Yearly Archives: 2012

Through the Watershed

I imagine you’re as sick of political campaigns as I am, so I want to make a few last points about what happened Tuesday and then I hope we can stop thinking about politics for a few months at least. Maybe it was exhaustion, but by the time Mitt Romney conceded early Wednesday, I had […]

Between Two Worlds

It’s November and we have yet to have good hard freeze along the shore of Lake Champlain.  The temperature did touch the freezing mark for a hour or so early last week, causing the green leaves of the grapes, wisteria, hydrangea and apricot to be suddenly shot through with yellow. I raked the yard Sunday; […]

Attack of the Giant Pandas

I don’t have a dog in this fight.  By “this fight” I mean the World Series.  My team, the Orioles, not only had its first winning season in 15 years (which is all I asked for), but also made it to the wild card round, beat the Texas Rangers in a one-game playoff and took […]

Geography, For Example

Some things we can’t control.  Geography, for example. Mountains ranges in Europe tend to run east-west; in North America, they run north-south.  A new report by the reinsurance company Munich Re cites this fact as one reason North America experiences more weather related disasters than Europe – there’s no east-west mountain range to separate cold […]

Judging By the Cover

I love books.  I’ve always loved reading, a gift from my mother’s (Irish) side of the family.  Some of my earliest memories are of my mother reading to me or her father telling me stories.  To be honest, I suppose what I really love are stories and books represent stories to me the way the […]

Mulch Ado About Nothing

I promised myself in January I’d devote the first comment of each month to the world immediately around me.  Today I feel obligated to say something about last night’s presidential debate.  I’ll try, perhaps foolishly, to do both.  Hang on. It’s rained every day of October, so far.  Right now it’s relatively warm and non-relatively […]

Can You Recommend Journalism as a Career?

Later this evening, I’m supposed to speak to a class of college students.  My topic is “environmental journalism.”  I suspect one reason I received this invitation is a similar talk I gave to journalism students last year, in which my topic was “how to make money selling out as a journalist.”  What I said then […]