Category Archives: public life
Women’s Winter Film Series
I could fill a month’s worth of blog posts with reasonsexcuses why I haven’t blogged muchat all in the last six weeks or so, but here’s one of them: the Women’s Winter Film Series. It’s a project of the Women’s … Continue reading
Writing Postcards to Voters
Back in mid-December 2017, in “Neighbors,” I mentioned writing postcards to Alabama Democrats to help get out the vote for Doug Jones. Doug Jones beat the odds and persistent attempts at voter suppression and is now a U.S. senator. Last … Continue reading
Ice Disk Votes Blue
Sorry, couldn’t resist. What a wild ride it was last night! I bitch about social media at least as much as the next guy, but sometimes it functions as a virtual town square that gives us a sense of our … Continue reading
Neighbors
For more than 40 years I’ve made virtually all my own bread. For the last almost 10, I’ve used sourdough almost exclusively. Today Alabama voters go to the polls to elect a new U.S. senator. There’s a connection between these … Continue reading
Gun Store on Main Street
Early this past week an email went round with the subject line “Gun Store on Main Street.” It started thus: “It can’t happen here”… Sinclair Lewis Or could it? There is a proposal in the works to open a guns … Continue reading
A Bookselling Snake
Is it September 15th already?? I spend the whole summer looking forward to Labor Day, and now it’s been two weeks in the rear-view mirror. The island around me may have slowed down somewhat — the traffic definitely has — … Continue reading
Statues
I’m more than half Southern on my mother’s side, but I grew up (and have lived most of my life) in Massachusetts, so until pretty recently I was able to think of Confederate statues as mostly a matter of heritage … Continue reading
Gossip
Gossip is widely assumed to be, by definition, frivolous, erroneous, and/or malicious. Call it “orally transmitted information” and it gets more respect. My first few years on Martha’s Vineyard I didn’t believe people who said they rarely read the local … Continue reading
Insider, Outsider
When Senator Elizabeth Warren came to the Vineyard for a town hall last month (see “The Line, the Hall, and the Senator” for details), an estimated 1,000 people filled a hall whose official capacity is about 800. When my four … Continue reading
The Line, the Hall, and the Senator
Vineyarders are notorious for not RSVPing, signing up early, or buying tickets in advance. Case in point: Last Tuesday evening I shucked my soggy shorts and T-shirt for a crisp, presentable summer dress and headed into Vineyard Haven to see I … Continue reading
From the Seasonally Occupied Territories . . . 