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Today is Halloween. There was a time in my life when that was terrifically important, it was such a big deal with the kids and our friends who would trick or treat with us, and all of the hoopla and mystery over the question: What Will You Be? I remember […]

Up early today for a busy day.  I called editor Tom Vannah of the Valley Advocate yesterday.  While I was focused on getting him the photos he needed for a feature story about Eastern Turkey, his mind was on the radio. He’s hosting Bill Dwight’s show on WHMP-AM, weekday mornings, and […]

Al Norman is a rabblerouser who Wal-Mart hates. He cataloged some interesting information about the world’s largest retailer on his “Sprawl-busters” blog. “As of February 1, 2002, Wal-Mart had 3,190 stores in the United States, including discount stores, supercenters, warehouse clubs, and neighborhood markets. But that’s not the whole inventory. […]

This was a Men’s Weekend, and my Monday Morning Recap looks back fondly. I began on Friday night with my pal Joe, we took a tour of his new radio station offices and then skipped over to Sierra Grille, on Pearl St. in Northampton. The proprietor, O’Brien, has a menu […]

It’s true…there really is an Air Greenland, and they’re taking us to the world’s biggest island next Thursday. I got this photo in the mail, I think this might be their only plane. But a noble A330 it is, and I can’t wait to join my pal Shoul in this […]

As the rain pours down I am sitting in the cafe window seat, enjoying the tunes of James Hunter and reading Nick Grabbe’s story in the Daily Hampshire Gazette about the Norwottuck rail trail and beavers. These furry rodents are destroying the path, their dams are causing water to flood […]

So many interesting and intelligent people are regulars at the cafe. It is a pleasure to know them and to provide them with their sustaining coffee and bagels. Today one of our regular customers, Greg, stopped by and we began to chat about his life. He said he used to […]

We had another visit from our friend Helen, who sells High Lawn Farms milk. I’ve become quite a fan of this gentle and friendly woman, and I have passed along many leads to her, other businesses whom I think might want to sell her milk. I love helping her because […]

I shot down to Costco this afternoon to get some supplies for the cafe. Inside the store, there was a display model electric grand piano, and on its bench sat a young man in a navy blue sweater. He cocked his head to one side, and then began to play. […]

We’ve got another new intern as a result of the fair we attended yesterday at the UMass Fine Arts Center. There were many companies represented, though most of them were small software or other computer-related businesses without the appeal of travel, writing and the web. In that way we stood […]

I am getting ready to man a booth at an internship fair at UMass on Tuesday night, organized by the folks at Hidden Tech. This is a great group of people who mostly work at home, “hidden” in their home offices, and this fair at the University is a way […]

Once again I read in the NY Times information that I already knew about from reading Wired Magazine. It was Thomas Friedman’s column about California’s Proposition 87, which taxes oil companies on oil produced in the state and that would generate some $4 billion with which to finance research into […]