Becoming Tom Thumb wins its First Award

Becoming Tom Thumb has won its first award, the 2014 Henry Russell Hitchcock Prize from the Victorian Society in America.

They write:

“Deeply humane and splendidly researched, we believe that Becoming Tom Thumb is the first to do justice to Charles Stratton...It shows him to be a charming and dynamic entrepreneur who shrewdly exploited his international celebrity, by no means a hapless victim, and it does so with great insight and sympathy.”

         —The Victorian Society in America, awarding the 2014 Henry Russell Hitchcock Award

Zeno's, State College


Stopped by my old haunt of Zeno's, in State College, Pennsylvania. It was fun to take my wife back to this legendary graduate school pub.


I'm afraid I don't have the tolerance for alcohol I did back in grad school, when I could drink two pitchers of beer myself. But I still had a great time visiting this English department mainstay.


In related news, I have an elegant solution to Zeno's paradox. But I'll keep that to myself for now.

The Walrus and the Carpenter


The Walrus and the Carpenter in Black Rock is the best new thing to appear in Bridgeport for a long time. It took the place of the Ash Creek Saloon, of which the less is said the better.


I went there with some colleagues from the University of Bridgeport and we dug into a menu full of heart-stopping treasures, from poutine (above) to maple pork belly (below).


Fried oysters...

Pulled pork...


Scallops and pork belly (a different cut as you can see, thick and wonderful)...


 And ribs, which I had. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention their cornbread, which was delightful. Not a bad dish in the lot; everyone went home satisfied and pleased. High-quality smoked meats (done right on the premises) served with class and genius. Keep up the great work!


Big Book Club Getaway 2014


Enjoyed appearing at the Big Book Club Getaway this year. Dr. Ruth (above) appeared with her usual energy, and Debbie Macomber headlined. We actually had no idea what she looked like and offered to sign the copy of History of Connecticut Food that she was carrying around!


I was on a panel with Diane Smith (the "ambassador of Connecticut" for those who don't know), Garrison Leykham of Those Diner and Motorcycle Guys, and Chris Jones of the Monte Cristo Bookshop in New London.


It as an honor to meet Diane Smith, who is currently reading Becoming Tom Thumb in preparation for another event, my appearance at the Old State House in Hartford this summer.


And Garrison and I had a good time signing each others' books and chatting about Connecticut diners! The event had more people than last year, and I can only hope that every year gets bigger and bigger.


Philly's Cheesesteaks, Norwich, Connecticut


 
Stopped by Philly's Cheesesteaks in Norwich the other day. Recommended by the Travel Channel and many other outlets, Philly's is acknowledged as the best cheesesteak east of the Hudson River. 
 


I can say that it probably is. The place itself is charming and the owners are delightful.


The steak is the best part of these sandwiches - super tender and delicious. The cheez whiz is solid, but I liked the one on the right, which had both cheez whiz and regular cheese. The other elements were all excellent. The only part where they fall short of the great cheesesteaks of Philadelphia is the roll. They need to import a firmer, more toastable roll. If they had that...well, I think they might be BETTER than the cheesesteaks I've had back in my original home state.


One more note. We had the barbecue chicken fries (see below) and they were fantastic. The reason was that the chicken pieces you can see there were absolutely tender and melt in your mouth good. They care about the quality of the meat at Philly's, and it shows. Keep up the good work, guys!


Four Blue Eggs


Time to run out and get a copy of my wife's new book, Four Blue Eggs. It's a beautiful collection of insightful, crisp poems. Here's what the cover says:

"Four Blue Eggs is sense music, an exploration of beginnings and of endings. In this collection of poems, Amy Nawrocki intuits fireflies and sapphires, observes gardens rooted in glasses of water, and tests the bindings of old books. Solace abounds-in winter's white, in the hefty doors of an Oldsmobile, in half melted candles. Stick figures walk in this terrestrial moonscape, birds nest in improbable trees, daughters survive without mothers and fathers. Her poems propose that though "we earn the favor of being by breaking," the pieces are salvageable; bruises heal from the inside through the universe's infinite surrogacy. The collection contemplates how to tether the salty wounds of sadness, how to find our treeness, and how to say good bye."

Catullus

He came from the north. He lived a brief, passionate, unhappy life. He wrote magnificent poetry. And he introduced a new word for 'kiss' into the European languages. Although he was a superb poet, only one solitary copy of his poems survived the Dark Ages - a single, battered manuscript, preserved in his home, Verona. Yet, even if that lonely copy had perished and all his poems had been lost, one of his creations would have remained. Whenever a Frenchman says baiser, whenever an Italian speaks of un bacio, when a Spaniard says besar or a Portugese beijar, they are using the word which this poet picked up and made into Latin to amuse his sweetheart. The woman was unworthy. The poet died. The word lives.
                                           - Gilbert Highet, Poets in a Landscape

Interview on Homebound Publications

A few questions for Eric D. Lehman, author of Afoot in Connecticut.

1. What books are on your nightstand?
 
At this moment – Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Lionel Casson’s Travel in the Ancient World.
 
2. What book are you an evangelist for—what book do you feel that everyone needs to read?
Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. I didn’t read it until I was an adult and fell in love with it then. So I make sure to nudge adults into reading it, and of course give copies to all my nieces and nephews.
 
Read the rest of the interview here.