Author Archives: Brent

“BRIDGE OF SPIES”: COMFORTING BUT CONFUSED.

“Bridge of Spies,” the popular and critically well-received movie that’s been playing locally, is an entertaining true story, comforting in a way we have come to expect of Spielberg. Tom Hanks is always enough to restore your faith in the species. Decency, honor, stubbornness in the service of virtue seem built into his very physiognomy. […]

November 13, 2015 – 1:44 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Schulz on Thoreau: who’s the hermit here?

A recent “New Yorker” carries a hatchet job on, of all iconic Americans, HenryDavid Thoreau. In her contemptuous “What have we been thinking?” attitude toward the last 150 years of treasuring Thoreau, Kathryn Schulz comes across as more of a solipsistic crank than she construes Thoreau to be. Useful literary criticism starts with understanding why […]

November 5, 2015 – 2:22 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The De-fusing of the f-bomb

It’s f—— sad. It really is. What’s happened to this word so f—— powerful that you could f—— end a marriage with it or start or a f—— fight. Or, the word having the power of a punch itself, not even f—— have to. I can’t spell it out here, one of the few places […]

October 28, 2015 – 3:29 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged | Comments (0)

GPS almost almost got us killed

Those of us old enough to straddle the digital watershed are probably more sensitive to the downside of killer apps than millennials. In July, an old friend visiting the Cape from out of town was staying in a B&B in Eastham. He had ridden his bike up to Wellfleet for a visit, but when we […]

October 20, 2015 – 12:20 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Pilgrim now admittedly unsafe.

The announcement that Pilgrim will close by July 2019 is a cause for celebration. But there is, when you think about it, a sobering side effect. The decision to close the plant because spending the money necessary to make it safe would make it unprofitable is an implicit admission that it is unsafe. In fact, […]

October 15, 2015 – 11:58 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged | Comments (0)

Say it ain’t so,Tom

I suppose everybody has seen the story: “Tom Brady endorses Trump.” No way. Our Tom Brady? I’m aware that a lot of professional athletes, like other wealthy people, are of the Republican persuasion. But Trump? Seriously? This throws me into moral confusion. I’ve been enjoying this season, with its backstory of the inflategate thing and […]

October 9, 2015 – 6:21 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Secondhome owners’ counter-productive naivete

An explosion of angry letters from secondhome owners dominated the op-ed section of this week’s Provincetown “Banner.” They were miffed by an editorial calling secondhome owners “fair-weather friends” and making a connection between the secondhome market and homelessness [(which is seen as contributing to the recent death of a well-known local artist). “These are hurtful […]

October 5, 2015 – 2:47 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

The bottomline is Entergy’s only concern

It has made the headlines here and in Boston: Entergy, the parent company of Pilgrim nuclear power plant is, at long last, considering closing it down. The gist of the story: after years of faltering performance plant has recently been ranked as one of the worst in the nation. If the cost of making the […]

September 24, 2015 – 11:57 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Let’s get curious about the charter school controversy

You’d like to think that Education, in the business of encouraging being thoughtful and curious about things, would be curious about itself. But it would be naïve to expect that. Education isn’t any better at self -examination than any other embedded institution. There was a news story early in August about a ballot question for […]

September 19, 2015 – 8:32 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Labor Day, Self-driving cars and John Henry

Don’t look now, but the self driving car (SDC) is apparently about to run us over. Already prototypes have put in over a million miles on public roads (so far with a human co-pilot for emergencies). Google says it plans to make SDCs available by 2020. It’s a shock reading that the SDC will have […]

September 13, 2015 – 12:31 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)