Word
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Ups and Downs
Union Jack Off
By: - Jul 01st, 2016Panic, greed and opportunity prevailed as Britannia once ruler of the waves sailed off the cliff. Or so it seemed.
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Then and Now
World at War
By: - Jun 29th, 2016Growing up in the 1940s, the greatest generation, the world was at war. There was hope for a brighter future and better tomorrow. That day is now.
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Here and There
Where the Grass is Greener
By: - Jun 28th, 2016Bhutan then India she said for winter next year as usual. "I can't stand another Berkshire winter" she explained. Actually we like those long months of hibernation with projects that never get done.
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Basta
Frowns of a Summer’s Day
By: - Jun 27th, 2016In the Sistine Chapel's Last Judgement the artist Michelangelo included himself as the skin of St. Barthlomew who was flayed alive. It was a metaphor for his all consuming art.
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Before and After
Race Against Time
By: - Jun 22nd, 2016In the land of nip and tuck it's against the law to get old in America.
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Art Works!
Commodity Trading
By: - Jun 20th, 2016An outraged artist comments on the trend of collecting art as commodity. Too often works go straight to storage there to ebb and flow as the market rises and falls. It is time to drive the money lenders out of the temple of art.
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Modern Lovers
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Philip Kampe
Days of Wine and Roses
By: - Jun 17th, 2016Food and wine guy, Berkshire buddy Philip Kampe, grew up in New Orleans. All that rich food from cheese to prosciutto nearly croaked him. An artery totally clogged with the good life. His body created a natural bypass. Talk about living on borrowed time which at our age is worth a lot more than money.
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Dumpster Diving
By: - Jun 15th, 2016Once treasured today you can't give away a full set of Encyclopedia Britannica. Forced with consolidating a glut of books with heavy heart our set was tossed into the dumpster.
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Rain Check
My Heart Belongs to Dada
By: - Jun 09th, 2016With regrets I turned down an invitation to lunch with fellow Berkshire resident Benno Fiedman. We knew each outer as art majors at Brandeis University in the 1960s and have been friends ever since. Evoking Duchamp's famous urinal as art his remarkable response waxed poetic.
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Montezuma’s Revenge
Don't Drink the Water
By: - Jun 07th, 2016When turning on the tap do you trust the water? That used to be a problem for other nations. Like Mexico or even Europe as we discovered back in the day.
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Long Point
Provinctown's Art in Narrow Streets
By: - Jun 06th, 2016As a graduate student research on Karl Knaths entailed visits to Provincetown and its historic art colony. Back then a group of now legendary artists showed at Long Point Gallery in what is now the Schoolhouse complex. I was on hand when they hung an exhibition. What remains are the grainy photos I took that day.
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John Hancock
Big and Bold
By: - Jun 03rd, 2016John Hancock, the wealthiest citizen of Boston was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. His signature was big and bold so that George III, the imbecile King, would not need spectacles to read it. Had they lost it was a death warrant for the Founding Fathers. Yet again it is time to sign an enemies list denouncing a grave threat to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
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Fear Itself
Feel the Pulse of a Divided Nation
By: - Jun 03rd, 2016When we rallied to defeat Nazi Germany President Roosevelt assured Americans that "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Threatened with the rise of another demagogue fear again takes hold in the hearts and minds. A hate spewing billionaire with no prior political experience aspires to rule the world in his free wheeling, insulting, gun slinging manner. For those who have lost jobs and hope his jingoism has seductive and perhaps devastating appeal. It positions our nation on the edge of global disaster. The Donald has trumped even Nixon's notorious enemies list.
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Greylock Greenhouse
Planting Annuals
By: - May 30th, 2016Brutal hot on Memorial Day. Picking up annuals at the greenhouse. Conversation resumed where it left off a year ago.
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Red Scare
Trump Rallies Brown Shirts
By: - May 30th, 2016Thoughts on Memorial Day remembering those that gave their lives for democracy. The menace of Trump recalling McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the the 1950s when I was a kid. He is striving to make America greatly divided again.
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Gloucester Poet Charles Olson
Maximus to the Max
By: - May 27th, 2016Dealing with my ancestral Gloucester heritage Charles Olson and his Maximus Poems are a hard act to follow.
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Vacuum Cleaner
Vibrant Medicinal Cocktail
By: - May 27th, 2016Worn out from Holiday traffic at the end of the road I needed a stiff one. End of season, the summer move next week, the stash was just about gone. Just a bit of rum from egg nog season and for a mixer, yikes, the only option was prune juice. But what the heck this new concoction, The Vacuum Cleaner, was not bad and good for what ails you.
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Bob Driscoll of Gloucester
Merchant and Masterpieces
By: - May 27th, 2016Bob Driscoll was wearing bling when we chatted in his Gloucester shop. It seems he sold it that morning on line. Lifting up a huge pile of sweaters he said "Just 20 bucks. I have rugby shirts in your size." Back in the day he designed simple but iconic poster's for friend Steve Nelson's rock club the Boston Tea Party.
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Little Lobster Boat
Encounter By the Sea
By: - May 27th, 2016This poem was inspired by contemplating a little lobster boat. From there to the cosmic and beyond.
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Good Harbor Beach
Bordering Rockport's Nugent Stretch
By: - May 26th, 2016Great Uncle George Nugent's vast pig farm included Gloucester's Good Harbor Beach. After lawsuits that went on for years the city got it for a pittance. Then a lawyer who landed in jail cheated his heirs of their inheritance. On the priceless land developers created Nugent Farms a condo village. Only the name remains of the family legacy.
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Rockport
Footsteps of Nugent Ancestors
By: - May 26th, 2016A bright sunny Monday morning in Rockport the ancestral home of the Nugent clan. On the cusp of the summer season there were just a few gawkers scattered about.
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Breakwater
Rockport Granite
By: - May 26th, 2016My grandfather, James Flynn, was a saloon keeper and bootlegger. His family settled in Canada and worked the quarries. To find work they made their way first to New Hampshire then to Rockport. The helped to cut the granite that was used to construct the vast breakwater that shelters Sandy Bay from the damage of winter storms.
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Twin Lights
Room with a View
By: - May 25th, 2016Visiting ancestral turf in Gloucester researching Nugents of Rockport. From our room a view of the historic Twin Lights. There ancient lights and lenses long dismantled. One in Cape Ann Museum the other dashed to rocks below by indifferent blokes from the Coast Guard. Lights now automated as signifiers of direspect for the colorful past.
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Steeple Town Minus One
Knocking the Spire Off St. Francis
By: - May 19th, 2016Finger pointing. The blame game. Vacant since 2008 St. Francis of Assisi fell into disrepair. Once condemned as a hazard razed to the concern and shame of a city once so proud of faith that it was known as Steeple Town. Now minus one.
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