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On a recent trip to Kauai, Hawaii, I purposely ventured out to try some traditional dishes of Hawaii.

My first stop was Pono Market in Kapaa. The market was a busy little hole in the wall packed with assorted drinks, and other premade, quick grab and go items. They also gave the option of combination plates which included a variety of main dishes like, fried chicken, kalua pork, chicken curry, pork lau lau, chicken lau lau, teri meatloaf, and side dishes like different types of poke, Korean tako, spicy ahi, Shoyu ahi, rice, potato mac salad, cucumber kimchee, and rice pudding, just to name a few.

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A Handpicked Poem

By Off the Shelf Correspondent Michael Todd Steffen

Who the heck is Ralph Branca? Well, as baseball fans (and there are poets among this group) may know, Branca was a not bad, not bad at all pitcher in the Major Leagues between 1944 and 1956, with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Detroit Tigers, and finally with the New York Yankees. The specific moment of Branca’s career that still registers with us is that he gave up the game-winning homerun to Bobby Thompson of the New York Giants in a 1951 playoff game, and that hit became known as The Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff, and also as The Shot Heard Around the World.

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Bhuwan Thapaliya is a poet from Kathmandu, Nepal. He is the author of five poetry collections, including Safa Tempo: Poems New and Selected (Nirala Publications, New Delhi) and Slipping into Another World (Ukiyoto Publishing). His work has received international recognition, appearing in esteemed literary journals and global anthologies. His poetry has been featured in Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic Initiative – a project supported by the Poetic Media Lab and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford University– as well as in the International Human Rights Art Festival and Poetry and Covid, an initiative funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council in collaboration with the University of Plymouth and Nottingham Trent University. He has read his work and participated in literary seminars across South Korea, India, the United States, Thailand, Cambodia, and Nepal.

Union Comedy is thrilled to debut MISHMASH: an improvised musical, a bold, charming, and hilarious fully-improvised show for all ages.

State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine and Massachusetts Firefighting Academy leadership today announced the graduation of 18 firefighters from the 50-day Career Recruit Firefighting Training Program.

Q: Is there anything I can do today that would seriously improve my financial situation?
A: Yes—set up automated savings into a long-term investment account that’s out of sight and built for growth!

The key is automation: when money moves automatically, you save without effort—and your lifestyle adjusts naturally. You don’t miss what you never see!

Summer is heating up in Somerville, so we’re bringing the cool. Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and the Somerville Arts Council invite community members to “ArtBeat 2025: Freeze” on Saturday, July 19, from 12 to 9 p.m. in Davis Square (rain date: Sunday, July 20).