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Opinion

The Rolex Rollout

We believe that the business folk behind Bonac’s latest mega-label boutique know exactly what they are doing.

May 15, 2025
The Shipwreck Rose: Come On and Zoom

I didn’t really enjoy the 1970s when I was in them. But how we miss that decade now that it’s gone.

May 15, 2025
Gristmill: Tending Sheep 

A homily for parlous times.

May 8, 2025
Guestwords: It’s All My Mother’s Fault

One shining example of what customer service really means.

May 8, 2025
Head in the Climate Sand

The White House’s move to abandon the climate assessment follows a raft of other moves that collectively are an immense setback to the urgent transition from fossil fuel combustion to clean and renewable energy.

May 8, 2025
The Mast-Head: Paying History Back

Slavery and the debt owed to Black Americans are among the subjects the Trumpist thought police are seeking to erase from their telling of United States history.

May 8, 2025
The Shipwreck Rose: Island Time

I’m glad Gardiner’s Island has remained in private hands. Is that wrong?

May 8, 2025
Toward a More Open Government 

One of the intriguing possibilities presented by the town’s new online system, OpenGov, is that it could improve public access to information.

May 8, 2025
Gristmill: Hard and Harder Boiled

What’s yours? Ross Macdonald or John D. MacDonald? How about both . . .

May 1, 2025
Guestwords: Do Not Underestimate Butterflies

Riverhead is blessed to have an organization, the Butterfly Effect Project, that sees how girls are butterflies in progress, from birth, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to adult.

May 1, 2025
Opposition Makes for Better Government

Setting aside nostalgia for the days when local politics didn’t divide so starkly into blue and red camps, the fact is that single-party rule is simply a bad way to make important decisions.

May 1, 2025
The Mast-Head: One of a Kind

For Helen S. Rattray, a “testimony and witness to more than a half-century of community life.”

May 1, 2025
The Shipwreck Rose: Rhumb Line

I’ve had this idea for a few years now that requires some artistic assistance. Does anyone know a mapmaker?

May 1, 2025
When Information Becomes Treason

If there were any doubt about how thoroughly the Trump administration has drunk from the cup of Orwellian doublethink, it has been dispelled.

May 1, 2025
Children Lay Dying

On the real-world human impact of the Trump administration abruptly halting the United States’ vast aid network to the world’s poor and suffering.

Apr 24, 2025
Gristmill: Into the Wild

Close and not-so-close encounters with bears.

Apr 24, 2025
Guestwords: Are Bioplastics ‘Green’?

How well do bioplastics decompose? While they claim to be compostable, many, including the most common, require industrial high-temperature composting and do not degrade in home composters, soil, or water.

Apr 24, 2025
Keep Workers Safe

New York State police and local law enforcement agencies will once again conduct special details to enforce vehicle and traffic laws in work zones.

Apr 24, 2025
Rule of Law

President Trump’s degrading of our system of laws through deportations hurts us all and raises the chilling question of how far this administration will go.

Apr 24, 2025
The Mast-Head: Osprey in the Mood

The ospreys are back for the season, and I’ve spent more time than usual watching the show.

Apr 24, 2025
The Shipwreck Rose: Funeral Potatoes

We’re having a potluck lunch on Sunday at Ashawagh Hall, following the 11 a.m. memorial gathering there for my mother, Helen S. Rattray.

Apr 24, 2025
An Assault on Greatness

The Trump administration has declared all-out war on higher education, and America’s role as the world leader of scientific and medical progress is at stake.

Apr 17, 2025
Gristmill: On the Sunny Side

Willie’s Roadhouse has a new fan.

Apr 17, 2025
Guestwords: We Need a Bigger Story

We need to show Americans a higher power that has a story they can claim as their own. We need to show that God is empowering ordinary people to do God’s work in the face of dark forces.

Apr 17, 2025
The Mast-Head: Helen Wheels

A feisty young Jewish woman from New Jersey, Helen S. Rattray became the editor and publisher of The Star after her first husband, Everett Rattray, died in 1980 at the age of 47.

Apr 17, 2025
The Shipwreck Rose: Seventy-Six Trombones

A tale of intense culture shock, of seeing America anew.

Apr 17, 2025
Zoning Code Cheats

The present town board may believe that any project it devises is benign, but the members fail to understand that a future board could misuse the relaxation of rules having to do with community-centered projects.

Apr 17, 2025
Chicken Jockey!?

A “Minecraft” movie might sound unwatchable, but the phenomenon of teenage audience participation it has spurred is most welcome.

Apr 10, 2025
Gristmill: Life of Bath

The mysterious pull of a struggling Southern Tier downtown and its one-of-a-kind hotel.

Apr 10, 2025
Guestwords: How I Found My Brother

For 30 years my life and my brother’s did not cross, despite good reasons to reconnect. And then it all changed.

Apr 10, 2025