Two of my siblings and the Chief Penguin have summer birthdays, one in June, one in July, and one in August.
Chief Penguin earlier this spring
This year, this trio is turning 70, 75, or 80. It seemed the right time for a family celebration. The C.P. and I see the North Carolina relatives, my two sisters and spouses often and my nieces and their families less frequently.
My 3 siblings
But we hadn’t seen my brother and sister-in-law from the Finger Lakes region for almost three years. Thus, the Milestone Birthday Party yesterday. Everyone came including our son and family from Manhattan!
This was also an opportunity for the cousins of the two younger generations to spend time together.
Niece Erica & familyFirst cousins!Watching gift opening, Pat & others
It was a lively 36 hours beginning with an Indian lunch in Chapel Hill for the four siblings and spouses. The Chief Penguin and I also enjoyed dinners and ice cream in hopping downtown Cary with Tim and Jen and our granddaughters. An all-around good time with lots of laughter!
Entire family group (minus sister-in-law Pat who took the photo!)
I think we created some lasting memories, especially for the youngest generation.
After three vicars and eleven seasons, Grantchester is finally winding up its last season. The Chief Penguin and I have been loyal viewers since the beginning. We have liked watching police detective Geordie deal with Sydney, Will, and now Alphy, distinctive vicars who assist him in solving local crimes. The supporting cast of housekeeper and friend, Mrs. C.; the caring and sometimes doleful curate Leonard; and Geordie’s wife Cathy, who embraces new opportunities for women, add richness and depth to the series.
Geordie & Alphy, Mrs. C. & Cathy, Larry & Miss Scot (tvinsider.com)
In this final season, Geordie has an offer of a promotion, life changes for Miss Scott and Larry Peters, and Alphy confronts head-on his mother’s past and present. It is partly a tying up of earlier issues but also settling the characters comfortably for whatever lies ahead. Recommended!
Note: Family photos taken by JWFarrington, EBWalter, & P. Walter.
Mary Bennet is the odd sister out. Very smart, but plain compared to her other sisters, she is harassed, berated by her mother, and oftentimes just ignored by her many siblings. In Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, she is viewed as having no marital prospects, while her sisters all gain husbands.
The Other Bennet Sister begins with the scenario in Austen’s novel but then goes beyond it to create a world and another life for Mary. She spends time in London with her aunt and uncle, acting as a fill-in governess for their children. The Gardiners introduce her to London social life, and Mary meets and even captures the attention of two very different young men, Charles Ryder and Tom Hayward. But her mother intervenes, thus providing more challenges for Mary to overcome.
There are 10 episodes and they are short, just 30 minutes each. Those familiar with Mrs. Bennet’s managing ways and Caroline Bingley’s superiority complex will delight in their portrayals here. Highly recommended for Jane Austen fans!
A NOVEL FOR FATHER’S DAY
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
Author Strout (Britannica.com)
Elizabeth Strout’s new novel, The Things We Never Say, is set in Massachusetts, not Maine, and none of the characters are familiar from her earlier works. No Olive Kittredge here. Instead, we have high school history teacher, Artie Dam, husband, father, and a lonely man. At 57, Artie is distressed by the state of the world (it is not said directly, but the book opens just before Trump’s second term), somewhat depressed, sad in his marriage, and generally out of sorts.
But he is a good teacher and frequently shows compassion toward difficult students (his wife Evie considers him “soft.”) He obsesses over whether humans have free will, and in his spare time loves sailing alone on the bay in his boat. When his son Rob shares a secret with him, Artie is initially both unsettled and doubtful. The knowledge of this secret brings father and son closer together, and they begin to communicate regularly with each other, texting and phoning. In many ways, the expansion of their relationship is the most significant one in the novel.
Through Artie, Strout explores how families and friends communicate or don’t, delving into the secrets and fears individuals keep to themselves or share only selectively with someone outside the family. More than any of Strout’s works that I know, this is a political novel, quietly so. U. S. politics with all its disruption, division, and angst is an underlying thread surfacing only fully in Artie’s unexpected friendship with Ken. Some readers may find this novel dreary; I found it thoughtful and memorable. Recommended! (~JWFarrington)
If you have a hankering for soup dumplings or any kind of noodles, a visit to Q Noodles would be most satisfying. Tucked away in a less visible part of a strip mall behind DQ and Paris Baguette, it can be easy to overlook this restaurant. In fact, I had never spotted it before our lunch here this past week.
The menu is extensive and includes a variety of pork and chicken buns, steamed and panfried dumplings, dim sum, and hot and cold noodle dishes, along with sweet and savory rice offerings. Our table of ten shared two combination towers of dim sum (tasty) besides what we ordered individually. I opted for the Sichuan beef noodle soup. In a big bowl, it was nicely spicy and enough for a second lunch the next day. The Chief Penguin went for the Ybin spicy dry noodles with minced pork. His dish was really spicy, and he loved it. Lots of the other dishes are mild and would appeal to those who aren’t fans of spicy fare.
Dining room, Q Noodles
The dining room is very attractive with its wall poster and inviting seating. Service was friendly, but leisurely; we were definitely ready when the food arrived. Q Noodles is so close that the C.P. and I could easily walk there—who knows when we will next want to satisfy a noodle craving!
Earlier this week, we had the fun of touring the impressive Hunt Library at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Around here, the university is commonly known as just State. Good friends, Frank and Judy, were our hosts and arranged for a wonderful tour led by staff from the library development office.
Lower level lounge
The Hunt Library opened in 2013 and is a contemporary building of an unusual shape with glass and metal facades. Tall glass window walls allow the outside in with views of Lake Raleigh. Many spaces are long and expansive with great light and views punctuated by a variety of creative and unusual seating choices.
View into bookBot to robotBack side with retrieved bin of books
This library was one of the first to install a robotic book storage and retrieval system called bookBot. Almost 2 million books are stored in metal bins stacked 50 feet high. The books are in random order, but an order known to the system. We got to see behind the scenes and watch a bin of books being retrieved and brought out by Robot Bob. There are several robots and all but one have names. Our State magazine included an entertaining account by Scott Huler of what it’s like to be in this library.
Former, now deceased, university library director Susan Nutter was instrumental, possibly aggressively so, in gaining the libraries greater recognition on campus and in expanding the services and assistance they offered to both students and faculty. From audio labs to a maker space to a gaming studio, Hunt Library pushed the envelope.
Gaming studio
Nutter also had an interest in furnishings, and Hunt features a wealth of stunning chairs by different designers in a wide range of colors.
Burgundy desk chairsBlock seatingPurple chairs with zippy carpet
While the backdrop is mostly neutral, as in white, there are punches of color everywhere making even big spaces inviting.
Bold staircasePincushion anyone?Staircase with cushions!
Several yellow staircases make a particularly bold statement. And yet, a student can still easily find a place for some quiet study in a room looking more like the traditional library of yore.
Quiet study space
BONUS SUMMER READING: FAMILY DYNAMICS
Whistler by Ann Patchett
Patchett (wikipedia.com)
I am one of Ann Patchett’s fans, and I loved her new novel, Whistler. It’s a quiet book of reflection and review about one’s childhood and one’s choices, prompted by the return of a stepfather. The book opens with Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan looking at exhibits in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Having just been to the Met twice last month, I was with them immediately and could easily picture their movement through the galleries. Jonathan thinks a man is following them, Daphne dismisses the comment, and yet the man is indeed dogging their steps. They meet and Daphne re-connects with Eddie Triplett, the stepfather she has not seen since she was 9, and she is now 53.
Daphne’s parents divorced when she was a child, and her mother remarried twice; hence, Daphne had a father and two stepfathers, but her favorite was Eddie. What follows is both lovely and loving as Eddie and Daphne spend precious time together cherishing every encounter. Daphne re-visits childhood events, sharing and dissecting them with her sister Leda, who is a therapist. In the process, Daphne acquires an adult understanding of why her mother and Eddie separated and a new perspective on how her own life has been colored by the family disruptions of her youth. Highly recommended!
As I was reading this novel, I felt the echoes of an essay I’d read by Patchett some years before. The idea of several fathers stuck with me, so I did a bit of sleuthing and re-discovered “My Three Fathers” with the tagline “My problems were never ones of scarcity. I suffered from abundance.” It was in the September 28, 2020, issue of The New Yorker and is a touching account of how each of Ann Patchett’s fathers brought something different and important to her life. It too is worth reading. (~JWFarrington)
Last One Out is Australian novelist Jane Harper’s sixth book. It’s a mystery, but one with a slow burn. For the fifth anniversary of her son Sam’s disappearance, Ro Crowley returns from Sydney to the small town of Carralon Ridge for the annual memorial event. She and her husband Griff are separated, and he stayed in the town.
Carralon Ridge is as much of a character here as Ro, Griff, their daughter Della, and assorted family and friends. A big coal mining company’s operation runs constantly, and over the years, the company has bought up many of the residents’ homes. Ill feeling often reigns between those who sold out and those who held on. And the town has shrunk as businesses and organizations died out and people moved on.
Every year, Ro traces Sam’s last actions looking for answers to what happened to him. Griff has cousins locally, and an uncle of his committed suicide. For a student project at the university, Sam interviewed many residents and relatives about their lives there, what they did, and what they thought about the town’s future. The notebook containing the interview transcriptions is a document Ro reads over and over again.
The town and its environs are painstakingly described, the nuances and intonations of conversations are caught, and slowly, one sees a picture of the past unfolding as truths are finally revealed. I found the initial chapters slow going, but as I got further into, I very much appreciated Harper’s skill in weaving and then untangling complex relationships in a dying place. Recommended especially for fans of her work! (~JWFarrington)
The Fenton residential and commercial complex is only a short drive away, so the Chief Penguin and I have been trying some of the restaurants there. We love Brewery Bhavana there even though it’s small and its menu more limited than the original in downtown Raleigh. Doc B’s Restaurant began in Chicago, named for the owner’s father, and now is also located in Florida, Texas, and Indiana.
Doc B’s here is a large, expansive space with a prominent bar, loud music upon entry, and plenty of tables and booths spread around. Wisely, the hostess seated us near the back of the restaurant away from much of the noise.
Grilled artichoke
Rather than ordering entrees, we concentrated on starters and first off ordered the grilled California artichokes. Split in half and definitely grilled, three halves were on the plate with some remoulade sauce. As anyone who has ordered artichokes this way knows, there is a certain amount of work involved to eat them and the return in terms of quantity is limited. But we enjoyed them.
We also sampled the Buffalo shrimp poppers which came with the requisite ranch dressing, cucumber spears, and carrot sticks. They packed a nice punch! Lastly, we shared the oven roasted chicken wings. I expected maybe 4 or 5 wings but instead received a generous platter; later we learned that it was a full pound of wings. They were delicious and easily enough for three or more people.
The menu has a full roster of meat dishes from steak to fried chicken and a variety of pastas, salads, burgers, and sandwiches. Some friends raved about the homemade Oreo ice cream, but we never got that far. We liked everything we tasted enough to plan to return.
Doherty’s is a local pub chain with restaurants in Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, and Pittsboro. My sisters and I had lunch in Pittsboro before spending time and money in some of the charming shops along the main street. As you would expect, Irish favorites such as shepherd’s pie, bangers and mash, corned beef and cabbage, and beef and Guinness stew are on the menu along with a full range of soups, salads, and sandwiches such as Reubens and Rachels. And of course, fish and chips!
Two of us ordered the half fish and chips entree with cole slaw (other option being crispy green beans), while the other sister had a healthy salad with arugula, berries, and goat cheese. All tasty fare! The venue is cozy and feels like an Irish pub including very nice service from our waitress. Some nights, there is live music.
