Christmas is a-comin’, and soon a certain political element will revive talk of a “war on Christmas.” There may be a concerted effort to drop the word “Christmas” in favor of “holiday.” Is it a war? Probably not. But clearly a war is raging, a war on knowledge at the top levels of government. And […]

For 30 years, the fourth Thursday of November determined our farm’s success for the year. We were raising turkeys, and if we didn’t make it at Thanksgiving, we didn’t make it for the year. Most Thanksgivings, we had much for which to be thankful. Giving thanks remains important to us in retirement. When we share […]

When the professor said the middle class comprised 90 percent of Americans, I told myself — I was too shy to challenge a professor out loud — he made it sound like we were all the same, without much room to be individuals. Fifty years later, his 90 percent has dwindled, and instead of a […]

“Living next to you,” Canada’s prime minister Pierre Trudeau once said, is “like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast . . . one is affected by (its) every twitch and grunt.” He called the United States an elephant, Canada a mouse. Despite much in common, size, as Trudeau […]

When folks ask how many people live in New Sharon, I usually give a two-part answer. About 200 people live here, but about 1,400 sleep here. In other words, six in seven people with bedrooms in New Sharon conduct their lives somewhere else. They work in Farmington, Lewiston, Waterville. But not in New Sharon. And […]

Some topics beckon a writer but don’t justify a full column. The late Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle bundled these items, as does Mark Laflamme of the Sun Journal, and called them “three-dot columns.” Here, in the spirit of and in homage to Caen and to Mark, is a three-dots column . . […]

Writers usually know better than to try to predict the future.  But sometimes, you just know what is about to happen. It’s a little like the old Sesame Street skit “What happens next?” Then, the kid steps into the puddle. The prohibition against crystal-ball gazing was so strong when I was coming up at The Kansas City Star […]

“Let me get this straight,” the boss told my son, who was putting in for vacation time from his job in Portland. “You want a week off from cooking in my restaurant so you can cook nothing but potatoes and gravy for eight days at Fryeburg. Is that right?” Chris told him yes, he had […]

“Evidence is the only reason to believe that anything is true.” Those words, spoken by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, pretty well sum up how scientists see the world. Those words by Dawkins, an outspoken atheist, may also sum up how the rest of us see science and scientists. So, how has science fallen into […]

It is a cliche that we live in an exceptional country. Some activists even insist that a candidate who doesn’t salute “American exceptionalism” doesn’t deserve our votes. People boasting of our exceptionalism are likely thinking about our personal freedom, winning the race to the moon, inventors, winning almost every war. And the like. I am […]