To Charles Robert Jenkins, five decades of his life were all a mistake. That’s because when at age 20 as a sergeant serving in Korea, he thought if he could just jump over to the North Korean side, they would pick him up and send him back home to North […]
In Today’s Daily Mail, I read a long story about the legendary editor and journalist Bill Deedes, who left a trail of stories, a bitter family, and an aura of mystery when he died at 94. His legacy was of an indifferent grandparent, lousy husband, devoted friend and brilliant writer. […]
Snow rage…it’s a new term that I found on Reuters today. I well remember walking into the wind, snow blowing so hard when I visited Quebec City in February. From the dispatch… ‘Last Sunday, a man in an upscale Quebec City neighborhood became so upset a woman from a snow […]
Last night at Costco, we heard that they are rationing 50 pound bags of wheat. “If somebody wants to buy more than a few bags, they check to see how many they usually buy and if it’s too high they can’t get it,” the cashier told us. She didn’t know […]
In Hatfield, there used to be a pizza shop called Mama Maria’s. The owner was in the Daily Hampshire Gazette yesterday after being charged with holding a poker game and wielding a knife when some of the players broke his rules. It was a simple and fair arrangement. They’d play […]
I get sent a lot of stuff because people want us to write about them on the website. As these gifts pile up, I notice clearly the ones that I care about and those that I don’t. I must say that today’s Fedx parcel exceeded my expectations, and both surprised […]
We turned on the new lights at the cafe this morning, beaming a gloriously bright light at the sleepy hour of 6 am when it still feels like 5 am, dark, cloudy. I hope that when people drive by and see those big lights on they will notice the cafe […]
Here is part of an AP story from a while back about how students have to find sources of light to read to study for exams. “CONAKRY, Guinea – The sun has set in one of the world’s poorest nations and as the floodlights come on at G’bessi International Airport, […]
Last night we had a battle of the sexes. We are visiting Kent and Lisa and after Kent prepared a lovely dinner for Dennis and Denise and Cindy and I, we took out their new 2008 edition of Trivial Pursuit. This new game has all new questions and some of […]
Off today to New York to see Isabella perform in a play. But first, I’ve gotta share the story from the WSJ about the University of Southern California’s latest and hottest basketball prospect. He’s 5’10”, never played a full season of high school ball, and averaged just 8.6 points a […]
Poking around on the collection of Western Mass blogs known as Blognewsnet.com/pioneervalley, I found the very passionate and truly funny blog written by Larry Kelley. Larry and I have known each other, mostly through people we both know in advertising and business, for many years. Like me, he takes this […]
Today is a gorgeous New England Day, still brisk but the sun pelts down and tries to cheer us up. I was on the phone today with a guy from SF who said he was underneath a lemon tree. With computer problems leaving us one machine short, I headed to […]