https://www.meetboston.com/ Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

And in the interests of pausing the inter-city rivalry we’re taking you on a special trip… America250 back to the start and before.

Now the East Coast’s great cities all have a claim on driving the Birth of the Nation.

And that has fostered competition that has lasted more than two and a half centuries.

Oft played out on sports fields, courts and rinks.

Better that we stay out of that one and just enjoy all of what Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC have to offer.

Collette you bet

Enter tour specialist Collette who has put together a nine-night odyssey through American Revolutionary history.

Now our old pals in Boston are full of beans about lighting the torch for the revolution.

Which is why visitors will always find Boston the most historic of American cities.

Going to the Boston party

Your two-night stop-off in the Cradle of Liberty starts at Lexington and Concord.

Where the ‘shot heard round the world’ signalled the start of America’s fight for self-determination.

Now living and working in Boston, as I’ve done, you might be forgiven for seeing the Freedom Trail your journey to work in Faneuil Hall.

A walking route lined with sites that helped catalyse the rebellion.

From the Hall, a hotbed of colonial protest, to the Old North Church, famed for its lanterns that heralded Paul Revere’s midnight ride.

New York, New York

Did you know though that the new nation’s first capital was New York City?

Which we are heading to next for two nights in the metropolis.

Back in 1776 NYC had been a strategic British stranglehold.

Yet colonial remnants remain.

Fraunces Tavern dates back to 1719 and is where George Washington bade farewell to his officers after the war.

You’ll be enlisted too, on a guided tour, showcasing NYC’s dual identity.

Philly loaded

Before heading for crackin’ Philadelphia.

Where you can walk in the footsteps of the Founding Fathers in Independence Hall,

The very place where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and signed.

Before the obligatory selfie at the Liberty Bell.

The Museum of the American Revolution. is the catch-all for all things 1776, where interactive exhibits bring to life the personal narratives behind the war.

When you’re ready to dine, step aboard the Tall Ship Moshulu—a majestic vessel docked along the Philadelphia waterfront.

For an unforgettable meal that fuses culinary flair with historic ambiance.

Just capital

Now as we all know Washington DC was built as a celebration of the first President and to act as a compromise capital.

You’ll venture inside the U.S. Capitol to witness the legislative process and admire the art that honours pivotal figures in American history.

And then stroll along the National Mall, where towering memorials commemorate the nation’s past leaders, from Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King Jr.

No visit to Washington would be complete without exploring George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, a picturesque property perched on the banks of the Potomac.

Roam the gardens, outbuildings, and mansion that once belonged to America’s first President.

A special farewell dinner offers a chance to reflect on the historical journey you’ve undertaken.

One that connects Boston’s rebellious spark to the global influence of modern-day Washington, D.C.

Top dollar

Hands across the ocean: With the American family

Collette will put on a variety of properties, from modern hotels near city centres to boutique stays that exude colonial charm.

And along the way, you’ll enjoy curated group meals that highlight each region’s culinary tradition.

Be it fresh seafood in Boston, hearty tavern fare in New York, or upscale dining infused with Revolutionary-era touches in Philadelphia.

And all from $4,499 pp*, with a saving of up to $300, and leaving on time on May 7.

America, Countries

Bewitching Boston and the Salem witch trials

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Now Scotland’s World Cup opener with so-called underdogs Haiti is scary enough but we’d like to avert your eyes away from the football to Bewitching Boston and the Salem witch trials.

Because the beauty of football travel is to drink in the culture (and here it’s Sam Adams) around you when you’re there.

Which, of course, we’ve done during a working summer after uni at the coalface, and 30 years later as guests of the Bostonians.

From the cradle to the grave

Boston, of course, is front and centre this year of the 250-year celebrations, as the birthplace of the American Revolution.

It is tempting to imagine Beantown‘s story beginning in the 1770s with the Boston Tea Party but the great old city dates back to 1630.

And, of course, Boston’s hinterland has always been central to its history which is why you should enjoy the city, yes, but also get out to the hinterland.

Where back in the 17th century, and still, the spirits are still exercised.

In the shape of the restless souls in Salem.

Where 19 people were hanged in the Salem Witchhunts of 1692.

Scaring up a treat

Fun of the fair: Haunted Happenings Festival

All of which you can see for yourself at the Salem Witch Museum & Witch Trials Memorial.

And the Haunted Happenings Festival with parades, live music, themed nights and family-friendly events.

With the train from Boston North Station to Salem taking just 35-40 minutes and costing just $20pp round trip.

Going back to Massachussetts

By hook or by crook: The Salem Witch Museum

Our Irish pals Cassidy Travel are offering a three nights in Boston and one night in Salem package for October from €1,999pps with the option of adding nights.

Staying at the AC Hotel Boston Downtown and The Hampton Inn Salem.

You’ll be taken on a Ghost Tour, Experience Haunted Happenings Festival, Visit The Witch House & Witch Trials Memorial.

The Old Burying Point Cemetery, Pickering Wharf, Old Burying Point Cemetery & Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery.

Your package includes direct flights from Dublin.

America, Countries, Sport

No Scotland, no Boston Footie Party

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It’s just another staging post on the Tartan Army‘s world tour, and no doubt we’ll be coming down the road singing No Scotland, no Boston Footie Party.

We have, of course, been here before in Beantown, where Scotland’s first two games against Haiti and Morocco will be played.

With Scots early pioneers out to the American colonies.

And it’ll surprise nobody that when it came to a drunken fight and cocking a snook at the English that we were front and centre in Boston in 1773.

When liquored up we went down to the Bay and started turfing crates of heavily-taxed imported tea into the water.

Among them Fifer and 19-yer-old apprentice clerk James Swan.

Boston Scottie Party

That I know this isn’t down to isn’t down to my American history studies.

Although my old Aberdeen University tutor Ted Rantsen would surely be impressed.

But because the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum attraction gives every visitor a character to play.

And obviously being a Scot I got to walk this Son Of Liberty’s footsteps.

A Scot’s Swansong

James, I discovered, was quickly identified by Samuel Adams and the leaders as important to the cause.

Through his work at the mercantile house Thaxter & Son and their dealings with the sale of tea.

James, or Swannie as he was probably never known but would have been if he had been a footballer, brought his Scottish ways with him to New England.

I learned that he became a member of the St. Andrew’s Lodge of Freemasons, the Scots Charitable Society of Boston, and enlisted in the Revolutionary Army.

Where this Scottish soldier rose to the rank of colonel for the Battle of Bunker Hill.

And also held positions on the Massachusetts Board of War and Legislature.

My own time working as a busboy at Guadalaharry’s in Quincy Market and an ice cream shop in Faneuil Hall.

And the Black Rose pub in State Street pales into significance in comparison.

Flying the American flag

Stars in Stripes: Boston, cradle of the Revolution

Swannie, of course, would have been too busy fighting the English, and no doubt some Scots with the Brtitish Army, to have concerned himself with such pastimes as football.

Although it was a game, having been played back in the Old World since the 1500s with the oldest ball housed in Stirling Castle, not far from Swannie’s Fife fiefdom, from 1540.

Coming down the road: SuperMac Scott McTominay

Even if organised or Association football, from where we get the word soccer, had not taken hold in Scotland until 1873, 43 years after Swannie’s death in Paris.

Scotland’s famous Tartan Army will, of course, get a warm welcome from Bostonians.

And we will doubtless repay our hosts by supporting the Boys in Stars and Stripes when they play.

Just as Greenock native Ed McIlvenny did when he captained America to victory over England at the 1950 World Cup.

And there’s a trivia question for you and money you can take from your English friends in a bet.

America The Bountiful

All of which trips down memory lane lead us neatly to our modern-day American friends at Brand USA.

Who hae put together a handy guide for footie fans for next summer.

With the launch of America the Beautiful Game, which is now live at AmericaTheBeautiful.com/Football.

It’s a go-to resource for discovering things to do, must-try local cuisine, and a set of sample road trip itineraries.

All of which connect the 11 US host cities with nearby destinations and experiences.

We, of course, are concentrating here on Boston.

On Brand

Where Brand USA kindly point us in the direction of the Museum of Sports.

Which celebrates this sports-mad city’s rich legacy.

Inside TD Garden, home of the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics.

And would-be sportscasters can sit at a replica New England Sports Network (NESN) desk, where visitors can ‘Be the Broadcaster.’

So you can practise: ‘And Andy Robertson makes history as the first Scot to lift the World Cup.’

For those of who will go native, of course, there is the hub of American soccer fans, The Banshee.

A 14 television sports bar across two floors where the Tartan Army will converge.

Because No Scotland, no Boston Footie Party.

The wailing Banshee

This is where, The Banshee, the American Outlaws (supporters of the U.S. national football team) congregate as well as fans of other major sports leagues.

And on special celebrity bartending nights, local athletes pour drinks at this mainstay Dorchester-based Irish pub.

Now what Swannie and his pals would think of the America of today we can only imagine, but we’d say pride would be their foremost emotion.

Particularly as the tournament coincides with America 250, and Brand USA is spotlighting 250 things to do.

Across the US through a themed content series.

And as with all else with transatlantic travel from these islands to the Oo Es of Eh, we always advise travelling through Ireland.

And Aer Lingus with pre-clearance where you can get a sample return flight for a week, covering both matches from £963.58.

America, Countries, Sport

The first black pioneer of the NBA 75 years on

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IT seems unimaginable now that basketball that has created more Afro-American idols than any other was once a white preserve, so it is worth marking the first black pioneer of the NBA 75 years on.

Charles ‘Chuck’ Cooper may not have the global adulation.

Of a Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Magic Johnson or Shaquille O’Neal.

But were you to ask any one of those black colossuses of sport for his contribution to the sport.

And their passage into it they would as one place him on the highest pedestal.

Because on this day back in 1950 the Pittsburgh native became the first Afro-American to play in the NBA.

Featuring in the Boston Celtics‘ 107-84 loss to the Fort Wayne Pistons.

That it was the Celtics that broke the colour barrier is a matter of great pride for Bostonians.

Because, of course, others were not always as welcoming to athletic achieving black Americans.

Best of Chuck

The towering 6ft 5ins Chuck though bore, as so many did in those days, the humiliation with heroic grace.

Not that Walter A Brown’s and Red Auerbach’s Celtics stopped there.

With Chuck going on to form a holy trinity of African-American basketball players.

With Earl Lloyd and Nat ‘Sweetwater’ Clifton, who would transform the parquet.

That the Celtics weren’t prepared to be dictated to by anyone who they would or wouldn’t play was clear when Brown hit out at the racists.

And said at the draft: ‘I don’t give a damn if he’s striped, plaid or polka dot. Boston takes Charles Cooper of Duquesne (College).’

The Holy Trinity

On a pedestal: With Red in Quincy Market in Boston

Even against, or perhaps because, of the maltreatment they would receive on the road they rose higher and greater.

Red’s Big Three faced discrimination in restaurants, hotels, and the very arenas in which they played.

Even when a new hotel on the exhibition circuit refused Chuck service or fans from a rival city shouted racial slurs.

The black and the green: The Celtics today

Chuck would also hold court for the Harlem Globetrotters, Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks.

And the team he faced in that historic first game 75 years ago today, Fort Wayne Pistons.

For the stattos out there, Chuck played a total of 409 games, scored 2,725 points for an average of 6.66 points per game.

He recorded 2,431 rebounds for an average of 5.9 per game, and had 733 assists for an average of 1.79 per game.

The pioneer

The most notable statistic though was that Chuck Cooper was the first, the first Afro-American to play in the NBA.

Chuck would be inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame as late as 2019, some 35 years after he had died at the age of 57 of cancer.

But he has, of course, left a legacy that far outlasts his life as the first Afro-American to trod the parquet courts of the NBA.

And for us, and the great sports city of Boston, that is a real slam dunk.

We found an Aer Lingus flight from our home airport here in Edinburgh through Dublin with pre-clearance for a sample week’s return dates this month from £668.40.

America, Countries

Start the USA’s 250th party early

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Paul Revere has long completed his Midnight Ride and the first shots have been fired at Lexington and Concord, so we can start the USA’s 250th party early, right?

The USA is in full excited preparation mode for next year’s Semiquincentennial celebrations as we discovered at its travel fair in Chicago.

Quite a mouthful, although the Classics-loving Founding Fathers would no doubt have approved.

The veritas est (that’s one for my old Latin teacher ‘Weed’ McCafferty) America’s revolution is played out daily across the old 13 colonies.

The Cradle of the Revolution

And nowhere more so than in the Cradle of the Revolution Boston.

Where visitors are invited to channel their inner Patriots, holler Huzzah and throw a crate of tea (on a pulley) into the harbour.

At the award-winning Boston Tea Party Museum.

Or walk the 2.5kms Freedom Trail to take in 16 of the sites critical to that first year of the Revolutionary War.

That there isn’t a plaque marking my time working in Faneuil Hall, or the Irish bar institution that is The Black Rose, is probably an oversight.

But we’re sure that our friends in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will have that rectified.

By the time they invite us out for the 250th anniversary of the actual signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Bustin’ for Boston 250

Boston will, of course, do American proud as it did back then and has been ever since.

It has an ongoing hub to curate projects aligned to Boston 250.

And the city’s enduring contribution to Freedom.

With Martin Luther King’s rally in Boston in 1965, a momentous year for the world with the birth of one very important travel blogger, commemorated.

With the dedication of Freedom March Square at the entrance to Boston Common.

A Common purpose

The Common is the oldest (and Boston has a lot of those firsts) public green space in America, dating back to 1634.

And Bostonians are rightly proud of their playground which will be central to next year’s festivities.

Our Beantown Buddies, of course, have proved with blood, bravuro and beer that they will defend their liberties to the hilt.

But that respect, of course, is twofold, particularly when you’re a visitor from its old overlords.

Which is why we observed the no unlicensed drinking of cans on the Common or outside at all.

But Nick the #&%*, a randomer on our plane who had attached himself to us, arrogantly ignored the rules and landed himself a fine.

A mistake we won’t ever be making. Because Bostonians still live out their Patriot days daily here.

Which is why they would every right to start the USA’s 250th party early because this is where it all started.

Central America, Countries, Deals, Flying

Now we Cancun fly Aer Lingus from Dublin

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I’ve done the Guadalaharry ole, hung with The Three Caballeros and sung Mariachi so I reckon I’m Mex-ready now we Cancun fly Aer Lingus from Dublin.

Guadalaharry’s was my first introduction to American working life.

If you discount being pressganged into moving dumpsters at the back of my aunt’s business The Irish Cottage in Queens.

A Mexican restaurant in Quincy Market in Boston back in the Eighties, I was employed as a bus boy .

And I was rewarded with a pittance and a cut of the waiters and waitresses’ tips.

And as well as clearing up the dishes and washing them I had to join the staff in celebrating customers’ birthdays.

Which involved Mariachi music and a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday ole, Happy Birthday ole, Happy Birthday from Harry’s, Happy Birthday oleeeeeeee.

Mariachi Murty

Not surprisingly the mariachi band who entertained us in Orlando years later hit their notes rather better.

And Donald Duck and the Three Caballeros at Epcot, well they have had years of practice.

While when it comes to Tex-Mex, well the San Antonians on the River Walk bandstand no doubt learned it at their mother’s knee.

And their love of Cerveza at their father’s.

A new Mexican wave

Because after all the Lone Star state of Texas is infused with Mexican heritage.

Where the lines have been blurred over the centuries and the best compromise of all is the sobriquet Tex-Mex.

Less well known probably is that Scots and Irish, my mixed bloods, enmeshed themselves in the rows between neighbours down in this part of the world.

With a bagpiper heralding the Battle of the Alamo and Irish emigrees too fighting to the death.

Today’s Scots and Irish head to Tex-Mex territory and the motherland for Tequila and Tacos and sun, sea, sand and sangria.

But up until today’s Aer Lingus announcement of direct routes from Dublin to Cancun that has involved circuitous stop-offs.

Ireland’s national carrier will operate three times weekly on the airline’s A330-300 aircraft, operating from 6 January to 29 April.

Cancun cookin’

Of course, if you want to wander from the Caribbean beaches, the region is also home to awe-inspiring archaeological sites.

Such as El Rey, Ichkabal, Coba, Kohunlich, El Meco, Chichén Itzá, and Tulum.

All of which offer a fascinating glimpse into Mexico’s rich heritage.

And because we got a taste for the enchilada back then in Guadalaharry’s we’re keen to tuck into the local fare.

And Cancun offers a wide choice from the smoky, charred richness of grilled meats to the region’s iconic zesty ceviche.

From Lobster Pizza, Queso De Bola,crispy sweet Marquesitas or freshly made Guacamole.

Friends across the water

And all this as Ireland and Mexico mark the 50th anniversary.

Of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

So it’s Areeba, Areeba from us and now we Cancun fly Aer Lingus from Dublin we know what we’ll be doing in 2026.

Particularly with flights to Cancun available from €291 each way, including taxes, fees and carrier charges.

America, Countries

Tapping into Platinum syrup in Vermont

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For those who struggle getting the golden nectar out of the bottle here’s a lesson in tapping into Platinum syrup in Vermont.

Visitors to New England will inevitably tap first into the region in its showpiece city Boston.

And some of us linger for a summer seeing both sides.

Black culture in Tremont Street and working in Irish bars and the historic Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall area.

With the beauty of timeless Boston being that you can return 35 years on and it still feels the same even when they have totally transformed the harbour area.

Of course, once you’ve got a taste for Boston and Massachusetts you’ll want to venture further into New England life.

Dreaming of New England

The olde worlde charm and beaches of Manchester, New Hampshire.

Pizza culture and Yale in New Haven, Connecticut and art and Ivy League again with Brown and murals in Providence in Rhode Island.

Got it licked: With Handsome George at Yale

Which brings us to the New England states still on our to do list and a very attendant waitress Kelly who flagged up her own homestead of Vermont.

And how I just must get up there, and especially in the Fall, to tap syrup from the maple trees.

Now we know and have shared the fact that everyone’s idyll of a wholesome rural family settled there when the Von Trapps relocated to the US.

Very Vermont

And we just know that they would have tapped into the Vermont syrup.

You’ll stay in the Von Trapps‘ adopted town of Stowe on your Platinum Travel New England Fall Foliage trip.

And in Montpelier visit a maple syrup family where you’ll learn how to tap the golden liquid from the trees.

But as Maria once said, let’s start at the very beginning.

In Boston on the red-brick Freedom Trail, before moseying through the bronzing leaves of Vermont’s lush trees.

The Maine meal

New Hampshire’s White Mountains glisten at this time of year while on a clear day you can see as far as Canada.

While for lighthouse fans there’s Maine’s oldest in Portland.

Where it’s best to go native with a decadent fresh lobster dinner… now if only I had Kelly, the best waitress in New England there to serve me.

With pancakes and fresh maple syrup tapped from a Vermont. tree.

Fall for New England

Chowder cheer: Rhode Island or Boston, take your pick

Your New England Fall Foliage trip will see you leave on September 19, from €3790 per person including flights.

With single supplement €1630 per person and a deposit (including flights) for €650 per person.

You’ll get return flights from Dublin and transfers. and handpicked hotels over seven nights.

There’s authentic dining with seven breakfasts, five dinners and wine.

You’ll travel by customised coaches (twice legroom of standard coach.

And much, much more.

While you’ll return with extra skills from tapping into Platinum syrup in Vermont.

America, Countries, Sport

Boston Sporty Party for the Celtics

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Eurocentrics listen up, there is other sport around the world, and the green bunting is up all around Beantown today as fans throw a Boston Sporty Party for the Celtics.

Bostonians rightly beam about their famous basketball team, and rightly so, as they are now inarguably the most successful NBA team of all time.

The Celtics had reluctantly shared that mantle with their greatest of rivals, the LA Lakers, on 17 titles before this week.

But the prospect of the exclusivity of an 18th title drove Jason Taytum, Jaylen Brown and the Celtics to a historic title.

With a 4-1 win over the game Dallas Mavericks.

Bostonians flying high

Now as well as the fanfare and receptions that will last all summer and right through to the resumption of the NBA.

The Celtics will earn an 18th pennant to be draped on the walls of Logan Airport alongside the other winners in New England’s proud history.

This millennium has been particularly kind to New England’s teams.

And not just because of Tom Brady at the Patriots.

Boston’s Big Four sports franchises have now delivered 14 titles this century.

And soon they’ll be needing to build another terminal at Logan.

To hang all their banners which includes the city’s other successes!

Now having been hosted like a Tom Brady or Larry Bird by the good people of Boston in the grand old city.

Back with my Boston buddies

It will be my pleasure to reciprocate this week in my adopted city of Edinburgh.

Where we will celebrate the Celtics’ success and hear what else is going down in New England.

As New Englanders, of course, the sports of the Olde Worlde have a foothold on the north-west coast.

And so the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough will be front and centre in two years’ time for the football World Cup.

With five group matches, a round of 32 match and a quarter-final booked for Boston.

Babe’s base and Tom’s temple

Now if you like your city break doused with history, culture, culinary.

And the best sports teams then Boston is waiting for you.

And following my travel mantra of going where people play and pray then see for yourself their sporting cathedrals.

The TD Garden for the Celtics and the Boston Bruins ice hockey team.

And Fenway Park, where they’ve been coming to watch the best baseball.

From Cy Young, Babe Ruth and Jim Rice through Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs to David Ortiz and beyond.

And Tom Brady’s temple at Foxburgh.

Frequent flier from Dublin

Around for tea: The Boston Tea Party Museum

Now whatever your sporting special is you’ll find it in New England where the action never stops.

And the stadium tours like the Sam Adams tour is always in tap.

As ever with all things transatlantic the best route is through Dublin Airport with pre-clearance and Aer Lingus.

So, if you’re in Beantown lap up the celebrations and the Boston Sporty Party for the Celtics.

And if not find yourself some New Englanders to break bread with and plan your next trip out to Boston Sports City.

Africa, America, Countries, UK

250 years of the Black Bard

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Back in the day I penned a paean to rap poet Benjamin Zephaniah so it’s time for another, this time for 250 years of the Black Bard, Phillis Wheatley.

Phillis being a traveller like ourselves, entranced by London’s bright lights.

But as a black teenager of her time, Phillis was a slave, from West Africa via Boston, Massachusetts.

The young poet had arrived in Britain’s capital in 1773, the same year as the Boston Tea Party.

As the chattel of Nathaniel Wheatley, the adult son of the family who had bought her in Boston in 1761.

To see her collection, Poems on various subjects, published by Archibald Bell.

All of which came about through the family’s connections with Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon.

A Bostonian abroad

Educated as they were Phillis had clearly learned well her Homer, Horace, Virgil, Pope and Milton.

And had been writing poetry from the age of 12.

With her first published poem appearing in the Rhode Island in 1767.

Although she was unsuccessful in getting her collection published in Boston in 1772 which brought her to London.

That Phillis loved and was inspired by London (and who wouldn’t be?) we know from her letter to a Connecticut acquaintance, Colonel David Wooster, dated October 18, 1773.

Where she goes into some fine and excitable detail about the charms and attractions of London.

Tour of London

‘Grenville Sharp Esqr. Who attended me to the Tower & Show’d the Lions, Panthers, Tigers, &c. the Horse Armoury, small Armoury, the Crowns, Sceptres, Diadems, the Font for christening the Royal Family.

‘Saw Westminster Abbey, British Museum, Coxe’s Museum, Saddler’s wells, Greenwich Hospital, Park and Chapel, The royal Observatory at Greenwich, &c. &c. too many things & Places to trouble you with in a Letter.’

What the humble Phillis didn’t mention though was who she met among the great and good, among them Benjamin Franklin.

While she was beckoned to see King George III, only she was on her way home by then.

Free, free at last

sunset skyline boston dusk — Our cup of tea: Boston Photo by Kristin Vogt on Pexels.com

The said Grenvill Sharp Esqr was an abolitionist who was involved in a test case, the Somersett case.

Where The Lord Chief Justice ruled that enslaved African James Somersett brought to England from Boston by his owner, could not be legally forced to return to the colonies.

All of which helped our heroine and she was freed on her return to Boston.

She went on to marry, but died of chronic asthma at the tender age of 31.

Alas, as is the way with prophets in their own land, Phillis was not published in her adopted city of Boston until the 1830s.

While she remains relatively anonymous, and untaught, in Britain.

As do many black authors as I discovered when I asked in a bookshop if they had any Zepheniah…

All of which sparked me as I prepared for my Forth Stanza poetry show into penning my Ode to Zephaniah.

Ode to Zepheniah

I searched for Zepheniah

I searched lower I searched higher

Along the rows of shelves

Past Wordsworth, Yeats did I delve

Until I reached the Z,

And behind me poets dead,

But it all runs out at Y,

And so deflated, with a sigh,

I went over to reception,

To confront the shop’s deception,

And ask what happened to the Z,

And this is what she said,

‘There’s no-one with that letter,

‘And would you not be better,

‘To try a different author,

‘She didn’t want the bother,

‘Of spelling Zepheniah,

‘And so she did enquire,

‘If I’d read Andrew Motion’

Of him I had no notion.

‘The Poet Laureate I was told.

‘And how many copies has he sold’

‘I’ll check the other store.’

And as she hung on the blower

I thought about the others,

Perhaps Benjamin’s sisters, brothers,

Deleted from the alphabet,

Because poets’ names don’t start with Z.

A word or two from Phillis

On a pedestal: Phillis honoured in Boston

I’d like to think I stand comparison with Phillis… I’d like to.

Judge for yourself with this offering from ‘One Being Brought From Africa to America’.

‘TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land,

‘Taught my benighted soul to understand

‘That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:

‘Once I redemption neither sought now knew,

‘Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

‘Their colour is a diabolic die.’

‘Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,

‘May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.’

So, in this Black History Month, a mark of 250 years of the Black Bard, Phillis Wheatley.

America, Countries, Flying

Seattle’s listening – 30 years of Frasier

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Most TV spin-offs are forgettable but not so our fave sitcom which is why we say today Seattle’s listening – 30 years of Frasier.

It’s no exaggeration to say that American TV has been our window to the States.

And so the fact that Kojak filmed in my Uncle Petie’s bar in New York filled my childish mind.

With the dream of saving my pocket money to visit one day.

Thankfully my Dear Old Folks stumped up.

And then when we were choosing where to go on our post- university working holiday in America, we had to see Cheers in Boston.

First listening

Of course, all Cheersheads and Frasierphiles know the doc relocated back to Seattle.

And on this day too on September 16, 1993.

Although we had to wait in Europe until 20 April.

Frase has, of course, had some detours over the years.

And is now back in Boston with the next chapter out soon.

But it is Seattle we are celebrating today and Kelsey Grammer’s alter ego has done as much to promote Seattle as anybody.

Whisper it because like Cheers the bulk of the set was in LA.

But aptly they filmed on location for the 1,000th show.

Frasier Crane Day

The plot, as if we need to tell you, surrounds Frasier’s accident-riddled vain attempt.

To attend Frasier Crane Day which marks his 1,000th show in 1997.

And the first we see of Seattle is of course the money shot, Seattle Space Needle.

Which is, of course, where everyone in the Frasier world takes their guests.

The pivotal scene is where Frasier and Niles walk past the Pike Place Fish Market.

And wee bro gets hit by passing seafood and spills his half-caf cappuccino with a dash of cinnamon on Frasier’s suede shoes.

Of course, Frasier’s odyssey to replace his shoes sets in course a hilarious set of events.

Including them getting mugged in a lane, of their money.

The Monorail Thing

All of which means they rob a blind girl’s bowl in Regrade Park for money for the payphone.

And get chased down First Avenue by actual girl scouts from Seattle.

Like so much in the Cranes’ life they get frustratingly close to their destination…

Ground to a halt on the Monorail , looking out onto the Space Needle.

Frasier, or at least Kelsey Grammer, did get to Frasier Crane Day, held in Seattle.

Where he sings Tossed Salad And Scrambled Eggs.

We’re singing it today while watching reruns and we know Seattle’s listening – 30 years of Frasier.

And dreaming of getting out to Seattle and knowing that our friends at Aer Lingus fly out there directly.

With us finding a random October 6-11 round trip from Dublin with pre-clearance from €674.42.