Monthly Archives: July 2012

Dune shacks: private use to continue [op-ed CCT 24 July 2012]

At long last, the 50 year squabble over the Provincetown dune shacks may be simmering down, with an agreement signed on May 18. To the outside observer not conversant with the issues, the conflict must seem much ado about very flimsy architecture. The term “shack” is not false modesty. “Hovel” or “hut” would do as […]

Midsummer Night’s Dream: not just another well-reviewed play

Once in a long while I see a play that makes me angry at even glowing reviews for not making it sufficiently clear that THIS IS NOT JUST ANOTHER WELL-DONE, WELL-REVIEWED PLAY. This is something else again. The play I’m talking about is Midsummer Night’s Dream, appearing at the Payomet tent in North Truro. We […]

Correct English: a line in the sand [op-ed CCT 26 August 2008]

I’m sitting around a fire on the beach with a couple of writer friends contemplating the end of the world. Sort of. The blaze we stare into seems a good metaphor for the voracious computerization that is consuming writing as we know it (books and newspapers and such). We lament the erosion of language itself, […]

Daring to question dropout logic [op-ed CCT 12 September 2007]

OK, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Real Life has sucked all the tourists back over the bridges. All the kids are rounded up and back in the school buildings where they belong. A recent back-to-school newspaper story focused on a young man who dropped out of Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School to become […]

Getting from Cape Cod to Higgs boson [op-ed CCT 10 july 2012]

By now I guess we’ve all heard the news. The so-called “god particle,” aka Higgs boson, has been located. “Physicists Find Elusive Particle Seen as Key to Universe,” headlined the New York Times story depicting scientists toasting with champagne and breathing sighs of relief. They’ve been looking for this bad boy for decades. For those […]