Category Archives: musing
Insularity
When I moved from Washington, D.C., to Martha’s Vineyard in 1985 — just for a year, mind you — I expected some culture shock. D.C. is a big city. In the mid-1980s, more than three-quarters of the population was black. … Continue reading
In the Midst of Life
My blog posts usually start with a kernel, a seed, something nagging at the back of my mind. Words coalesce around the irritant, and though pearls rarely result, insight often does. At least the irritant becomes less irritating. Since the … Continue reading
Laureation
I hoped I’d made that word up, but no such luck: poets can be laureated, making them poets laureate, and the act of doing so is laureation. The dictionary says so. Laureation, specifically the laureation of poets, is enjoying a … Continue reading
The Personal Is Political
The personal is political. That’s not the first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they hear the word “feminism.” They think equal rights, equal pay, and the right to choose. “The personal is political” might be second-wave feminism’s … Continue reading
Theme Park Farming
Long time ago, like about 1988, I had this idea: build a Martha’s Vineyard theme park in Falmouth. People could loll on virtual beaches, buy picture postcards and Black Dog T-shirts, and thrill to a hair-raising simulated moped ride on … Continue reading
Fear
I’ve been thinking about fear since last Tuesday’s special town meeting. Well, no: I’ve been thinking about fear since my right retina detached in the summer of 2004 and set me on the road that led to “My Terrorist Eye: … Continue reading
The Politics of Personalities
Neither the town of West Tisbury, the commonwealth of Massachusetts, nor the United States of America is going to stand or fall based on the votes that were taken at last night’s special town meeting. Most of them were about … Continue reading
Who’s an Islander?
On Martha’s Vineyard, “Islander” is what the academics would call a contested term, which is to say not only that there’s considerable disagreement about what it means but also that some people are willing to fight about it and many … Continue reading
Meetings
An islander who knows whereof he speaks recently noted that for some people the Vineyard off-season is one long meeting. In the last eight months I’ve been to a bunch of meetings. Not all that many compared to what, say, … Continue reading
Death of an Indy Bookstore
Earlier this week I learned that Edgartown Books was closing for good at the end of February. I’m sorry, yes, not least because Edgartown Books took enough interest in my novel, The Mud of the Place, to keep it in … Continue reading
From the Seasonally Occupied Territories . . . 