A little Buckland birdie gave me a call Sunday. He was responding to an unintentional call placed by my wife from our caller-ID directory. She hit the speed-dial, noticed it was the wrong number and hung up before anyone answered. It went through and left our number on the recipient’s caller-ID, so he called right […]

I recently befriended an interesting octogenarian, I think 87, spry, a collector of coins, stamps and other stuff. His name is Harry. He considers me a good friend. I’ve had him to my home, helped him out with eBay, taken him for rides, stopping on whims to meet people in the hills of Conway and […]

It’s interesting how column fodder sometimes arrives like sweet lilac scent delivered through the bay window by a subtle breeze-shift, no warning, this week a classic example. There I was, sitting in my study, kicking off a new week, thinking about potential subjects, considering a weird Atlantic salmon development. Yes, it seems our regal, North […]

I was listening to WEEI the morning after Ted Kennedy’s passing, sitting on the tailgate, dogs sniffing around through fresh-cut clover, right-wing bores taking their mean-spirited shots at the late senator, fouling otherwise refreshing air. Finally, it got to me. I thought to myself, “You, Dennis and Callahan, are not in the same stratosphere with […]

Uh-oh, a friend was fact-checking my copy, testing the memory of a raw, 16-year-old observer who was then more interested in hitting baseballs than defining life. The phone call came from Bethel, N.Y., Saturday night about 7:30, pregame show, Red Sox-Rangers, on the tube. Friend and dentist Mark Wisniewski was on his cell. He, wife […]

My recollection of Woodstock has the clarity of a sepia-tone photo exposed too long to light; dull, faded foreground washed out and bleeding into the background, key details obscured. It’s akin to piecing together a dream. You remember what woke you and little else. After all, I was only a boy, just turned 16, on […]