Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Money Issue

If there’s a shred of doubt in your mind that the United States is in the throes of endgame empire, look no further than The New Yorker June 7, 2021: The Money Issue. Every issue of The New Yorker follows … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Pandemic Joy of Spider Solitaire

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Year of Taking a Knee

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Land Acknowledgment

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Stand Up for Racial Justice – Base Camp Training

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Liberal Overreach

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

How Our World Will End

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Affairs of (real) Estate

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

On Time

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment