Author Archives: Brent

There’s less and less here here

“There isn’t any there there,” said Gertrude Stein in 1933, in her inimitable way, to characterize what had become of her home town of Oakland California. Well there’s less here here in Outer Cape Cod every day. When on the road Starbucks is our home-away -from-home. Always a welcome sight, coffee the way we like […]

Power outage: a big nuisance, but not only

The late October storm wasn’t a hurricane but it will do til one comes along. Lots of damage to trees and wires. Widespread power outages, a real check for a few days to business as usual, casting most of us into darkness and camping out in our houses. These days there’s not quite the same […]

Newport and the contradictions of obscene wealth

My wife and I recently spent a few days in nearby Newport RI. I recommend it as a pleasant way to remind ourselves of the contradictions of great wealth. We walked again the wonderful Cliff Walk along the east side of Aquidneck Island with its view to the rockbound shore and limpid waters of the […]

Who Are We Now? Updating “Washashore”

According to the recent census, the Outer Cape is experiencing an unprecedented population explosion. Wellfleet’s year round population has increased about 30% over the last ten years, from 2750 to 3566, with Provincetown and Truro not far behind Wellfleet According to Wikipedia, that 30% is the biggest 10 year increase in the 170 year population […]

Interview with a principled anti-vaxxer

I had a conversation with a covid anti-vaxxer recently. It was an intense and, for me, clarifying experience. It was my first such conversation—we don’t run into many anti-vaxxers in this neck of the woods. Everybody I know has been long and happily vaxxed, believing ourselves to be not only safer personally but part of […]

9/11 from a pond in Wellfleet

As if to make up for the Y2K flop, 9/11 got this spanking new millennium off to a rousing start, headed on a trajectory which so far it has yet to correct: to hell in a handbasket. (Stephen Pinker’s rose-colored glasses notwithstanding) I can’t remember the last minute, hour, day of my pre-9/11 innocence. (You […]

Thinking about work, creativity and the meaning of life

My sense is that not a lot of deep thinking about labor goes on on Labor Day. Do we even toast labor or laborers with our beers? It functions more as a last gasp of summer. In a tourist destination it has a somewhat different meaning. Do Cape Codders still wave goodbye to exiting summer […]

Coyote history: threat, pest, enhancement?

Coyotes made the front page again. In recent years it’s been my impression that they are not as newsworthy as they once were. Last week a 3-year old girl was bitten at Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown. She was taken to the hospital but is OK. The coyote was shot by a ranger and was […]

The Seashore, the best thing about Outer Cape, created over local opposition.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore, probably the most important event in Outer Cape history since the fateful advent of Europeans, Every once in a while you’ll hear someone give credit for the Seashore park to progressive, nature-loving Outer Cape residents. A article published in the […]

It’s crowded in Wellfleet. But is it too crowded?

This town of Wellfleet always feels crowded in summer to locals. After all, most of the year most of our houses are unoccupied. The population, we’re told, swells by a factor of seven or more in summer. But the word on the street is that it is more crowded than usual this summer. Unprecedentedly crowded. […]