Imagine Washington DC, a few days after the election in 2014. The Democratic Party has lost control of both houses of Congress. Harry Reid, the most senior Democratic congressman, can't be reached. He has left town for a yoga retreat, no cellphones allowed at the ashram. President Obama won
Cornstalks by front porch I went to Taft Farms yesterday because I love to decorate the porch with cornstalks, hokey as it is, and with those jewel-like bundles of red and gold Indian corn. I spotted a bunch of cornstalks leaning against the wall around the side of the building. No price, but I grabbed two bundles and carried them to the register. How much? I asked. Fifty dollars. Each one, said the young man in an emerald tshirt. Gimme a break. Where do you think Im from? [...]
The first photo shows what I imagined the entire Appalachian Trail to look like. Not quite the manicured “Hiking Course” I saw in Japan, but something you might see in a park, at the far margins. There are bits of the AT like that but the second photo shows what is more typical around here, in the Berkshires: narrow, rocky, and usually going steeply up or steeply down. I’ve grown to like the really rocky sections, even if precipitous, because they are solid. Walking on loose rocks is [...]
I make lists and I make resolutions. And I make them all the time, not just on December 31st.This summer I resolved to become a hiker
Some say small-town politics are more vicious than the big-city variety because the stakes are so small. They can be vicious, that