Columnists

Blades continue winning ways

Posted: January 13, 2017 at 9:08 am   /   Columnists

Last Wednesday, the Florida Everblades played the first of three home games against the Manchester Monarchs. They trailed the Monarchs by two points in the Eastern Conference, with both teams sitting on the top of their respective divisions. After Saturday night’s game, the Blades earned their spot at the top of the standings, winning all […]

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A distinctive terroir

Posted: January 13, 2017 at 9:06 am   /   Columnists

We often talk about “terroir” and its special effect on wine. And some of the most successful subsets of soil types to affect terroir benefit from the addition of volcanic detritus. You can find this characteristic in regions of the world that have (or in some cases had) volcanic activity. In the long term, the […]

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For the birds

Posted: January 13, 2017 at 9:00 am   /   Columnists

By chance or prompted by inner need, during a reshuffle of furniture around my house, the desk ended up in the kitchen: Right beside the fridge. That actually happened back in December and the desk was a recent arrival at the time. It is my late dad’s walnut desk with three drawers on each side […]

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All the rage

Posted: January 13, 2017 at 8:58 am   /   Columnists

There’s a new form of entertainment out there in which people pay for the privilege of destroying things. From Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Jacksonville, New York, Toronto and Niagara Falls to England, Hungary, Serbia, Russia and Australia, there are accounts of people setting up shop with the express purpose of giving folks a chance to […]

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Slow news

Posted: January 13, 2017 at 8:48 am   /   Columnists

It was with some trepidation that I accepted to writing this column. I had learned that journalists should never present their personal views. They must be completely objective, examine and report on all sides of a story with unbiased clarity. That is a commendable pursuit, and sometimes (I hope) I succeed. But I’ve since learned […]

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Curate this

Posted: January 12, 2017 at 8:58 am   /   Columnists

If you know me, and some of you think you do, you know I am a “curator”. And if you know me, you know I like to rant on about stuff. So, I’m going to rant about people who “curate” things. The short definition is that a curator is a content specialist who is involved […]

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New you?

Posted: January 6, 2017 at 9:09 am   /   Columnists

Now that it’s 2017, hopefully less beloved celebrities will die, the political world will be more civilized, and we’ll all lose a few pounds. It’s everywhere you look at the end of the year. Those promotional ads for fitness or diet schemes that will help folks achieve their new year’s resolutions. Promises of change and […]

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So long, 2016!

Posted: January 6, 2017 at 8:53 am   /   Columnists

Yes, girls and boys, it’s time to turf that ragged old 2016 calendar, and unfurl the one that arrived in the mail. Reflecting on the past year, sad to say, we lost a fine group of athletes from many different areas in the sporting world. In no particular order, I shall address those losses. Some […]

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The genealogy pit

Posted: January 6, 2017 at 8:51 am   /   Columnists

When I was younger and slightly less sophisticated than I am now, I used to ask myself why everyone was so concerned about the population increasing. The way I figured it, I had two parents, and four grandparents; and therefore, eight great-grandparents, and so on upwards. Surely the world was not expanding, but contracting? Of […]

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Trip around the sun

Posted: January 6, 2017 at 8:48 am   /   Columnists

In one of my first New Year columns for The Times, 10 years ago, I wrote about how most of us treat the new year like a Monday. I wrote, “New Year’s Day is like the mother of all Mondays for anyone who made a list of resolutions for 2007.” My reasoning was Monday seems […]

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