Category Archives: Uncategorized

Let’s Loosen Up Zoning: A Letter to the Cambridge City Council in Favor of “Missing Middle Housing”

Posted on 06/09/2021 by paulefallon

June 9, 2021 Greetings Cambridge City Councilor, I am writing in support of the Cambridge Missing Middle Housing zoning petition before the city Council at the June 10, 2021 meeting. Like many Cambridge citizens, I live in a building that … Continue reading →

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The Pandemic Joy of Spider Solitaire

Posted on 06/02/2021 by paulefallon

If there’s a single activity that’s promoted and preserved my sanity during the pandemic year—a big if in a year of rocky sanity—that activity is spider solitaire. I kicked off empty pandemic hours with jigsaw puzzles, shifted to Sudoku, even … Continue reading →

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A Year of Taking a Knee

Posted on 05/26/2021 by paulefallon

A year ago today, the day after George Floyd was murdered, teenagers across the street stapled black block letters on yellow poster board to the guardrail along Huron Avenue. BLACK LIVES MATTER. That evening, I noticed a family and their … Continue reading →

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Land Acknowledgment

Posted on 05/19/2021 by paulefallon

My first and most lasting lesson in the power of compound interest arrived on May 24, 1966. It must have been a slow news day. Toward the end of The Huntley-Brinkley Report, David Brinkley announced that 340 years ago, Peter … Continue reading →

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Stand Up for Racial Justice – Base Camp Training

Posted on 05/12/2021 by paulefallon

Among the many things I’ve undertaken regarding racial justice over the past year (My Summer of 75 Things), becoming involved with SURJ (Stand Up for Racial Justice) has been the most illuminating. SURJ is a national umbrella organization devoted to … Continue reading →

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Liberal Overreach

Posted on 05/05/2021 by paulefallon

Liberals have an uncanny talent. They shoot themselves in the foot trying to help the less fortunate; their hearts bleed out of the wound; leaving a blood trail for right-winged vultures to reframe good intention as folly. Such I fear, … Continue reading →

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How Our World Will End

Posted on 04/28/2021 by paulefallon

Some say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.From what I’ve tasted of desireI hold with those who favor fire.But if it had to perish twice,I think I know enough of hateTo say that for destruction iceIs also … Continue reading →

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Affairs of (real) Estate

Posted on 04/21/2021 by paulefallon

What is our responsibility—to ourselves, our family, and our community—for the assets we have accumulated during our lives? I confronted this question last year, when I turned sixty-five and reckoned with the good fortune bestowed upon me. Fresh senior citizens … Continue reading →

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On Time

Posted on 04/14/2021 by paulefallon

My object all sublime I shall achieve in time To make the punishment fit the crime The punishment fit the crime. The Mikado, 1885 One-hundred-thirty-six years since an operatic buffoon first pranced the stage bemoaning the consequences society inflicts upon … Continue reading →

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Confessions of an Educational Counselor

Posted on 04/07/2021 by paulefallon

An interesting virtual volunteer opportunity presented itself last fall. MIT was looking for alums to interview a pandemic-induced bumper crop of undergraduate applicants. Spending thirty minutes or so with an engaged high school senior with geeky leanings is a piece’o’cake … Continue reading →

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