On the Run with John Stifler: The joy of running and recalling a behind-the-scenes star

Speaking of Nature: Reaping the rewards: How to build a successful birdhouse for bluebirds and wrens

One of those delightful chores that signals the beginning of spring is the task of building nest boxes for the birds in my yard. For the past 21 years, I have deployed several nest boxes in the hopes of attracting bluebirds to my yard. This works because I live in an open area with a […]

Staging Shakespeare in the vineyard: Valley Players bring a sold-out, storm-tossed ‘The Tempest’ to Hatfield

It was an otherwise cool and pleasant Thursday evening in Amherst, but inside Room 101 at the Bangs Community Center, a simulated storm repeatedly threw a half-dozen sailors across a ship’s deck. As the vessel neared a wreck, tempers flared. One man shouted at the boatswain, calling him a “bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog,” while another […]

Baystate Franklin nurses continue push for better pay, staffing levels

Baystate Franklin Medical Center nurses protested outside the Baystate Health & Wellness Center in Northampton on Monday, calling for higher pay and staffing levels, and urging the hospital administration to reach an agreement with the Massachusetts Nurses Association.

My Turn: What it takes to sustain a public library

Municipal government asks a great deal of those who serve it. In a year like this one, that reality is especially visible. Budgets are tight. Choices are constrained. Every increase in one place carries a consequence somewhere else. There are no easy adjustments left to make. It is in that context that I want to […]

My Turn: Confessions of a Crossplayer

It was a sign of the times. On a Saturday evening long ago, four of us first-year law school classmates decided mid-Scrabble game that a misspelled word summarily costing you a turn was cruel and unusual and denied due process. So we instituted a new rule: you could play any letters in any order provided you could offer a semi-plausible definition of your alleged word.   Now, a half-century later, there’s Crossplay, the one-on-one, online New York Times Scrabble-like game where, without penalty, you can put down letters until the technology confirms an actual word. Then for edification you can look it up.   In Crossplay most traditional Scrabble rules apply. So, no names or proper nouns.   But during an early game I conjured state Sen. Jo Comerford and my […]