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The Children’s Museum on Congress Street in South Boston sets a worldwide example for the learning experiences (and the fun) with their exhibits.  The Museum has embarked upon its year-end school break program called “Snowmazing”.  Stop by from December 26 to December 30.   by Rick Winterson      “Snowmazing”, the winter exhibition at the Children’s Museum is, well, amazing, as is the entire Museum itself, known worldwide as a leader in meeting young peoples’ needs and interests. This writer was conducted on a guided tour of the Museum by Jo-Anne Baxter, Director of Public Relations, last week, starting with “Snowmazing”, which includes some of the most eye-catching, popular exhibits there. Skate with your socks on, at an inside “Snowmazing” skating rink surfaced with slippery, [...]

by Rick Winterson      The 2018 Polar Plunge, perhaps the longest continuous annual custom and event in South Boston, will happen on Monday morning, January 1 (of course), at 9 a.m.  The location – the Curley Community Center (a.k.a. “The L”) on Day Boulevard at the foot of L Street, on the K Street Beach side.    South Boston’s historic Polar Plunge has been a faithfully followed local custom for over 115 years – at least since 1901.  Our hometown’s Plunge is the oldest in the country.  Very possibly, South Boston residents took part in unrecorded Plunges going all the way back to the Civil War.  Soldiers in that years-long conflict learned the value of sanitary habits, including bathing; they brought these health-giving customs [...]

by Rick Winterson   You have surely seen and heard of the “Toys for Tots” program, first founded by Major Bill Hendricks, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, and his wife Diane.  Actually, the idea occurred to Diane, after she had unsuccessfully tried to find a way to get Christmas toys to needy children. Just as a reminder, here are a few remarkable facts and figures describing “Toys for Tots”.  In this Year of Our Lord 2017, “Toys for Tots” has turned 70 – Diane and Bill Hendricks began it in 1947.  If you would like to see a heart-warming sight, take the elevator to the Eighth Floor of South Boston’s Design & Innovation Building at 21 Drydock Avenue by the Flynn Terminal.  You’ll see an entire [...]

by Rick Winterson      “For Now”, located at 68 Seaport Boulevard on the edge of One Seaport’s Courthouse Square, is a retail incubator.  Inside “For Now”, there are thirteen - Lucky 13 - small pop-up shops, which take many forms - racks, steps, shelves, pegboards, tabletops, and mannequins.  Each one of these is really a small business of its own, featuring elegant, enticing crafted goods. It is the concept of the “For Now” proprietors, Katharine ReQua and Kaity Cimo, that small but creative businesses belonging to craftspeople can pilot their wares in a real-life, bricks-and-mortar marketplace at “For Now”.  They can then move on, after one, or two, or three months, to achieve their own independent e-commerce success.  But they are here for, well, [...]

by Rick Winterson   There is a certain insanity to “Cyber Monday”, the Monday of November’s final week.  Yes, we live in a cyber-influenced age, but blending this into the Winter Holiday Season is a bit extreme in our opinion.  Even more insane is so-called “Black Friday”, which was originally confined to the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Over the last few years, Black Friday has been stretched from well before midnight on Thanksgiving Thursday into the following weekend.  In this year of 2017, Black Friday was stretched far enough backwards to include November 20 – the Monday before Thanksgiving.  So we should now call it “Black Week”, maybe? Insanity, indeed! Fortunately, between the two volcanoes of insanity known as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there was [...]

By Richard Campbell Serving a fresh lobster roll is deceptively simple, and you know this is true because so many times when restaurants try it, they yuck it up with fillers and nonsense. With three generations of lobsterman behind him and dozens of restaurants, Luke Holden’s product is the real thing.  Readers may already be familiar with this signature restaurant, from the downtown and Back bay locations, so the new location opened in the Seaport this past Wednesday, doesn’t offer a lot of surprises. Tantalizingly fresh, big pieces of lobster stuffed in a smallish bun and not real cheap, but consistent pricing at $18.00 bucks- Luke’s is very consistently good. The absolutely to die for lobster mac and cheese puts you into a head spin [...]