Tom Devine is the Valley’s openly gay, openly right-wing blogger, and he finds lots of articles with controversial points of view that I often find myself agreeing with. , Last night’s selection of an article on Reason.com made me pause and think. It’s called “Public Employees Vs the Public Will,” […]
Should the average citizen of Detroit care that its symphony may be on its last legs? Terry Teachout writes in the Weekend WSJ about the struggling Detroit Philharmonic Orchestra, which now faces such a steep deficit that management is considering cutting the musican’s pay by 30% just to stay in […]
When Amhed Fouad II was a two-year-old, he was crowned King of Egypt. But today at 58, the man who would be king lives in isolation in the Swiss countryside. Only a few of his Egyptian friends still call him His Majesty, others call him simply Fouad. A story in […]
Marina Goldman is a nurse practitioner from Montague who spends a lot of time in the faraway country of Sierra Leone. Besides my travel webmaster friend Andy the Hobo Traveler, who phoned in from Ivory Coast last week, nobody I know goes to West Africa and nobody but Marina is […]
On Sunday a Montague man named Mik’s dream comes true. I wrote about his dream back in December; he wanted to race human-powered cars down a steep hill in Turners Falls. He recalled doing this as a child, scooting down a hill in Saltaire, NY in a soapbox racer. I’ve […]
“And now, the power and class of New England, the Minuteman Marching Band!” George Parks loved to say that every time his band would get ready to play. Since the 1970s, Parks directed the beloved UMass Band. Sadly, this week, he had a heart attack at age 57, and died […]
Today I made a bunch of decisions that I’ll be living with for years to come. I decided on a few paint colors, (easy) and then on a carpet, a honey-colored shag, ( easy). But then it got harder when it came time to decide about flooring. I’ve got four […]
The other night we watched a movie with one of my favorite character actors…who has the distinction of appearing more than any other actor on Saturday Night Live. Christopher Walken. The movie is called $5 a day, and is the story of a father and son road trip where nobody […]
I like it when things turn out the way you hoped they would; even in a long projecting arc from start to finish. Today I read a book review in the Recorder that was syndicated by the Dallas Morning News about Peter Heller’s new book, called Kook. Peter and I […]
S Sometimes stories write themselves, while you’re traveling. It’s just so obvious what to write, that you do it, and soon enough the entire arduous task is over. Writing isn’t hard. It’s just frustrating and torturous and some times takes way, way longer than you think it will. Below is […]
Today was the usual whirlwind, but it was controlled and ended up being a damn productive day. I learned a few new terms today when I had a meeting with some credit card processing people. It’s clever…the attractive blond sales gal was very savvy, got us interested. But when it […]
Dan Neil has won my fandom for injecting wittiness and precise prose into the narrow intellectual confines of the car reviews he writes for the WSJ. Every time I see his new reviews I snap to reading them, even though I care less about cars than most men. Here he […]