Opinion

Pot? Hey, kids, maybe not before your brain has fully developed.

With its wide legs, its shapeless backside, its expanding waistline, the sweatpant is the official garment of the borderless, post-pandemic world.

“I don’t want to let him go,” our eldest daughter said of her elder son, who in the not-too-distant future is to go to college, a normal progression you’ll agree, but she can’t bear the thought of him leaving.

The expected forceful objections should not dissuade the town board from addressing a prickly issue and taking drastic steps to curtail parties in public places.

Early December would usually be when we got the iceboats ready. A letter writer this week recalled a time, not really all that long ago, when Mecox Bay froze solid enough to race on. Not anymore.

One of the most stirring moments of my youth was the April evening in 1985 when, as part of a marching mass of college-student protesters, I danced up Amsterdam Avenue to the joyful rhythm of the song “Free Nelson Mandela” by the Specials.

A daughter’s streaming of Netflix’s “Wednesday” calls to mind the 1960s reruns of a columnist’s youth.

Pictures of Pelé flashing on TV as FIFA World Cup fever spreads from Qatar to Queens bring back memories of a writer’s sort-of date with him.

Subconsciously, as has long been the case with Christmas, I may want Thanksgiving to just go away.

If you might excuse the cliché, Nathaniel Dominy IV is probably turning in his grave over what has gone on lately with his windmills. 

Like many men, Ron, a pack-a-day smoker, had gone years without visiting a doctor.

Georgians appeared determined to have their say on the runoff between Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, despite intentional roadblocks to their participation.

A failed home repair has a columnist fondly recalling life without running water.

Was it a quirk of history or the hand of God that brought Squanto and William Bradford together?

Help with paying for heating by way of HEAP can make lives easier in winter for the poorest residents.

Once again, people are asking us what the heck is wrong with Town Pond.

A lawsuit on behalf of the family of two women killed in a Noyac house fire in August points correctly to the complicity of local governments in a massive, often unsafe, and effectively unregulated housing economy.

Evidently, there is “a more brotherly mood” abroad in the nation than I had thought.

I have a visual memory of the recipe for oysters Rattray in my mother’s handwriting on a piece of paper tucked into a cookbook.

And now you will be treated, reader, to the boring column in which I describe the circumstances in which I finally caught Covid-19.

One giant preservation puzzle remains to be solved: What to do about Plum Island.

Sunday was opening day in East Hampton Town waters for scallop harvesting, and, while there were some to be found, the haul for those who braved the wind and rain was about what was expected — poor.

Only in the topsy-turvy world of government could an honest effort by a town to reduce noise and air pollution be required to submit to an analysis of such a move’s negative effect on the environment.

It was one all-stater and a strong finish for the Pierson girls cross-country team at the New York State championship meet in Vernon.

The Nov. 3 vote in the Sag Harbor School District to approve buying five lots near the high school with C.P.F. help was significant. It forces all of us to rethink what preservation means for the East End.

People, it seems, have been voting against their best interests for years, since Reagan proselytized on behalf of trickle-down economics, which turned out not to raise all boats, just yachts.

Cerberus came out of the water last week, formally ending my sailing season.

Notes from a five-night film festival at sea, sponsored by the Turner Classic Movies channel.

With the approval of a new .5-percent tax on most real estate sales for affordable housing, there is a serious risk of misuse and political influence taking precedence over sound decision-making.

A charming upstate downtown can get a guy thinking.