Columnists

It’s my late stepfather’s birthday today, and while we were at the antipodes, I think, when it came to societal questions, we were on the same page when it came to sports, to baseball, squash, and tennis in particular.

Like many of you, I have been glued to television-news debates about mass shootings and what can, or should be, done to stop them. Gun control is a frequent topic as the contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination face the cameras. But my attention is drawn to my desk, where the focus is narrow and a book called “Semicolon” by Cecelia Watson sits alongside one I have mentioned before, Mary Morris’s amusing and astute “Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen.”

Over the years I had received those familiar email requests from people asking me to be the conduit for money to be deposited in my account and sent elsewhere, and those obvious scams were always deleted. Why not this one?

Over dinner on Sunday, the subject turned to sharks. Since it was the Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week blitz, this was not surprising.

Worn out, the worse for wear, working for The Star and longshoring on the side in the sweet summertime, it has really, finally become apparent: I’m not a young man.

The woman’s wedding ring was out there, somewhere in the sand. Her husband thought he had a pretty good idea where, but it was not to be.

The presidential game is not over, many Americans being frightfully capable of being fooled twice. That the economy is rolling along is nice, though you do wonder how much people are making and how many jobs they are working.

Using the word “resource” to describe the East Hampton Library doesn’t do it justice.

A Star editor tries out a surprisingly injury-free exercise regimen: no warm-up, no cooldown, no stretching, no preparation whatsoever.

There used to be a bumper sticker you’d see around here that urged everyone to “strive for excellence,” not a bad admonition, though I’d prefer “strive for beauty.”

The East Hampton Town Democratic Party faced a significant primary in June, proving that intraparty differences of opinion were alive and well even though Democrats fill nearly all the town’s elected positions. It also marked a turning point for me.

There would have been agave-hibiscus margaritas at the beach party, but someone lost the bag of ingredients in the sand.