Past Articles

Kathryn my ex sent me an interesting email about the incoming class of 2010. Beloit College compiles a list of the accepted facts of this generation, most of whom were born in 1988. Here are some of their assumptions. 1. The Soviet Union has never existed and therefore is about […]

We went out to dinner last night, to the Tavern on the Hill, a popular place with a magnificent view of the valley below. The place was packed, the twilight was beautiful, and everybody was waiting for a table out on the deck. The conversation flowed easily with another couple, […]

I spent some time on the radio this morning, chatting with Brad Shepard about the current state of affairs in airport security. Before my segment, Brad was chatting about Fanny Foxe, the famous stripper who almost undid the career of Sen. Walter Mills back in 1972, when they were caught […]

The day is young, but with Britt back in her morning slot at the cafe, I have more time to do my thang. That means publicity…so I emailed old pal Brad Shepard and set up an interview tomorrow on WHYN-AM 560 at 8:35 am. I will talk about the new […]

Reuters reports on a new restaurant in India’s financial hub, named after Adolf Hitler and promoted with posters showing the German leader and Nazi swastikas, that has infuriated the country’s small Jewish community. Hitler’s Cross, which opened last week, serves up a wide range of continental fare and a big […]

Andreas Tzortzis writes in the NY TImes about the new reader/photographers offering shots to newspapers around the world. “Bild’s Leser-Reporter, or reader-reporter feature, introduced during the World Cup, brought its audience daily photos of celebrities, politicians and soccer stars — taken from the cellphone cameras of quick-thinking passers-by and sent […]

Ron Gardner, of Boise Idaho, has one of those radio voices. The kind that just booms out at you, solid, unwavering. He was full of enthusiasm last week talking about a visit to Boise. .I had called him after seeing a story in the recent National Geographic Adventure magazine, and […]

I am lucky to have a good woman in my life. Men often let things slide, and that’s why we need to have good women in our lives to set us right. Cindy reminded me, gently, that I needed to get back to the doc to renew a prescription. Without […]

Turkey has always fascinated me, and it is on our list of places we want to go. Today’s NY Times had a feature on the seaside village of Bodrum, which they compare with St. Tropez.As house and R & B music pulsated from open-air bars, moneyed couples in Chanel double-C […]

Last night we went to the big city, big Northampton, for dinner and a movie. It was time we had a proper date; so it was Thai food and “Little Miss Sunshine” at Pleasant St. The streets were packed on this warm summer night, it made us glad we bought […]

Reading today’s Recorder in the cafe, I came in to open and so far just a dribble of customers. So I had time to read about Steve Wilson. It’s a sad story, dateline Warwick, MA. For fifteen years, the store in this sleepy Western Massachusetts town has stood empty. Wilson, […]

Bob Herbert recounts a tale of bitter irony–beginning on 9/11, when Abdallah Higazy was evacuated from the hotel he was living in across the street from the World Trade Center. He was a student at Brooklyn Polytech, and waiting for housing. He fled, like everyone else, then three months later […]

I love my iPod but now where it’s made: according to a recent report by the UK’s Daily Mail entitled “iPod City,” indentured servitude might not be a bad description of the working conditions inside the city-size Chinese factories that assemble the iPod nano and Shuffle, where the employees reportedly […]

Late start in the cafe today, but we’re going all out. Great weather for coffee drinkers, and people passing through the town. But now a break, for the patrone, as Steve said the other day. Next week the Patrone gets back to his regular stuff. I was thinking about something […]

Rick Newton, Rick Newton, where art thou? Rick is away. Rick is an expert in using an Ipod. Tonight I’ve advertised a class in the cafe called Music on your Ipod, and frankly, I wish I could get Rick over to teach it. But there is a lesson and a […]

Gilbert Cranberg is outraged. Outraged over the invasion of the HUGE graphics in newspapers. He writes about it in today’s Neiman Watchdog.“It’s not unusual nowadays for artwork to dwarf, by large margins, the stories they illustrate. The Sunday New York Times is a major case in point. The Aug. 6 […]

We visited our friends Tom and Cathie over the holidays, and Tom’s generous bosses at his ad agency gave him a new video Ipod with a sentimental engraving on the back. I found out that this service is available from Apple, but they also have rejected many requests. Here are […]

Today I am feeling happy–happy and clever. Last week faithful readers may recall that I had to get a root canal…and ouch! The worst part was paying the bill. But of course, modern dentistry doesn’t just end after this four-figure expense. There is first, the temporary, and then the final […]