Archive
A man for all treasons
Once upon a time, a real estate developer known for his shady financial dealings had a son who was determined to follow in his footsteps. Backed by his father’s ill-gotten fortune, the son embarked on an ambitious business career, but ended up losing many millions in...
Bursting MAGA’s bubble
The trouble with the style of politics being practiced by Donald Trump’s acolytes in Congress these days is its predictability, a quality most public figures—let alone the rest of us—try to avoid. Sure, such behavior was newsworthy during the heyday of their Great...
Jordan Marsh, circa 1958
Every Thanksgiving, my family traveled from northern Maine to Milton, Massachusetts, where my father’s mother and sister lived. It was a seven-hour drive from Millinocket, a very long seven hours if you were one of three kids in the back of a 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air. I...
Growing up in times of upheaval
Older folks such as myself find themselves looking back in time, over many years full of events, personal and historical milestones, and all sorts of memories from “those days.” For me, such reflections started in 1948/49, when my parents and I would return for a few...
Can I teach young kids?
I am about to start teaching children in elementary school for the first time in 30 years. I have been teaching piano and harpsichord between then and now, but only to college students and adults. I was an adjunct professor of both instruments at Connecticut College...
Putin’s history lesson
In case you haven’t noticed, Vladimir Putin is angry. You'd never know it from his expression, of course, but behind the impassive facade lies an abiding rage that is difficult to account for in an all-powerful ruler reputed to be one of the richest men in the world....
The end of the beginning
Among the more memorable of Winston Churchill's speeches during World War II was one he delivered on 19 November 1942. At this point in the conflict, the Axis Powers had reached the furthest extent of their conquests, which included all of continental Europe as far...
The magic city
When I was growing up in Millinocket, Maine, I thought the reason the town was nicknamed the Magic City was because it was famous for its basketball team. In the sixties, the local high school team, the Stearns High Minutemen, became the New England champions, and for...
Is anyone listening?
Politics, and an interest in what was happening in the rest of the world, have been a part of my life for a long time. In my Cleveland, Ohio, elementary school, we had air raid drills, in case of “the bomb.” We sat under our desks, covering our heads, or we filed down...
Where gun rights go wrong
In what can only be reckoned an instance of cognitive derangement, defenders of last year’s January 6 attack on the Capitol have ventured to suggest that an episode of overt violence involving multiple deaths was in fact a legitimate act of political dissent, a lawful...
Fascism in America
“Do you know how it feels to have the president of the U.S. target you?” asked Ruby Freeman, a former Black election worker from Georgia. Her life, and that of her daughter, Wandrea Shaye Moss (also a former election worker), were turned upside down when they were...
America today: Between Scylla and Charybdis... the constant tug of war between two disparate poles, each strongly held. It seems…
A marvelous essay with a very accurate grasp of history and the referenced milestones. I must say however I've carried…
I appreciate this detailed description of Millinocket's history. I once owned a 700-acre farm in Bingham, totally surrounded by paper…
Thanks for that background history of Millinocket. For many years a group of friends and I made our annual trip…
I'm about 10 years older and all of the events you have written about hit me hard. One event (May…