Waterville Valley: Skiing with the Big Boss
We arrived in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire on a Sunday afternoon and it began snowing. A perfect event for our day of skiing with Tim Smith, the GM of this impressive operation that includes an entire village, a school, a big mountain all surrounded by the White Mountain National Park. […]
The Looming Transition: Telling Dad How We Feel
I’ve been quite consumed with a huge transition taking place in my family. Our patriarch, Nat Hartshorne, is in hospice and battling lymphoma, and we’ve been visiting and calling and trying to imagine our lives without Bumpy, who has done so much to make each one of us proud, and […]
Doing My Duty As a Good Son
It’s my turn, and I’ve been on deck for many years. For the past few days I’ve been taking care of my parents, who are 86 and 91, and for the eldest of the two, my dad, a tough bout with cancer that’s bringing pain and discomfort. I am the […]
Our House Is Empty Without a Cat
It’s a Saturday morning in February and the beginning of Mary’s week-long school vacation. So even though it’s 10:45, I’ll let her sleep in, as she warned me she would want to do. No worries. I am doing favorite Saturday morning puttering, getting the mail, making the grocery lists and […]
Beyond Burger: The Secret to the Taste is the Heme
I’ve been talking up a new product I found at Whole Foods, that I had read about perhaps two years ago in Wired Magazine. It’s a new hamburger made from plants that truly tastes exactly like a regular beef hamburger. It’s incredible, you expect it to taste the way most […]
Snow Days Make Being Prepared Essential
Today is another certified snow day. Even UMass is closed, and for that I’m grateful because I agreed to speak at my friend BJ Roche’s class about Media Entrepreneurship. I’ve postponed until next week, which is a relief. Today the snow is coming down in teeny tiny flakes, unlike the […]
Fowler: Don’t Ask for Billion Dollar High Speed Rail
Carl Fowler is a railroad man. It’s in his blood and a proud part of his family history. He says that expecting billion dollar rail projects in 2018 is going to take too long. That we all should be working hard and advocating for regional rail. Slower railcars, like the […]
Virgin Trains USA Service in Florida, People Get Run Over
The most exciting transit development in years was marred by three fatalities when the new Brightline Train service between Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach commenced in January and two people immediately tried to cross the tracks and were struck by the high-speed trains. As of 2018, it’s called Virgin Trains […]