Monthly Archives: August 2014

Teachers matter: How Mr. Miskell changed the world

One afternoon almost 40 years ago, my ninth grade geometry teacher, Mr. Miskell, stood in front of a chalkboard, paused, and then proceeded to change the world – making it a better place for me, forever. This time of year, around Labor Day, with local schools gearing up for fall, my thoughts always turn to him, […]

Caring for an elderly parent: life’s grand irony

In the spring of 2013, I was wheeling my mother Catherine to a doctor’s appointment. As we entered the waiting room, a dutiful daughter around my age pushed her mother’s wheelchair out. The two silver setters glanced at each other knowingly, and Mom offered up the following assessment: “We used to push them around in their baby […]

150 years: How the Civil War enabled later global conflicts

What does one sloppy skirmish have to do with a global war eight decades later? More importantly, why should we care? Thanks to the heroic exploits of Gen. Joshua Chamberlain, and others, Maine enjoys one of the proudest traditions of the Civil War. Still, up here in New England – where revolutionary unrest and fervor […]

Personal blogging is not journalism

I really enjoy reading personal Web logs, or blogs as they are universally known, and I take in several on regular basis. They can be entertaining, informative, and educational. But rarely can they be called journalism. I’m not talking about blogs written by journalists at the behest of their news outlets, or those of subject matter experts or professional commentators […]

Four ways to traffic oblivion

Even though my son Jason once turned getting his driver’s license into an odyssey, the one thing at which he excelled was knowledge of traffic rules. So I always smiled when we reached a four-way stop and he asked: “Dad, why do so many people go at the wrong time?” That was an astute observation for someone who […]