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Ahhhh Sunday. Can anyone say there is a better time of the year than early August in New England? I think not. It’s an easy day, a few chores in the lawn, a few blogs, a few articles to read, and some errands to run but no rush for anything. […]
We went to a party tonight at John and Andrea’s in Florence where many familiar faces were seen. I made everyone give a toast to our friend Paul Shoul who is recovering in a Boston hospital. Best wishes Paul, we hope to see you back in Western Mass very soon!
Last night my friend Joe emailed me asking what I was doing Friday night. My one-word answer said it all: Tanglewood. That’s all I needed to say, since anyone who has been there on a golden summer evening knows exactly what it’s all about. Cindy and I joined our friends […]
Today’s WSJ told a sad story, see chart at the left. “There are several reasons why newspapers so far have failed to crack this market. Because online ads are far less expensive than print ads and thus offer lower commissions, it’s difficult to get salespeople to focus on selling the […]
Today I had to contact Sharp Electronics, the makers of our cafe’s cash register. After I was finished getting soaked for a simple new plastic cash drawer, to the tune of about $100, I perused their website, and discovered that Sharp is a big player in solar electricity. That got […]
Today the heat has mostly passed, and we have a little break from the pounding rain. I’m in my favorite window seat at the cafe, and just finished a quick read–Tuesday’s Daily Hampshire Gazette. On page one was a story about a guy I’ve met before (but can’t recall where!) […]
Today I man the office solo. Steve is out on assignment covering his favorite beat–New Hampshire. He’s writing about Summer Stock Theater there. I remember well when Steve and I lived up there, just across the river in Norwich VT, and we worked together in Lebanon. It was the Connecticut […]
Yesterday I did a radio interview with Kevin and Sue McCarthy about my trip to Borneo and Kuala Lumpur. Kevin reminded me of a term that I had forgotten that says a lot about Malaysians. It’s called Hidari Islam, and means their brand of the religion is cloaked with tolerance […]
Tom Devine is a blogger’s blogger. He posts more frequently than anyone I know, and it’s all usually interesting. Today I read on his blog about one of his few experiences having heterosexual sex. “One thing led to another, and soon we were kissing, hugging, our hands and mouths going […]
Yesterday was a perfect summer day….for floating down the Deerfield River. I can always count on my friends Jack and Laura to motivate me to get moving. Either it’s a bike ride, a hike to a new undiscovered forest, or floating down a river–they are my primary motivators to move, […]
I read a WSJ review of a new book about the early days of Fidel Castro and Fulgencio Batista called “Havana Nocturne.” this morning on our sunny deck. The book depicts a wild era of ‘rum, roulette and revolution,’ spiced up by orgies involving future presidents and famous American mobsters. […]
Gerard Baker had fun in the UK’s Times online with this biblical account of Obama’s world tour this week. “And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores […]