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When I bought my Nissan truck for the cafe, I didn’t realize that it was purely a short-radius vehicle. It’s great for popping back and forth from the house to the cafe, and sometimes for a jaunt down to Holyoke or Costco. But last night I took the rig on […]

Today’s WSJ came with a op-ed piece by Thomas Fleming, an excerpt from his new book called “The Perils of Peace: America’s Struggle for Survival After Yorktown,” in which the author credits George Washington for a single act that he says saved the US. It was difficult time, at Christmas […]

Last night I had a job to do at 1o:55 pm. I hate having to stay up that late, and as I sipped wine at 7 pm I thought that I’d better not have another since ugh, I have to drive to Northampton to meet the bus. My son Sam […]

My eyes were misty when I finished reading an AP story by Helen O’Neill about a pastor who both stunned and challenged his congregation by handing out $50 to all of them with a caveat: They had to use the money to raise funds for the church. The parable of […]

The New York Times today had a piece about working cats who help out in delis and small bodegas all over NYC. The store owners say they’re invaluable, patrolling the aisles looking for rats and mice. The problem is that the health department has laws against keeping cats and other […]

What makes a party? What is it that makes you talk about it excitedly the next day? I think you can tell it’s a good party when you hug everyone who walks in. Like each person is worthy of that level of affection, they’re the ones you’ve missed, or haven’t […]

Bengt Almquist wasn’t sure what the English word was that describes his vast collection of machines. “Gadgets?” Well, sort of. I’d say it’s more like a thousand assortments of things. At the Johanna Museet, he’s got walls full of typewriters, including models from the 1880s before they came up with […]

An automatic organ was just one of the amazing things we saw today at the Johannes Museet, a collection of thousands of machines, all arranged together. The museum is owned by Bengt Almquist, whose father was the original tinkerer and collector of the family. 41 secs Here is a video […]

This is one of things I love about Sweden. This tree is ablaze with small candles, cranking out a whooshing noise as they burn in the cold Swedish night. Next to the tree, there are three rows of at least 150 candles each, all burning and emitting that same pleasing […]