Walking on the East End beach at low tide with my 11-year old granddaughter, I pointed out the rivulets of groundwater streaming onto the flats. All the water in the […]
The Year-Rounder
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Truro: It’s Not Provincetown
Taking stock of the best that each town has to offer
Lately I have been trying to imagine what it’s like to live in Truro. Really, I have no idea. Although I have been next door, in Provincetown, going on 60 […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Lawrence of the Dunes
Remembering a man who lived life on his own terms
I imagine Lawrence Schuster as a child in 1950s Pennsylvania being asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and answering, with steely blue eyes and a […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Ancestors and Descendants
Shadows of the past and our unknowable future
My father was born near the end of the 19th century (1897); I arrived near the middle of the 20th (1945); my four grandchildren, early in the 21st (between 2005 […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Living in Three Dimensions
We drive cars, fly in planes, and mostly live indoors
On the way to the beach, I passed a trellis festooned — indeed, overpowered — by English Ivy. Let’s call it a hedge. I had to stop, because emanating from […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Celebrating Stormy
There is more than one path to a life well lived
Last Friday night I joined a crowd in Provincetown’s beautiful town hall to celebrate the life and career of Charles “Stormy” Mayo III. With all those who were there, I […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Unthinkable Thoughts
Facing our own finitude takes courage
Some things are difficult to think about. The difficulty could lie in their complexity. I can’t wrap my brain around quantum mechanics, black holes, or the Electoral College. But other […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
New Bird in Town
The ravens are back, and they are building a nest
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 […]
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Waiting for the Tody
A little Puerto Rican bird that expanded my world
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 […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Taking Inventory
An adventure in living-room archaeology
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 […]
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Ruled by Our Stuff
Does a man own his house or does the house own him?
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 […]
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Perspective Versus Hyperbole
Facts are taken in through an emotional filter
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 […]
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Losing Our Connection
Baby turtles as a remedy for ‘species loneliness’
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 YEAR-ROUNDER
In Pursuit of the Hearty Garlic
The market and the community, with and without pickles
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 […]
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Paul Tasha: An Appreciation
A Provincetown original who knew exactly who he was
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 […]