Home Repair
Not long ago, a hinge broke on one of our kitchen cabinet doors. My thinking was: “I can fix that!” All I needed was a simple edge plate. It wouldn’t cost much, maybe a...
Author: John P. O'Grady
A Pretty Picture
A philosopher of old said, “The mountains and streams belong to those who love them.” Not long ago, we took a walk up Kaaterskill Creek into the clove. We started in Palenville and finished...
Death and Taxes
It’s tax time once again. Already? Didn’t I just do this? Oh well, let the preparation begin. The tedious work lies spread across the floor. I sit on my cushion and sort through another...
Nothing’s Ever Really On Hold
In my younger and more philosophical years, I was caught up by one particular question that would not let go: “What is Time?” To find an answer, I took courses in philosophy. I read...
The Earle Farm
His name would have been forgotten by history, had not history shown up at his door. Moses Earle was a laconic farmer in the town of Andes, New York. He was born around 1781...
Following Stones
A long walk out old Barnum Road in East Jewett takes you nowhere in particular. It begins as a trail where the maintained town road ends but soon fades into little more than a...
Weeding the Woods
Paradise Hill. Late spring. Everywhere the garlic mustard “invasive.” I wander eye-entangled woods. Bend pluck toss. Every step is a step, lively. No way to eradicate this stuff—greed hate delusion—best hope “get it to...
Elevator Music
Yesterday we made an excursion to a museum in Saratoga Springs. They told us at the door, “We have no art today.” But isn’t this a museum? “Yes, but the exhibitions are being swapped...
The End of Broadway
Broadway is a famous street that begins at a famous address in lower Manhattan: One Broadway. George Washington’s headquarters once stood there. The End of Broadway is more obscure. It lies thirty-three miles to...
The Brief, Adventurous Life of Nelson J. Scribner
The literary remains of writer Nelson J. Scribner (1899-1926) are not extensive. His published work consists of one story—“The Luck of Lucky Joe”—which appeared posthumously in a pulp fiction magazine in 1927. Copies of...