Our Excellent Interns Are Flying Off Next Week for GoNOMAD Assignments
Since 2004, we have had interns from UMass who work for GoNOMAD during the school year and often during the summer. The interns who have worked with us have all contributed mightily to our body of stories, and each of them has left their own mark. I often marvel at […]
Easthampton’s Art Walk and Galaxy, a Fine Spring Combination
It was the first warm night of spring as we drove past woods erupting with the sounds of peepers on our way to Easthampton on Saturday night. It was the monthly Art Walk, and as we turned the corner onto Cottage Street, it was clear that the balmy weather and […]
Sofie Reminds me to Play Whenever She Visits
What do you do when a little girl pays a visit to your house? I often am confronted with this when my daughter Kate asks me if I can watch Sofie, her five-year-0ld daughter on a weekday. There are times when I think I should decline, and tell her how […]
Basketball Games So Late That the Next Morning Is Foggy
It’s funny how I notice things that once went unnoticed as I advance in age. Last night I watched the NCAA Men’s basketball finals that didn’t start until 9 pm. We had been invited by a couple we like to come have dinner at their house and watch the game. […]
A Satisfying Sunday Getting a Lot Done
Today was a satisfying day, one where you could make a list and joyfully cross off each thing you got done. After our bummer winter, everyone like me with a yard is eager to get out there and clean it up. So I groomed the grass and filled three huge […]
A Long Goodbye in Pittsburgh
Most of the time we avoid thinking about death and funerals. It’s a topic we’d rather not discuss, but as we get older, more and more deaths occur and have to face them. This week I traveled a very long way in the car, about nine hours, for three days […]
James V. Cunningham Sr: He Cared the Most About What Truly Matters
We are in Pittsburgh this week, not to write an article and meet the usual ‘interesting local people,’ but instead to say farewell to a distinguished member of the faculty at Pitt and a community leader named James V. Cunningham Sr who died at 91 on March 28. As I’ve […]
Saturday Mornings Bring Memories and Promise
Saturday mornings always feel different than any other morning of the week. I have a recurring memory that flashes back to me often when I wake up on a sunny Saturday, it takes me back more than 35 years to my first apartment in North Amherst. I have a gauzy […]
Meeting Face to Face to Talk about Facebook Advertising Today
I”m up early this morning, heading for a rendezvous to meet a friend who will drive us both to Pittsfield. I haven’t been to this city in a long time, and today’s visit is to meet employees of Facebook who will present about how to use their gigantic service for […]
Tinaraiwen: From the Desert of Mali to Northampton
From the desert of Northern Mali, the band Tinariwen combines spiritual music from their native Tuareg people. The Tuareg are famous nomads, living in harsh deserts and using everything in nature to survive. I first heard Tinariwen on Jim Neil’s Jukebox, an eclectic music show on Wednesday nights from 7-10 […]
In the Thick of a Kitchen Renovation–Thinking about Countertops
We are in the thick of a kitchen renovation, and I am beginning to get excited about it, now that the plastic is down and we can see the big change we made by cutting a 4′ x 6′ hole in the wall between the kitchen and the living room. […]
Larry Kelley Was Our Surprise Guest at Lunch This Week
Today I joined my friends for lunch and as usual, it was a great series of conversations that didn’t end until we tore away from each other outside Miss Saigon’s to return to our cars before the meter maid slapped us with tickets. This lunch tradition is growing stronger every […]
Valley Voices Story Slam: Josie Dulles Wins It!
It was a competition with a whole lot of people wanting to get in. More than one hundred people vied for the right to tell a five minute story, in a live show at the Hinge in Northampton. But when the Valley Voices Story Slam opened, it was just ten […]
I’m Already California Dreamin’ After One Day Back in New England
It’s become a cliche to complain about our brutal winter…but let me just say that I am not that happy to be home. Contrasting my time in Ventura and Marina del Rey California, it was painful. From a hot tub overlooking a busy yacht Marina to slipping on ice walking […]
Ventura Botanical Garden at Grant Park: Big Plans Afoot
By Jack Dunphy Exciting things are unfolding on the hill above San Buenaventura City Hall at the Ventura Botanical Garden in central California.Through the vision and volunteer efforts of many caring citizens the botanical garden plans to offer much more than a garden. Doug Halter, past President of the Garden, […]
Sailing in Marina del Rey on the Shimmering Bay
When I first saw Marina del Rey, California, all I could think of was, “I wonder exactly how many boats there are here?” That’s because when you look at the harbor of this city of about 8,000 people, all you see are the bobbing boats and masts that go on […]
Ringing the Bell at the San Buenaventura Mission with Father Tom
By Jack Dunphy Spanish missionaries built a chapel in what is now the center of Ventura California in 1782. Father Tom Elewaut, the current pastor, explained the early missionaries built the church with the hope of bringing Christianity to the 1200 native Chumash Indians. San Buenaventura Mission has endured for three […]
The Jolly Oyster: Slurping By the Sea at St Buenaventura State Beach Park
Mark Rey has his priorities straight. As we sat at a picnic table beside St Buenaventura State beach park and slurped down the oysters grown on farms he owns in Baja California, I asked him about celebrity customers who have enjoyed his products. “The most important people are the people […]