcakes and that small but big-hearted state Rhode Island, please read Clamcake Summer.   And if you have a simple dream, someday just ask someone if she or he will make help you make it come true.  The human spirit is the real gold at the end of the sherbet rainbow.  

Introducing Trial of Honor: A Novel of a Court-Martial

I’m grateful to have this opportunity to introduce my book to the members of goodreads.   This short, fast-paced novel involves two women and three men who meet at Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island and form a secret society to help each other through that grueling training program and, ultimately, to improve the Navy.  After an explosion on an aircraft carrier, the existence of the secret society is revealed and leads to the court-martial of the young officers.  The story begins in the mid 1990’s, and there is a present day epilogue that brings the story up to date.  To my knowledge this is the only novel set at OCS in Newport and, for that reason alone, might be of interest to readers who like Navy fiction.  Courts-martial are unique to the military, so the second half of the book, which describes the trial, will interest fans of legal fiction.  The story is really about the difficulties these sailors face in adapting to military life, and balancing their personal friendships and beliefs with their duty to their country.  A couple of military parents play a key role in the court-martial, by the way.          
 
I am a 1989 graduate of OCS and that experience no doubt contributed to my being able to give a sense of place.  However, Trial of Honor: A Novel of a Court-Martial  is a work of fiction, and all names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.    

Although the book begins in the mid 1990's, it follows the characters to the present day and the official demise of Don't Ask Don't Tell. A sailor like my character James Drayton no longer needs to lie about who he is. As I say in the preface, Anchor = Hope.