a boarding school rebellion — Chemistry lay at the heart of Stan’s plan. He had learned that the atoms, ions or molecules of crystalline solids like sugar are arranged in a rigid crystal lattice that forms a perfect square. With the application of pressure on any point of the square, the lattice implodes with a…

pickled in the pandemic — January: The three obstinate brandies at the Billiam Bar, a private club in Stockton Springs February: The late-night rye hot toddy through the window at Blyth & Burroughs in Portland, the groggy drive back up across the snowy wastes March: The bloody mary outside in the village on a sunny…

It’s true what they say; God really is in the details — For a long time, years maybe, I regarded Jim as everybody else does. As the law. Someone with the potential to slow you down. He’s managed the Transfer Station out here on the island of Georgetown, Maine, for more than 15 years. If it’s Wednesday, Saturday or Sunday the place…

behind every life is a story — There is no such thing as an ordinary life. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy and a tragedy. Mark Twain If you are born in New Zealand you are born blessed, for the closest river to your place of birth becomes your river, the closest…

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act rewards newspapers for market failure. That makes it bad for journalism — Back when I was running around New York pretending to know a whole lot more than I did, I consulted to News Corporation. Well, okay, to Rupert Murdoch himself. Often over a beer on a Friday night, I found myself listening with rapt attention as people who had worked with…

Once I voted for a Republican. Now they all want a piece of me — Some people around here say my brother-in-law the congressman has gone bonkers and jumped off the deep end with his pal Mr. Trump. …

in the vanguard of a Trump flotilla — The NIST-F2 is a cesium-fountain atomic clock located in Boulder, Colorado. It is the nation’s primary time and frequency standard, used among other things for military-grade sat nav systems. It fires atoms through a microwave chamber, and then witchcraft and wizardry are used to ensure it maintains extreme accuracy. …

and you thought the America’s Cup was about sailing? — Warning: Violent and Gratuitous Allegory Ahead: New Zealand sent several artillery batteries to help out during the Vietnam War. Some culturally-insensitive brute at the Pentagon decided that since New Zealand looked pretty close to Australia on a map, they must be friendly neighbors. So it came to be that the…

What will the real legacy be? — This morning a poem popped into my head. I have not read it for years, since college, maybe. It’s just an old sonnet by Shelley. It seemed so timely, so relevant, that I decided to share it. No further comment… OZYMANDIAS Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) I met a traveller from…