Saturday, August 8, 1970 Just got into town yesterday, after quite a few years away. What a lot of exciting changes! Instead of taking boring Route 6, I took the […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
A Guest of This Age
Living in a time that we are not prepared for
In the heat of July, I found myself dazed and confused, and I remain so still. I have no idea what is going on with this whirling planet of ours […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
You Are What You Eat
The challenge, as Thoreau said, is to ‘live deliberately’
On a warm, cloudless morning, I am crouched in the underbrush, the only sounds in the woods the song of a pine warbler, the whine of a mosquito, and the […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
An Entangled Calf
Must baby whales be collateral damage for the tuna fleet?
The young humpback whale swam near his mother out on Stellwagen Bank in the Gulf of Maine. He had had many experiences in his young life, but that day three […]
BOOKS
On the Road With Richard LeBlond
In Homesick for Nowhere, the former Advocate columnist is a companionable guide
I’ve never been a fan of most travel writing. The older I get, the more comfortable my couch, the more set my ways, the more satisfied I am to stay […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Painting on the Seawall
The beauty of an act of public artmaking
Beauty follows us everywhere. The color of the harbor today is blue, the color of the sky above it, blue, too, but paler. Of course, they are just reflections of […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
To Choose to Tattoo
Discovering the reasons why people decide to decorate their skin
The ungainly spider crab out on our tidal flats decorates its carapace with bits of seaweed, the better to camouflage itself and enhance its role as an ambush predator. Several […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Requiem for the Beech
What will we do when these eminently huggable trees are gone?
There is a sadness in Provincetown’s East End Dwyer Woods today. It is a beautiful morning, with bright sunshine and enough breeze to make the mosquitos work for their blood […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
What Would Dune Charlie Have Said?
The proposed shack leasing rules put profit over preservation
Exactly 50 years ago, I met Charlie Schmid, or Dune Charlie, as he was known. He was what might have once been called a hermit, living by himself with his […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
On Reading Moby-Dick
The annual library marathon symbolizes entry into a community of believers
Of all the human shortcomings I can think of, the one that irks me most is complacency. Of course, a healthy sense of self is a positive thing, but being […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Meeting of the Minds
What a minor miracle a committee is
People have it easy on social media: they are always right. Sitting at home in their pajamas or underwear, drinking a beer — or two, or three — they can […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Dispatch From Lucca
Impressions of a small walled city in Tuscany
I have lived in Provincetown so long, loved it so much, and traveled so little in recent years that I sometimes forget there are other beautiful places in the world. […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Tide Line Mystery
On being confronted with a simple, inexplicable occurrence.
We all live our lives where the sea meets the land, and it does so every day, twice a day. This meeting is foreordained — it is an encroachment really […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Away With Me
A meditation on ‘advance planning’
I knew there were not enough dead people in Provincetown to make their disposal profitable. I discovered recently that the same is true for Wellfleet. (Forget Truro — it’s a […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Robert, the Down East Philosopher
‘We are born into a narrative,’ says a visiting dissident
Most of the philosophers I have ever met have been from Maine. I am not sure why, but they seem to crank them out up there. Perhaps it is their […]
