Unpacking the Sausage: There’s wisdom in the burnout
I’m finding it challenging to avoid running myself ragged lately.
At first, my return to the social justice workforce in a relatively straightforward role at...
Politics & Other Mistakes: Total recall
The way we hold elections isn’t fair to one group of voters:
Stupid people.
Whenever we schedule votes for city and town offices, we do so...
The Universal Notebook: The evolution of (my) consciousness
The year I was born, 1949, was an ominous year. In June, George Orwell published “1984.” In August, the Soviet Union tested its first...
The Universal Notebook: Darn those Red Sox!
For decades I have known that the only Red Sox game I attended as a kid was a game in which Ted Williams hit...
Politics & Other Mistakes: The war after the war
If you like your political fights ugly, you’re going to enjoy the rest of this year. After the Legislature gets done screaming about abortion,...
Unpacking the Sausage: The artificial sausage
My partner was mostly joking when they suggested I use ChatGPT to write my column for me.
I had writer’s block last week. I spent...
Letter: Neo-Nazi rally in Portland is dangerous
Growing up in a suburb of Stuttgart, Germany, in the 1940s, I was fortunate not to see a Nazi rally. Now, my hometown Portland...
Politics & Other Mistakes: Lawyers in love
Aaron Frey should resign as Maine’s attorney general. If Frey refuses to go, the Legislature should force him out.
Reality check: Neither of those things...
The Universal Notebook: Distant relatives
My Aunt Janet died last month in Georgia at the age of 89. She was the last of her generation in our family, which...
Another Viewpoint: The gruesome methods of the death penalty
Last month, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a regressive bill that would allow the state’s death row prisoners to be executed by firing squad....