An Arcade to Make Gamers Cry

First published in The New York Times on February 10, 2011. Read the original with comments and photo gallery here.

ON my first visit to Babycastles, an independent arcade in Queens, I watched as two young women explained to a friend the rules of a video game. It didn’t involve fighting, special moves or guns, but it was full of big-headed cartoon characters wandering through a jewel-toned landscape.

“I don’t understand,” their friend said, “but I love it.” From a nearby stool, I cheered them on until it was my turn.

An avid gamer since Pong, I have always loved the feeling of hiding in a friend’s basement while playing games through the middle of the night. It was something no traditional arcade could recreate: the camaraderie, the broken-down couches, the blasting punk music. But entering Babycastles brought it all back — right down to the low ceiling and the musty basement smell. But there was one important difference: the games at Babycastles can’t be found anywhere else. There’s no House of the Dead 4, Mortal Kombat 3 or even classics like Space Invaders.
[more]

Posted on March 2, 2011 to New York Times
Tags: ,

Island Creek Oyster Bar

First published in The New York Times on January 14, 2011. Read the original with comments here.

Island Creek Oyster Bar brings a special twist to the trend of farm-to-table restaurants: the small farms carefully listed next to each dish on Oyster Creek’s menu specialize in aquaculture, the raising of seafood and shellfish. But that’s not all: the restaurant itself is an extension of Island Creek Oysters, a farm founded in 1992 in nearby Duxbury, Mass. So it’s no surprise that though the menu is long and varied, at Island Creek, which opened in October, oysters take pride of place.

[more]

Posted on January 21, 2011 to New York Times
Tags: ,

NY Times Travel Q&A: Puerto Rico or Tortola for a 30th Anniversary

First published in The New York Times on January 11, 2011. Read the original with comments here.

Q.

My husband and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary this February. Could you recommend a special resort setting in Puerto Rico or Tortola? Puerto Rico because it’s close and Tortola because that’s where we honeymooned. We are limited to the school break in February but do not want to stay at a resort overrun with children. Looking for a quiet beach/private pool, good food and wine. Any suggestions to help us mark this milestone?

M. Rossi, Merrick, N.Y.

A.

What about celebrating your 30th anniversary in Vieques, the small island just off the east coast of mainland Puerto Rico? In his “36 Hours in Vieques” (Feb. 21, 2010), Hugh Ryan wrote that the island has evolved into an upscale resort and has seen a boom in restaurants, galleries and hotels, while also offering white-sand beaches, coral reefs and a bioluminescent bay. In an e-mail, he added that one of the best things about Vieques is that it is still relatively “quiet compared to most Caribbean islands” and is “a great locale for couples looking for some calm, beautiful beaches that aren’t overrun with tourists — but still have some great restaurant options.”

[more]

Posted on January 12, 2011 to New York Times
Tags:

Pinball Museums Light Up Around the Country

First published in The New York Times on December 17, 2010. Read the original with comments here.

STEP inside the Shops at Georgetown Park, a shopping mall in Washington, D.C., and you’ll find two nine-foot-tall flippers and a giant floating silver ball. It’s not a piece of public art — it’s the entrance to the new National Pinball Museum.

The museum (3222 M Street NW; 202-337-1100; nationalpinballmuseum.org), which opened on Dec. 4, is one of three shrines to the game that have lit up around the country over the last two years.

“I wanted people to get a real in-depth sense of what pinball was and is,” said David Silverman, executive director of the museum.

In depth indeed.

[more]

Posted on December 17, 2010 to New York Times
Tags: ,

4 Towns, 4 Tasty New Reasons to Visit

First published in The New York Times on November 17, 2010. Read the original with comments here.

Preston Hollow

Bees Knees Cafe

For nearly 200 years, the old farmhouse on Broome Center Road has been the heart of Heather Ridge, a working farm in the Catskills town of Preston Hollow. For the last year, it’s also been home to the Bees Knees Cafe. Open only for lunch on Saturdays, it is a culinary showcase for local farmers, beekeepers, cheese makers and butchers.

[more]

Posted on November 17, 2010 to New York Times
Tags: ,

How to do Astrology

First published on The Morning News on October 20, 2010. Read the original with comments here.

“I’m not at all psychic. Any astrologer who says they’re psychic you must run away from, because it means they don’t want to do the math.”

This is one of the first things astrologer and writer Susan Miller says to me, and I find it simultaneously hopeful and disheartening. I gave up wishing for psychic powers at 13, around the time I stopped collecting X-Men comics. Ever since, I’ve secretly hoped astrology would be my way into the world of mystics, that if I studied hard enough I could enroll at Hogwarts without any innate ability. But no one told me there’d be math on the entrance exam.
[more]

Posted on October 20, 2010 to The Morning News
Tags: ,

« go back — « Previous Entries