When the various weights of our world press at my shoulders, I head to one of Wellfleet’s hidden ponds. At the parking lot at Great, as children yelp and harried […]
Op-Eds
TRIBUTE
Josephine Del Deo, By Your Side
The woman behind so much of what Provincetown is fought hard against what it isn’t
Saturday, August 8, 1970 Just got into town yesterday, after quite a few years away. What a lot of exciting changes! Instead of taking boring Route 6, I took the […]
APPRECIATION
Paul Brodeur: A Complex and Creative Life
He was a passionate writer who changed our world for the better
Imagine what went through the head of a cub reporter at the Provincetown Advocate in 1978 when he was informed that Paul Brodeur, the prolific novelist, environmental journalist, and New […]
OP-ED
A Cucumber for Breakfast
What if there had been no vegetable garden this year?
The first thing I ate this morning was a $60 cucumber. I washed it and set it on a cutting board, contemplating how best to use something that seemed so […]
CIVIL RIGHTS
The Narrowing of the Public Square
An ominous decision from the Supreme Court on serving same-sex couples
The Supreme Court’s June decision in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, allowing businesses to refuse to serve same-sex couples based on religious objections, took me back to a day in […]
OP-ED
Trying to Help and Getting It Wrong
What a painted pond turtle on Mill Road taught me
Driving down Mill Road in Eastham a few weeks ago, I spotted a painted pond turtle on the pavement. Being a human who has enjoyed enough success, by my modest […]
LETTER FROM ACROSS THE POND
The Loss of Enchantment
The pink river dolphins don’t dance anymore
I think I might have been around 16 years old, so my cultural indoctrination was well underway. For years, I had been a devotee of Jacques Cousteau and his beautiful […]
KEEPING WATCH
Holtec Threatens a Common, Open-Access Resource
Reflections of a retired English teacher
We Americans, whether as individual consumers, small-business owners, or CEOs of large corporations, are locked in a free market system that rewards the exploitation of a wide swath of open-access […]
TAKING BACK CHILDHOOD
Children’s Play in Violent Times
It’s not a stretch to connect the loss of play with the rise in mass shootings
With more than one mass shooting per day since the start of 2023, many of us are asking what causes this extreme violence, most of it perpetrated by young people. […]
LETTER FROM ACROSS THE POND
The Menstrual Minstrel Visits Scotland
Jay Critchley and Lady Tampon Liberty ask, ‘Have we lost our desire for eternity?’
Scotland was the first country in the world to mandate the free provision of period products, and so it was a most fitting place for the second annual conference of […]
HEALING
Remembering a Beloved Pediatrician
A bench at the Wellfleet marina stirs thoughts of Henry Seidel
I have planted three pink geraniums in the flower box next to Dr. Henry Seidel’s memorial bench at the marina overlooking Wellfleet Harbor. They are pink because I remember Dr. […]
OP-ODE
Provincetown and the Grecian Urn Dilemma
To a troubled American, the town offers a spiritual gift
Late in Covid’s first October, my wife and I stuffed three days of provisions into a picnic cooler, downloaded two long audio books, and drove from Austin, Texas to the […]
OP-ED
There’s No Going Back
In search of recovering our ‘regular lives’
A recent exchange with a friend I hadn’t talked with in a while started in the usual way: “Hope you are doing well.” I’ve been thinking about his reply: “We’re […]
AFTER TOWN MEETING
Why We Have to Talk About Short-Term Rentals
Rebuilding a year-round community requires action on all fronts
I grew up in Provincetown and returned home last year after graduating from college. Though I had no plans to get involved in town politics or government and wondered about […]
VIEW FROM THE BALCONY
The Tornado at Town Meeting
The short-term rental clash left a bad taste in many mouths
Last week’s annual town meeting in Provincetown was a doozy — an efficient, productive one-night affair punctuated by a 90-minute tornado that swept over the warrant’s three short-term rental (STR) […]
