Before there was sugar, there were parsnips. Yes, before they raised cane, they harvested a root vegetable and used it to sweeten meals, as if it were a spice or an herb. As a matter of fact, it is...

Groundhog Day, a day without reason When the large rodent as American pagan icon (also known as woodchuck or whistlepig) Freaks at his shadow, stirring six more weeks of winter Or stares at a...

The other day while I was on hold listening on speaker-phone to both sides of a Fifth Dimension album while trying to set up a new healthcare policy, my thoughts flitted back to Florence Krine. ...

Thanks to technology, there are many more avenues for communication today. But beware. Around any virtual corner may lurk intrigue or humiliation. Sometimes you can bump into a ghost from your past...

Outside a turkey pecks at my lawn Inside I peck at my keyboard He looks up startled I look up startled Must have been nothing Must have been nothing He stares again at the green I stare again...

Autumn’s back      courting dreams emerged from gentle hesitation      It jostles kingdoms levitates monarchs      navigates old palsied...

Fifty years ago this summer I saw a musical milestone. On August 12, 1970, Janis Joplin gave her farewell concert at Harvard Stadium in Cambridge. The saddest aspect of this is that no one there,...

My passion for live theatre is now on hold. The Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, where I serve as board chair, remains dark in these dark times. I am fated to be soothed by virtual versions of...

In a normal time, when summer arrives vacation plans roll in. But since this is not a normal time our plan this summer is to go nowhere. While I’m doing that, at least I can take a drive down...

I am a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union. I first joined after the summer of 1964. Or I should say because of the summer of 1964. I was 22. In September I would start a jam-...