Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • Small World: Trying to solve Syria

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Probably not many readers have devoted a lot of thought to the question of what to do about Syria, site of a two-year, deadly civil war where the autocrat Bashar al Assad may — repeat may — have used nerve gas and President Obama is thinking about arming the rebels. […]

  • My Irish Up: Where we went wrong (Part 1)

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist Let’s start with the Sea Peoples. Nobody ever starts with the Sea Peoples. The Sea Peoples came out of the Mediterranean four thousand years ago and fell upon the Hittites. They fell on the Hittites and refused to get off. That was it for the Hittites. The Hittites were at […]

  • Small World: Reading ‘Mockingbird’ up North

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Until recently, I had never read Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, although when published in 1960, it received high praise, including a Pulitzer Prize, and was made into a popular film, gaining an Oscar for Gregory Peck. Before I retired, I rarely read fiction. I especially didn’t read […]

  • My Irish Up: Launches 2016 campaign

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist As a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2016, I pledge that I will not run any campaign advertising until this summer, at the earliest. I’m a little tired of political ads myself, I don’t know whom to attack yet, and the commercial slots can now be taken […]

  • Uppermost House: Never use jumper cables in the bathtub

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist “It’s your daughter,” came the voice from the lady whose hand rustled through the shower curtain and dangled the phone in the steamy space over my head. So I reached up with dripping fingers and took the phone and put it to my damp ear and smiled and said, […]

  • Small World: The Curse of Modern Terrorism

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Patriots’ Day. As you all know, that is the day New Englanders plant peas for harvesting and eating on July 4 with salmon. And, it is the occasion for the Boston Marathon. This year, it was also the day of a terrorist bombing that took three lives and wounded over […]

  • My Irish Up: Best neologisms of 2013

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist In 2012, we heard for the first time of “pink slime” (an allegedly appetizing additive to pink meat). We also heard about “legitmate rape,” an infelicitous phrase coined by Cong. Todd (“Pink Slime”) Akins (R-Outer Space). The term “legitimate rape” differentiated, the Congressman indicated, those women who don’t like being raped […]

  • Small World: Obama’s competing policies

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Every modern president faces a trade-off between what he wants to achieve at home and what he must deal with abroad. FDR was an exception: the vast expenditures required to fight the second World War produced the impetus to lift us out of Depression when other stimuli had failed to […]

  • My Irish Up: PBS schedule rearranged for summer?

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist In hopes that they’ll put the real programs back on, I contribute to my local PBS pledge drive every spring. It’s the only action I ever take that yields visible results. “Please call in or we’ll cancel the Antiques Roadshow reruns you’re watching right now. Merciful God, we’re begging you! […]

  • Uppermost House: Two possible definitions for spring

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist The phone rang early. Dear friends down the road with life suddenly complicated and is there any possibility we could watch their kids? “Of course,” I said. “But it’s just me today. Karen’s working.” Long pause. “Well, your kids survived, so I guess that would be okay.” I hung […]