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Columnists

Gristmill: Through Yonder Window

How Yondr pouches remade one school’s lunchtime.

May 16, 2024
Point of View: ‘Not Yet, Not Yet,’ He Said

I wonder if it’s all right to wear warmup pants and a Bonac hoodie to the Press Club of Long Island’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

May 16, 2024
The Mast-Head: Gardening by the Stars

Think what we may about the yearly climate cycle on the East End, some kind of seasonal calendar is needed to anticipate when to take the dahlia and tomato seedlings outside.

May 16, 2024
The Shipwreck Rose: Lost Soles

It’s been a long time since I owned any shoes that felt worthy of a Polaroid or that seemed to reflect anything in particular about my character or my autobiography.

May 16, 2024
Gristmill: Out of Iron City

John Edgar Wideman. A fan’s notes.

May 9, 2024
Point of View: Moonstruck

If it weren’t for the moon, we wouldn’t be here.

May 9, 2024
The Mast-Head: Osprey on High

Cold spells, baseballs, and pesky small birds notwithstanding, an osprey’s life seems a good one.

May 9, 2024
The Shipwreck Rose: Earned, Not Given

Under the heading of “Anything worth doing at all will take at least a tiny modicum of effort” I categorize most of life’s pleasures.

May 9, 2024
Gristmill: Trouble Dog

Non-adventures with a sofa-loving rescue pup.

May 2, 2024
Point of View: Do I Wake or Sleep?

When I wake from dreams, I feel quite peaceful, like the way I felt after my last colonoscopy.

May 2, 2024
The Mast-Head: The Hangover Bird

I am happily a morning person, but birds tend to get annoying as the day goes on.

May 2, 2024
The Shipwreck Rose: Larks and Ponies

If I were a car, what kind of car would I be?

May 2, 2024
Gristmill: End of the Lesson

When ubiquitous smartphones put a crimp in important proceedings.

Apr 25, 2024
Point of View: On Bliss, Terror, and Contumely

Two columns in one: from Palm Springs to NPR’s Uri Berliner.

Apr 25, 2024
The Mast-Head: A Late Frost

Here on the narrow end of Long Island between the bays and the ocean, the chill lingers longer than elsewhere. Plant carefully.

Apr 25, 2024
The Shipwreck Rose: April 1985

What we did in April 1985 at Columbia University was righteous. 

Apr 25, 2024
Gristmill: Tax Tweak

“Government do take a bite, don’t she.”

Apr 18, 2024
Point of View: One Chair Tossed, Another Is Found

To have order imposed on one who hasn’t been used to it, one who does not feel whole unless stacks of sports pages past surround him, can be traumatic.

Apr 18, 2024
The Mast-Head: April Showers

This late winter and spring have been wet and wild.

Apr 18, 2024
The Shipwreck Rose: Snack Bar Summer

Everything I understand about social class in America I learned at a farmers market summer job.

Apr 18, 2024
Gristmill: The Beautiful Game

Getting hip to women’s college hoops at just the right time.

Apr 11, 2024
Point of View: An Office You Can Get Into

“You threw out my picture?” Mary asked when I told her my office’s walls were now bare, the floors were bare, the desk was bare.

Apr 11, 2024
The Mast-Head: Underwater in Nashville

There was plenty of screaming during my short trip to Nashville last weekend. I had not understood how Music City U.S.A. had become Partytown U.S.A.

Apr 11, 2024
The Shipwreck Rose: Children of the Corn

The eclipse on Monday brought back memories of an eclipse in the 1970s, when I was at “hippie school,” the Hampton Day School in the potato fields of Bridgehampton.

Apr 11, 2024
Gristmill: Dunkin’ or Nuttin’

Just one more Dunkin’ Donuts franchise here would make it right.

Apr 4, 2024
Point of View: Clearing Out the Detritus

One person’s detritus is another’s precious possession.

Apr 4, 2024
The Mast-Head: Cars on the Beach

Seeing a photograph of a rusted car frame tumbling from a dune recently reminded me of a devastating northeaster 62 years ago.

Apr 4, 2024
The Shipwreck Rose: Risen Indeed

Is it sacrilegious to nose-poke at church on Easter Sunday?

Apr 4, 2024
Gristmill: Permission to Kick Back

Second-guessing the first exercise outing of spring.

Mar 28, 2024
Point of View: Always Be Sniffing

I rather like noxious fumes, having grown up in the ’50s in Pittsburgh.

Mar 28, 2024