Thanks for doing this. Scheduling and other issues make my participation in any such event impossible for now. But, I do hope you achieve critical mass. To aid in that let me point out that my absence will allow you all to badmouth me.
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It’s been a day…I’ll try to take a closer look tomorrow, help with planning, and commit to a date. Sorry to drop the ball @MaxEntropy!
We’d never do that! 
Thanks for creating the poll! Just so people know, if you double click on your choice it will turn the answer to “if need be” and make it a possible but non-preferred option. I voted, but can’t honestly say whether I could make the date or time without knowing the location.
As before, as much as I’d love to meet and eat with y’all, I realistically won’t travel more than 25 minutes for this HO-down, so if it’s Roxbury I would be a no. Please don’t let that stop you from picking whatever location whomever steps up to organize prefers! I simply cannot take on organizing therefore I step back from picking a location, but want to be realistic/transparent in my ability to commit.
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Adding my thanks, @MaxEntropy! I’m a maybe depending on place and time.
Schedule-wise, I am like a squirrel preparing for winter at the moment. So I can’t count on being able to join the fun.
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Just reviewed Darling’s menu and there are only 8 items on it including rice. Seems very limited for foodie outing to me.
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And just as a query Why does an outing to Al Wadi in West Roxbury negate attendance by Cambridge area folks? Those of us west of Boston routinely traveled to Revere, for instance, for great Cambodian food. Perhaps it’s time to expand our geographic horizons. Maybe share a ride? Just saying…
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Agreed. I can’t even get out of my neighborhood in less than 10 minutes … 45m drive from here to Al Wadi; I’m totally up for that. I once drove to Dorchester just to have a hotdog (Speed’s). The earlier CH days were definitely a bit more adventurous. I think age and maybe COVID made some people grow a bit more insular.
Can you name the Cambodian place(s) in Revere that you enjoy?
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Also, traffic in my experience has become even more horrendous than in the pre-COVID years. 
Getting out can be a bigger time commitment because of that.
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Oh yeah…we comment on this at our house All The Time. Traffic is so much worse than pre-Covid and so is the frequency of inattentive drivers, for us coming from East Somerville really near 93 and Sullivan Station. We are on a street that leads directly to Sullivan in one direction, and 93 and Assembly going North, and even as early as 3 pm even getting out of our driveway with the line of traffic on our street heading to Assembly can be very irritating, going through 2 or more light changes. And Thursday is the new Friday.
And it’s a one-way street so we can’t turn to go south instead.
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I don’t put myself in this category. I believe I’m younger than most of this crew. And I’m far from insular. I do hate traffic, and I also hate when people give the impression they are up for a social event, and then back out or don’t show up. I prefer to be realistic and honest, and for me I’ve judged how much total time I’m willing to commit to a meal with people I don’t know, and about an hour of total travel time, plus the meal time itself, is my max. With two school-age children, a full time job, and hobbies which also require travel time, I’m just avoiding spreading myself thinner. EDIT: I don’t mean this to sound harsh. The comments above sounded a bit mean, and put me on the defensive. It’s nothing personal; we all make judgements about what we value and how much time we devote to things.
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Thank you for sharing. Understanding and communicating one’s boundaries is a good thing. Now, if only I could go back and tell my younger self what better boundary-keeping would have done for me. Lived and learned!
Hopefully we’ll figure out what works for various folks here, perhaps with different mini-meetups over time as you suggested upthread.
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I don’t think this is harsh but rather a concise explanation of very reasonable boundaries. Perhaps I find them particularly reasonable because they apply to me too.
I have all of the same constraints you note, @Parsnipity, and would be happy to join a mini meet-up in the Cambridge/Somerville/Arlington area at some point!
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Nice!
OK, the poll was useful and we have a (fairly) clear winner, Monday September 29 for dinner.
Subject to the usual caveats - people have busy lives, there is little hope or expectation of assembling a large group, and geography can be equally limiting (or enabling) as timing, I propose the following:
Convene at 6pm on the 29th at Mida in Newton. It is “metro west” adjacent, is directly across the street from the Walnut Street entrance to the Newtonville Commuter Rail stop, and offers free parking. It’s a 9 minute bus ride (#59) from the Newton Highlands Green Line station.
I’m looking forward to meeting a few of you, who have taught me so much on this forum. HO buttons for everyone who makes it!
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Let’s let the current dinner unfold, and then I’ll jump into the fray, maybe with @digga, and we’ll do something in the Cambridge/Somerville/Arlington area. I had a really lovely dinner at Saigon Babylon recently, and if we can make it happen before winter, the roof deck would be an ideal meet up spot. Right now, in addition to kids and job, I’m also in the middle of purchasing a horse which involves a lot of vetting and driving down to Dover, plus trying to keep up my paddling strength with surfing, which lies in the opposite direction out towards Nahant. Insular and unwilling to leave Camberville. Hmphh.
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Having lived in Camberville for more than three decades, I appreciate the barriers to getting out (or even around)!
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Hold that thought. The mail-in votes are being processed and the lead has now changed. October 5 is now in the lead. Perhaps wise to wait another week to declare the victor.
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May I say, @MaxEntropy, you are awesome. It’s been a day-and-a-half, as my current client’s Phase 3 has gone kaput so I’ve been mired in a flurry of activity. I’m rather wiped out mentally.
I’m a “maybe” for the 29th at Mida. And if I can’t make it, I’ll meet up with @Parsnipity at Saigon Babylon, which sounds right up my alley. I can imagine that we’ll be there and see if anyone dares to show up.
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@digga - crossing posts! I’ll wait another week before declaring a victor, and once narrowed we can poll the available HOs about venue.
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