I have the greatest respect for John Kerry, our former senator, presidential candidate, and now President Biden’s special envoy for climate. But I must disagree with him on one significant […]
The Year-Rounder
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Our Conditioned Air
Rises in both temperature and our own hubris
As I write this, it is hot, damned hot, insufferably hot. I can take a bit of heat in the daytime, but at night it is just too much. What […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Blessing the Fleet
A tradition that still has meaning in this town
The things we celebrate reveal a great deal about us: who we are or who we would like to be. This weekend is the Portuguese Festival and the Blessing of […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Grave Thoughts
A composition on the inevitability of decomposition
The weather was strange that March day I first visited my future grave. The morning was clear and balmy, but by afternoon the sky had turned steel gray, and, as […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
A Day on the Wharf
Seeing wonders through little girls’ eyes
Sometimes a day is more than a day. Sometimes the events and experiences of a single day transform it into something larger. I had such a day last week. First […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Going Back to Work
On having one’s rhythm rudely interrupted by employment
It’s spring, and the town comes more alive, with increasing numbers of visitors arriving. Perhaps, like me, you are coming out of the cloistered, monkish existence of the past six […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
The Hitchhiker, Then and Now
What has changed over these 50-odd years?
On an overcast spring afternoon in 1968, I stood on the shoulder of Route 6, outside Hyannis, with my thumb out. After about 20 minutes, the drizzle began, the sparse […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
April Tourists
Hopeful visitors appear even in the cruelest month
A tourist here in early April is like a Christmas tree in July: nice looking, but oddly out of place. I am writing this during a spring school vacation week, […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
The End of the Hammer
A reflection on those who work with their hands
I hereby make a shameful confession: I don’t know which end of a hammer to pick up in order to use one. This leaves me in a predicament any time […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Across the Digital Divide
A fuddy-duddy’s view of sexting
The saddest story to appear in these pages in many weeks was Jan. 28th’s “A ‘Sextortion’ Case Reveals Silent Crisis for Teens.” If you missed it, here is a brief […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Ducks in a Snowstorm
Reflections on Annie Dillard’s ‘great hurrah’
PROVINCETOWN — Within the silence of the snowstorm, I walk the frozen beach, boot-crunch the only sound accompanying me. The muffled white air swirls and eddies. And then I hear […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Food for Thought
On the pardoning of two turkeys
Only one of Donald Trump’s many actions in the four years of his presidency got my approval: his pardon for the Thanksgiving turkey. A local turkey was pardoned last year, […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
The Origins of Hatred
Can we overcome differences and preserve the republic?
My last column (“The Bradford Street Wave”) came out on Jan. 7. In it, I decried the threat of violence that hung in the air and pled for reaching out […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
The Bradford Street Wave
Are we destined to descend into tribal warfare?
PROVINCETOWN — Walking along Bradford Street with my dog, I see the DPW truck coming down the hill. I know many of the DPW guys, and one of them, Paul, […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
The Year We All Became Year-Rounders
Learning to love the saddest tree
PROVINCETOWN — Once upon a time there was come unto the land a plague of broad proportions, a pestilence that brought death, desolation, and disruption, and caused many in the […]
