Category Archives: Commentary

Can I See Some ID?

5/17/2012 – 1:26 pm

I was in Washington a few weeks ago and attended an event at a bar.  I showed up with my colleague Charlie; we’re both in our 50s, our hair is gray or thinning or both, our faces seamed by decades of care.  No one could mistake us for teens, but we pulled out our photo […]

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We Are Still Married

5/10/2012 – 3:00 pm

“I have overwhelming respect for the sanctity of marriage,” says Vin Scully, voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers for 62 years in today’s New York Times.  Mr. Scully was referring to the marital discord of Frank and Jamie McCourt, the gajillionaires who lost control of the Dodgers in a messy divorce. While I have not […]

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Global Warming, As It Pertains to Me

5/3/2012 – 3:04 pm

Friday evening I was tying old shower curtains around my grape arbor.  The temperature was dropping quickly and all along our block, neighbors were busily wrapping fruit trees, to protect the blossoms from two nights of predicted well-below-freezing weather. The wind was up as the front moved in, the light through the clouds held a […]

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Who Else is Peeing?

4/26/2012 – 4:30 pm

Every morning, I get out of bed and first thing, relieve my bladder.  This is neither unusual nor restricted to the middle-aged and above crowd.  What might be unusual (probably is), is the question that so frequently comes to mind in that moment: Who else is peeing? Let me be clear up front, I’m wondering […]

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Accountability

4/19/2012 – 2:19 pm

What is a reasonable cost for a conference for 300 civil servants from across the western US?  Airfare, food, lodging, conference facilities, speakers, prep, etc., etc.  From the news stories, it’s clear that $823,000 is way too much.  Next year’s conference, I’m just guessing, will be substantially less extravagant, so let’s say $300,000.  That means […]

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The New Cigarette

4/12/2012 – 7:29 pm

I fly on a fairly regular basis and these trips always begin with a 6 a.m. flight, which means the plane boards around 5:30.  Because I’m a frequent flyer, I always board in Zone 2.  I’m not frequent enough to qualify for Zone 1, but I’m still among the first on the plane, which gives […]

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Al Gore’s Igloo

4/5/2012 – 3:18 pm

This is the fourth installment of my New Year’s pay more attention to the weather resolution.  It was hard to wait until the first of the month, given the summer-like heat Vermont experienced a few weeks ago.  When a late-winter storm hit Washington, DC in 2010 (I was on one of the last planes out […]

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