EL SEGUNDO HERALD November 18, 2021 Page 15
Purrrfect Companions
Jasmine
Travel from page 2
became home in quick succession to the
Jewish, Irish, and then the Italian immigrants.
Today, the Italians are struggling to preserve
their heritage against an invasion of partying
millennials who have no idea how Cotton
Mather, Paul Revere, Rose Kennedy, and
Sacco & Vanzetti came to be memorialized
within a few blocks of each other. To the
casual outsider, the North End might look
like an Italian culinary Disneyland, but dig
a little deeper than the nearest cannoli shop,
and the Old Country still resonates.
The Kennedys:
In the 1960s, when we first arrived, Boston
was a cultural backwater to New York.
Harvard and Radcliffe were little more than
finishing schools for the increasingly calcified
elites. The Irish ran the city politics,
the mob controlled the North End, and the
neighborhoods, which had done so much to
make the city livable and interesting, were
fossilizing into a bitter confrontation over
education and busing.
For the visitor, the Kennedys changed everything.
They made the city hip and likeable,
and started an influx of young people who
didn’t give a damn for the old divisions. They
bridged the divides between the elites and
the Irish machine, between the pipe-smoking
academics, the Brahmin bean-counters, and
the Irish, Italian, and Black laborers who
competed to toil in their temples. Nothing
changed overnight, of course, but by the turn
of the 21st century, Boston was a far more
tolerant and easy-going place than the one
that nurtured Jack, Bobby, Teddy, and that
army of offspring.
Fanny Farmer:
It’s no exaggeration to say that America
learned to dine out in Boston. In the early
taverns and oyster houses, drunks and travelers
ate whatever the woman of the house fed them.
In the mid-nineteenth century, when the great
hotels like the Parker House appeared, men
dined at a fixed-price buffet that was more
a brawl than a culinary cornucopia. Women
needed to be fed, of course, and their more
decorous dining rooms evolved into something
we might recognize as a restaurant—with
courses, table cloths, wait service, and even
menus and prices. Eventually, those pioneer
establishments even managed to tolerate (or
civilize?) the men.
And then, in 1891, Fanny Farmer took over
the Boston Cooking School and set out to
transform the bland, unhealthy American diet
that so horrified European visitors into what
we recognize today as a nutritious domestic
meal. Fanny Farmer’s Boston Cooking School
Cookbook turned America into a nation of
household chefs, and is still in print today.
Try the fish cakes and beans.
The Water:
Not just the ocean—or rather, the Massachusetts
Bay—but the Inner and Outer Harbors,
the Fort Point Channel, the Charles and Mystic
Rivers. The Fens of the Back Bay and the
clam beds of Ipswich. The sedate sands of
the South Shore and the raucous inner-city
escape valves of Revere and Carson Beaches.
Not to mention the rain.
At one time, the Port of Boston was so busy,
that its customs taxes constituted 20% of the
United States government’s revenue. But the
industry that first transformed the landscape
was wooden shipbuilding. The New England
of the Pilgrims was a thick, ubiquitous forest.
When the Napoleonic Wars shut down
the ports and shipyards of Europe, the world
turned to New England. Within decades, the
eastern forests were sailing the Seven Seas.
Today, most of what we call Boston is
landfill—including one of the most beautiful
parks in America, the Public Garden, where the
Redcoats once put into their boats to cross the
shallow waters to Bunker Hill and oblivion.
There is nothing more smug and satisfying
than a morning Bloody Mary in a stormy
dockside bar with a deluge of rain pounding
at the windows. There’s nothing more
gratifying than being dug out of your car
on the Expressway in 27 inches of snow by
the heroes of the National Guard. Obviously,
Nor’easters and their less violent kin are to
be feared and respected, but Boston wouldn’t
be Boston without them.
So…
In 1976, with the coming of the bicentennial,
the City produced a film for tourists
with the peculiar title, “Where’s Boston?”
Bostonians themselves flocked to see it.
At first, we attributed the film’s popularity
to civic narcissism, but then realized that
the citizens really wanted an answer to the
question they’d been asking themselves for
centuries—the same question Americans are
asking themselves today. Who and what and
where are we? You won’t find many slick,
easy answers in Boston, but you’ll find more
clues than you know what to do with.
Next up: Sacred Cows and Curries—Dining
(or Not!) in India.
Ben & Glinda Shipley, published writers
and photographers, share their expertise and
experience of their many world travels. If
you have any questions or interest in a particular
subject, please email them at web@
heraldpublications.com. •
Zorro at Bunker Hill? A stylish William Prescott awaits the whites
of those Redcoat eyes.
No Britannia here—stately geese rule the waves at the Public
Garden.
Palermo comes to Portland—Lobster fra Diavolo in the North End.
lovable. Jasmine has a brother named Jack;
the two are exact twins. If you’re looking
for beautiful, young, energetic black cats,
consider one or both as an addition to your
life for some real excitement and endless
entertainment.
Ballona is an extremely intelligent and
affectionate girl who understands the words”
birdie” and ”treats”. She is very playful,
enjoys capturing wand toys and scampering
after ping pong balls. Ballona is shy at
first. However, once she feels comfortable,
she will display her incredibly sweet and
affectionate disposition. This kitty loves attention
and adores being petted, snuggled, and
brushed. Ballona is very self-sufficient and
can entertain herself with toys but she would
also do well with another feline companion
Waiting for adoption are cats and kittens
of every age, color, and personality. When
you adopt, you save a life… and in turn
enrich your own.
Ghost was rescued from a man trying to
give away tiny kittens at an outdoor cafe.
Ghost was the bravest of his litter and very
sweet and friendly. If you do not know
where he is, open a can of cat food and he
will come running. Ghost loves to cuddle on
your lap and to play with his feather toy. He
would do best in a home with a playful cat
or can be adopted with one of his siblings,
Olivia or Lucky. He is accustomed to being
around a small dog and other cats. Ghost is
quite a special kitten.
Olivia, Ghost’s sister, is also sweet and
friendly. She is so happy and content that
you can hear her purr across the room. This
playful girl likes to run around with a toy
mouse in her mouth. She would do best in a
home with another cat to play and cuddle with
or can be adopted with one of her brothers,
Lucky or Ghost. Olivia does well with the
small friendly dog in her foster home. One
of her favorite pastimes is to sit on her cat
tree and ‘make biscuits’ on a pillow.
Jasmine is a long and lean athletic girl with
beautiful, golden, mesmerizing eyes. She
has the sleekest, silkiest, completely black
coat, and is not much of a shedder. Once
she gets to know you, Jasmine is quite the
loving girl. Her long body and smooth coat
are irresistible. She loves kisses and hugs
and has the beauty of the princess Jasmine
herself. Her sweet disposition is charming and
Ghost
Ballona
who will play with her. In her current foster
situation, she tries to engage with the resident
cats who are older, more sedentary, and not
so welcoming. Yet Ballona never loses her
positive energy even when her overtures to
play are rebuffed.
These cats and kittens are available for adoption
through Kitten Rescue, one of the largest
cat rescue groups in Southern California.
All our kitties are spayed/neutered, microchipped,
tested for FeLV and FIV, dewormed
and current on their vaccinations. For additional
information and to see these or
our other kittens and cats, please check our
website www.kittenrescue.org.
Saving one animal won’t change the
world, but the world will surely change for
Olivia that animal. •