http://www.coopercrier.com en-us Copyright CNHI All Rights Reserved. 5 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:26:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_234092632.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_234092632.html I’d been sprawled on the couch, watching the Olympic swimming, contrasting the athletes’ grace, skill, and stamina with my own splashand- splatter style at the Clark Center. Suddenly I heard the back door slam and Anne’s voice at a shout. “Get out back quick! Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:27:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_227082821.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_227082821.html I’ve blundered into a metaphysical problem again, or perhaps the Twilight Zone. Perhaps you’d like to help. Like many gents of my age, during the night I take a constitutional or two the bathroom. I stand for a while in quiet rumination and then return to bed. The other night, around one, I shuffled barefoot onto the cold tile but paused by the basin. In it, halfway up the side, was a water beetle. Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:31:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_220093210.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_220093210.html Last week, friends, I told you the bittersweet story of old Brother Azarias, a monk in the order to which I belonged for 13 years. Azarias was long dead when I did my novitate as a Christian Brother, but stories of his bizarre behavior still hung in the novitiate’s air, a quarter century after his death. Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:41:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_213144218.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_213144218.html A couple of weeks ago in the quiet of Quaker meeting, two thoughts rose in my mind and drifted like smoke in and through each other. They’re related, but I’m not sure just how, except that both are bittersweet and speak of human frailty. With your presumed permission, I’m going to try to sort them out here. I’ll tell you the first event this week. You’ll have to hang around a week for the second. Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:34:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_206093734.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_206093734.html There’s wildness still alive in every domesticated dog. Ten thousand years they’ve been at our side, weaned away from identifying with their parent species, the fierce wolf. We’ve fed and cosseted them, bred them into an impossible variety of shapes and sizes, conditioned them to think that the human pack is their natural home, and humans the true object of their loyalty and affection. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:35:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_199173705.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_199173705.html Sitting on our screened porch, a famous diva of American musical theater. A woman who stars in major productions across America. Whose reputation is international. Who has sung at the Kennedy Center Honors and before Queen Elizabeth II in a jam-packed Royal Albert Hall. Who for several years was Christine in Broadway’s “Phantom of the Opera,” and then traveled with that production on its National Tour. Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_192150128.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_192150128.html (The last two days, my colleague Parkinson has been spending a lot of time at the wheel of our shared vehicle, and he insists on grinding along in second gear. I hope it’s my turn to drive soon, since it’s almost time to pack for the annual Quaker meeting up at Lake George. But since Mr. P. has slowed us both down, this week I thought I’d just retell my misadventure at Lake George a few years back. Here it is:) Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:33:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_185083331.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_185083331.html Once, back in 18th-century England, Samuel Johnson was bouncing along in a crowded coach, heading for a town some distance from his beloved London. He was probably deep in thought, ignoring whatever scenery was beyond the open windows. (A stolid urbanite, he once described the countryside as unused space between towns.) Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:47:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_183084805.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_183084805.html No telling what conversation topics will arise when The Gathered Sages assemble for coffee at the Fly Creek General Store. I guess I shouldn’t say “assemble,” since participants wander in, fill cups, sit or stand awhile to trade views and quips, then head out the door, almost always after paying. Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:19:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_171132000.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_171132000.html You know the truism: You really can’t lay claim to your own house till you’ve owned it at least a half century. Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:55:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_164085630.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_164085630.html It’s just too hot to look through about 800 past columns, but I’m pretty sure that in all of them I’ve never done a bona-fide restaurant review. There are great places to eat around here, and not-so-great, too; but you don’t need me to sort them out. Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:44:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_157084502.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_157084502.html Owen beat the odds for a country cat. He lived to be 16 and, though lame toward the end, managed to avoid foxes and coyotes, and even bobcats that will run right up a tree after a house cat. Thu, 29 May 2008 08:13:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_150081433.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_150081433.html When I sit on our back porch, with or without a glass of something iced in hand, I can look down the lawn, past the back of the barn, and all the way down the end of our east pasture. That’s about a football field’s length. The three ewes, when they’re all the way down there, show only their backs as they drift through the lush grass. Thu, 22 May 2008 15:10:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_143151022.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_143151022.html I shouldn’t call him “Jack.” For 30 years he’s been John L. McLaughlin, Ph.D., clinical psychologist, now former president of the Maryland Psychological Association, a respected community leader down in Laurel, Md. Thu, 15 May 2008 12:20:00 +0000 http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_136122033.html http://www.coopercrier.com/jimatwell/local_story_136122033.html I overreached myself at the Cooperstown Rotary luncheon a couple of weeks ago. My intentions were good, but I think that I left some Rotarians confused about a number of things, including my national origin.