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Page A-26 - Shelton-Mason County Journal — Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020
Simpson Santa Special pulls in this December.
By Kirk Boxleitner
kbox/e/tner@masoncounty. com
The “Simpson Santa Special” is
still scheduled for Dec. 5-6 and 12-13
from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Simpson
Railroad.
Enter at the middle entrance of
the Stillwater Industrial Park, which
used to be the Old Simpson Sort
Yard, at 10138 W. Shelton Matlock
Road in Shelton, at approximately
milepost 10.
Signs will direct prospective pas-
sengers to the parking and boarding
area, just inside the gate.
The ride around the loop of the in-
dustrial park is about 2.25 miles, and
includes a stop of 20 to 25 minutes,
plus time enough to chat with Santa
— each ride includes a stop at Santa’s
workshop.
Kids can sit next to Santa on the
porch of his workshop, and chat with
him about their Christmas dreams,
while Santa will have a little some~
thing special for each kid he sees.
Kids and adults can warm up next
to a bonfire, with cups of hot cocoa
served by the International Order of
Rainbow Girls, who will be collecting
food donations for Northwest Harvest
at the ticket and boarding area.
Those who visit can shop for Simp-
son Railroad souvenirs, just in case
they’re looking for distinctive gifts for
railroad enthusiasts on their Christ-
mas list.
At the boarding area, visitors can
also walk to the Simpson giant loaded
log car to see the logs that once came
out of the nearby forests.
All money raised goes toward ex-
panding the Simpson Railroad’s pub-
lic events and bringing full-scale sce—
nic and holiday train rides thhelton.
While riding the “Simpson Santa
Special” and stopping by Santa’s
workshop, the Simpson Railroad asks
all visitors to remain seated and ob-
serve the state’s mask regulations.
Family groups will be seated one
to a Speeder on the Simpson Santa
Special, which has spaced its seats to
ensure everyone has a safe, healthy '
and enjoyable experience.The speed—
ers and trailer car are covered, but
don’t have closed windows, so the»
Simpson Railroad asks riders to dress
for open-air weather. V
Tickets are $10 per person for ages
2 and older. ‘ v
For more information, log onto
simpsonrailroadorg.
Bubble: Tents cost an average of $700 each to create
continued from page A-25
sandbags,” McCoy said. “People still need the ex-
perience of being able to sit someplace comfortable
outside while they dine. So many people fell in love
with the bubbles, and took photos of them on social
media, that we wound up having to promote them
Online just to catch up with their popularity.”
Just as McCoy had overhauled the Boat House’s
indoor ventilation system to ensure a healthful influx
of fresh air, so too did she outfit the bubbles with the
same furniture as the rest of the restaurant, plus air
filters to help protect from COVID particles, dehu-
midifiers to cut down on condensation on the trans-
parent tent walls, and even heaters and speakers.
“As we were thinking about what might be miss-
ing, we realized our guests have to have music, so we
added speakers,” McCoy said.
With the tents costing an average of $700 apiece,
and each one including its own $600 air filter, the
bubbles have stretched the Boat House’s tight bud-
get even further, but McCoy again cited the impor-
tance of upholding the quality of the guests’ experi-
ence.
“The concept itself is not unique,” McCoy said.
“They’ve offered dining. options 'like this in New
York City for years. What we do differently, though,
is because so many of our customers are concerned
with sanitation, we only seat one group of guests per
bubble each evening, and we thoroughly clean it as
soon as they’re done.”
She added, “We could make mere money by tak-
ing multiple groups of guests per evening in each
bubble, but this way, our guests don’t have to worry
about who just had dinner before them in their bub-
ble.”
Due to a double-booking, McCoy has already
rolled out one of the three additional bubbles she
aims to have ready for patrons by the end of No-
vember, which she expects will offer a slightly more
casual dining experience, albeit with no shortage of
amenities.
Because she’s already seen how photogenic it is to
dine inside a bubble during the rain, McCoy is eager
to see what it looks like when it snows.
For more information, call the Boat House at 360
275-6060, email them at theboathouseonnorthbay@
gmail.com or go to theboathouseonnorthbay.com.
Review: Thanksgiving scene is painfully authentic.
continued from page A-26
not for the scene when Frank Slade
pays an unexpected visit to his broth-
er William’s family in White Plains,
with Charlie in tow, for Thanksgiving
dinner.
The Thanksgiving dinner scene is
painfully authentic for anyone who’s
ever hosted that one loud, abrasive
relative who simply will not shut up,
as Frank Slade manages to embar-
rass everyone in attendance with his
bawdy tales of his misadventures in
the military, and his adult nephew
Randy (Bradley Whitford, before he
starred in “The West Wing,” but with
his trademark sneer already fixed in
place) finally confronts Frank about
how his, misfortunes, including his
blindness and subsequent discharge
from the service, are his own fault.
An unsung hero in this scene is
Richard Venture, who plays Frank’s
brother William as being exhausted
and entirely done with Frank’s load
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of bull, and yet also quietly torn up
inside by seeing how far his once-
promising brother has fallen.
This film is a festival of talented
actors who were just inches away from
broader stardom, from Ron Eldard
as a good-humored police officer who
pulls Frank over for speeding while
he’s test—driving a Ferrari, Without
realizing he’s blind, to Philip Seymour
Hoffman (we still miss you) as one of
Charlie’s unscrupulous, trust fund-
protected peers at school, displaying
his remarkably chameleon-like acting
skills in one, of his earliest onscreen
roles.
But it’s that famous tango scene,
featuring a young Gabrielle Anwar
at her most luminous, that’s so auda-
cious that it makes this film’s emo-
tional arc seem plausible.
Both Charlie and Frank see them-
selves as trapped by their current cir-
cumstances,'with Frank already hav-
ing concluded that suicide is the only
possible resolution for him.
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And just as his disastrous dinner
with his brother’s family shows that
he does indeed have a long way to go
before he can achieve redemption --
“I’m no good, and I never have been,”
Frank tells William on his way out the
door, his previously bellowing voice
going low like a mournful hound dog
— it’s Frank’s ability to navigate a
ballroom blind, and dance so. well that
he literally sweeps a beautiful woman
Who’s less than half his age off her
feet, that shows how much he could do
with the rest of his life, if he simply
stopped stubbornly rehashing the mis—
takes of his past.
Seasonal depression is no small
thing during the fall and winter holi-
days, when it feels like everyone is
telling you how cloyingly cheerful
you’re supposed to be, but “Scent of a
Woman” offers the genuinely hopeful'
message that, regardless of what’s got
you down, you still can choose to turn
things around because you have more
value, and more to be grateful for,
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than you might realize.
Please note, this is not a perfect
film. The central ethical quandary
that Charlie faces at school, regarding
whether he should protect fair-weath-
er “friends” whom he freely admits
harbor no such loyalty toward him,
is a bit of a damp'squib, but it’s ulti-
mately worth it for the roaring, mor-
ally righteous sermon it prompts from
Pacino as Col. Slade, telling off the
students and faculty, alike at Charlie’s
elitist school, and finally earning the
actor his first Academy Award in the
process. ‘
Just in case you forgot this film was
made in the early 1990s, it features a
hammered dulcimer musical score to
remind you (Thomas Newman, rock-
ing the atmospheric orchestral scores
like he did with Sam Mendes’ “1917”
last year), and near the end of the
film, we’re treated to awalk-on cameo
by future “American Horror Story”
star Frances Conroy, who’s as glowing
in her own way as Anwar.
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