With this issue of the Independent, we begin Volume 3, having published two full years of weekly editions. It seems only right to pause and give you a report on […]
Editorials
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Who’s in the ‘Workforce’?
I’ve noticed that, as the Outer Cape’s quest for housing alternatives intensifies, the term “affordable housing” seems to be muted. Insofar as it indicates that we have people in need […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Radically Rural
As I write this week’s column, two of the Independent’s staff members are on their way to Keene, N.H. to take part in the fourth annual Radically Rural Summit. Paul […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Bad at Math
Ambrose Bierce’s 1911 Devil’s Dictionary defines a lottery as “a tax on people who are bad at math.” That still sounds right. The chances of winning the Mega Millions jackpot, […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
In It Together?
Twenty years ago this week, time stopped as we watched the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. For weeks, we could think of little else but the […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Labor Day Reality
It’s almost Labor Day weekend, that giant exhalation that signals what is usually the most dramatic transformation of the year here. The last week of August is already quieter, calmer […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Harvey County Now
One of the goals we set for ourselves when we launched the Independent was to keep track of and regularly report on the state of local newspapers. We had talked […]
FROM THE FELLOWS
Take This Personally
Tomorrow, after a visit to the press where the Independent is printed, our four college fellows will leave their summer assignments behind. We asked them for short reflections on their […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Apples and Shellfish
Two years ago, at its 2019 annual town meeting, Wellfleet bought 254 acres of tidal flats and salt marsh from the HDYLTA (How Do You Like Them Apples) Realty Trust […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Covid Lies
A headline in Monday’s New York Times Business section jumped off the page at us: “Local News Aids Spread of Virus Misinformation.” Reporters Sheera Frenkel and Tiffany Hsu wrote that […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
New RTE Math
Do any of you remember Tom Lehrer’s song “New Math” from back in 1965? It was his send-up of trendy math teaching of the time, in which he deftly pattered […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Fitness Training
In June 2019, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board of the District of Columbia considered a challenge to the renewal of a liquor license for the Trump International Hotel on the […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Hope Over Experience
Not long ago, a disgruntled reader of the Independent complained that I was “a typical washashore.” There’s some truth in that. I don’t have a long family history here. I […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
What Makes Us Weep?
I feel sorry for the editors of big-city newspapers, and not just because so many of them now work for corporations that are constantly looking for ways to eliminate their […]
LETTER FROM THE ARTS EDITOR
Self-Editing
I was always taught that a good writer takes a complex topic and reduces it to its most essential elements. Working at the Independent, I’ve learned that a good editor […]
