I mentioned in my last entry that reading Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail will improve your writing skills. Give it a try! Here’s a selection. I don’t think anyone, even Lincoln, even Churchill, ever used the English language so well. Maybe because it appeals to me so […]

Our family is praying for my Uncle Nat [Max’s father and my godfather] who will be having surgery tomorrow. Not many of us are church-goers or perhaps even religious, but at certain times, religious or not, we pray. Max has gone down to New Jersey, and I’m holding down the […]

I saw a documentary about a guy who carved totem poles somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. He said he loved working with sharp tools. I think that’s a lot like editing a really good story. It’s more fun than work. My editorial cup is running over at GoNOMAD with stories […]

. When I was a choirboy at St. Paul’s Church in Dedham, Massachusetts, after we had marched out of the church, we stood there by the door while the Reverend Rudy Rowell pronounced what I guess they call the benediction. I can still hear his stentorian tones: “For we have […]

Back in ought seven, as associate editor at GoNOMAD.com, an alternative travel website, I received a story called ‘A Brief Tour of the Holy Land‘ from a US Army officer named Roman Skaskiw. I figured since he had served his country in Iraq and Afghanistan, he had a right to […]

. I recently experienced a book collector’s delight when I found a second copy of Ernie Pyle’s book This is Your War. I was able to pass it on to another historian of my acquaintance who I hope will enjoy it. Reading Cornelia Hancock’s account of tending the wounded at […]

My friend Anne Stewart posted a link to this site on Facebook. It has some incredibly lifelike sculptures by Ron Muek and others.

We have a nice new housemate, so I’m trying to tidy up around the house and get rid of some clutter, and I tackle this pile of magazines from my mom’s house, old New Yorkers where I’ve already read the cartoons. Maybe I could get rid of them. I open […]

I believe it’s time to take over the party of Abraham Lincoln and restore it to its original principles. I believe the best thing people of conscience can do right now is to join the Republican Party. I am an ardent supporter of President Obama, but that’s because he’s carrying […]

I went to two very interesting lectures in Hadley yesterday. Hadley is just south of Sunderland, where I live, and the town recently celebrated its 350th birthday. Part of the observance was the publication of a book called Cultivating a Past: Essays on the History of Hadley, Massachusetts, edited by […]