Our country preserves grudges much better than holidays. Two examples come to mind: Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Veterans Day was originally Armistice Day, commemorating the end of World War I. The truce was declared on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. So Armistice Day ...
If you are a political know-it-all, I suggest you put your money where your mouth is, because the one thing there is no shortage of in these divisive times are cable news-watching political experts. They are everywhere. They write me, they comment on our articles and they correct me when ...
The famous telegram mentioned in all the Robert Louis Stevenson biographies found Louis in a receptive mood when it made his day in midsummer, 1879. It had been a full year since his farewell to the sender, his American girlfriend, Mrs. Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne. Their parting at the Chelsea ...
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the referees.” Admittedly, that is not quite how the famous line from Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” goes. As you may recall, it was actually the lawyers whose demise was proposed. But though no one is known to have uttered the words above, ...
Newsday on rebuilding the infrastructure of the U.S., April 30 Under President Donald Trump, the United States has added another spring ritual to accompany blooming flowers and the return of baseball: the fresh promise of a grand plan to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. Tuesday, ...
Since the inception of the Champlain Area Trails (CATS) Grand Hike, my friends and I have enjoyed walking through the interwoven countryside paths of this community 12-mile hike. The terrain is part roadside stroll and wooded walk. The Grand Hike isn’t about summitting mountaintops, ...
It may be the beginning of May, but the weather is still blustery. Last weekend was cold and rainy with a dusting of snow. So soup and stew season continues on, the flavorful broth warming and comforting on a chilly spring day. Most recipes for soup and stew call for bay leaves. They have a ...
An impressive new compendium of photo work entitled “The Trails of the Adirondacks: Hiking America’s Original Wilderness,” by Carl Heilman, has just become available. It’s accompanied by thoughtful commentary from Neil Burdick and others, and published by Rizzoli International ...
(Editor’s note: This is a guest astronomy column for “The Wilderness Above” by Aileen O’Donoghue.) --- Mars shines low in the western sky after sunset in May. Earth is moving away from the Red Planet in our annual journey around the sun, and Mars will soon vanish from our sky ...
There was a time, 15 or so years ago, when I was making several trips a year to Washington, D.C. While killing time before a meeting, I’d often stroll over to the White House grounds and just stare at it. I was in awe, even as an adult, of my country and of the presidency. I can’t ...
To the editor: I am disappointed in your editorial, “Seek broadband funding ASAP” as it does not provide the full picture. While the Trump administration claims to want to expand broadband to rural areas, let’s not forget those very same people are trying to prevent equal access to ...
To the editor: In the spring of 1967, I was fortunate to meet some Aussies stationed at Nui Dat when we were at Vung Tau and was very impressed with their friendliness, to the point that I thought a country where the people were that pleasant must be a place where I could be happy to live. ...
Speeding is a factor in the deaths of approximately 10,000 people each year in the U.S., but the problem isn’t being addressed comprehensively. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Governors Highway Safety Association convened a speeding forum in April with a diverse group of ...
PAUL SMITHS — It was sunny and warm, even relatively early in the morning, as I pushed my kayak into Barnum Pond. I paddled along the shore, heading roughly north for a few minutes, and as the little ripples from my paddle and boat hit the ice, it started to pop and crackle. The pond was ...
Fifteen years — that’s how long it’s been since I set foot on Winch Mountain. It was time to revisit an old friend. At nearly 2,700 feet in elevation, it overlooks much of the area, and getting to it isn’t very demanding. The rewarding part about this hike is you don’t have to go ...
A mere 49 years ago a young summer intern, Julia Frank, came to work at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and Lake Placid News and turned out copious amounts of stories on everything from the arts to the APA. She wrote 100-word stories and 1,000-word stories. In those long-ago days, ...
The long arm of the PC police has reached back to the ‘30s and arrested, prosecuted and sentenced the late singer Kate Smith. Smith, who popularized Irving Berlin’s song “God Bless America” and was a female pioneer in early television, recorded songs that today, in hindsight, are viewed ...
From time to time I’ll run into someone who’ll mention a column I wrote about The Good Ole Days. We’ll talk a bit, mentioning this guy,that gal, and those things. And in the course of our chat, the person’ll say, “How can you remember all that stuff? I can’t.” Well, ...
The last Friday in April is National Arbor Day. You knew that, didn’t you? Born in the Victorian era, Arbor Day began mainly as a gentle reminder to admire trees as things of beauty. As an environmental observance, it has been upstaged by the more comprehensive Earth Day (itself now almost ...
“Danger, enterprise, hope…are dearer to man than regular meals.” — RLS On Aug. 22, 2007, a huge, muscular young man in a bright yellow T-shirt momentarily filled the entrance into the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Cottage in Saranac Lake. Fortunately he was friendly, had brought ...