Latest news with #BostonGlobe.com
Boston Globe
06-07-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
‘What?' ‘I said: This restaurant is too loud!' ‘What?'
Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up When my sister lived in Paris, she would say, as she cautioned me to lower my voice, 'You can always tell the Americans: They're loud.' Advertisement We need to suffer a quiet moment in public every once in a while. We need to turn the volume down. We need to share space with others politely. Respect has resonance too. Christine Cluney West Newbury Advertisement The number one solution to noisy restaurants is to allow servers to turn down the music when requested. About three-quarters of the time I've found they will do so. The relief is immediate. People don't have to talk as loud and can once again hear one another. The other quarter of the time the server has said they're not allowed to adjust the volume. In that case, take action. Ask to speak to the manager, for a start. Then, if there's no relief, say you are leaving. I have walked out of restaurants where I can't hear myself think and no accommodation was made to my complaint. More people need to speak up to, ahem, make their voices heard. Donna Sullivan Brookfield Chris Berdik's generated nearly 170 comments from readers. Following is an edited sampling: Do the restaurant a favor and go on a quiet night. (Middleground) How many diners say to themselves before arriving, 'Boy, I hope this place is playing '90s rock music'? For me, 100+ customers in a restaurant are going to be loud on their own. (Sooner57) The article that needed to be written. (Graf_299) I've come to the conclusion that Americans are just deeply uncomfortable with quiet. (Are we afraid of our thoughts? Do we have no thoughts?) Fenway Park and the Garden are the same. I've given up on the Red Sox due to the incessant noise and clamor, even between innings. Used to be you could chat with your friend between innings, but not anymore. It's just another kind of social isolation. (visionsofneal) I recently asked my doc for a hearing test because I can never hear what people say in restaurants. I passed! (Lusmom) Advertisement About five years ago, I stepped through the door of one of my favorite restaurants and was assaulted by the new, much louder noise level that had become normal for the place since its remodel. I left. When I got home, I set up a spreadsheet and entered $75 as a deposit of what I estimated dinner with tip would have cost me that night. As of today, there's $2,775 in my Fun Fund account. In a year or so, I'm off to Hawaii. (White Middle Age Gay Guy)
Boston Globe
05-07-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
The gym at middle age: lift (off chair), breathe (life in), repeat
Nancy King-Bolger Holliston Tracy Brady's op-ed generated from readers. Following is an edited sampling: Advertisement I LOVED this! Made me laugh, mostly in empathetic mutual recognition of being post-menopausal, post-childbearing, post-easy muscle tone, and totally gray-haired, and trying to support the hot-body phase kids as they enter adulthood, as we realize we are at the part of the journey where not everything is still possible. Learning to love the daily ordinary routine and simple pleasures. (Mountain mama) Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up I can so relate. I cycle and walk every day and eat healthy. Yet, I just saw a video of myself and whaaaat? Man breasts and a belly? How is that even possible. I could fight it or try and change it. But I think I'll join the mind-set of the ordinary in the hot-body graveyard. (Bo Knows) Advertisement One of the best gym experiences I've had was in one room in a tiny strip mall, with old equipment and 'Cotton Eye Joe' seemingly playing on repeat. I picked it because it was on my way home from work. The owner went through the equipment with me and gave me a program to follow, and I took it from there, upping my reps and my weights at my own pace. I got in pretty good shape and no one was competing or judging anyone. (Sandy68) Never mind searching for youth. Strength training helps keep a body healthy through middle age and beyond. (moveruk) Staying strong enough so that you don't fall over is no small thing! (ForeverInCollege) I'm old, and I go to a strength and balance class for women twice a week at the community center in my small town. It helps a lot, and the other women in the class are nice and enjoyable to be with. By now we have all lived quite varied lives and are good company, and are varied also in shapes, but we all try hard and the trainer is excellent. (polyphony) I used to work as an instructor in using gym equipment. I had to deal with people who did not listen or were unrealistic (hard to teach you how to lose 30 pounds for your upcoming high school reunion). What I told people: Find a way to use your improved fitness. Motivation to keep coming. (RiecaElex) The goal of getting jacked has sailed. It's now about keeping the legs strong, maintaining upper body muscle, doing a LOT of cardio, and most important, not getting injured. (TAFKAMH91) I used to run 5 miles a day seven days a week in my 20s and 30s. Then my 40s hit, and it became six days a week, then five, four, three … Now in my 50s I'm doing an old guy walk five or six days a week with my faithful mutt and an audiobook. It's better than nothing! (RedSkull) Advertisement I still look at pictures of myself now and go 'What happened to me?' I have run every day for years and eat healthy food, but my hair is gray and my skin is getting wrinkled. I have 15 extra pounds that I have been trying to lose for 15 years. I go to a nutritionist, and she says, 'You're in good shape. Keep doing what you are doing,' But I look like a 54-year-old! Which I am. (Mikeleavey3) All of us will get old (if we are lucky) and die. Take Warren Zevon's advice: 'Enjoy every sandwich.' (mighty quince)
Boston Globe
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Slovakia's situation offers lessons for resisting Trump
Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up William Miller Advertisement Roslindale Jay Rumas's Ideas pieces set off a lively debate among online readers. Following is an edited sampling of their comments on Agree [with Rumas] that Democrats have no strategy and no energy. The people are ready, but leadership is largely absent. Americans are not proving themselves to be courageous, and the 'opposition' party is doing little more than waiting for the next election, which Elon Musk and Donald Trump will almost certainly rig in favor of the GOP. (SAD04) Advertisement Democrats don't have a sense of humor either. When was the last time you heard a national Democrat say a funny thing? (Hanscome) Political leadership that begins on the farthest fringe of either party is concerning. The current direction is not about leadership [but] about taking total control and telling all that any opposing opinion is wrong. In today's two political parties there is no leader who represents the growing group of independent voters. (olderbutwiser1) Slovakia is a parliamentary democratic republic with a multiparty system. The prime minister needs to form a majority coalition in the parliament. Compared with the two-party system in our country, forming a governing coalition is much more difficult. (winterleaf) Rumas writes, 'The more time Fico spends putting out his party's own fires, the less time he has to purge institutions.' The problem here is that Trump doesn't have to spend time putting out his party's own fires since he has the Republican Party completely cowed. The few who have stood up to him have been rejected. (sbrooks103) The few who have stood up to him need to become the many who stand together. They ought to be embarrassed to be afraid of this tin demigod. What good is it to avoid being primaried if it means you have to continue to submit the Trump? (Sandy68) A detail question: How much of the media in Slovakia is owned by corporations with other, bigger units that have priority over news? The Democratic Party could certainly stand to improve their messaging about Trump's drive for autocracy, but Trump's ability to get news organizations to bend over for him by threatening their corporate parents is not something Democrats have any control over. (NER_MCFC) Advertisement Dems need to have a financial message that can reach independents and people from red states and rural areas. Their message can't just be they are against Trump and the MAGAS. Got to be for something, not just against something. (bigguymass) Democratic initiatives pour hundreds of billions of federal tax dollars annually into red states and rural areas, The Democrats don't have a vision, a solution, or any leaders. Kamala Harris, the worst presidential nominee ever, is still the leader in the clubhouse, according to What policies do the Trumpets have? Wreck the government, forcibly expel anyone who doesn't look right, punish everyone who disagrees with Trump, destroy Social Security, education, health care, villainize the media. Name one positive policy. The Dems do have leaders (Josh Shapiro, Gavin Newsom, AOC, Gretchen Whitmer). You may disagree with some of the politics but they get positive things done. (outside-lookin-in) This is two months into Trump's presidency. People are still processing, and in many ways it's like going through the stages of grief. On top of that, this administration has been throwing so much mud at the wall to see what sticks that it's virtually impossible to see the wall anymore. Bottom line is: I would expect the Democrats to be a mess right now. But time heals all wounds and things will get sorted out. (NorthHollywood) Advertisement
