Category Archives: Columns

The Outer Cape’s European work and play ethic [op-ed CCT 29 June 2005]

In a recent column, Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, knocks European workers for “trying to preserve a 35-hour work week in a world where Indian engineers are ready to work a 35-hour day.” Lazy Germans and French have “grown used to six-week vacations.” Oh, the decadence. It’s been 15 years or more since […]

April 29, 2012 – 10:58 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

The sizzle and steak of the election [op-ed 23 September 2008]

Oh, I’ve tried to resist the siren call. I’ve done my best to avoid writing about the Palin phenomenon. I’d rather write about a local story. But the thing is, it is the local story, it’s all we’re talking about. It’s irresistible. I feel myself inexorably sucked into it as into a black hole. In […]

April 28, 2012 – 12:13 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Sacrificing for the greater good; or not [op-ed CCT 17 April 2012]

In recent years we’ve bought ourselves a lot of nice items here in Wellfleet. Expensive, but nice. A quantum leap of a DPW facility, $7.68 million worth of state-of-the-art fire station, a beautiful senior center about 10 times as big as the old one, a spiffy remodel of the pier with perimeter promenade for taking […]

April 17, 2012 – 2:00 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Free expression has built-in risks 15 feb 2006 [ CCT 15 February 2006 ]

“Can’t the cat look at the queen?” This is the saying my mother invoked to deal with surly teenage attitude. It was, of course, a rhetorical question. Darn right the cat—one’s mother—has the right to pay unsolicited attention to the self-declared royalty of a hypersensitive teen. It came to mind in connection with the controversy […]

April 7, 2012 – 12:35 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Rethinking the running movement [ op-ed CCT 3 April 2012 ]

On April 16 the famous Boston marathon will be run once again. 30 thousand or so people will be heroically pounding the hell out of their joints over 26.2 paved miles, almost all for the sheer fun—and celebration of health and vigor—of it. They will be widely admired by millions of other runners and couch […]

April 3, 2012 – 2:02 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

The great dog culture divide [ CCT 20 March 2012 ]

A persistent story in local papers focusses on The Great Dog Culture Divide. I don’t know what percentage of all the space in local papers is taken up with dog controversy stories but it’s not negligible. There was a letter in a local paper late last summer about why dogs should not be allowed on […]

March 20, 2012 – 2:37 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

What should we learn from Mexican suffering? [ CCT 6 March 2012 ]

Time to come clean: I’ve been in Mexico. As much as anyone actually gets away these days, given the internet apron strings. My main motivation, of course, like that of many another gringo, was to get away from the northern winter. But I’ve been noticing that the warmer more clement weather comes with, of all […]

March 6, 2012 – 1:20 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Rep. Keating missing the boat on Cuba [ CCT / 21 February 2012 ]

Let’s talk about Rep. Keating’s take on Cuba. Last July our man in Congress voted to approve an amendment to a bill that would restore Bush-era restrictions on travel to the beleaguered island nation. By way of explanation a Keating spokeswoman said in an email to the Cape Cod Times: “Congressman Keating does not support […]

February 21, 2012 – 1:10 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Can WHAT get its groove back? [op-ed, 7 February 2012 / CCT ]

As noted in several stories in this and other papers and an editorial in these pages, yet another chapter of the ever-compelling saga of Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater ( WHAT), is unfolding. Six of the theater’s best young actors and writers have severed their ties with the mother ship (and even riskier, with that catchy […]

February 7, 2012 – 12:40 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Wellfleet’s opinion of an enlarged Cumby’s is pretty clear [ CCT 24 January 2012 ]

For whatever reason, the little town of Wellfleet, with our off-the-grid self-image has, after long neglect, been coming up on corporate radar. Hard on the heels of Dunkin’ Donuts’ application to enhance its beachhead here with a drive-thru window, Cumberland Farms has applied for a makeover. It proposes to enlarge the store itself and move […]

January 24, 2012 – 6:02 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)