I have always been interested in current events except when it comes to electrical work. That’s because I am afraid a current will zap me in the event I tried to perform some mundane task like replacing a fuse, in which case I would either be eulogized with the words “ashes to ashes” or, even worse, get hit with a whopper of an electric bill.

So I was pleasantly surprised — but not shocked — when I recently passed a test from an electrician who showed me how to do simple repairs without burning the house down.

Jump for Joy

It is by far the Island’s largest conservation property, more than five thousand acres spread across the Vineyard’s ample middle, sp

I grew up near Glens Falls, N.Y. Even though Glens Falls was a city of only 20,000 residents, there were two daily newspapers, The Post-Star in the morning and The Times in the afternoon. Most people read both. And almost everybody read at least one. It was the 1950s and television was just breaking into our living rooms. Radio had become somewhat commonplace following the hour-by-hour reports of “the War” a few years earlier. The newspapers charted local, national, international and personal life for most Americans, including the people in my hometown.

Sea Breeze

Alas! the flesh is sad; the books I’ve read already —

O to run away! To flee! I feel with birds their giddy

Flights between unknowns: sea-foams and skies!

And nothing, not old gardens mirrored in bright eyes,

Can now hold back this heart — o sea-drenched nights!

Nor, on this empty paper, lamp-light’s

Desert clarity, whose whiteness keeps it undefiled;

Derby Loses Its Stripes

From Gazette editions of May, 1985: