BOSTON — In any year you have extraordinary times, where many are surprises. That’s to be expected. A few instances are scheduled, and their worth increases with planning. I’ve attended every annual summer conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists since 1999 except 2004’s in New Orleans. I love the camaraderie most of all, …
Monthly Archives: June 2006
Coursing into Boston
BOSTON — My first longhand note this morning: Just because I’m an early riser doesn’t mean I’m a morning person.” Getting into downtown Boston and only five minutes late for my 2 p.m. meeting of the columnists board was not quite as hard as we were warned by several sources that it would be. But …
Bunk, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport
PORTLAND, Maine — The Weather Channel, online, had warned us last week rain was likely every day, both our time in Maine and then in Boston. It drizzled on our drive last Sunday to Ogunquit from the Manchester, N.H., airport. But Monday and Tuesday stayed merely overcast; Wednesday seemed the best day for Kennebunkport and …
Smell That Water
WELLS, Maine — With our quasi-oceanfront 1930s motel, My Beloved Wife and I felt a little sheepish that only on our second full day we waded across the Ogunquit River (doable at low tide) then clambered over a tall dune to find the beach. The tourist season we were told begins on the Fourth of July. …
John Updike, Really
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — After arriving at the Dunes of Ogunquit motor court after midnight and in a drizzle, My Beloved Wife and I gave ourselves permission to take it easy today, not push. We have through Thursday morning in Maine and we don’t want to waste a minute, but we don’t want exhaustion, either. The …
You Can Get There
THE AIRPORT — We got to Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport before 7 a.m., because My Beloved Wife and I are experienced post-9/11 travelers. Northwest Airlines, however, no longer behaves like an experienced carrier. Elaborating will just make me mad all over again. But we arrived at the airport in New Hampshire after 11, got the …
Production Number
Brick heartily endorses renting the DVD version of The Producers — the Lane-Broderick version. (Of course we vouch for the original. How else would you know that Matthew Broderick deliberately imitates Gene Wilder’s voice, inflections and timing when the dialogue is exactly as it was in the original — and that Nathan Lane does not …
Hard of Hearing All Sides
An acquaintance the other day had a complaint about local journalism. He noted that my newspaper’s competition covered a speech he saw at the local Political Animals Club (in Fayetteville it is open to the press). He disagreed with the speaker, a military official who defended U.S. Iraqi strategies, and wondered why the reporter did …
Filing Happy Returns
The Fayetteville Public Library has hit another milestone: The shelving for DVD Recent Returns now is overwhelmingly packed while the DVD stacks have about one disc every other row. Normally, the regular rows show off so much of the handsome, stained woodgrain, and the to-be-shelved are just a little busy. Aggravating. Is it on purpose? Is …
Pro Forma Pro
Professionals — as opposed to, what, amateurs — and professions, as opposed to, what, trades, already were on my mind when a Fayetteville High School English teacher decided to set the record straight in a carefully written op-ed piece that just appeared in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Milton Burke, the teacher, began by explaining the …
