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Posts Tagged ‘Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square’

Jose Mateo Ballet School – A Review

Saturday, July 20th, 2013

by: Luisa Kay Reyes

Luisa at the Ballet Barre

Ed Note: While not being a reviewer/critic by profession, Ms. Reyes has a love of music, art and dance. Musically, she specializes in opera and is passionate about ballet. She is a trained vocalist and pianist, having studied, among other places, at Oberlin Conservatory. She has a Masters Degree in Library Science and is a licensed attorney. You will see her reviews and other articles in the blog from time to time. Ms. Reyes is currently a Project Manager with Bettina Network, inc.

“When my colleague, knowing my passion for ballet, sent me an e-mail she received announcing the Adult Ballet Classes offered at the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre School, needless to say I jumped (or did a jete!) at the chance to experience what they offered.

Looking closely at the summer schedule, I noticed that for the most part the Adult Ballet Classes were held Monday through Friday from six o’clock in the evening until seven-thirty in their main studio, which is located right in Cambridge. In fact, the studio is merely a block past the main Harvard University campus. Being preoccupied most of the week with other activities I decided to pull out my black ballet leotard and pink tights on Friday. And walk right on down to the ballet school ( when the temperature was over 90 degrees).

With my hair up in a bun, I walked past the Harvard campus. Past all of the street musicians that line the sidewalks in front of the campus and, yes, I’m ashamed to admit, I walked right past all of the beggars sitting along the way holding up cardboard signs with their various pleas for money written on them with a black marker of some sort. I also walked past a group of old-fashioned Mennonite ladies dressed in their pastel calico dresses with their hair pulled up nice and neat underneath a white cap on their heads. They were joined by some of their men folk who were dressed in long pants and white shirts. It looked as though the Mennonite group was busy setting up an evening evangelism outreach, complete with Gospel Tracts and a choir that was warming up to sing.

When I reached the corner of Bow Street I wasn’t sure whether I should proceed straight ahead, so I stopped and asked a young fellow for directions. He was gracious enough to look it up in Google on his phone, but the map it pulled up confused us both more. I continued walking and encountered the same fellow just a block away, who apologized profusely for not being able to be of more help. I assured him I was directionally challenged and quite used to getting lost and that I was also certain I would eventually find my way. Which when I turned around, I did.

The signs in front of the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre were rather inconspicuous. What stood out first was actually the sign for the Old Cambridge Baptist Church. The ballet theatre school is housed in the old Church building, although the theatre has no religious affiliation. The Church is a grey stone building, reminiscent of the grey stone Church buildings one sees in the British Isles.

As a transplanted Southerner who is accustomed to running from the air conditioned house to the air conditioned car to the next heavily air conditioned building, what I immediately noticed upon entering the old Church building was that it felt very warm. And when I went to pay my thirteen dollars for the class, the lady at the desk informed me that true to Boston form there was no air conditioning, but the dance studio had lots of fans that would keep us cool. She then directed me to the room where the adult class would be held. It was a spacious room that was once the sanctuary of the Church. All of the people who walked into the room commented on how they loved that particular studio because the room felt so serene. And I have to concur. The feeling was lovely.

I set my dance bag down on what looked to be an old pew bench on the side of the room and began my warm-up stretches along with the six other ballet aficionados who came to class. While the teachers vary depending on which day of the week one takes class, our teacher this Friday was Molly Wheat. Who proceeded to give us the pattern for our plies and commented on how impressed she was with us as we were the “true diehards” of ballet to be taking class in this “101 degree heat!” (It wasn’t actually 101 as far as we know, but it certainly felt like it!) We were accompanied in our dances on a grand piano by a very skilled pianist who adeptly transitioned from folk songs to the Brahms Waltz in A flat Major right on tempo. Once we were in the center, Molly choreographed some lovely Romantic (as in Romantic Era) adagios and waltz routines that really brought out the ultra feminine ballerina in us all. So in spite of dripping with perspiration, we executed pirouettes and pique turns beautifully.

After class was over, we all thanked Molly and the pianist for a very nice class with our ballet curtsies. And rushed either for bottles of water that we brought with us or we ran to the water fountain and drank as much cool water as we possibly could, all the while promising to come back next week. As we exited the building, we encountered an elegant statue of a ballerina in honor of the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, reminding us just why we all love ballet so much.”

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Tags: ballet, bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge MA, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, Luisa Kay Reyes
Posted in Event Review | Comments Off on Jose Mateo Ballet School – A Review

Gluten Problems??????????

Thursday, March 7th, 2013

Many years ago I worked for The Pillsbury Company – for a brief time – with a long following law suit – which is the stuff of legend around my neighborhood. I offer that fact to you in the interest of full disclosure.

One, of the many things that upset me, happened when I was moved to International Marketing with one of my responsibilities being over the Silos. It wasn’t something I actually did, it was an old hangover from another time, but the job description was never amended.

In the process of this tenure, I received a telephone call from the real manager of the Silos, the one who had been at Pillsbury for many years and who did the day to day managing of the Silos. He informed me there was an infestation of bugs in the Silos and asked what he should do about it.

My immediate response was – throw out the flour in the Silos – you can’t sell flour to people which is or has been full of bugs.

He thanked me and hung-up.

Shortly thereafter my boss came along and said “Marceline, we can’t throw out the flour. He wasn’t calling to actually get input from you on what to do, he has been doing this job for many years and knew what to do. With your new job description he needs your signature and go ahead to proceed.”

Well, what did that mean!

It means his procedure, set up by who knows, was to spray the flour in the Silos with pesticides to kill the bugs.

Being confused, I asked my boss how did they get the pesticides out of the flour and how did they make the flour clean again from bug feces, etc.

He told me they didn’t. The FDA said the pesticides were not enough to negatively affect human health and by the time the flour was packaged and reached the grocery store shelves no one ever questioned what those little black specs were or where they came from.

Being really mind blown, I checked around the industry and discovered that was common practice and why did I have a problem with it? It was normal – everybody did it – and given that fact, they wouldn’t do such if it was problematical or would cause the public health problems.

Well, I didn’t sign off on it – the job description was finally adjusted and we all settled down to a very uncomfortable co-existence.

From that time onward, whenever I go to the store for flour I buy organic whole wheat or organic some other kind of flour whichever has minimum processing of the flour. That has been my practice since that time in early 1970. And given the fact that I bake quite a bit, it is possible to make extremely delicious breads, cakes, etc. using only organic whole wheat flour. All those recipes and comments from Chefs which say you have to add White Flour or your baking won’t come out right are a lot of baloney. Most recipes, which call for White overly processed flour translate on a one to one basis – they were probably translated from the organic whole wheat lightly milled flour to what we have today. – who said “Without a knowledge of history, we are really seriously handicapped in the way we live.”

We have had several people for breakfast lately who’ve said they don’t eat wheat because their doctor said they were ‘sensitive’. They didn’t have celiac disease – full blown- according to them, but their ‘sensitivity’ to wheat made them – on their doctors’ advice – eliminate wheat from their diet.

It has occurred to me to question if they are ‘sensitive’ to wheat or if they are ‘sensitive’ to and/or ‘allergic’ to the chemicals used to debug the flour.

I’ve raised the issue, but this pesticide treatment of flour has been a closely guarded secret of the flour processing companies for decades.

There was not this ‘sensitivity’ to flour when I was growing up. Its only recent that we are running into people who refuse to eat wheat because of it.

Since their doctors have no idea what’s in the wheat – they, I am sure, as well as everybody else have no clue as to this treatment of wheat. So, why would they test their patients for a sensitivity to the pesticides sprayed on the wheat before it is packed and shipped. Why would they look at whether their patients are allergic to the bugs and bug droppings in the wheat when they don’t know that such exists.

It really should be investigate to determine its real affect on humans and investigated by scientists other than those related to the flour industry.

This is one of many stories I have about what happens to our flour. We all need to be vigilant and on our toes about the food we eat, especially the food which has been processed. The FDA doesn’t seem to have done such a great job. But then, maybe I am confused as to whose interest they are protecting!

If you’ve stayed in our home you know some of the other stories about the wheat and the FDA – especially the strawberry story. I won’t bore you with repeating them.

Good eating!!! And stay responsible for your health and therefore your diet. What you eat determines who you are and your present and future health. Exercise is fine, but it is only about 10 percent of the equation – and – is it so highly touted to be the red herring to throw you off looking at the real problems.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge MA, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, breakfast table talk, Flour, food shopping, Gluten, Gluten Free, health, Making Connections, prevent obesity, Wheat Flour
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Food Shopping, Health, Historical Support, Making Connections | Comments Off on Gluten Problems??????????

A Tribute to The Rev. Patricia Riley Colenback (1931-2013)

Sunday, February 24th, 2013

taken from “Alla Bozarth-Campbell’s – From Womanpriest: A Personal Odyssey, Paulist Press 1978

Bakerwoman God

Bakerwoman God,

I am your living Bread.

Strong, brown, Bakerwoman God.

I am your low, soft, and being-shaped loaf.

I am your rising bread,

well-kneaded by some divine

and knotty pair of knuckles,

by your warm earth-hands.

I am bread well-kneaded.

Put me in fire, Bakerwoman God,

put me in your own bright fire.

I am warm, warm as you from fire.

I am white and gold, soft and hard,

brown and round.

I am so warm from fire.

Break me, Bakerwoman God!

I am broken under your caring Word.

Drop me in your special juice in pieces.

Drop me in your blood.

Drunken me in the great red flood.

Self-giving chalice swallow me.

My skin shines in the divine wine.

My face is cup-covered and I drown.

I fall up

in a red pool

in a gold world

where your warm

sunskin hand

is there to catch and hold me.

Bakerwoman God,

remake me.

And how many times, Pat, did you say these words over others…………………..

“Give rest, O Christ, to your servant Pat with your saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.”

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Tags: Alla Bozarth-Campbell, bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, breakfast table talk, Episcopal Church, Friendship, growing old, Making Connections, Poetry
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Growing Old, Making Connections, Memorials, Poetry | Comments Off on A Tribute to The Rev. Patricia Riley Colenback (1931-2013)

My Nose Survives Winter

Monday, February 18th, 2013

I have been a loyal guest, staying at Bettina Network homes for a very long time.

Last year, I went to the kitchen in one of my homes very early in the morning and found the host bent over the kitchen sink with her head in a pot of steaming water. Needless to say I was amazed and waited in the doorway to see what this was about.

She had a pot of boiling water, just off the stove, and was letting the steam from the water over her face. When she finished, after about a minute, and poured the water into the sink, of course, we had to talk. I made the coffee and she spilled the secret. Every morning when she wakes she boils a pot of water – “ed. note in a glass Corning pot” – puts her head over the water for a minute or two because this is the way she keeps her nose hydrated during the winter so it doesn’t get dry and give her a hard time with a little bleeding on those very dry days.

I tried it when I went home and found it works. I have always had problems with dry nose during the winter. When I blow my nose during the day it always comes with a little blood on the tissue. That didn’t happen this year. Thanks to my experience in the Bettina Network.

If you want a great place to stay in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. try this house and ask for the “doll room”. I thought it was great and enjoyed my stay immensely. My return visit this past weekend was a lovely surprise. Some of the rooms inside the house have been redone and the doll room has some upgrades. My daughter and I always stayed in that room. Now she is too big to play with dolls, but she gave in and had a grand time playing with the dolls because the room now also contains a doll house to go with the dolls in the room.

I hope you write a blog on the room which has had its walls upholstered with the most beautiful fabric – and is well padded under the fabric. I could make many comments about that, but I will refrain. Just write about how you upholstered those walls. It is so much nicer than wallpaper and so lush. If I weren’t so committed to the doll room – where I play even when my daughter does not join me – I would ask for that room, but I just peeked in and loved what I saw.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, Bettina Network Information, Guest Comments, health and beauty
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Estate Sale Finds!

Sunday, December 9th, 2012

Estate Sales are one of my passions. I have been involved with them since about 1965, having owned an Auction Gallery in the Sheraton Ritz Hotel years ago and have barely missed a weekend without some stop at an estate sale in some city.

I haven’t been to a mall nor any other kind of retail store spending money for a very long time and we are doing quite well, thank you. My money goes further and the ‘things’ that I have acquired are much higher quality than I could afford otherwise.

In spite of that long history, it never ceases to amaze me when I find something extraordainary – like this weekend.

Saturday was full of stopping at different sales in the Greater Boston area. My best find was in Belmont where I bought a basket full of stockings – not knowing if they would fit, but knowing they were all still in their original plastic wrappers and I know enough people of different sizes that I could share what I couldn’t use.

Going over the packages – which cost about fifty cents each – there were several under the “Sears” name. Therein was my amazement. They were called “Cling-alon”. Now, as old as I am and having seen as much as I have seen in life, I had never come across stockings which one could wear out to an event, find a run in one leg, change that leg with a “replacement nylon” and keep going. Did women have these replacement legs in their pocket books in case one leg got a run and they didn’t want to look kind of messy?

There were two kinds of nylons in my many “Sears” packages. One kind was called “Replacement Hose” – those are one leg and the original cost on the package said $1.47 with a sale price of $ .49. So the woman who bought these originally – now dead – must have bought stockings by the gross. Another package is called “Spare Parts” and cost $1.35 originally with a sale price of $.69.

The marketing plug on the package says “if one hose runs re-match with hose from another pair. Reversible and interchangeable to fit either leg. Two separate seamless hose with opaque panty-type panels…open at front and back.”

Where were these panti-hose all of my adult life, especially my young adult life when I was raising three children and scrapping every penny to make ends meet? Going without stockings in a Minnesota winter because it was either my stockings or something my daughters needed was no fun. Could these stockings have eliminated a few of the colds I caught in that horrendous weather?

And why did the industry give up these kind of panti-hose to give us two legs permanently attached to the panti part of the hose necessitating our buying a new pair if we get runs on only one side of the panti-hose, which is often what happens to me. I suspect it happens to a lot of women because we tend to be harder on one side of our bodies than the other.

Before this “find” I didn’t even think of such a possibility. Now, I want to know why the panti-hose industry is making me spend money unnecessarily so they can make more. I can’t think of any other reason as to why they would integrate both legs into one panti and make me buy ‘new’ before I had totally worn out the ‘old’ because they found a new-fangled way to create an expensive and short-lived necessity for women.

I notice they are reversible – neither todays’ panti-hose nor stockings are reversible. If you wear them on the wrong side you have an obvious seam at the tip of your toes where it will show if you are wearing open toe shoes. How come with all of our technological advances there could be “reversible” stockings years ago and today only stockings with the seam on the ‘wrong’ side and the smooth finished part on the ‘right’ or outside side?

A second pair of these panti-hose is a replacement for the panti-part of the hose. Were women more conscious of what they spent on such things years ago and were not ready to throw out a perfectly good panti-hose just because the left leg or the right leg had a run in it?

I remember girdles with the hooks on the bottom for stockings to be hooked to so they wouldn’t fall down, but I don’t remember anything like this. What a fantastic find!

Now, maybe it is time to get these modern companies to become more cost conscious about women’s underwear. They are fast becoming the most expensive part of a woman’s wardrobe and the part of our wardrobes which wear-out, break, run very quickly necessitating immediate replacement.

Panti-hose can range from about $4.50 all the way up to $20-30.00 and beyond and you can’t take off one leg of those expensive hose and replace them with another leg at a fraction of the cost if you run or poke a hole in only one leg.

Sears, Roebuck and Company was very popular at one time. With this estate sale find, I understand why. These stockings were sold by – Sears in Chicago, Ill. 60607. The package for the two parts has an original price of $2.27 on sale for $ .49.

In the end, however, it looks as though both kinds of panti-hose were sold for the same amount when they went on sale, with the “Spare Parts” being a bit more expensive. As I take the packages apart, the “Spare Parts” is more flexible because you can either use them as one side of the panti-hose or they are stand alone with the panti part of the panti-hose being replaced. One can hook these “Spare Parts” onto the panti part of the panti-hose or onto your girdle with what looks like some kind of precursor to todays’ velcro.

I paid fifty cents each for these stockings at the sale. They are worth the money. I will probably never wear them, but I will put them in my ‘clothes history’ file which I have put together for my grandchildren so they can see a bit of what was, to judge for themselves the value or lack of value for what is. Did we live up to our history and move onward and upward or did we learn from that history how to rip-off the next generation.

At the risk of being trashed I will speak truth to power by saying – todays’ fashion industry is about as bad as todays’ food processing industry. All for the company – taking as much money as possible from the consumer, while giving them either the ridiculous or the empty. With the cost of the equipment today to get into either industry it is unlikely that a competitor with the real deep-down interest in the consumer will surface.

Because we follow a leader like sheep, such outrageousness by such industries are not only possible, but thrive. All they have to do is spend millions on marketing to get all of us sheep to follow their latest trend. They can tell us we are not ‘smart’ ‘fashionable’ ‘one of the beautiful people of the world’ if we don’t follow and we go crazy with the amount of money and time we will spend trying to imitate.

Our paths do diverge however. They go to the bank where they are welcomed with smiles and open arms, we go to the poor house where everything we have managed to accumulate, save, keep, is stripped from us so we can start all over again trying to dig out of an unnecessarily deep hole. Who are you? Want to wear ‘replacement parts nylon hosiery’ or content with more expensive and easily ripped contemporary hosiery?

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, estate sale, Making Connections, nylon hosiery, nylon stockings
Posted in Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Historical Support, Making Connections, Shopping | Comments Off on Estate Sale Finds!

Veterans’ Day – 2012

Saturday, November 17th, 2012

Memorial Church – Harvard University

We celebrated Veterans Day by piling all of our guests into our car and their car and going to Memorial Church in Harvard Yard.

It was a great day for everyone. Memorial Church was dedicated in 1932 to the memory of the Harvard dead of World War I and now also contains memorials of the dead of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the graduates of Radcliffe College who died in World War I. So it was the 80th anniversary of Memorial Church.

There were prayers for many illustrious names which you can recognize as being solidly a part of the New England Establishment – we prayed for Coolidges, Appletons, Nobles, Peabody’s, Woodworth’s, Ferris’ and of course, Gomes, Pusey, and Lowell, among others. I prayed for Mary Daly, whose sermon on a Sunday in Memorial Church caused many to rethink and changed lives, for Benjamin Mays from Morehouse College and so many more who chose uncomfortable – sometimes painful lives instead of comfortable existences which they could have had but for the prophetic pull which determined their life’s path and brought them to the pulpit of Memorial Church. Each, out of their own lives issued challenges from that most traditional of Churches.

President Drew Faust was present because it was also the day of the Institution Service for the new minister of Memorial Church. Rev. Peter Gomes died last year and his loss was huge. Rev. Jonathan L. Walton is the new minister and if the few remarks he made during the service were any indication of what to expect in the future his should be an interesting and thought provoking ministry, challenging many. He started his sentences with “We come to honor a Palestinian Jew who was executed…..” If that is any indication of his preaching, pastoring and prophetic sides his tenure at Memorial Church should be inspiring and challenging.

The bell tolled “In Memory of Voices that are Hushed” and in the process an honor guard of Harvard ROTC students placed a wreath of laurel in the Memorial Room.

After the service, the reception was right where you were seated in the Church. We just mingled while Harvard students who worked as waiters and waitresses served wonderful small edibles – savory and sweet along with drinks. It was an unusual ending since such receptions are held in another room or in the basement or someplace out of the way. To just stand-up at the end of the service to see Harvard students serving you as you greeted those you haven’t seen in a long time or talked about the service, or listened to others talk about the new minister was a new and different ending. Hopefully, the spirit which filled Memorial Church on November 11th will continue.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, breakfast table talk, Harvard University's Memorial Church, Making Connections, Mary Daly, Memorial, Memorial Church, Peter Gomes, Veterans Day
Posted in Historical Support, Making Connections, Memorials | Comments Off on Veterans’ Day – 2012

Poetry – Valerie Gillies

Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

We experienced a wonderful, brief, impromptu concert of troubador harp music by daughter accompanying her mother’s poetry recitation. It was a magical time. We thought we would share with you a small glimpse of Valerie Gillies’ poetry. She has several books of poetry, if you are interested and would like to read and know more about her work. “Her poems are rooted in an elemental world, and take from nature a lightness as well as a terrestrial substance. At the technical level her experiments with the musical dimension of poetry increase its diversity and resonance: she sees message and form as indivisible.”

They were in Cambridge for a Celtic Conference which brings in the most interesting, talented and gracious people. We look forward to their arrival every year.

FRUID WATER

Tune: “Logan Water”

“Fruid Water, furthest of all from the sea,

yours is the voice that means far more to me

than the salty wave flowing up the beach

of a great stretch of ocean I may never reach.

Little I care for foaming breakfers on the shore

or the surface calm that moves so much slower

if I hear your notes that are sweeter than the surf

of all the different waters of the earth.

I don’t need to see the whale or sea-wrack,

the flight of the gannet, the diving of the shag,

I long to watch your trout or your owl flying low,

on your banks I hear the sudden hooves of the roe.

Each of us finds that you can quench our thirst,

stream and surrounding terrain belong together from the first.

In the face of the light you become, through your quality,

like an eye reflecting us in transparency.

Huge masses of water roll in the oceans,

deep currents circulate, of gigantic proportions,

but where you flow freely and trickle over stones

you play with waves in rhythm, vibrate and sing along.

Out of vapour you have come back to liquid,

you return in your course every time to Fruid.

Evaporting, loop with air currents and precipitate:

between earth and heaven you mediate.

Your moving form issuing from the hills

twists in strands of water changed like turning veils;

they make a rope that spirals down the glen,

new water falling through it to refresh men.

I can tell by the current as it swirls along

where it comes from, what rocks cause its tensions,

and I praise your wave shape through which the water flows,

for they remain the same, and rarely go.

From “The Chanter’s Tune” a book of poetry by Valerie Gillies Published by Canongate Publishing Limited Edinburgh Scotland

Republished here with permission of the author/poet

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge MA, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, Bettina Community Poetry, Harp and Poetry, Making Connections, Poetry, Valerie Gillies
Posted in Bettina's Hall of Fame, Guest comments and talents, Poetry | Comments Off on Poetry – Valerie Gillies

In Memory of Roger Fisher

Tuesday, August 28th, 2012

by: Marceline Donaldson

Sprinkled through Bettina Network’s Blog you will find memories of people we knew and with whom we have interacted over the years. This time, it is someone who was one of those – along with Larry Susskind of MIT – who were majorly responsible for the growth and survival of Bettina Network, inc.

Roger Fisher was on my mind over the past week – because I wanted to thank him for helping us begin and move forward with the bed & breakfast part of this business. I didn’t know where to find him and didn’t push to discover his whereabouts so the newspaper informed me this morning of Roger Fisher’s death.

A long time ago, in 1984, Roger Fisher and Larry Susskind turned up at our front door to talk about the possibility of using Bettina’s for their guests coming from around the world. I remember Roger Fisher sitting in our living room when one of those working with him took me aside to ask if I knew we were entertaining “God”. That was my introduction to Roger Fisher. My response was – then “God” has come to the right place because we are building heaven’s annex. Clearly, we understood there were at least two major ego’s in that room that day!

We were just starting this business and unlike those who claim to have started on a shoe string of maybe $10,000 in debt, we started this business with some $1,000,000 in debt. I had no idea what I was doing – I knew why – I thought I really knew all there was to know about business – we had some experience with bed & breakfast in another house, but not much – so here we were not sure where we would land, how we would pull this off or where to turn and “God” walked into our living room.

Roger Fisher and Larry Susskind sent us lots of guests and set the tone for what we would become. Larry and Leslie would come to stay when the weather was bad and they couldn’t make it to Southborough. Unfortunately for us, they now live in Cambridge.

Over that time period, there were White and Black South Africans in the house at the same time just across the hall from one another before Nelson Mandela and the dismantling of apartheid. They had never been together before and it was exhilarating for them and for us as they giggled together; went to dinner together; worked together and with Roger and Larry tried to bring about something that hadn’t been seen in South Africa for generations. We became a bit worried when the last two days of their stay the house became as quiet as a tomb. The White South Africans and the Black South Africans had separated; went to dinner in their separate groups; stopped going back and forth from one room to another and generally pulled apart, leaving for the airport in two vans – one with the White South Africans, one with the Black South Africans. We called Larry because we were concerned something had happened and learned about “re-entry”. Something the soul does for you when you are going back into the separatist situation from which you’ve come.

We had Hindu’s in the house the day Gandhi was shot and we were expecting another couple the next day who were Sikh’s. We had Greek Cypriots and Turks’ sharing the house at the same time during some difficult days for them and before all of them we had Russians before Perestroika.

At one point with the Russians we knew we were going to be picked up by the CIA and hauled off to federal prison because we knew nothing about what was coming, we only knew the Russians were the enemy and here they were exchanging research across our breakfast table with their American counterparts and who were their hosts? – Roger Fisher and Larry Susskind.

Our breakfasts were nothing short of sensational and we were heady being able to talk and listen and understand what was happening in the world outside of the very narrow vision of what was normal for Boston and Cambridge. We were spared guests who talked about the weather, their aches and pains and their miscreant children.

We thought this was what bed & breakfast was all about and we shaped a business following the path laid out for us by Roger Fisher and Larry Susskind. Without them we would have taken a different turn and probably would be sitting on the street corner wrapped in a sleeping bag – although a very elegant one!

You go through life and never really know what or how you have touched someone else’s life. My procrastination in reaching out to Roger Fisher to say thank you is kind of typical of the way most of us live with the assumption that life is forever. It is not and those words of gratitude and appreciation need to be said long before the end comes.

This is very late Roger Fisher, but thank you!! Thank you for helping us understand how we could carry that $1 million in debt, survive and grow a business which contributes goodness to life. We don’t pretend to know much about Negotiation the way you and Larry Susskind developed it, but we do know how human and equal we all become around a table sharing food and good conversation – that alone gives hope that one day we will stop the intense violence, pretending that it will solve our conflicts and bring about peace.

Those first few years when we entertained bed & breakfast guests from the Negotiation Project sent to us by Roger Fisher and Larry Susskind were days we shall never forget and days we always keep uppermost in our minds as a paradigm for this Bettina Network business.

We reached the point, in those days, of not wanting to have guests if they did not have great wisdom to contribute over the breakfast table. Today, we have some remembrances of that and we strive to bring everyone who visits our homes and our host families into an understanding of what that was like and how fantastic a business this is when we keep those standards, that conversation, those dreams of a world full of diversity where we can come together, disagree, work through those disagreements and walk into a very bright light after breakfast.

Roger, may you walk into a great light and enjoy the fruits of your life’s work as you enter another sphere of growing in wisdom, knowledge and understanding in a way we will not understand until we reach that end point where we join you in your endeavors.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge MA, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, Bettina Network History, Bettina Network Information, breakfast table talk, Gandhi, Greek Cypriots, Hindus, Historical Home, Larry susskind, Making Connections, Memorial, Negotiation Project, Roger Fisher, Russia, Sikhs, South Africa, Turks
Posted in An editorial just because, Bettina Network Info, Breakfast Table Talk, Growing Old, Historical Support, Making Connections, Memorials, Preserving Family History and Stories | Comments Off on In Memory of Roger Fisher

More on Apple Cider Vinegar

Monday, July 23rd, 2012

“Thanks for your information on Apple Cider Vinegar. I remember it being around a lot when I was growing up and then it disappeared. In fact, white vinegar, which I believe is a petroleum derivative, has replaced a few of the uses for vinegar which are still around – mainly as an ingredient in salad dressings.

I remember being afraid to have anything with white vinegar in it because of the stories which circulated in my community about of how it was made.

I was so happy to read about Apple Cider Vinegar in your blog that I decided to go back to it, do some research and see if I couldn’t bring it back as one of the staples in my eating and cosmetic life. I remember a weight-loss diet that was popular several years ago which was Vinegar, Vitamin B6 and something else – or maybe it was B12. It was hugely popular, but I didn’t lose weight on it because I couldn’t keep it up. Friends of mine lost quite a bit of weight on this diet and one developed the habit of having a tablespoon or two of Apple Cider Vinegar in water when she woke up instead of coffee. I don’t know what its done for her because we haven’t talked in years.

Taking your suggestion about putting a bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar in the bathroom for those who think the tub isn’t clean enough led to my putting two bottles in the bathroom. One with a rag on a small plate to be used to clean the bathtub and/or other places in the bathroom. – if its good for the bathtub, what about the toilet? I put the second bottle in the bathroom after I found a pump which fit the top and which made my Apple Cider Vinegar bottle ‘pumpable’ for cosmetic purposes.

I use this second bottle to rinse my hair; after I’ve used vitamin A, dried milk and vitamin E on my face and before going out I put a little Apple Cider Vinegar in my cupped hands and wipe my face with it being careful to avoid my eyes. My skin has a glow which makes me look years younger. On the days I don’t want that shiny look, I use dried milk as a powder to tone down the oily look left from the vitamins and it looks great. I got all of that from your blog under the ‘health and beauty section.’

You were right about being able to keep my face looking fantastic all during the day by simply splashing on cool water periodically when I wanted to refresh and that looks better than any foundation because you can’t refresh it – foundations just begin to make you look tired and old after a few hours, and if you try to refresh the foundation with more powder, you begin to get that ‘caked’ look, which isn’t healthy because your pores are very clogged by that time and your looks take a direct hit.

I wish more places would keep that cosmetic bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar in their bathrooms – food quality Apple Cider Vinegar. When I travel, I can’t carry it because the airlines would take it away from me. – Probably to take home and use it themselves.

I found when I first started to use it I would get this little burning sensation in places on my face. When I checked in my magnifying mirror, it was in places where I had ‘sitz’ or had been picking my face. Now, that’s all gone because whatever sensation made me scratch or pick my face is gone.

Thanks for the information. It led me to another place, with which I am delighted. I especially love it when I have guests and they come downstairs to breakfast asking about the Apple Cider Vinegar in the bathroom and I am able to spout my new found knowledge. What is great about that – they usually have a few things from their youthful remembrances or current readings to add so I am pulling myself up out of a great pit – and the money saved is amazing. I used to spend $300 plus per month on cosmetics, which weren’t doing anything for me except I felt as though I was doing something when I bought them. The ambiance of the cosmetic areas, the way the sales people treated me when I went in to buy my cosmetics – all made me feel great, but when I got my big purchases home, they made no difference whatsoever in how I looked nor did they stop aging nor my penchant to pick my face.

So once again, thanks. Keep up the good work and seek out all of these things so I can benefit.”

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Tags: Apple cider vinegar, bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge MA, Bed and Breakfast in Concord MA, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, Bed and Breakfast in Washington, prevent obesity, weight problems
Posted in Guest comments, Health, Health and Beauty, Housekeeping, Making Connections | Comments Off on More on Apple Cider Vinegar

In Memory of Jaki Leverson

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

.
May 28, 2010, Jaki Leverson died.

There is much joy in bed and breakfast, much happiness, laughter, sharing, but there is also grief and pain.

Jaki Leverson was a guest in our homes from 1990 until she could no longer travel from London to the United States in 2008. We kept in touch via e-mail and messages from friends of Jaki’s who travelled to Boston and stayed with us at her recommendation. Even though we realized she was quite ill, we put aside the possibility of not seeing her again and kept her in our prayers.

It is very difficult to say good-bye to someone you’ve known for many years. It is saying goodbye to a very good friend. Twice a year, for two weeks, from 1990 through 2007, we spent many memorable breakfasts with Jaki and sometimes dinner. Some of you who read the blog to keep up with what’s happening in the Bettina Network may remember Jaki. She crossed paths with many guests while she was here and several of you have asked about her over the past couple years.

Jaki shared many stories with us around the breakfast table. One that stands out was the story of her trip to Spain. She was travelling with a group in Youth Hostels. At one hostel, the people weren’t giving them any “respect”. They couldn’t get any information, couldn’t get clean sheets, soap, some parts of the hostel needed a good scrubbing and Jaki tried to get attention to these things for her group, without success. Our breakfast table conversation had been about Germans who take no nonsense and insist on everything being just so – the mythological perfection of the German traveller. Jaki had not been enamored when meeting Germans in her travel who were insistent on perfection, they seemed such a nuisance. But during this trip to Spain, after her many failed attempts, into the hostel came a very matronly, Germanic woman with her group and she took over. Jaki said she was never so glad to see anyone as she was to see this woman from Germany, who in short order had clean sheets on the beds, soap in proper dispensers, workers at the hostel scrubbing everything and order reigning.

Jaki’s big concern, when in Cambridge, was for her mother, whom she worried and talked about. Her experiences from childhood and her current times with her mother were joyful. She expected to take care of her mother through the end of her mother’s life, but fate had it otherwise. She is now survived by her mother. For as long as her mother lives, we are sure Jaki’s spirit will always be close to her. Jaki’s regular routine, almost daily, was the telephone call from her mother – which generally came about breakfast time. The love and concern they had for each other stands out for us as a bond that endures.

Jaki was the long-time Resident Director of the Tufts-in-London and Tufts-in-Oxford programs. She was a scholar in International Politics and History, with a BSc from University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and an M.Litt at Linacre College, University of Oxford. She taught at Oxford, Cambridge and the American Institute for Foreign Study prior to her appointment at Tufts University. She also worked in Israel, Italy and Japan at various points in her career. She was truly a citizen of the world and it showed in her life – her interests, her wisdom, her experience and the way she was able to interact with everyone.

We will miss you Jaki Leverson. May God’s love permeate your new life. You will be remembered at Bettina’s for years to come and I am sure you know there will be Jaki stories told around the breakfast table.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square
Posted in Making Connections, Preserving Family History and Stories | No Comments »

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Poetry – Valerie Gillies

In Memory of Roger Fisher

More on Apple Cider Vinegar

In Memory of Jaki Leverson

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