I was raised in a small New England town, where municipal snowplow drivers cleared snow from elderly residents’ driveways in return for a cup of coffee at 2 a.m. Town Meeting is a proper noun in New England —a Saturday in March or early April when residents voted on the town’s funding and organization.
Such as how much money to provide the volunteer fire department for new radios.
Continue reading The “don’t ask, don’t tell” of taxation
In my early days in the U.S. Navy, and indeed through much of my 20-year career, I had difficulty doing things simply because a senior person said that was the way it had always been done. (I know, right? But I was young and thought I knew stuff.)
The senior response usually began with a version of “When I was your age …”
Continue reading A fresh perspective
We humans are amazingly optimistic creatures – mostly, I suspect, because we don’t allow ourselves to be concerned with things we are pretty sure we can’t do anything about. A friend from another life told me humans generally abide by what he called the Fifty-Fifty Rule:
“Anything that has been going on more than 50 years has been happening forever, and farther than 50 miles away never happened at all.”
To which I offer the corollary: “If it’s going to take longer than 50 years, it will never happen.”
Continue reading The 50-50 RuleSeveral years ago, I attended a conference of environmental science writers. I met some interesting people there, but being a new guy in the biz, we all were like ships passing on the open ocean. Among them was a young woman who went on to clean up the Anacostia River and along the way write three books, all of which I have in my library because their subjects snared me. Then she went off on a sailboat and …
Some folks are amazed that dinosaurs existed at all. Some say they never did. I am sometimes surprised not that dinosaurs are extinct, which implies that they once were alive, but that any of us currently walking, flying or crawling around on this whirling blob ever lasted long enough to leave evidence.
Continue reading The trails we leave behind
We humans have grown up thinking we’re something special, and we are.
On the other hand, we have recently discovered trees talk to each other through underground networks they establish with completely different species. They strategically turn their leaves to create shade for their offspring, and conserve water during droughts to keep their children from dehydrating.
Continue reading We’re more alike
When I was a kid vacationing with Mom and Dad in Maine — we moved there when I started fourth grade — our ride home to the Big City was punctuated by a stop at the Bates woolen mill, in Lewiston, Maine. The mill on the banks of the Androscoggin River was where Mom picked out fabrics that would keep her sewing machine busy making clothing for her family.
Back in the day, a person could save a ton of money by purchasing stuff where it was made; why pay transportation costs when you were making the trip anyway. In particular, that mill was what turned Lewiston from an agricultural town to a fabrics manufacturing center.
Continue reading Stealing American jobs
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There is so much to see on my wanders through the Couple Acre Wood that it seems I am often discovering new stuff. Logically, I suspect it was there yesterday, but I wasn’t looking for it yesterday.
But today I noticed the large patches of bright yellow and white daffodils really comprised myriad smaller clusters of the flowery heraldry.
Continue reading Always something new
It’s fashionable among certain politicians and their supporters to blame, as a colleague recently wrote, “… Democrats, who bear the responsibility for the invasion of illegals.”
Alas, what short memories we have.
Continue reading Invasion of illegals
Well before the 2024 election, some observers thought Big Media, notably the New York Times and Washington Post, were actually trying to get Donald Trump elected. I went so far as to cancel both subscriptions, and a couple months later renewed because I thought it valuable to know what was happening
But Jeff Bezos has officially proclaimed the WaPo as a cheerleader for Trumpism — the NYT, not so officially, but as effectively.
Continue reading Rule of Law redefined
Several years ago, I was reporting on a school board’s consideration of whether to build a new middle school.
“Now is the time to do it,” the school superintendent told the board. “The new school will put us over our debt limit and the state will make the payments.”
“The school will essentially be free,” he said
I asked him whether the taxpayers might consider where the state would get the money.
“Most people don’t think about that,” he said.
Continue reading Cost cutting? or cost shifting
Wandering in the Couple Acre Wood at this time of year is to walk in anticipation, mindful that life soon will return rejuvenated from its resting sojourn in winter slumber. Each year I am surprised, like the first time I met a Shagbark hickory.
I had seen the name on street signs where the species had been removed to make room for houses, but never had I noticed a live Shagbark in its native habitat. And then there it was, looking as though no other name could possibly be attached. There are other hickories in the Couple Acre Wood but they all look the same to me. I’m working on that.
Continue reading Forest intelligence awakening
Following is the list of confirmed (as of 2/21/25) members of President Trump’s Cabinet showing the votes of Pennsylvania’s two senators in the format Fetterman/McCormick.
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Back in the day, in homes across our land, newspapers — those once-treasured carriers of life affirming information — were stuffed between the walls and rafters to ward off the assault of frigid winter winds.
Winter of a different sort has brought us a different insulation —that ubiquitous device that has migrated from our kitchen wall, generally one to a family, and multiplied on its way to our blue jeans’ back pockets, generally one to a person. With an R-rating somewhere around 7000, that ever-present piece of technology isolates all manner of intrusions from …
Continue reading This device insulates them from us
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The temperature gauge at the edge of our flower garden claimed a balmy 50 F. From within our home, the 10 mph breeze sounded much colder.
The snow that has been hiding the grass for the past nearly two weeks is about gone. The TV weatherman said snow had been covering the ground for a record number of days. He neglected to point out that the snow piled up to the six-inch mark and stopped abruptly, and the bottom fell out of the thermometer.
Snow does not melt quickly when the mercury is below the 20 degree mark, though if today’s wind had occurred last week, more snow would have gone away earlier. But sublimation is another topic.
Continue reading Cold is relative
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This week started with snow falling gently on the Couple Acre Wood. Outside my window, half-inch gray branches turned white, two inches and getting fatter.
The pup seemed not quite as confused as the first time he encountered snow. I watch him romp in the six-inch blanket, acting as though he’s not sure where it came from or why, occasionally looking back at me as though to ask, “what is this stuff?”
But it’s soft and he can smell the neighbor’s cats, so it’s all good.
Continue reading Snow ain’t what is used to be
The fires in Los Angeles County make excellent television, with plenty of flames and smoke, burned hulls of homes with their former residents telling us through their tears how they’ve “lost everything.” Night after night of rerun videos of fire-fighting aircraft dropping water and chemicals on “hot spots” — a cool word some reporters repeat in reference to burned, burning and soon-to-be-burning homes, businesses and forests.
Continue reading The cost of the L.A. fires
Plowed snowbanks lead to an aged singlewide mobile home at the edge of a snow-covered field near a river. — AI-generated image by John Messeder
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A young woman of my earlier acquaintance lived with her two boys in a singlewide parked in an abandoned pasture. The field of weeds and young trees sat alongside a state highway where it paralleled a virtually unnoticed river flowing from the upper reaches of the rural county.
Continue reading A HEAP of cold
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Among my youthful studies, I remember being admonished to avoid anthropomorphizing critters of the animal world. (Science teachers are paid more to use the long word than are folks who simply say it’s just a dog. Either way, they’re both wrong.
Bowie the dog-person proves the point. His anatomy is similar to a human. He, like me, is equipped with a nose, eyes, lungs, liver and legs. His core internal organs perform the same functions as their counterparts in my body, which is their own cause for wonderment.
Continue reading Alikeness
Christmas morning, long ago. —John Messeder photo
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Oh! The weather outside is frightening — ly cold! In at least two of the past five years we have not even dragged the snowthrower out from under the pile of gardening equipment stored in the barn. But it’s Christmas Eve and there is a bluebird and a Carolina wren outside my window and Bowie the dog who thinks he’s human lies on the recliner behind me.
Continue reading Merry Christmas, y’all