A Pair of Bald Eagles Circled Overhead
The Patriots are playing in London, and they’ve painted the grass over there an iridescent green. I looked over and my neighbor was shoveling mulch, trying to make a dent in a six-yard pile he got delivered last week. I’d rather shovel this before it’s got 4 inches of rain on […]
Before We Vote, The Students Get to Vote
In 1988 Northfield Mount Hermon, my alma mater, started the VOTES project, a nationwide mock election that takes place at more than 130 high schools – at least one public and one private in all 50 states plus Washington D.C.. More than 60,000 students participated in the last election, and […]
One Less Reason to Look at My Phone
I am so happy to have one less reason to look down at my phone. The photo explains it, yes I have rejoined the people who wear watches once again. I was very sad when my reliable, waterproof Swatch finally ran out of battery, and dismayed when a jeweler told […]
Missing the Meeting But Ready for Bulgaria
The roller coaster that is life goes up, up, up, then plunges down. I had been lamenting a downturn in the trips that I’ve been accustomed to taking nearly every month….partly because I needed to hunker down and take care of business. Perhaps part of the problem is Facebook. Reading […]
Deerfield Practices for a Disaster With Free Flu Shots
I marked my calendar months ago, and even had a robo call from Bernie Kubiak reminding me of Sunday’s event. The free flu shot that I got while sitting in the comfort of my car was actually part of a bigger picture drill. A way of preparing in case there […]
Those Binders…
I can’t remember the last time a debate was so widely shared and talked about….it all points out how amazingly we are connected through Facebook and to some degree, Twitter. Even with so many cable channels and so many YouTube distractions, people tuned into these debates. There was the usual […]
Is Tomorrow’s Farm Going to be a Building?
In the future, some of our food may be grown in high-rise buildings. It’s already happening in a former meatpacking warehouse in Chicago and in many other locations on the east and west coasts. A story in the Journal Report, a section written for investors in the WSJ, detailed a […]
Bob Marley Was Jamaica’s Most Treasured Man
A movie we watched on Saturday night brought back memories of a very important musician, one whom I at one time considered my favorite–Bob Marley and the Wailers. Directed by Kevin McDonald, the film tells the fascinating story of how this son of an English army officer named Robert Nesta […]
Jim Olsen Is Moving On Up
“No, I am not opening a nightclub!” Jim Olsen told the crowd up on stage as he debuted Signature Sounds new offices in downtown Northampton. He was standing on a stage with chairs set in front of it, but it’s a listening room, a place to hear new music, not […]
The Moments When Working at Home is the Best
There are a few things that make working at a home office a pleasure. But there are also moments when you get sick of talking to the cat and wish there were co-workers sitting next to you who you could talk with about last night’s game, or what’s for dinner. […]
How to Make Our Town A Little More Livable
Last night, a few dozen neighbors and I pored over blow up aerial photos of our town. We had gathered at the invitation of Bernie Kubiak, the town manager, who is using a HUD sustainability grant to develop a Complete Streets and Downtown Livability Plan for the South Deerfield village […]
Paddling is a Great Way to Spend a Minor Holiday
Yesterday I phoned my friend Jack, with whom I’ve shared a Columbus Day tradition for many years. We always go on a hike some where, and I leave it to him to figure out our route. There was a time way, way back when I used to work on a […]
Tag Sale Tips: Find the Alpha Dog
In Deerfield yesterday, it was Tag Sale Day. I decided my garage was full enough to make it sale time. The night before I blew off my plans for socializing to focus on the task–I had to get all of this stuff out of the garage and clean off the […]
Baystate Franklin Nurses Aren’t Asking for the Moon
My daughter Kate is unhappy with how she thinks people are viewing the current nurses strike at Baystate Franklin. Some of the issues are that Baystate does not want to pay overtime to nurses who often work 12 and 15 hours days during their shifts. It’s true that for many […]
Datsun’s Coming Back, As a $3000 Car
Remember Datsun? It’s about to make a comeback, says the president of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn. Raised in Brazil and Lebanon, he remembers the societies he grew up in, where everybody didn’t have a car. Heck, he didn’t get his first car til turned 18. A story in the WSJ […]
The Count Makes the Case for His Family’s Pencils
Count Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell is the eighth member of his family to run the empire that makes pencils. That name–it’s gotta be familiar to anyone who has ever filled out an SAT test with a Number 2, or chewed on a yellow Mongol, invented by his brother, Eberhard. In […]
The Dog Stars Is Already a Hit, and Soon, a Movie
Last night we heard my old friend Peter Heller read from his new novel, The Dog Stars at the Odyssey Bookshop. There was a good turnout and we learned from Joan Grenier the owner that she had ordered 300 copies of the book. Her bookstore has a first edition club […]
When Three Sites Combine, Good Things Happen
So many things swirl around my head on this early morning. Good things, swirling hither and yon, things that I’m worried about but not bad things–just challenges.I would much rather face steep learning curves than battle deficits of income…so I’ll get on a conference call with my fellow webmasters today […]