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My first cup of tea came at the end of a night's work when, vague memory tells me, the cool New England air, the convenience of Dunkin Donuts, and an experimental mood led me to order a cup. I imagined it would be unpleasant, so I assented to sugar. The girl scrunched up her eyebrow when I asked for three. That hot syrup hit close enough to the mark that I brought the drink, with rapidly lessened sweetening, into my beverage routine. At the supermarket, I managed to skip past Lipton, Tetley, Nestea, and Red Rose, instead going for Bigelow then Twinings on a friend's recommendation. Not long after, out west, I found Stash at the grocery store and discovered Market Spice 's loose-leaf array. From this point, I sought tea shops for stocking up and had pretty good luck overall, but a move back east into a semirural area meant mail order would become the new order. SpecialTeas' style, selection, and price made me a regular. I supplemented my SpecialTeas favorites, fo...

It's just about season-over for the Portland Sea Dogs. It's also clear-off-the-desk time here, which means the scorecard and program are headed to the recycle bin. Before that happens, I'll take a moment to record what we saw in the one game we attended. The Sea Dogs lost to the Reading Fightin Phils in a 7-inning game, the first of a rain-forced double header on May 23. The early end confused me; I still don't know why the game was shortened. After all, the ticket claims a Sea Dog game is "your nine inning vacation." The Phils' lineup was Roman Quinn, KC Serna, Aaron Altherr, Brock Stassi, Art Charles, Brodie Greene, Brian Pointer, Gabriel Lino, and Gustavo Pierre, with Tom Windle getting the start and Tyler Knigge the save. Lino and Serna had the best at bats and Windle got the win. On the Dogs' side were Blake Tekotte, Carlos Asuaje, Jantzen Witte, Oscar Tejada, Keury de la Cruz, Luis Martinez, David Chester, and Jonathan Roof. Justin Haley wa...