Category Archives: Uncategorized

Paterson

I like to watch movies. This is not to say I am a movie buff; rather watching movies is my preferred form of downtime. At this point in my life, my energy level sags around 7:00 PM. It’s too early … Continue reading

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The Women Who Mapped the Stars

The pivotal scene in last season’s Nora Theater Company production of The Women Who Mapped the Stars takes place around a dinner table in the year 1900. Or maybe it’s 1910. Or perhaps 1923. Whatever. Four nineteenth century women scientists … Continue reading

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A Soft Landing: Impact Taxes

This is the sixth in the series, A Soft Landing, which explores how we might achieve a more just, equitable society without violent revolution. Taxes are a most effective form of behavior modification. Every kind of tax, no matter how … Continue reading

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F.A.T. Chain Reaction

On the day after Thanksgiving, a non-shopper like me has time on his hands. I stumbled upon a satisfying Big Box alternative: the F.A.T. Chain Reaction (F.A.T. = Friday After Thanksgiving). For 21 years, the MIT Museum has sponsored a … Continue reading

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The Balance Economy

This is the fifth in the series, A Soft Landing, which explores how we might achieve a more just, equitable society without violent revolution. A new Constitution, discussed in the last three essays of ‘A Soft Landing,’ is insufficient alone … Continue reading

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Big Box Ethics

Caveat Emptor: Buyer Beware. Responsible consumers are supposed to always make sure they got the true deal. That’s why I watch Star Market cashiers with a keen eye: markdown prices taped to the peanut butter or dry bean shelf rarely … Continue reading

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Statutes of Limitations

Does criminal behavior carry an expiration date? I recently wrote, in regards to Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination hearings, “I have reservations about how we apply 2018 standards to 1980’s adolescent behavior.” A reader who objected to that statement (“…young … Continue reading

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A Chink in the Wall of Deny, Deny, Deny

Democracy creates strange bedfellows. This morning our precarious system of justice got a one-week reprieve thanks to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a soft-spoken, earnest professional woman; two strident protestors who blocked a US Senator in an elevator; and a lame … Continue reading

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Hanging Pictures, Hanging Out

When was the last time you went to a barn raising? How about a threshing party? Or even a quilting circle? Coming together for shared work is an idyllic vision of our agrarian past, as alien to contemporary life as … Continue reading

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The Primacy of Horizontal Space

How far will you walk over rather than down? How much farther will you walk over rather climb up?   As an architect who designed large, multi-story buildings, I learned early on to locate physical spaces that have important connections … Continue reading

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