Monthly Archives: January 2015

Stage Names: Want to understand the Cold War? Portland Stage’s “Havana” can help

PORTLAND – The title of this review is as ludicrous as some of the situations in which Graham Greene put his characters in the 1958 “entertainment,” “Our Man in Havana,” one of his frivolous works surrounded by serious novels that secured his legacy as a legend of 20th century letters. But with President Obama having just announced a move to normalize relations […]

Bracing for Blizzard Juno? Grab a shovel and some Zen.

With Winter Strom Juno bearing down on Down East, friends and family won’t lose a chance to poke fun at me over an obsession for shoveling snow, specifically the messes which accumulate in my driveway following storms. But in taking self-effacement to the nth degree I let some other thoughts slip by. This is a chance to make […]

Coach K: A sports role model we can actually root for

  There is a silver lining in every cloud after all, and this week we will find it on the hoops hardwood. Recently, the nation’s sports attention has been on DeflateGate – the alleged cheating by the New England Patriots in the recent AFC Championship Game, enroute to the Super Bowl. And while that affair’s fallout will linger, […]

Irrational love: A Mustang memory

Some years ago, Ford Motor Company held a writing contest for past and present Mustang owners to describe their favorite memory of the American icon. The prize was a trip to Los Angeles for a Ford convention and further Mustang considerations. While I didn’t enter the competition, my own recollection of the classic pony car […]

Scaling back inflated grades: the first step in education reform?

    I teach college classes regularly, and with each passing year I’m feeling more extinct as a result. Part of this has to do with how much has been made over the last generation of the importance of self-esteem versus hard-earned grades – at all levels of our education system. As someone who has […]