Author Archives: Brent

Wellfleet: historians needed

The Wellfleet Historical Society, a venerable artifact itself, has new, enlarged space on Main Street and a new burst of energy and vision. The new slogans are “taking history to the streets” and “not just objects”–the old stuff that has been collecting dust for decades–”but stories.” “Stories” sounds good, but perhaps easier said than done. […]

June 23, 2016 – 12:14 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

Ali: Transcendent athlete transcendent of his sport

Not sure just why I am so moved by the not untimely death of Ali. It might have something to do with how he used his fame in that dangerous and exploitative sport to transcend the sport– even while being exploited, to refuse to be exploited. This from a “New Yorker” blog by David Remnick: […]

June 5, 2016 – 3:14 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

HIROSHIMA: THE APOLOGY ISSUE

It’s one of those acts for which history will honor the Obama’s presidency that, for a moment at least, he made Hiroshima the focus of the world’s attention. It was an appropriately solemn speech.. But, while dramatizing the horror of that bomb descending on a whole city, the president did not,, as been widely emphasized, […]

May 27, 2016 – 9:34 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Walking with an added dimension

I took a walk the other day. I take a walk a lot of days, but this was different. I was walking with a couple of thousand of others in a fundraiser for Alzheimers research. It wasn’t an especially nice day for walking–the wind was blowing too hard for comfort. But it was a good […]

May 21, 2016 – 2:06 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

THE BINGE-WATCHING PHENOM

In a recent “New Yorker,” Clive James owned up to binge-watching “Game of Thrones,” a most un-”New Yorker”ish thing to do, one would think. But binge-watching is where it’s at, our new favorite thing. Suddenly a respectable thing. Everybody you meet has a new fav they are touting. Those who might have turned up their […]

May 13, 2016 – 11:22 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged | Comments (0)

WHAT THE WORD “PHONE” MEANS THESE DAYS

The word “phone” is more popular than ever, but what does it mean, now that the device the word used to refer to is all but obsolete? What does a kid of, say, under 15 years old, understand by the sound “phone” (fone? foan?) ? “Mouse” is probably more often used these days in its […]

May 7, 2016 – 3:21 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

LIE IN A HIGH PLACE

What do we make of HBO’s “Confirmation”? Seen by millions, this movie strongly suggests that Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas perjured himself in 1991 in denying the accusations of Anita Hill of sexual harassment. The story is not just of the personal disgrace for Thomas but of the national scandal that he was ever confirmed. […]

April 29, 2016 – 2:04 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

What does and doesn’t make it to Town Meeting

Town Meeting time again in Wellfleet, that seasonal punctuation mark. Being of a naively, even romantically, democratic bent I’ve always thought, without thinking a whole lot, that anything of importance to this town would get voted on by Town Meeting. I mean, that’s the whole purpose of Town Meeting government, right? To give people—all the […]

April 26, 2016 – 10:50 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

PILGRIM AND EVERSOURCE: WHAT TO DO ABOUT COMPANIES IN CONTEMPT?

Laws are codified public sentiment. They are supposed to represent what’s right. They exist to protect us. But sometimes laws don’t feel like that. Case in point: the laws that allow two local companies to act like outlaws. I’m speaking of course of Entergy and Eversource, both widely perceived to be endangering the public health […]

April 19, 2016 – 7:02 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

SHARING SPIETH’S COLLAPSE

Once in a while, a story needs to be plucked from the sports section of the newspaper and put in the general news section. Jordan Spieth has become quite well known over the last couple of years as a precocious professional golfer, perhaps the next Tiger Woods. But since last Sunday, the final day of […]

April 14, 2016 – 1:30 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)