Category Archives: Posts

Company in contempt: NStar spraying an aquifer near you

NStar, the so-called public utility, has become a public menace. In contempt of the resolutions of all Cape and Vineyard towns, the company is targetting in 2014 the following: Falmouth, Bourne, Sandwich; Barnstable, Dennis, Yarmouth; Harwich, Wellfleet and Truro. On Martha’s Vineyard: Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury.   Two citizens who have worked hard trying to […]

March 23, 2014 – 11:18 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

PAYT in Wellfleet: Are older citizens insensitive to young families? [18 March 2014]

The otherwise civilized debate at the recent pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) hearing was marred by a distinctly ageist theme reiterated by opponents that the selectmen and board of health, in sponsoring this program, are insensitive to the plight of the young. The burdensome cost of the required purple bags —$300. a year is one figure bandied about—is […]

March 18, 2014 – 5:14 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Battle of the beach: the Harwich Port access dispute

The attempt of Bay View Road owners to band together to curtail traditional use of the beach in front of their properties (limiting everyone else to a six-foot postage stamp at the end of the right-of-way) is clearly headed for trouble. You can’t legislate the feelings of people about traditional usage, about the logic of […]

March 14, 2014 – 7:02 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (3)

Plymouth’s responsibility to the Cape

While the movement to close down Pilgrim is making headlines, according to a March 11 story in this paper Plymouth selectmen recently signed a deal for $28 million for continuing to host the plant for another three years. “The lucrative arrangement has some thinking it wouldn’t be easy to get Plymouth to back a plant […]

March 11, 2014 – 3:29 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Midsummer Night’s Dream: not just another well-reviewed play

Once in a long while I see a play that makes me angry at even glowing reviews for not making it sufficiently clear that THIS IS NOT JUST ANOTHER WELL-DONE, WELL-REVIEWED PLAY. This is something else again. The play I’m talking about is Midsummer Night’s Dream, appearing at the Payomet tent in North Truro. We […]

July 20, 2012 – 2:11 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Vieques: Hype, art, and other controversial versions of “Paradise”

Recently a friend sent me yet another article on Vieques from the New York Times (6 March 2011). This piece, a review of the W Spa & Resort, contained a number of the mistakes and distortions typical of travel writing, including a recommendation to venture forth from the walls of the W to visit “the […]

May 19, 2011 – 6:52 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Comments (0)