dirt is not soil

Sometimes in passing some citified slicker will claim to be working the dirt in his/her garden. I usually smile politely and edge away. Gardens don’t have dirt in them, they have soil. The difference lies not only in the connotation of “dirt” and...
StageStruck: Stepping into the Thirties

StageStruck: Stepping into the Thirties

Two plays in the area this month, both set in the 1930s, look at the Depression era through opposite ends of the telescope. The American Clock, by Arthur Miller, is a large-canvas, 50-character epic about people caught in the shock wave of the stock market crash. The...

From Bloody Sock to Bloody Hypocritical

Curt Schilling built a long, productive pitching career on the strength of a dominating fastball and his outstanding command. But with his company’s inability to pay back a multi-million-dollar loan from the state of Rhode Island, he’s lobbed a slow pitch...

Imperium Watch: Lincoln and Class Warfare

When the talk turns to the income gap, Republicans from Ronald Reagan to conservative law professor Richard Epstein like to quote an axiom, or a pair of axioms, mistakenly attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “You cannot help the poor man by destroying the...

Letters: What Do You Think?

Quabbin: Hidden Agenda Supports Commercial Interests I live in the city of Cambridge. Forty years ago, my neighbors fought off a massively misguided state plan to run an eight-lane highway through our houses. It is indeed true that governments can make mistakes and...