http://www.golfnow.com/

     Does everyone know about golfnow.com? I love playing golf, but the price severely limits how often I can play.  In our area, the weekday rate for 18 holes at the Mt. Pocono public course is $44 for two people, with a cart. It’s a serviceable but small course, with only 9 holes (so we go around twice).  Pocono Manor and Mt. Airy have much better courses; longer, prettier, and much more challenging, but the prices are nearly double that or even more, so I couldn’t afford to go as often as I would like. 
     But then we found golfnow.com.  Wow!  Today we played the Pocono Manor east course and we paid $20 total. Including the cart.  With golfnow.com, you get the best deals early on the morning that you want to play, and you can’t be too picky about your tee times, but if you are flexible, it’s really an amazing deal.  I will be out again tomorrow.

Buz Whelan

     The new Kinsley ShopRite opened Sunday morning at 8 and we went down for a visit mid-day. Big may not be the right word, but it’s a good start. You could park a blimp inside this cavernous 95,000 square foot extravaganza of groceries. It is huge.

     I’ll start with pricing, since that’s what concerns many shoppers most. If you’re seeking bargains, you might be disappointed. Yes, they have quite a few opening week specials, but for the most part this is standard ShopRite pricing. They use the same flyer that most Pennsylvania ShopRites use. They have an additional booklet with specials and coupons for the grand opening period, but this store’s main draw isn’t going to be about price; it’s all about selection.

     Opening day was like a food store celebration. Outside, folks were lined up for free pushcart hot dogs. Inside, uniformed employees carrying trays of snacks and hors d’oeuvres as well as cookies and tiny cakes circulated among the shoppers, encouraging them to take what they wanted. The atmosphere was surprisingly festive for a supermarket.

     One of the big strengths of the store is sure to be its prepared foods. You can help yourself or be served, pay at the counter and eat in the little café area or take your food upstairs to an area that overlooks the shopping floor. There’s a Chinese section, with noodle and rice dishes, shrimp, chicken, beef and pork preparations, egg rolls, dumplings, crab rangoons and chicken-on-a-stick. Next to that is a Japanese area with all sorts of fresh made sushi packed up or made to order. There’s an American food section with barbecue and comfort foods that promise to vary by the day. Overhead is a large menu board announcing the 8 to 10 dishes that will be available on each day of the week. There’s also a wing section with varied types of cooked chicken wings.

     If you like cheese, especially exotic hard-to-find (at least in the Poconos) varieties, you’ll think you’re in Heaven. They had any type of cheese I could think of, and I can think of a lot. Want blueberry Stilton? They’ve got it. How about chipotle Cheddar? Got that, too. Unless you’re a world class expert, you’ll find cheeses you never heard of. They even have a ‘mammoth provolone,’ so big it hangs from the ceiling and looks like it weighs as much as a VW beetle.

     I thought the seafood was rather standard compared to these other sections. They have all the right stuff, the 10 kinds of salmon, the cod filet, the tilapia, the flounder, swordfish, shark and so on. Lots of shellfish, including whole cooked crabs and boxes of cooked crab claws. But if you’re seeking more unusual fare, grouper, Chilean sea bass, Gulf redfish, things like that, you’ll be disappointed. Maybe as time goes on they’ll become more adventurous, but for now they seem to be playing safe with the fish card.

     The meat section was large and interesting. Pick a type of meat – lamb, veal, beef, pork, turkey or chicken and they have almost every variety. Take lamb, for instance. They had legs, whole and boneless, chops, loin or rib, racks, ground and more. Pork chops came in the standard cut, but the thick cut were more than an inch thick and quite well-trimmed. And there were many, many types of steaks and roasts in the beef section, all reasonably priced if not especially cheap.

     The store was so mobbed we never got to the aisles. Wide as they are at eight feet, there were just so many shoppers each was a chore to navigate. So, we stuck pretty much to the perimeter, and still had a most interesting shopping experience. I’ll go back for a closer look at the aisles and frozen foods later in the week when the crowds may shrink somewhat. And I’ll let you know what I find.  

     To get to the new Kinsley ShopRite, take Long Pond Rd to Kuhenbeaker. Go left onto Kuhenbeaker and continue to the end, Rte 115. Go left at 115 and drive 7.5 miles. As you approach that mileage you’ll be going up a hill with a Jehovah’s Witness Meeting Hall on your right and then an elder care facility. At that corner turn right (the street has no name sign) and you will find yourself looking about ½ mile down the hill at the ShopRite building to your immediate right.

Lola Lauri

                We spent our first full night home from our Roman holiday, jetlagged, but wanting a little fun, so we headed over to The Speakeasy Lounge for a couple of drinks and to catch up with our neighbors.  It was “Oldies” night and Elizabeth Knecht is always a treat.  I put on my black hot pants and tried to channel Raquel Welch as we glided out of the rain and through the famous brass revolving door.  The bar was cool and dim and Catfish was behind the bar, cleaning glasses and chatting with the customers.  Maria and Scott were there to greet us, looking tan and gorgeous, fresh from the Key West sun.  Everybody, it seems, had gone somewhere in July.

                I sipped a Captain and Coke as Catfish told us about his camping trip at a secret little spot somewhere north of here.  His tales of fishing and “no one for miles” sound good after my crowded trek through Rome and Venice, and Bob and I vow to get a quiet camping weekend in before summer is over.  Maria shows off her tan in a lovely teal dress that drapes low in the front and lower in the back and is held up with an impossibly thin strand of gems that trail over her shoulders and down across her back.  Her hair is up and pulled to the side, looking a lot like the girl in the Speakeasy logo on the door.  Denise is there, too, and her concession to the oldies theme is rolled up jeans, a men’s shirt and a scarf tied smartly around her neck.  That’s one thing I love about The Speakeasy – everyone dresses the way they want to, and it all works out.  I was dancing in my 5-inch strappy sandals right next to a hotel guest whose still-damp-from-the-pool hair and pink, fuzzy bedroom slippers fit in perfectly.

                When we were all caught up, we headed into the dining room to grab a couch for the show. Buz and Kathy Whelan were sitting with the Leons and a few other friends, so we decided to join them in the first conversation pit.  There were already pizzas and quesadillas on the table, but Bob and I decided to have Maria’s amazing shrimp plancha and, of course, those delicious, salty fries we can never get enough of.  I look around, see friends, neighbors and tourists, all mingling and chatting excitedly, and I am reminded of how lucky we are, living here in the Poconos, a  great vacation destination in its own right.  As Buz has often said, “We live here, man.”

                Elizabeth Knecht starts the show by walking down the aisle of the dining room in a lovely 50’s cocktail dress (she later tell us it was her mother’s) and a sweet little veil over her face, singing “Going to the Chapel”, and right away, we are all singing along.  She is followed by her three “party pumpers” serving as her bridesmaids.  She moves through so many of our favorite oldies standards that I can’t remember them all now, but Connie Francis, The Everly Brothers and the Shirelles were a few.  The girls are dancing and the women in the audience are up almost immediately because, who can resist “La Bamba” or “The Hand Jive”?

                That last one inspires Elizabeth, so she changes before her second set and puts on her “Sandy” costume – you know, tight black pants, a sexy top, and high heels.  She calls up Bob to be her Danny Zuko and together they set us all rocking to “You’re the One That I Want.”  Those of you who know Bob Lauri, know that he is a giant ham and it doesn’t take a whole lot to get him in front of an audience, and when it is the lovely Elizabeth that is asking, he fairly flies to the microphone. Naturally, they continue right into “Summer Lovin’.”  Then Bob leaves Elizabeth to her amazing rendition of “Hopelessly Devoted to You” as Bob and I join a few other couples for a romantic slow dance. 

                As the night winds down, I look around and gather a few images to remember this night by –the youngest “party pumper”, Ashley, maybe 9 or 10 years old, asks a young boy to dance and he, too shy, hides his face in his dad’s shirt.  The tourist, recovering from knee surgery, who shows us that you can still do the twist, even in a chair, if only you will try. Pink fuzzy slippers girl is cuddling in a booth with her honey. Bob gives Elizabeth a break and belts out “Teenager in Love” (he really OWNS that song!). And Buz Whelan, drinking chocolate martinis, calls out for Elizabeth to sing “Memories” which, of course, she does, and we all can’t imagine any night that could be better than this.

                That’s the way it should beee-eee (wah-wah-wah-wa-aah!)