Inner Voices
STEAMERS
The Whale is Right
KEEPING WATCH
We Are at War With Autocracy
The ‘Hands Off!’ movement is the beginning of resistance
A story that has long haunted me is called to mind by recent events. In 1614, Thomas Hunt, an English explorer and trader, was ordered by his captain, John Smith […]
MAKING SENSE OF MAGA
The Real American Story
The Democrats lost in 2024 because they are on the wrong side of the narrative
A lie could travel from Maine to Georgia whilst truth was drawing on her boots. —attributed to John Randolph, 1844 A friend returned from a motorcycle trip last fall and […]
OP-ART
Lady Liberty Wants to Go Home
TOUGH GUYS
On Power and Stupidity
We kids were not dumb, but we let ourselves be led
I remember hanging out on the corner with the tough guys, waving at passing cars, preening for girls, bumming Winstons, planning turf fights. Stupid stuff. I once was arrested for […]
VIGNETTE
Early Bird
STEAMERS
The Republican Potty
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
The Crisis Within
How does one respond to meanness and maintain a sense of self?
Many decades ago, I shoplifted a book, just for the hell of it. I do not remember the title (maybe Lady Chatterley’s Lover?) but do remember the thrill of stashing […]
TREES THAT FEED US
Why the Woods Must Be Burned
The National Seashore needs a fire management officer and crew
Last month, at Fort Hill in Eastham, a fire crew carried out the first prescribed burn in the Cape Cod National Seashore since 2021. It’s a moment I’ve been watching […]
VIGNETTE
Swan Lake
STEAMERS
The Last Street Artist
INCANTATION
The Poem as the ‘Enemy of Despair’
Czeslaw Milosz knew that poets make dictators nervous
The history of the poem as an art form is very long, reaching back to at least 4000 BCE. It’s not surprising that the means by which the poem expresses […]
