We are more than halfway through April, and the air is already full of birdsong. It seems every other bush in town hosts a song sparrow, lustily bellowing his qualifications […]

I fell in love with the little bird long before I saw it. Maybe it was the name. I was on a plane to Puerto Rico, studying the Princeton Guide […]

I was amused to hear recently that archeologists had unearthed some salacious graffiti in Pompeii. I am not sure why this gladdens my heart so much, but it does. It […]

I have never forgotten a story I heard over 50 years ago. A guy I worked with had an epiphany (perhaps inspired by something he read, perhaps by psychedelics) and […]

Here’s something we all can agree on: we live in a beautiful place, largely free of dissension and stress. The world over the bridge is an increasingly scary place, full […]

I am walking with my dog, Dory, along Provincetown’s Old Colony Nature Trail on an unusually mild January day. I pause at a certain spot, as I do every day, […]

The shelves and coolers at Stop & Shop have a plethora of pickles. There are dill pickles aplenty: hot dill, kosher dill, hamburger dill, and baby dill. There are half […]

Decades ago, local visionary Jay Critchley created “P-Town, Inc. — Formerly Provincetown,” a satirical project in which he imagined the inevitable gentrification of the town and its transformation from a […]

The establishment of the first of January as the beginning of the “new year” is entirely artificial. A better date for a celebration would be the spring equinox — or […]

“It’s always something” is a common phrase loaded with meaning. At my place it is the rule. Why is everything always breaking? And what am I to do about it? […]

That damn yellow-headed blackbird: I just couldn’t find it. As William von Herff reported in last week’s Independent (“Rare Birds in Truro,” page B8), this rare Western bird was first […]

Nov. 11 was the 403rd anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower in Provincetown Harbor. For at least the last 120 years, the people of Provincetown have worked to correct […]

I can still see the resplendent genuine Sioux war bonnet in the window of Fitch’s Trading Post down on Third Street in Harrisburg, Pa. Even though it has been almost […]

All of creation — everything around us — comes without labels. But there are people busy fixing that. I am one of them: I am a namer of things. We […]

It is often said that old age is not for sissies. Although I know quite a few old sissies, I generally agree. Old age is no joke. I firmly believe […]