EAST MONTPELIER – Reading and listening to the news as I do, and remembering my classes in American History (the best of which was taught by a delightful Englishman who still wore his Oxford varsity crew sweater), I can’t help but wonder if the United States is a nation of[Read More…]
Willem Lange
I Begged to Differ
EAST MONTPELIER – I once had a friend (now long gone to his reward) who seemed to take offense at the tag line I used in my radio commentaries. When I started out in radio, I was searching for a consistent way to end my weekly few minutes. “Why don’t[Read More…]
It’s Silly, but Sadly Consequential
EAST HARDWICK – With only about 12 weeks left in the current presidential campaign, we’ve entered what I call the nyah-nyah phase: the fourth-grade-level taunting about personal characteristics, idiosyncrasies, and each candidate’s past missteps. Almost none of these attacks has any relevance to the great matters at hand, but they[Read More…]
An Ant Hill Tale
EAST HARDWICK – During the epic Southwestern drought of the 1950s (my boss, a retired Presbyterian minister turned rancher, declared it Biblical), I spent a few months in the central Texas Permian Basin as a ranch hand. It was a whole new world to me. Everything, it seemed, had a[Read More…]
Suddenly, the Campaign was Going to be Fun
EAST MONTPELIER – The claim by CNN that the presidential debate of June 27 would be “historic” turned out to be right on the money, but hardly for the reason they expected. As the curtain mercifully dropped on the scene, my friend Bea turned toward me and said, well, I[Read More…]
That Kind of Day
EAST MONTPELIER – So foul and fair a week I have not seen. It seems appropriate to paraphrase Macbeth talking about the weather and current events as he welcomes King Duncan (soon to be the late King Duncan) to his castle. He’d just had that kind of day, and was[Read More…]
Well, it’s Hard to Forget
EAST MONTPELIER – For some decades I’ve tried to do something new each week: something I’ve never done before; something I haven’t done for a long time; or something I never thought I’d do again. I’m not always successful; and the something, whatever it is, isn’t always something I’d want[Read More…]
Vulgar Enthusiasm from Various Media
EAST MONTPELIER – I talk back to the television quite a bit. I get away with it; there’s nobody here but Kiki to comment on either my behavior or my performance. My wife used to point out, sometimes none too gently if I was commenting upon an especially egregious line[Read More…]
In Full Flower During Recent Debate
EAST MONTPELIER – I’ve been listening to sermons for over eight decades. At first, of course, it was because I had to. Next, because it was the thing to do. Now, occasionally, because I want to. And I must say that over those more than 80 years I’ve heard a[Read More…]
Backward Between 1300 and 3000 Years
EAST MONTPELIER – The great state of Louisiana, not content with labeling mifeprestone a dangerous controlled substance, has, in a move stunning for its chutzpah just launched an attempt to vault its government backward between 1300 and 3000 years, depending upon different versions of the history of Western religion. Either[Read More…]
These Were Especially Offensive
EAST MONTPELIER – It’s just past lunchtime up here on the little hill, and I’m feeling extremely grumpy. This is not my usual post-lunch mood. Normally I’d collapse into my recliner, wait for Kiki to jump up into my lap and turn around till she found a spot, and begin[Read More…]
It’s Impossible to Know
EAST MONTPELIER – We started the kids out early, Mother and I. From summers working on an island and living in a wall tent off the coast of Maine, and little weekend outings, we progressed to a trip down the Allagash when the oldest, Virginia, was 11 and the youngest,[Read More…]
