Monthly Archives: May 2015

Wellfleet and the idea of safety

At Wellfleet’s recent town meeting we voted to hire another police officer. The logic of that seemed pretty obvious: another officer would make us safer. But that town meeting vote failed to get the required override ratification a few days later. Apparently, a lot of us are not worried about our safety. It does raise […]

May 29, 2015 – 12:23 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

Electronic voting in Eastham means a very big change

In its recent town meeting, Eastham replaced traditional voting by voice or raised hands with electronic voting. It seems a small thing, this change, a matter mostly of efficiency and accuracy. But it has more profound implications than you would think from the debate leading to it, which seemed to focus mostly on the expense […]

May 23, 2015 – 2:24 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Scapegate.

Deflategate has turned into Scapegate, the scapegoating of the league’s most successful QB. The NFL’s investigator concludes that Brady “more probably than not” knew that the ball handler guys did what they did. “More probably than not”–so what’s that, 55-45? 65-35? That’s not a standard of proof that would hold up in any other arena, […]

May 13, 2015 – 11:52 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Contradictions of “tourist destination”

I recently found out something about this small Mexican city, where we’ve spent a chunk of winter the past five years, that changed my whole way of looking at the place. San Miguel de Allende is famous for the colors of its buildings—a rich palette of blood red, oranges, earthy ochres. The way the town […]

May 8, 2015 – 10:46 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The emotional style of the Unconcerned

The letters and other opinion pieces in these pages taking the not-to-worry line on Pilgrim are framed as science-oriented, fact-based , cooler heads vs. a scared, irrational mob of kneejerk naysayers. But it’s not really about the facts. Rather, call it a difference in emotional style: the unruffled, imperturbable unconcerned vs. the concerned, who allow […]

May 1, 2015 – 11:19 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)