Is there anyone out there who can possibly explain to me who invented al dente foods? Who was the sadist who decided we should turn off the stove before our food was fully cooked so pasta and rice grains had a hard core? That we ought to not continue boiling them until they are edible? […]

Maui matters. It matters to Maine and probably many other places. That’s because Hawaiian Electric, the utility that serves the island, has become the focus of concerns that it was a major cause of the fires that disastrously swept a part of that Pacific island. The utility’s downed wires probably caused extensive fires that were […]

What do Henry Ford, the Wright brothers, the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and a machine called “the boneshaker” have in common? They are all part of the story of bicycling in America, a story deeply enmeshed in the social, cultural and geographical history of this country in the last century and a half. During […]

For me, this time of year is very special. It is not just the gentle fading of summer and the brisk advent of autumn. It is the annual return of students and teachers to the classroom — a timeless ritual like the leaves falling from the trees and the loons migrating south. Many decades ago, […]

I tuned in to the first Republican debate to see how the eight candidates on stage would handle the elephant in the room: Donald Trump. The moderators didn’t even raise the issue of the former president for the first half hour, so I got tired of the preening and sound biting and interrupting and turned […]