Spring Has Sprung
Redhead by the Side of the Road, Drive-home Dining, Indigo Girls, Philly Pros, Lazy Lounger
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. I hope you enjoy the picks and pics.
Fave Five 28: Spring Has Sprung. Baltimore Book (Redhead by the Side of the Road), Drive-home Dining (McClard’s, El Rancherito, Bird’s Smokehouse BBQ), Dynamic Duo (Indigo Girls), Philly Pros (Villanova Basketball Heroes), and a Lazy Lounger.
After spending the winter in California, Barb and I are back home in Michigan. The temperature was cool here last week, but today it reached 79, so it feels like spring has begun at last.
Our backyard, pictured above, was where we held our house concerts the past three years due to the pandemic. We will be able to resume twice-yearly indoor shows this year, with Rachael Davis (originally from Cadillac, Michigan) on June 9, 2023 and Iona Fyfe (from Scotland) on August 11, 2023. Rachael will be joined by her husband, Dominic John Davis on bass (who also plays with Jack White), and Iona will be accompanied by Adam Hendey on guitar. Those of you in the Great Lakes region should make plans to attend one or both concerts.
Book Best Bet
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
Anne Tyler is one of my all-time favorite authors, and I have read over half of her two dozen novels. As she continues writing new books, I continue reading them. As with all of the others I have enjoyed over the years, this one is a gem. I will continue to buy her new novels and catch up on the ones I have yet to read. And I recommend the same to other lovers of literature.
From Amazon: From the beloved Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a sparkling novel about misperception, second chances, and the sometimes elusive power of human connection.
Micah Mortimer is a creature of habit. A self-employed tech expert, superintendent of his Baltimore apartment building, cautious to a fault behind the steering wheel, he seems content leading a steady, circumscribed life.
But one day his routines are blown apart when his woman friend (he refuses to call anyone in her late thirties a "girlfriend") tells him she's facing eviction, and a teenager shows up at Micah's door claiming to be his son. These surprises, and the ways they throw Micah's meticulously organized life off-kilter, risk changing him forever.
An intimate look into the heart and mind of a man who finds those around him just out of reach, and a funny, joyful, deeply compassionate story about seeing the world through new eyes, Redhead by the Side of the Road is a triumph, filled with Anne Tyler's signature wit and gimlet-eyed observation.
Anne Tyler
From Wikipedia: Anne Tyler (born October 25, 1941 in Minneapolis) is an American novelist, short story writer, and literary critic. She has published twenty-four novels, including Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982), The Accidental Tourist (1985), and Breathing Lessons (1988). All three were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Breathing Lessons won the prize in 1989. She has also won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, the Ambassador Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2012 she was awarded The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. Tyler's twentieth novel, A Spool of Blue Thread, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2015, and Redhead By the Side of the Road was longlisted for the same award in 2020. She is recognized for her fully developed characters, her "brilliantly imagined and absolutely accurate detail", her "rigorous and artful style", and her "astute and open language." Tyler has been compared to John Updike, Jane Austen, and Eudora Welty, among others.
Anne Tyler: the most influential novelist of her era? by Philip Hensher
Anne Tyler may, in the end, prove to be one of the most influential novelists of her generation. While critics were busy lauding authors with much more obviously weighty and portentous topics, Tyler’s technically flawless novels of domestic relationships, mostly in Baltimore, were drawing the attention of writers.
The best American writers now, from Elizabeth Strout to Michael Cunningham, give the impression of having learnt much more from Anne Tyler than from John Updike. The old accusation of suburban coziness, of what used to be called a middlebrow quality, no longer convinces, now that many of her books have demonstrated real, lasting worth.
They are optimistic books and are evidently the work of someone who genuinely likes and is interested in human beings. But they don’t minimize suffering, or automatically reward likeability. They know all about the cost of maintaining likeability, and some of her most memorable inventions, like Rebecca in Back When We Were Grownups, are studies in keeping the show on the road.
There is real horror present. The Accidental Tourist takes place in the wake of the senseless murder of a child, and the dog the child left behind has teeth that draw blood. Saint Maybe, perhaps the most moving of all her books, is about a lifelong act of atonement for a single sentence that, once spoken, kills two people and leaves three small children abandoned – the plot has some of the gravity of Conrad’s Lord Jim.
Many of her favorite subjects are, quite frankly, difficult people. Pearl, the matriarch in her first great book, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, is abandoned by her husband, and Tyler doesn’t hesitate; there is a lot about Pearl that no one could stick. Quite a lot of her novels take place over a very long time span, and we often watch these characters grow up, or grow old; we get used to them; we start to see them understand what they’ve done; we are on their side. I thought I would never get behind the family in Digging to America that tries to recreate Korean culture in Baltimore for the benefit of their adoptive baby; Tyler’s patient exploration turned what starts with the whiff of satire into warm, humane life.
Her books are so irresistibly readable that it’s startling to realize what technical marvels they often are. The first chapter of A Patchwork Planet is extraordinarily compelling; but all that happens is that one stranger asks another to carry out a very minor task. The task is done without any effort. Nothing goes wrong. The virtuosity is in portraying it through the eyes of a man in whose hands it certainly would have gone wrong. Our interest, and our sympathy, is all with the observer.
Probably her most showy technical feat is also her most enchantingly relaxed performance; Breathing Lessons, which takes place on a single day, as a long-married pair go to a funeral, visit an estranged daughter-in-law, bicker and make up. Nothing much is altered by anything that happens in the story; after a few pages, almost nothing would stop you reading.
Restaurant Recommendations
Drive-home Dining
As promised in last week’s issue, here are three restaurants I visited while driving home from Houston. Two barbecue joints and one Mexican restaurant all hit the spot.
McClard’s Bar-B-Q 505 Albert Pike, Hot Springs, Arkansas 71901
When I saw that my route would take me near Hot Springs and Little Rock, I looked up where I had dined before in the area. In October 2013 I was on the Memphis and Arkansas Roadfood Tour that stopped at Stubby’s BBQ and McClard’s. I first pulled into Stubby’s, but the owner met my car and informed me that he was closed for two days due to a lack of help. I asked him where to go for good barbecue and he sent me to McClard’s
In 20134 my late friend Steve Carter and I were so full from previous stops that we were unable to appreciate the excellent offerings at McClard’s. This time, I was hungry for lunch, and I was delighted with what I ordered. The meats were properly smoked, the sauces were sensational, and the tamale was tangy. I brought some leftovers home for a subsequent meal.
From the restaurant: In 1928, Alex and Alice McClard ran a tourist court, which also had a gas station and a diner that served up barbecued goat. When a traveler stayed with them and couldn't pay his bill, he offered up a secret recipe for "the world's greatest hot sauce" They took the recipe and played with it and soon the barbecue business became bigger than the tourist court or the gas station. That was the beginning of a family business now in its fourth generation.
McClard's BAR-B-Q in Hot Springs, Arkansas began in 1928 and has remained a family business ever since. Scott McClard, the 4th generation of the family to work at the restaurant, said they take pride in following the same principles began by his great-grandfather. "Use the best ingredients you can get, buy the best quality cuts you can get, and don't skimp on any portions." They make their side dishes on the premises every day, using the same recipes his great-grandfather used. "You can't buy this stuff off of a truck. You can't take beans out of a can and make it taste like my great-grandfather's recipe."
Every great success has a story behind it! Well known for our barbeque sauce, McClard's Bar-B-Q Restaurant in Hot Springs, Arkansas is no exception.
In the twenties, Alex and Gladys McClard owned Westside Tourist Court, just a few blocks west from the current location of McClard's Bar-B-Q Restaurant at 505 Albert Pike, Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.
When a down-and-out traveler could not come up with the $10 he owed for his two-month stay, he asked the couple to accept instead a recipe for "the world's greatest bar-b-que sauce". Since something was better than nothing, the couple accepted the recipe. To their great surprise and delight, they tasted the truth in the traveler's claim.
Carhops hung trays of ribs and sandwiches on automobile doors. In 1928, the Westside Tourist Court became Westside Bar-B-Q with goat as its star menu attraction! In 1942, McClard's moved into the current location - a white-washed stucco building.
For many years, drive-in service was provided for a horn toot or blinking lights. Carhops hung trays of ribs and sandwiches on automobile doors while the driver dialed in the radio to catch the tunes from the neon jukebox inside. Today goat has disappeared from the menu, and the carhops from the curbside.
In the kitchen is still the McClard family: 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations of McClards continue the traditions set by Alex and Gladys. In the kitchen, though, is still the McClard family: 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations of McClards continue the traditions set by Alex and Gladys. Each week they serve 7,000 pounds of mouth-watering hickory-smoked beef, pork, and ribs. Alongside go 250 gallons of spicy bar-b-que beans, 250 gallons of coleslaw, 3,000 hand rolled hot tamales and 3,000 pounds of fresh-cut potatoes french-fried to perfection.
And over the crusty-on-the-outside, fall-away-tender-pink-inside smoky bar-b-que, in handy bottles on the side—is the sauce. The famous sauce that started it all. The priceless sauce whose $10 recipe now sits locked away in a safe deposit box in downtown Hot Springs.
El Rancherito 103 Baldridge Road, Salem, Illinois 62881
I decided to drive more than half-way home on Tuesday, stopping in Salem, Illinois. I’m glad that I did, because early the next morning, a deadly tornado blew through southeast Missouri, where I had driven Tuesday night. I was unaware that a tornado had struck Salem the previous Friday.
I searched for local restaurants in Salem and was surprised to find three Mexican places. I decided to walk to the one near my hotel. I was still pretty full from the barbecue I had for lunch in Arkansas, but I ordered horchata, street corn, and a chile relleno, and horchata. The first two were very good.
Roger and I joked in Houston about how large the drink glasses are in Mexican restaurants. No exception here, as both the water and horchata glasses were gigantic. The horchata was refreshing.
The street corn was a bit different from what I have had before, but it was tasty.
From the restaurant: “The Ranch" has been around for some time now. With Mount Vernon location opening in 1995 and Salem in 2009. Both establishments have proven to strive throughout the years with their excellent customer service and an immaculate quality in food and drinks. Each location is locally and family owned - we are proud to be a part of these communities that we have seen grow with each year that passes and have been lucky to grow with them!
Bird’s Smokehouse BBQ 9008 S. Walnut St., Daleville, IN 47334
On Wednesday I planned to stop for lunch in Indiana, with Shapiro’s Delicatessen in Indy, Skyline Chili (several locations), and Ugalde’s Family Restaurant in Warren all under consideration. But in a last-minute audible, I decided that you can’t have too much barbecue, so I exited in Anderson to head to a spot I had visited once before.
I ordered the Smokehouse Combo Platter (Pulled Pork, Pulled Beef Brisket, Baked Beans, Southern Green Beans, and Cornbread). After the sliced risket in Houston and the sliced beef in Hot Springs, I wasn’t sure how much I would like the pulled brisket here. But it was great, as were both sides and sauces.
From the restaurant: Bird’s Smokehouse BBQ specializes in "SLOW" cooked Hickory Smoked Meats. We use only the true smoke from real hickory wood to prepare our meats.
On a wing and a prayer – that’s how it all started. Bird and Linda Strange had a dream of a restaurant. We started small with a mobile unit and a festival guide. The wagon traveled to 7 festivals in 2002. In 2003, the wagon was booked solid for festivals and caterings, with several weekends scheduled for ‘the corner’ in Daleville.
In 2004, we were amazed at our growth in Daleville and began discussing the restaurant dream. Unfortunately, in July, Bird was diagnosed with terminal cancer and the dream was put on hold. In 2005, after losing Bird, we started our weekends on ‘the corner’ in Daleville again. After many hours of brainstorming and discussion the decision was made to build a restaurant.
Construction of the Smokehouse began in November with the vision of combining the rustic look of the wagon and a cabin Bird had built in Kentucky. As the building took shape, the vision of our dreams became a reality. The porch, the roof, the wood – all came together from dreams, to paper, to life.
Our dream continues as we celebrate the opening of the Smokehouse. Honoring Bird’s memory and the dream he began – on a wing and prayer – will carry us many years into the future.
Dare to dream the impossible – pigs really do fly!
Marvelous Musicians
Today is the 59th birthday of Amy Ray. I read about Indigo Girls in Dirty Linen, a folk music magazine in the late 80s. I bought their first two albums and became a fan. I saw them on the Cayamo music cruise in 2009, 2011, and 2019. On June 9, 2017 I saw them as part of Four Voices with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Joan Baez at Meadow Brook Amphitheatre in Rochester Hills, Michigan. They are one of my favorite duos, and also of my friend Traci Westin of Augusta, Georgia. My favorite songs include “Closer to Fine,” “Kid Fears” (featuring Michael Stipe), “Hammer and a Nail,” “Galileo,” “Least Complicated,” “Power of Two,” “Shame on You,” and “Fill it Up Again.”
From Wikipedia: Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The two met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. They started performing with the name Indigo Girls as students at Emory University, performing weekly at The Dugout, a bar in Emory Village. They released a self-produced, full-length album, Strange Fire, in 1987, and contracted with a major record label in 1988. Emily stated in an interview, "we needed a name, and we went through the dictionary looking for words that struck us and indigo was one."
Amy Elizabeth Ray (born April 12, 1964 in Decatur, Georgia) is an American alto singer-songwriter and member of the contemporary folk duo Indigo Girls. She also pursues a solo career and has released six albums under her own name, and founded a record company, Daemon Records.
Emily Ann Saliers (born July 22, 1963 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American singer-songwriter and member of the musical duo Indigo Girls. She sings soprano and plays lead guitar as well as banjo, piano, mandolin, ukulele, bouzouki and many other instruments.
Closer to Fine
Hammer And A Nail
Galileo
No Root, No Fruit Podcast: Indigo Girls by Matt Watroba
My Playlist
Sports Stars
Philly Pros: Villanova Basketball Heroes
Villanova has won the NCAA men's basketball national championship three times:
1985 (Defeated Georgetown, 66-64)
2016 (Defeated North Carolina, 77-74)
2018 (Defeated Michigan, 79-62)
I was first aware of Villanova basketball when they played in the NCAA tournament in 1969. I was a fan of their star, Howard Porter, who led them to the championship game in 1971. Tom Ingelsby played for the Spirits of St. Louis, the team for which I kept statistics 1974-76. Villanova’s upset over Georgetown in 1985 was an epic win.
Roger and I were at the game in Houston in 2016 when Kris Jenkins won it with a buzzer beater, a shot that Rog predicted just before it happened. We were in San Antonio in 2018 when Donte DiVincenzo broke our hearts by coming off the bench to lead the Wildcats over our Wolverines.
Last night I watched the NBA play-in game between Atlanta and Miami. Kyle Lowry almost pulled it out for the Heat with 33 points and 5 assists off the bench. But the Hawks prevailed, in part due to Saddiq Bey’s 17 points and 6 rebounds as a reserve. The key to the win was the 63-39 rebounding advantage for Atlanta, including 21 by Clint Capela and 22 offensive boards overall. Bey was a fan favorite in Detroit before being traded at the deadline, although his shooting was inconsistent (7-17 last night). His Piston highlight was a 51-point explosion against Orlando just over a year ago.
Here is a look at some of the Villanova players over the past 55 years who have starred in Philly before turning pro.
Howard Porter 1968-71 (August 31, 1948 – May 26, 2007)
He took Villanova to the 1971 NCAA Championship Game, in which Villanova lost to UCLA 68–62. Porter was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player after scoring 25 points in the final game. However, he was later ruled ineligible for the honor because he had signed a professional contract with the Pittsburgh Condors of the American Basketball Association during the middle of his senior year.
Tom Ingelsby 1970-73
Ingelsby played professionally for the Atlanta Hawks (NBA) in the 1973–74 season, for the Spirits of St. Louis of the (American Basketball Association) in the 1974–75 season, and for the San Diego Sails in the 1975–76 season. He is the father of Delaware coach Martin Ingelsby and coached his son at Archbishop Carroll High School. His son Brad Ingelsby is a screenwriter, who wrote and produced the HBO TV series Mare of Easttown. The success of the show led to a 3-year overall deal with HBO.
Ed Pinckney 1981-85
A 6-foot-9-inch forward from The Bronx, New York, Pinckney led regional eight-seed Villanova Wildcats to the NCAA title over the heavily favored Georgetown Hoyas in 1985. He was the recipient of the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player after registering 16 points and 6 rebounds in the 66–64 victory, widely considered one of the greatest NCAA tournament upsets of all time. This game is featured in the book The Perfect Game: How Villanova’s Shocking 1985 Upset of Mighty Georgetown Changed the Landscape of College Hoops Forever by Frank Fitzpatrick.
Kyle Lowry, 2004-06, now on the Miami Heat
A six-time All-Star, he was named to the All-NBA Third Team in 2016 and won an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, their first and only title in franchise history. He was a member of the U.S. national team that won a gold medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics. Lowry is widely regarded as the greatest Raptors player of all time due to his work with turning the franchise around, from the post-Vince Carter era to a legitimate NBA contender, leading them to their first-ever championship in 2019. Lowry played a critical role in the Raptors' success, as they reached two Eastern Conference Finals and had all five of their 50-win seasons with him as their starting point guard from 2012 to 2021.
Mikal Bridges 2014-18, now on the Brooklyn Nets.
Nicknamed “The Warden”, Bridges holds the active record for the most consecutive games played, having not missed a game in his NBA career since being drafted.
Kris Jenkins 2013-17
Jenkins attended Mater Dei School in Bethesda, Maryland and Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC. In the NCAA championship game in Houston on April 4, 2016 against North Carolina, Jenkins hit the game-winning three-point shot as time expired.
Jalen Brunson 2015-18, now on the New York Knicks
He won Illinois Mr. Basketball. Brunson holds the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) playoff single-game (56) and the IHSA Class 4A championship game (30) scoring records and set the USA Basketball single-game assist record for the FIBA Americas Under-18 Championship (13).
Donte DiVincenzo 2015-18, now on the Golden State Warriors
DiVincenzo was named the 2018 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player following Villanova’s championship win over Michigan, in which he scored a career-high 31 points (including five three-point baskets) and recorded five rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. In addition, he scored the most points in an NCAA Final Four game for a player coming off the bench.
Josh Hart 2013-17, now on the New York Knicks
He was born in Silver Spring, Maryland and attended Sidwell Friends School in Bethesda. Hart was awarded Boy Scouts of America's highest rank, Eagle Scout, and became one of only three known Eagle Scouts who have played in the NCAA's Final Four (along with Princeton's Bill Bradley and Stanford's Mark Madsen). He is the only Eagle Scout to ever start on an NCAA Men's Basketball Championship team.
Saddiq Bey 2018-20, now on the Atlanta Hawks
He attended DeMatha Catholic High School his freshman year before transferring to Sidwell Friends School. At the conclusion of the 2020 regular season, Bey was unanimously selected first-team All-Big East. Bey was named the winner of the Robert V. Geasey Trophy as the top player in the Philadelphia Big 5. Bey won the Julius Erving Award at the end of the season as the nation's top small forward. Bey was the third Villanova player to win the award in the previous six seasons, following Josh Hart in 2017 and Mikal Bridges in 2018.
Picture Pun
I asked a boy to assist in moving this, but he was too lazy to help.
+1 on Indigo girls. Early in their career, probably 1989, I saw them on consecutive nights at the 9:30 Club in DC and the Birchmere in Northern Virginia. Also at the Birchmere around that time, twice I saw Clive Gregson and Christine Collister. I haven't liked anyone nearly as much as those two duos since.