tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post4552349170771348928..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Postcard from CambridgeCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-20371955604239617442011-04-25T12:30:44.667-04:002011-04-25T12:30:44.667-04:00Reason #785 to love this blog: Commenters who quo...Reason #785 to love this blog: Commenters who quote Faust and wax poetic about the nature of memory. Seriously, this made my morning.<br /><br />Also, congratulations on the new iPad!Heohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15790601758953554870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-18189748916420278822011-04-25T12:02:20.531-04:002011-04-25T12:02:20.531-04:00DC is no doubt impoverished in many respects, but ...DC is no doubt impoverished in many respects, but enriched by your presence. Happy Passover.James Mitchellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00001431121249938677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-37254516121208887482011-04-25T08:18:22.854-04:002011-04-25T08:18:22.854-04:00James, that comment amounts to a kind of poem. It&...James, that comment amounts to a kind of poem. It's also powerfully nostalgic for me, in that in activates everything I remember about Brigham's (though the one I recall most was in Porter Square, and I would add to your description color: dark colored jimmies on light colored ice cream within a cold metal bowl).<br /><br />Because of your comment, by the way, I took my whole family out for ice cream last night to celebrate the end of spring break. sadly, though, DC is an ice cream impoverished city.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-23452386087590656052011-04-24T18:26:36.736-04:002011-04-24T18:26:36.736-04:00Duly noted, but in the case of Brigham's it wa...Duly noted, but in the case of Brigham's it was not only the ice-cream but the associated thing-ability that defined the experience: silver-plated cups and spoons in distinctive shapes, fluted ice-cream soda glasses made actually of glass, the automatic glass of water filled with ice-cubes, the old-English mongrammed "B" on the embossed napklns, the steel milk-shape cans that probably fit into every Hamilton-Beach mixer ever made, and the like more.<br /><br />One could contemplate the durability of utensilia in a pre-plastic age, but what excites the memory is the way those hard metals containing ice-cream conducted the coldness along the fingers, or how they appeared silvery to the eye.<br /><br />That's the bother with history, the sensuality leaks out of it.James Mitchellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01753213254808138481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-44977082763585537122011-04-24T14:43:53.064-04:002011-04-24T14:43:53.064-04:00Though on the positive side James, Harvard Square ...Though on the positive side James, Harvard Square does continue to have some very good ice cream options - eg, Liz's!Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-42113601613077777252011-04-23T17:24:46.122-04:002011-04-23T17:24:46.122-04:00Which however does not excuse the deletion of Brig...Which however does not excuse the deletion of Brigham's Ice Cream parlor kitty-corner across from the Brattle Theater. Major fail!James Mitchellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01753213254808138481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-15334948164356414802011-04-23T14:40:41.483-04:002011-04-23T14:40:41.483-04:00James: beautiful. Thank you.James: beautiful. Thank you.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-3122392221008589372011-04-23T14:04:46.334-04:002011-04-23T14:04:46.334-04:00I suppose the venues of youth are almost automatic...I suppose the venues of youth are almost automatically conflicted and consequently the sites of injury and wrong paths taken -- this is not a time of life when one is often tempted to address the moment with: Verweile doch, du bist so schoen. <br /><br />But let me tell you, it happens one day when you return to Boston and Cambridge for your 50th reunion of one thing or another, and you walk about the Square on a Sunday morning when the streets are empty, and remember the music you loved and the people and friends long since vanished, and you lapse into a kind of rapture about the utter uniqueness and unrecoverability of it all, then the memories of whatever was once found dumb or messy just aren't there anymore.James Mitchellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01753213254808138481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-28477888862391825142011-04-22T16:51:14.473-04:002011-04-22T16:51:14.473-04:00This post is a minor milestone: the first I've...This post is a minor milestone: the first I've composed on my iPad.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.com