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We are heading out to a place 29 miles at sea this weekend. The faraway island of Nantucket. I once traveled to this place ten times every year, pursuing sales from companies who made their fortunes during a slender window of commerce–from July 4 til Columbus Day. I’d fly there […]
We drove by and saw all of the cars, and then we saw couples, holding dishes, walking toward the Wendell Town Hall. We must have missed the email, but for sure, something big was going on last night. It was the town’s Harvest Supper, an annual event that brings hundreds […]
I celebrated my birthday over the weekend. This isn’t usually a cause for that much celebration on my part, yet since it fell on a Saturday, this 53rd edition was a bit more festive than previous years. At a cocktail and dance party held at my home, I spent some […]
For days and days, she anticipated the phone, it was coming any day now. UPS would bring it to door, like Santa bringing a Christmas present. She was giddy with excitement, she wanted to be able to get on the web and easily send text messages and photos. She was […]
At the elevator, two woman spoke in a strange language, it might have been Dutch, or perhaps even Latvian. I was coming downstairs after staying the night here on 101st street, in the Broadway Hotel, which is actually a hostel and a hotel. It’s about half and half, so I […]
The Amtrak train is silent now. We are parked at New Haven, and en route to New York’s Penn Station. I got to the station in Springfield in the dark, the streets empty, and just a few other passengers joined me on this 6 am train. I thought about what […]
Ok maybe this is a stretch, but how about if just a portion of the 400 richest Americans chipped in and donated to build us new bridges, highways and subway tunnels? In a WSJ story yesterday, Charles Landow and Courtney Lobel put forth exactly this idea, declaring that since there […]
Yesterday’s jaunt through the hills of Ashfield on Rte 112 toward Adams reminded me of the 24-year-long tradition I had with my father every October. Throughout all of those years, we held to the same itinerary, which unfolded in the far western part of the Bay State. To us, in […]
In an op-ed piece in last week’s WSJ, a man who worked on Wall St. said he was walking down the street with four associates when they were accosted by a somewhat disheveled homeless man. “Hey you fat cats!” he said. “You guys got all the money. You’re Wall Street […]
The scene is the ocean….a broad tableau of roiling sea, waves pitching up and back, and the sound is a rumbling indecipherable cacophony. That’s the movie. That’s it. It’s just one of dozens of “cutting edge video artworks from around the world,” which were shown last night in a series […]
I heard the news about WRNX last Saturday, while I was in a record shop in Easthampton full of beautiful old vinyl albums. The proprietor there is an old radio guy, who used to have a blues show. He is and was in the loop about the station’s switch from […]
It’s a rainy Thursday morning in New England. It’s the day that I begin thinking about what the weekend holds in store for me. Fall is the season with the most events happening in our Valley. Some times it’s hard to decide which one will bubble to the top. What […]