Category Archives: Commentary

The Christmas You Get

12/22/2011 – 12:00 pm

Last weekend I realized I’m heading into my 51st Christmas.  Not that I don’t have 50 of every other day of the year under my belt, but we tend to remember holidays in ways the third Thursday of April can’t match. As I began remembering Christmases, I wondered how many years could I pin to […]

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Daddy Issues

12/15/2011 – 6:59 pm

Whatever happened to Leslie King, Jr? He grew up to be president of the United States, but we know him as Gerald R. Ford, Jr.  Mr. Ford’s mother left his father (who was said to be abusive) 16 days after little Leslie’s birth.  Two years later, she married Gerald Ford, Sr. and though the future […]

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A Goon’s Brain

12/8/2011 – 3:15 pm

I have lived most of my life within 100 miles of the Canadian border, i.e. hockey country.  So I read John Branch’s excellent New York Times series on Derek Boogard’s brain damage with interest and the response from the National Hockey League with dismay. A post-mortem examination of Mr. Boogard’s brain – he died at […]

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Shut Up and Pay

12/1/2011 – 4:31 pm

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera hinted Monday at something that’s been on my mind for a while, but he didn’t come right out and say it. His column was on the European money crisis and the gist of his argument is this: it makes economic sense for Germany (Europe’s economic powerhouse) to bail out […]

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Things We Do Not Have

11/24/2011 – 1:30 pm

We woke to three inches of snow Wednesday.  “Back to normal,” I thought.  Winter is the norm in the north; other seasons are a fantasy.  Not very nice snow, either.  Heavy, wet stuff.  So, no Thanksgiving eve potato roast.  We might be northerners, but we’re not going to sit in the slush. People who are […]

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Still America

11/17/2011 – 1:53 pm

The teenaged girl did not want to attend the Democratic mayoral caucus with me, but I didn’t give her a choice. Burlington will hold a mayoral election the first Tuesday of March, town meeting day.  Four candidates put themselves forward for the Democratic nomination.  Vermont caucuses and primaries are open to all registered voters in […]

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Duty Now for the Future

11/10/2011 – 6:41 pm

My neighbors seemed to hit on a 21st century harvest ritual last Sunday.  It was the first dusk of standard time and was getting dark around 4:40.  It had been a beautiful day and we’d all been closing our gardens for the season, when I noticed fires burning in a few backyards.  It seemed a […]

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