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Stories at Parties
I love the stories that you hear when you’re thrown into a party with dozens of strangers and just a few oasises of people you know. I went to a rockin’ party last night and here are two of the stories. A woman said she was married for ten years, […]
Time to Dig a Garden…but How Big Should it Be?
Am I digging too big a hole? Too ambitious? Am I really going to take care of and weed this big a garden? Today I set out to start my garden. Last year I was pretty cautious, planting just five or six short rows, but as so often happens, now […]
The Brother-in-Law Shows What Happens When You Marry into the Mob
Bart LaRocca had a problem. It started when he decided to marry his high school sweetheart, Gina, who he was crazy about. But she had a family who was connected to the New York mob. In F.X. Biasi Jr’s book, The Brother In Law, a complex story is retold through […]
How Do You Remember Someone? A Memorial for Our Friend Joe
How do you say goodbye to a friend who has passed away? Even at age 54, I feel inexperienced and naive about how to properly pay respects as my friends start the long march to heaven. In the past five months, two of my closest associates are gone. I have […]
Eating in East Tennessee
For the past four days we’ve traveled around eastern Tennessee and I found the menus to be remarkably similar. Perhaps it was because we wanted to take in the locally owned restaurants, and for the most part didn’t visit chains. But at these family style restaurants, there were some things […]
At Smoky Mountain Knife Works, a Staggering Assortment of…Everything
“A knife is what you make it, ” said Michael Zavasky, brandishing a gigantic English fighting sword. “It’s universal. Women and children used to carry knives….everyone had one.” We stood on the top floor of Smoky Mountain Knife Works, a giant edifice dedicated to anything with a blade and […]
A Mountain Biking Trail in Gatlinburg…for the Rest of Us
Mountain biking is a sport that to the uninitiated, might seem to be made for the young. It’s sometimes an extreme sport, with bruised knees, wild turns, and stomach wrenching dips. But there is a place on the seat of a mountain bike for someone who was born in the […]
Welcomed to Tennessee with Barbecue and Baseball
I’m settling into a comfortable Hampton Inn in Kodak, Tennessee, where from my window I can see the green field of the home of the Tennessee Smokies, an AA affiliate of baseball’s Chicago Cubs. We got to enjoy a game tonight when the home team trounced the visiting Montgomery Biscuits. […]
Trips to the Dump Are Part of Moving
Ever since 1990, when I first moved to South Deerfield, I’ve been going to the dump. Never hired anyone to take out my papers and my trash. No, I’d go, loading up for many years my tired old Toyota Avalon, or, after 2006, my trusty trash day pick-up truck. It […]
Moving Our Stuff, Finding a Home for It All
Whenever I think about moving, I always think about the Seinfeld episode where Jerry befriends Keith Hernandez of the Mets, and is confronted with that age old dilemma…what’s the line about helping friends move? Jerry’s so flattered by being befriended by the famous athlete that he almost says yes. Then […]
Canada’s Primed for Tourism, and Booming in Many Places
It was a whirlwind of a trip down to New York city to meet a large group of tourism officials from Canada. Their goal was to network with journalists like me to pitch story ideas about the vast country. Our job was to visit as many as we could in […]