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I was at a meeting of travel writers last November in Niagara Falls, and there was a man at lunch who was talking about being at Burning Man. This festival of weirdness, drugs, sex and nudity takes place a week before Labor day in Nevada’s Black Rock desert. I wanted […]

Little People were on TV tonight, on PBS. One dwarf recalls being taken to the hospital when he was 18, and told by the doctors, ‘sorry there’s nothing we can do…you’ll always be a dwarf.’ He said he decided then and there ‘to be the best dwarf I could be.” […]

Today’s Springfield Republican included a story about a family that’s urban homesteading in the heart of Springfield, MA. Many people like me have thought about how nice it would be to simplify right down to growing one’s own food, and spending no money on cars, clothes or gadgets. That’s what […]

Last night was cooler so it was easier to sleep. Still, I stayed up way too late and part of the night was spent watching “Hell’s Kitchen”on Fox where the mean chef tortures his wannabe chefs while diners wait for entrees in the fancy dining room. This guy is so […]

Wired news reports today that passports are changing–big time–in the US. “After much ado, the United States has begun or will begin issuing passports with RFID chips in them. The passports now have some anti-skimming features, including Basic Access Control and some sort of internal tin-foil hat. But the chips […]

Mark Helprin’s 1983 novel, Winter’s Tale was voted the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years by readers of the NY Times Book Review. He sat down with Doublethink’s Kelly Jane Torrance, here is an excerpt about why he doesn’t like parties. At all. “What […]

ETurbo News usually sends puffy press releases about Dubai and some meeting in another Arab land. Today they send this little ditty about a chance encounter in a ski gondola above France. “Andy Sinclair reached his peak while dangling high above the Alps. The gondola podule things took four people […]

Last night we got dressed up and walked down the venerable, wood paneled Navigator, on the Edgartown Harbor. The hostess was from Russia, blond and very thin. She laughed since we had barged all the way in without a table. “I put you on the list,” she told us. Later […]

Today the heat broke, and it is overcast and barely 80. A relief yet I enjoyed feeling that heat, thinking about February and the many times I shiver throughout the winter months in New England. We rode bikes down to South Beach, and were greeted by friendly lifeguards high up […]

Yesterday’s NY Times included a story by Janny Scott about Brooke Astor, 104, who has been in the news about a lawsuit filed alleging bad things against her 84-year-old producer son. The story mentions that there are 1253 women aged 100-104 living in NY, and just 104 who are between […]

What I learned from reading today’s Daily Telegraph, en route from Larnaca, Cyprus to London: In the Philippines, a large worm is devastating the centuries old system of terraces, upon which farmers grow their rice crops. Because of loss of forest habitat, a vociferous worm that grows up to six […]

The sultry afternoon lingered as we remained on vacation time…watches left on the bureau, looking only at that spot of white on my wrist. Walking through Edgartown, to the Reading Room, perched on its own causeway in the harbor, ‘no trespassing signs’ delineating the places where only Members are welcome. […]