I grew up in Toronto, Canada. One day the fire trucks came to my house. It was every little boy’s dream. Well almost.

Maxine Kumin, the poet, died a little more than a year ago and left behind a collection of poetry that any of us can sit down and read.

My cat and I gained the same amount of weight this winter. It looks better on her, plus she doesn’t have to think about getting into a bathing suit.

Graduating class, as we move forward and our lives scatter in different directions we will be trying to create our own identities in a new world and to rediscover who we’ve become.

This is probably the last time we will be together as a class for a while, and that got me thinking: what does it mean to the class of 2015?

When my guidance counselor told me that I was salutatorian, my first thought was, “Can you recalculate my GPA?”

Summer arrives on Sunday afternoon at 12:38 p.m. Summer begins for us in that moment, though the weather and the signs have been around for a while. The precise time is more a concept than anything we can observe, measure in time, or experience. It is a moment when the overhead sun reaches farthest north above the equator, our time. If one could follow the sun at the zenith on this day and draw a line on the ground, the line would be what appears on maps as the Tropic of Cancer, a ring around the earth, at latitude 23.5 degrees.

I’m feeling ashamed today after witnessing the destruction of several majestic trees, over three centuries old, whose only crime was to be in the way.

The sky was clear, and the waxing moon was in competition with the stars of the sky, the stars of the screen, and the stars of the Island, and into this perfect setting (or set) went Islanders in best bib and tucker to see the premiere of their very own movie, Jaws.

I have enjoyed driving Vineyard students to and from school over the past 13 years