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The River Rat: Six Miles of Mayhem on the Millers River
Take around 300 canoes. Line them up in front of a bridge on a river in a run-down factory town in a forgotten corner of Massachusetts.
Do it in April, when the river is cold and fast. People these canoes with a combination of serious, professional paddlers (yes, such a thing exists) and yahoos dressed in costumes (Smurfs, pirates, chickens, etc ( Read more... ) -
O Forsythia
I wrote a new poem in my 30 Days blog. -
From a Certain Point in Brooklyn
Once again, it's National Poetry Month. I'm trying to sort through materials to show my students. I was poking around the Poetry Foundation website when I found a series of videos which I hadn't seen before. This one features Tony Kushner reading an excerpt from Walt Whitman's "A Passage to India." He's standing on a riverbank in Brooklyn, with the ( Read more... ) -
What We Mean When We Say "Pitch"
With the Red Sox (and the rest of MLB) in Spring Training (our diaper lady was just bemoaning John Lester's recent four-run outing), I watched the American remake of Fever Pitch last night. In the original movie (starring Colin Firth), the main character is obsessed with Arsenal, the football club in London -- as in Nick Hornsby's novel, from which ( Read more... ) -
MAAC Tournament
Pencil into your brackets the Loyola Greyhounds.
The Maryland college last went to the NCAA Tournament in 1994, and may not cause many people to pick them to win its first game, but the Greyhounds hunkered down on defense to beat the Fairfield stags 48-44 in the men's championship game of the MAAC Tournament last night.
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Almost Cut My Hair
I've been letting my hair grow out. As I said to somebody last week, I've become estranged from my barber and have grown a little shaggy. I don't have a particular reason. At least not a stated conscious reason. But if I think about it, I guess I definitely do have reasons. I keep saying that I should reflect on my current situation, as a part-time ( Read more... ) -
Driving through Hadley, thinking of UMass Basketball
I understand that the UMass basketball team is having a good season this year. When I first visited UMass, it was the spring of 1996, and I remember barns in Hadley had messages scrawled on them supporting the basketball team during their Final Four run. "We love you, Marcus Camby" and "Go UMass." I moved to Amherst in the fall and I remember ( Read more... ) -
Alexander Keith's
This is a beer that I've been buying recently when crossing the border into Canada: the Alexander Keith's IPA. I'm often attracted to beers I can't find in the states. And Keith's was sold in a case of cans, like Molson's and Labatt's, for the comparatively cheap case price. Often times, the smaller breweries' offerings are sold in 12-packs and ( Read more... )
