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February 25, 2026

Channeling Twain pt. 2: Voyaging beyond the 101

Model T Ford
I’m still reading the biography of Mark Twain by Ron Chernow. The book is more than 1,000 pages long, so cut me some slack. My last column channeled Twain’s propensity to write fake news stories when he was a journalist. Prior to picking up Chernow’s...

Blum: My ideas for attracting new members to Rotary

Jeffrey Blum
Somehow through my years as a volunteer in many different endeavors I’ve gotten the notion that I know how to generate interest about the organizations I’ve been involved in. In many cases I did this by writing articles about the organization, such as the...

Blum: When Grown Men Cry

Jeffrey Blum
Crying doesn’t mean something’s wrong. Sometimes it means everything is gloriously right.

Making the seniors road map work

senior reads map
Around spring 1970, I took my first cross country road trip with my college friend, Cliff, who later became a doctor and then the surgeon general of New Jersey. We began our journey at our college, Rutgers University. We sang Bob Dylan songs and...

Finding happiness in laughter

African instruments jam
Happiness is something we all pursue, but sometimes we take it too seriously. Some people treat happiness as a goal to be achieved, while others treat happiness as if it is a key business performance indicator. But in doing so, we miss the things...

Court ruling provides a cautionary tale to our town

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
I am an attorney, but I am not a First Amendment free speech attorney. However, as the saying goes, I know enough to be dangerous. Moreover, I am usually pretty good at issue spotting, even in areas outside of my area of legal expertise....

Racism: innate or taught?

Photo of a woman in front of a round blue door
Why does racism still continue to prevail in our society, covertly and overtly? The intent here is to answer these questions analytically.

Facing old age

Jeffrey Blum
As I move through my senior years in semi-retirement mode, I share jokes about ailments and commiserate with fellow old timers about lost loved ones. At the same time, I apply myself to my job as a commissioner on the Community Health and Senior...

Guest View: Protecting the newts of Alma Bridge Road

newt alma bridge road
A week before the 2022 New Year, I received a text from a friend expressing his dismay at the great number of dead newts he saw on Alma Bridge Road while he was biking. This was right after one of the December winter storms....

Lessons I’ve learned from ‘How Big Things Get Done’

book cover
I did not inherit my father’s handyperson skills, although I remember observing him install central air conditioning and successfully accomplishing other large projects at our house in Kings Point, New York. Perhaps seeing a booklet lying around his workroom describing how to build a...

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