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…]
A Yankee Notebook
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…]
So Off We Go
EAST MONTPELIER – If we start down the driveway in late afternoon, Kiki knows it’s either getting the mail or going to the park. If I pass by the mailbox, she knows her dream is coming true, and climbs partway over the barrier that’s supposed to keep her in the[Read More…]
Even the Fax Machine was Still in the Future
EAST MONTPELIER – Twenty-four hours of daylight starts tomorrow! That notice popped up on my Facebook page this morning. It was posted by my dear friend Larry Whittaker in the Inuit village of Kugluktuk at 67.8º N, 115.1º W, on the shore beside the Northwest Passage at the mouth of the[Read More…]
A One-in-ten Chance
EAST MONTPELIER – When my wife and I were married, back in 1959, our prospects were so grim that the priest to whom we went for our church-mandated counseling gave our union – “frankly,” he said – a one-in-ten chance of survival. She went to work in an S&H Green[Read More…]
Shouting Importantly into Their Phones
EAST MONTPELIER –Tom’s Taxi, of Lynn, Mass., has been faithful as the sun for us. If you tell them that one of you uses a cane, they usually send a van. Which I do, and which they did. About half an hour later we pulled up in front of Portugal[Read More…]
I’m Delighted to Have Them Around
EAST MONTPELIER – This is written in the last days of April. From my office window, the yard and the field and the woods beyond seem to be catching their breath before tackling what’s always come next. Out back, the air on this sunny day is alive with birdsong. So[Read More…]
It Wanders Today, as Often it does Lately
EAST MONTPELIER – The dying day breeze stirs only the treetops, and an evening stillness descends upon the woods. I sit on a bench in the park, as quiet myself as our surroundings. Kiki, restless as ever, alternates between the bench and my lap and short sniffing forays into the[Read More…]
What Will Karma Have in Store?
EAST MONTPELIER – Many of us are familiar with archy and mehitabel (more of us ought to be), a collection of essays, stories, and poetry written by archy, a cockroach with literary instincts and talents who’s been condemned to a life as a cockroach for the crime of having been[Read More…]
It’s a Fairly Pleasant Arrangement
by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – Living three and a half hours apart, as we do, my dear friend Bea and I get to see each other about every two weeks or so, on average. This is almost without doubt an ideal arrangement, as our life styles are quite different, and[Read More…]
