Blowing in the wind
In the 1930s, dust clouds roiled a mile high and more than 100 miles wide across the Great Plains, visible on the horizon hours before the black blizzards descended on towns and decimated farms.“It looked like the end of the world,” said Cal Crabill of the wall of dust that would plow into his Colorado farm near the Kansas border. “It looked like a mountain range moving... READ MORE
Must-see TV?
The fall season of TV kicked off in earnest this week, with dozens of new and returning shows vying for couch potatoes everywhere. I must admit with the shorter days and cooler weather, TV can be alluring on fall nights — especially after last parting with your favorite characters on a warm spring evening months before. But the other night I started thinking: Just how many of those... READ MORE
Some operating instructions for grandparents
Back in 1993, one of my favorite writers, Anne Lamott, published a witty, self-deprecating journal about her son’s first year. Called Operating Instructions, it chronicled her joyful, exhausting days as a single parent with her baby Sam. How time flies. Sam is now 19 and recently became a father himself and Lamott a grandmother. Today a sequel of sorts to that first book was published. ... READ MORE
Beating the February blahs
While much of this winter has been downright balmy, February can still be a month where leafless trees, early sunsets and frigid early mornings can wear you down. And with leap year, we have to slog through 29 days.Check out the Beacon for some fun February activities to brighten the month. Consider chocolate for breakfast for Valentine’s Day in a decadent-yet-healthy chocolate bread... READ MORE
Holiday shows help make the season merry and bright
The jack-o-lanterns were still glowing when the Christmas trees lit up at Macy’s. My local mall began piping in holiday music before Veterans Day, and Black Friday is beginning on Thanksgiving Thursday this year. Bah humbug, I say. But beyond the Christmas creep and the showdown for parking spaces at the mall, the holiday season brings a bounty of plays and concerts that more than... READ MORE
The sound of music
I grew up in a house where the soundtrack of daily life was Mozart, Chopin and Beethoven played on the kitchen radio tuned to the classical music station. While my tastes as a teen ran more to the Rolling Stones and Cat Stevens, today my car radio is often tuned to the classical music on WETA, and my iPod contains Bach, along with Bruce Springstein.I’ve found that a number of boomers... READ MORE
Is it so terribly strange to be 70?
Bob Dylan turned 70 yesterday. Fresh from playing concerts in China and Taiwan, he’ll jet on to Ireland, England, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and Norway — and that’s just in June alone.I heard strains of his Fourth of July concert last year while he played in a sold-out outdoor amphitheater in Limerick, Ireland. As I stood across the Shannon River from the ... READ MORE
Eat, drink and be merry
Yesterday afternoon, I pulled the tattered recipe for gingersnaps out of recipe box that had once belonged to my mother. Gingersnaps are a holiday treat we made each year growing up, and baking them every December continues as a tradition with my own daughter. As a child, I learned the meaning of the phrase “slow as molasses” while pouring a quarter cup out for the cookies. Little... READ MORE
Red but not read
Last year, the producers of the movie Red, currently in theaters, wrote to us asking permission to include a copy of the Beacon in a scene from the movie. I was thrilled. The Beacon was going Hollywood.Fast forward to this fall. Despite careful viewing by three of our staff members, we found no sign of the Beacon in the movie unless it’s partially obscured on Bruce Willis’s... READ MORE
