Odwalla Bars

Odwalla bars, billed as organic food that is good for you, probably live up to their billing. We have become fans. They are on sale "every day" for $1.50 each at Stop & Shop. If you have a Shaw's in your vicinity, they cost $1.25. We are partial to the "Salty and Sweet" nut bars, but they come in a variety of flavors, mostly revolving around fruit and chocolate as such things are wont to do.

For a little more than the price of a candy bar, you can eat something that is of similar size and caloric content, but with a little roughage and more vitamins. It comes in colorful, snappy packaging and the marketing is light-hearted and guilt-free. We took the Silver Line to the Logan International Airport around Christmas time and one of the stations was decked out in Odwalla finery. We recall this past autumn when Boston buses were wrapped in Odwalla advertising. Instead of the abstract bird that is the company's mascot, the buses featured a happy, little man made of fruit slices. He made me smile during my morning commute. Where is he now?

Memorial day

We were at the corner of Richmond Street and Dot Ave this morning at 9:30AM. The Memorial Day parade was assembled and started, heading in stately grace to Cedar Grove Cemetary to honor the war dead. It wasn't a long parade, but it was an important and grand one. The veterans's organizations were assembled, and the pomp was fit for the circumstances and occassion. We hold these truths to be self-evident: a community that honors its heroes is one that will never lose its soul. Dorchester is such a place.

A bigger crowd would have been nice, but a better audience wouldn't be possible. The sidewalks were lined by onlookers who knew the import of what they were witnessing. Tose who marched did it with dignity.

I tied a cloth poppy reminiscent of Flanders fields onto my motorcycle. It fluttered in the wind the rest of the day as I made my rounds around Dorchester. Let us remember the dead today and pay our respects throughout the year at the memorials that stand all over our noble borough. Freedom is not free.

Smith Street, Mission Hill

Smith Street is a little smidge of a road off Huntington Avenue just before Brigham Circle. It meets in a Vee with Wigglesworth Street, where Il Mondo Pizza is located. Il Mondo serves one of the better slices of pie in Boston.

Organize-It Software recently renamed itself Roxbury Apple Service. They have a spiffy, new, handpainted sign with the name and a handpainted Apple logo. Its not as splashy as the Apple Store on Boylston Street, but it is comfortable and accessible. They have been authorized Apple distributors and technicians for quite some time, so if you feel uncomfortable with glitz and want your Mac serviced, this might be a good option for you.

Smith Street, though very short, has one other address of note. It is an Irish pub called the Squealing Pig. Both the food and the staff there are very good and satisfying. I had a tasty Dutch brew there called Delerium Tremens. It had a pink elephant on the label. I know someone who had thier first taste of cream soda there. Nothing she has tasted since has matched that wonderful elixir.

A new, tall building is going up on the north side of Smith Street so it will be hard to see these establishments when passing by on the E train. They are worth seeking out though. It's a short street, but a nice one.

Smooth Sailing

Pleasant Street became a little more pleasant a few weeks ago and we were reminded of that when we coasted down its newly paved expanse between East Cottage Street Stoughton Streets. The road's surface is as unruffled as a placid lake and with the trees in bloom, it is as picturesque as a postcard. This is one of the nicer streets around Columbia/Savin Hill.

New paving also recently occured at the intersection of Washington, Harvard and Bowdoin Streets just north of Codman Square. The manholes are still a little above street level, but still, this is a pleasure compared to the usually kettleholes and ruts we have come to expect in Boston.

Dorchester just gets nicer and nicer for a motorcycle ride.

Giraffes in Franklin Park

If it is over 65 degrees Faranheit, the giraffes are outside in Franklin Park Zoo. If the weather is chillier, they are keeping warm in thier barn at another location and you can marvel at them there. On Sunday, it was warm enough for the giraffes to be out in the sun and they seemed to enjoy the weather. Children gawked and there were more than a five hundred strollers clogging the paths through the zoo. The strollers contained water bottles and discarded jackets. Children were everywhere underfoot.

Admission to Franklin Park Zoo costs $12 for adults and $7 for children between the ages of 2 and 12. It's not the Bronx, but for twelve bucks you get to see a tapir, a capybara, and ducks. You get to see other animals, most of them asleep and hiding. You get to see the giraffes who can't really hide. The giraffes stand in an open enclosure with a few zebras for contrast.

You have to be tolerant of children and baby-talking adults to enjoy any zoo. Today some kind of kidney reseach fundraiser was hosted by the Franklin Park Zoo. The excursion was worth the twelve dollar admission but I have to admit that Dorchester is not the Bronx. No point in fretting about that. A good time was had by all.