Past Articles

As the rain pours down I am sitting in the cafe window seat, enjoying the tunes of James Hunter and reading Nick Grabbe’s story in the Daily Hampshire Gazette about the Norwottuck rail trail and beavers. These furry rodents are destroying the path, their dams are causing water to flood […]

So many interesting and intelligent people are regulars at the cafe. It is a pleasure to know them and to provide them with their sustaining coffee and bagels. Today one of our regular customers, Greg, stopped by and we began to chat about his life. He said he used to […]

We had another visit from our friend Helen, who sells High Lawn Farms milk. I’ve become quite a fan of this gentle and friendly woman, and I have passed along many leads to her, other businesses whom I think might want to sell her milk. I love helping her because […]

I shot down to Costco this afternoon to get some supplies for the cafe. Inside the store, there was a display model electric grand piano, and on its bench sat a young man in a navy blue sweater. He cocked his head to one side, and then began to play. […]

We’ve got another new intern as a result of the fair we attended yesterday at the UMass Fine Arts Center. There were many companies represented, though most of them were small software or other computer-related businesses without the appeal of travel, writing and the web. In that way we stood […]

I am getting ready to man a booth at an internship fair at UMass on Tuesday night, organized by the folks at Hidden Tech. This is a great group of people who mostly work at home, “hidden” in their home offices, and this fair at the University is a way […]

Once again I read in the NY Times information that I already knew about from reading Wired Magazine. It was Thomas Friedman’s column about California’s Proposition 87, which taxes oil companies on oil produced in the state and that would generate some $4 billion with which to finance research into […]

Jason Lee Miller writes on Web Pro News about how to write for the web. It’s a new way of looking at the words… “When writing so people can find you better on search engines, keep it simple. Use short words, not complicated ones. Precise words are even better. But […]

Random musings: I’ve been working too hard to find time to post, however shocking that may be to some readers. But here are some of the new things that have been getting attention here: We’ve got a new intern named Daryl Popper who is taking over the Travelreader Blog. Daryl […]

Joe Lewis writes on Web Pro News about the coming of the new Roman, er, Google, era. “You can’t read a blog or visit a technology news site without seeing the company’s name referenced at least once, if not several times, throughout an article. Just last week, media coverage of […]

After a long day working in the cafe, it is nice to be sitting here in front of a fire, ablaze as I write this blog. I read a story in the NY Times about an outbreak in Panama that is causing consternation. It seems that a government bottled cough […]

Yesterday we joined friends Ed and Li and eight others for a hike up Mount Monadnock in Jaffrey NH. The day was bright and a fall chill was in the air, and when we reached the state park at the base, we had hundreds of fellow hikers to join us […]

Peter Heller has a new story on GoNOMAD, and I love it. He’s got a peculiar talent, nobody I know has his description power and soul searching ways of writing. He makes his points eloquently, and gently, and this is the first story of his we’ve had the privilege of […]

Mariane Matera writes for the HooK, here is her latest. After 37 years of subscribing to the daily newspaper, I wrote “cancel” on the last bill and sent it back. One reason I let my subscription lapse is the fee, which seems out of proportion these days to how much […]

I can always count on Eric Jayne to send me wild and fantastic photos.

We just had a visit from Helen Christensen, the sales representative for High Lawn Farm in Lee, MA. Helen is a charming lady of a certain age who is enthusiastic and polite, and just loves the business she is in. She also complimented us on our cafe, she looked around […]

Paul Shoul always has a story to tell. Not just your average story, run of the mill, no he seems to always come up with doozies. Last night I met him at the Brewery in Northampton, and over beers he regaled me with his latest tale. He was flying back […]

Despite heavy rains that stunted pumpkin growth, a Rhode Island farmer has set what could be a new record for the largest pumpkin in the world.  The AP had the story datelined Warren RI. “Ron Wallace’s pumpkin weighed 1,502 pounds at Saturday’s weigh-off competition, heavier than the current Guinness World […]