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Opinion

Gristmill: The Heat of the Kiln

A brief snowfall triggers memories of Vermont and an uncle’s life there as a potter.

Dec 10, 2020
Guestwords: That Special Coffee

Offer me coffee and I feel special. A chance to shine, to be heard. Inevitably, all eyes turn to me when I announce, “No thanks, never had a cup in my life.”

Dec 10, 2020
Point of View: Re-Engaged in East Hampton

Presumably I have returned to work now, and am thus to some extent re-engaged in East Hampton’s life, and am feeling once again at least somewhat useful.

Dec 10, 2020
The Mast-Head: Winter Snapshot

A revealing trip through an old Dominy weather diary.

Dec 10, 2020
The Shipwreck Rose: Retronaut

We, the Rattray family, have a tendency to get lost in time, to misplace ourselves in its flow.

Dec 10, 2020
Wainscott Village: A Terrible Idea

The creation of a geographic entity — a village in this case — out of opposition to offshore wind power would seem the stuff of some far fringe of society. Only it isn’t.

Dec 10, 2020
Admit It, He Lost

So of all people, Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday made the obvious concession that there was no evidence of voting fraud that could change the outcome of the November election.

Dec 3, 2020
Gristmill: Chore Life

Fallen leaves. Is there anything in the world less satisfying to deal with?

Dec 3, 2020
Importance of Census in Sharp Focus

A last-gasp effort by the Trump administration to mess with the 2020 census to undercount as many as 10.5 million people living in the United States with proper documents appears to have run into immovable opposition from the Supreme Court.

Dec 3, 2020
Point of View: The Dragon Slayne

After Edmund Spenser

Dec 3, 2020
The Mast-Head: Reflecting on Mirror Neurons

After eight months of social distance, I think isolation is getting to me.

Dec 3, 2020
The Shipwreck Rose: Celluloid Dreams

Leafing back through five months’ worth of “Shipwreck Roses,” I chuckle at myself as I realize exactly how much of my brain space is filled by thoughts of handsome movie actors.

Dec 3, 2020
Thoughts on Route 114? Share Them

The bane of many drivers’ daily travels between East Hampton Village and Sag Harbor, the dread state Route 114, will get a makeover next fall.

Dec 3, 2020
Guestwords: Polio Flashbacks

Tired. So tired . . . I want to lay my head down. So heavy. 

It’s 1947, a hot, late-summer afternoon in Bethesda, Md., where I’m in first grade at Bradley Elementary (named for Omar, the World War II general). I’ve walked my bike home on the path through the woods, past the spot where we kids hunt and eat wild strawberries at recess. Too weak to pedal. I’ve made it home by holding on to the handlebars and lying across the seat. A few steps. A few more. Another.

Dec 2, 2020
Government Obligation

This has been a sobering month so far for anyone who hoped that New York had seen the last of the coronavirus.

Nov 25, 2020
Gristmill: The Death of the Office

Somebody once believed that gathering in offices was a grand idea. Now, post-pandemic, we may never go back.

Nov 25, 2020
Guestwords: This Year’s Uninvited Guest

Every year about this time, I would go through the same litany of worries. That gosh-darned turkey gave me no end of heartburn. But this year is something else entirely.

Nov 25, 2020
Point of View: Angstgiving

We’ve made cardboard cutouts of family members so that Mary and I can be infused with the familial glow that has been so much a part of this holiday over the years.

Nov 25, 2020
The Best People

The Biden administration is already shaping up to be something different.

Nov 25, 2020
The Mast-Head: The Worst of Times

Southampton's Dr. George Schenck returned to his practice Thanksgiving week in 1918 after being ill with influenza for nearly a month. A 25-year-old whose parents lived in North Sea died at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. 

Nov 25, 2020
The Shipwreck Rose: Talk to Me, Harry Winston

The unknown previous owner of my secondhand copy of “How to Marry a Multimillionaire: The Ultimate Guide to High Net Worth Dating” (2005) left penciled-in checkmarks next to the self-help points she found most salient and helpful.

Nov 25, 2020
Where the Pantries Come In

For a second-home seasonal resort economy such as ours, the winter months can be one of scarcity in terms of putting food on the table.

Nov 25, 2020
Follow the Guidelines

Troubling locally is that new Covid-19 cases seem to be popping up all over, even in parts of the East End that had been stable more or less from the beginning of the pandemic.

Nov 19, 2020
Gristmill: Sunken Again

My favorite state park might be the only one in existence with more parking lots than greenways.

Nov 19, 2020
Guestwords: Secondhand Man

My father was pretty good-looking, with sharp blue eyes and a wash of curly hair that held high on his head throughout his life. What my father wasn’t was a sharp dresser.

Nov 19, 2020
Point of View: Breaking Chains

There has always been in this country somewhat of a disconnect between its ideals and reality.

Nov 19, 2020
The Mast-Head: Constant Construction

Construction and landscaping have been a backdrop here for a long time, but over the past few years it has become ceaseless and everywhere.

Nov 19, 2020
The Shipwreck Rose: Greener Pastures

“Anne of Green Gables” is the book that influenced me most in my life — not Tolstoy or Nabokov or Bruce Chatwin.

Nov 19, 2020
Water Priorities

Efforts to improve water quality in Montauk are moving ahead with the centerpiece: a $129,000 study for a sewage treatment plant to serve the downtown area with possible tie-ins to other neighborhoods.

Nov 19, 2020
Exploiting Our Differences

What if Americans were not as divided as we believe them to be? Indulge us for a moment to lay this out.

Nov 12, 2020