Commentary
Our hot tub broke down last Monday, making it no longer hot. On Wednesday, my grandfather’s clock jammed; it takes six months to clean and repair. You guessed it: on Friday Michael deBettencourt gave the last rites to my 15-year-old, 275,000 mile Geo/Prizm/Toyota. It was a long week.
Often lost in the debate about the pros and cons of developing new sources of energy production is the critical importance of conserving our existing energy reserves by promoting conservation and altering personal consumption habits. Energy conservation — increasing the efficiency of energy use to produce more output for the same consumption — must be part of the conversation if we are to overcome the unprecedented energy challenges we face globally and locally.
The Pilgrims survived!
For this they praised the Lord
And thanked their Indian friends
Who taught them how to live
In this different land.
Like them we pause,
From daily toil and furrowed brow relieved,
To feast and laugh and play and rest,
And tell ourselves how much we’re blessed
In this hopeful land.
Could they have known,
Long years ago, where Moses’ trek would lead:
Stiletto heels and MTV,
At the Table
From Bill Caldwell’s 1983 “The Day After:”
Please pass the bicarb. That second round of pie a la mode was a mistake. Indeed the entire notion of acknowledging nature’s kindness by feasting may have been a mistake. The Pilgrims should have celebrated by fasting. Something is missing from this eyewitness account of the first harvest festival:
Pierre Bonneau was in Paris teaching a full immersion language course for the University of Arizona when he got an e-mail from his wife back in Tucson. It contained an advertisement for a French teacher at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and a brief note: “The kids and I have thought about this — you need to apply here.”
The summer traffic jam is past, but I’m not yet used to the novelty of finding parking in front of the places I want to go. Leslie’s, the Reliable, the Steamship Authority lot. Space! But I got through this season without losing a fender, my temper or my driver’s license; well, you can’t lose what’s gone, namely your temper.