When I heard that “Mrs. Doubtfire,” the 1993 film starring Robin Williams and Sally Field, was being made into a Broadway musical, I had my – pardon the pun – doubts. So many attempts to turn hit movies into musicals fall flat. “Pretty Woman” and “An Officer & A Gentleman” are recent examples. So, walking […]
Columns
A look at What’sUpNewp’s latest columns.
Posted inArts & Culture, Columns
Comic – Sour Grapes: Cloud 9
Here’s this week’s Sour Grapes, enjoy!
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Gerry Goldstein: On this day, kiss your inhibitions goodbye
“A kiss is just a kiss,” asserted composer Herman Hupfeld in 1931 when he wrote “As Time Goes By,” the song that years later would so enhance the iconic film Casablanca. Not to quibble with the talented Mr. Hupfeld, but events down the generations have shown that a smackeroo can be much more than “just” a kiss. […]
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Just My Opinion: We can make a difference for that one…
Locker room talk. Like Statler and Waldorf, the pair of elderly Muppets, seated in the balcony box in The Muppet Theatre, complaining and heckling … like Statler and Waldorf these two grumpy old men sit on their stationary bikes in a popular gym, day after day critical of the current administration, from Washington to the […]
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Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about getting an FMLA form filled out
A guy calls me out of the blue. I don’t know him from Adam. He got my number from a friend. He’s having a problem with healthcare. He can’t get his FLMA form filled out. He’s a patient of a community health center but he hasn’t been seen there since the pandemic started. His regular […]
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Gerry Goldstein: On the wing, reminders of what matters
“The world is too much with us,” wrote William Wordsworth more than two centuries ago. Wordsworth, who would later spend many years wearing the mantle of England’s poet laureate, complained in verse, “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; – Little we see in Nature that is ours…” He should only know what we […]
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‘Sage’ advice on expression, still timely after a century
Last month, police in Marion, Kan., (population 1,902), raided the community’s 154-year-old weekly newspaper, seizing computers, cell phones, and other material in what many deemed a violation of federal law protecting journalists. The uniformed intrusion was part of an unsettling coincidence. A century before and fewer than 50 miles away, an icon of American newspapering […]
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Comic – Sour Grapes: Air Mail
Here’s this week’s Sour Grapes, enjoy! If you’re headed towards the Granite State Comic Con this weekend, September 15 – 17, in Manchester, New Hampshire, be sure to say hello to Tim Jones at his booth!
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Tiny Kitchen Magic: Mushroom and Rice Soup
Happy almost Fall, everyone! Since the best season is approaching, with its foliage and cooler temperatures, I figured I’d get a head start on soup season. I will be honest, this recipe was BAD the first time I did it. I used a completely wrong ingredient and had certain ratios all out of whack. I […]
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Just My Opinion: What’s missing? A robust discussion about campaign finance reform
On this election eve, there’s much to ponder, about what we’ve heard from candidates, and what we haven’t. Tomorrow voters will decide who will end up in November running for the first House of Representatives seat in Rhode Island. The Democratic race, with 11 candidates, has gained the most attention, and has distinguished itself by […]
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Dr. Michael Fine: What’s Crazy about Primary Care in Rhode Island
Last week, a dear friend, whom I’ve known since she was a child and who is now pushing 40, shared some troubling news. Her family doctor had left, and they were struggling to find a new one. This predicament wasn’t just affecting the adults in their household; it also concerned their nine-year-old daughter, whom they […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Gerry Goldstein: Portrait of a ‘problem’ that endures
I am staunchly “woke,” and there’s a guy who has my gratitude for reminding me of it every day. This would be Norman Rockwell, the late “illustrator” once disdained by many a critic, but whose reputation as a legitimate artist has strengthened considerably over the decades. The reasons I admire Rockwell are many, one being […]
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Tiny Kitchen Magic: Guacamole Edition!
Well, hello, everyone. Sorry for the delay this month. Sometimes, the real world gets in the way, but enough about that. Let’s talk about one of the most popular and delicious dips one can have: guacamole. Labor Day is coming up, and there will be cookouts. You may be attending one of the said cookouts. […]
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Comic – Sour Grapes: Moody
Here’s this week’s Sour Grapes, enjoy! Tim Jones is the creator, artist and writer of the widely popular, self-syndicated comic strip; “SOUR GRAPES” about “Aesop”, a miserable-flying dog, living in a strange, problematic and troubled world along with his odd family and pet cloud, ‘Ominous’. Originally from Attleboro, Massachusetts, Tim lives with his wife and […]
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Gerry Goldstein: A pond where it’s easy being green
What goes around comes around, especially here at Shalom Acres, our little hobby farm in Greenville where an octogenarian who once caught frogs as a 12-year-old now does so again. These days, though, I brandish a camera instead of a net. Seven decades on, why still the fascination with these creatures whose forebears once hopped […]
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Gerry Goldstein: Fur, feathers, squeals, hogged some of White House spotlight
The reasons Donald Trump is abhorred here at Shalom Acres, our little hobby farm in Greenville, are too many to be counted, but among them is the fact that he was one of few American presidents to keep no critters in the White House. We find this suspicious, since we share our place harmoniously – […]
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Dr. Michael Fine – What’s Crazy In Healthcare: Covid and Florida
I finally got Covid this week after flying to Florida to attend a family wedding. Getting Covid was no surprise – all of us will get it eventually – and I was lucky to have a relatively mild version – headache, congestion, fever, fatigue, and cough, bad for one night, worse the next but then […]
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Gerry Goldstein: A historical brew, in one small coffee cup
For years, a tiny piece of history has resided with other memorabilia on my desk, all accrued over decades of chasing the news. The deep-sea coffee cup beside one of standard size. (Gerry Goldstein photo) But it was not until last month’s disaster on the Titanic-bound submersible Titan that I pursued the story behind my thimble-sized Styrofoam coffee […]