My mom died last week. I’m hesitant to write about it because I’ve rarely seen funereal journalism done well, also because my head is in a netherworld and I can’t quite seem to get to it. It’s where my head was when I wrote the last post, you can tell by the fragment that passes […]
Is it still Christmas? Like jumping off a cliff, it’s not the fall that gets you. It’s the sudden stop. Having made the supremely wise (lucky) decision to stay put for what was a wonderful ice storm (as long as the power stays on and every surface in the house is deep with baked goods). […]
I pulled out my old green, black and red “Abolish Apartheid Divest Now” button. It was once pinned to the lapel of the black tweed blazer I wore every day, part of the 80’s newspaper reporter uniform (costume, I suppose). I got the button up in Buffalo. Allegany County, where I lived and worked, had […]
The temperature’s been below freezing here for the last week. At times well below freezing. Even at low-altitude Burlington there’s a dusting of snow – frozen crystalline rime – but more important, ice. Ice on the barge canal is almost thick enough for skating. If it stays cold, maybe by Sunday. For now, it’s Black […]
This week I realized just what a fraction of media society I belong to. I was in DC Monday afternoon and with Typhoon Haiyan and the Illinois tornadoes, Greenpeace got the soundbite call from the cable networks. None of the usual suspects were around. I keep a gray suit (purchased for C$12 at a church […]
Rules of Pollination
After being diligent and never missing a Thursday for something like 16 years, I’ve started slipping off in these posts lately and though that bugs me, it’s just the way life goes sometimes. When his publisher suggested cutting his column from six to three days a week, the sportswriter Red Smith answered, “Suppose I wrote […]