Columns

Question from Robin Casey: Why is there an old, presumably abandoned boat permanently parked at Mitchell Field near the bandstand? It's such an eyesore.

We all have seen it, and most of us have done it. Enter a restaurant with friends, sit down, and within 20 seconds everyone whips out their "smart" phones. Watch a gaggle of young people anywhere and you'll wonder if their thumbs will require surgery by age 35. Pass a hiker or jogger on the trail and odds are good that person is wearing earbuds or headphones.

I often try to categorize my cooking style. At first I think about my love for Middle Eastern food and decide that must be my style, but then I remember my love for seafood, which doesn't exactly fit. So I shift to calling my style Mediterranean, but then I think about how much I enjoy cooking venison and beef, and they don't belong in that category. I could say my style reflects my Italian and Chinese heritage, but then I look at my pastry work and realize that doesn't fit neatly into those boxes.

I remember coming home from school in September and being greeted by the smell of whatever my mother was canning — tomatoes, pickles, relishes and more. Every vegetable from the garden was being preserved. As a result of living through the Great Depression, my mother never wasted anything. Anything not canned was frozen.

Do you remember long, slow summer days that meandered and stretched on a gentle, endless path? Do you remember making your own fun and recruiting others to join?

It doesn't matter whether it's stamps, street rods, guns, fishing rods, guitars, tools, widgets or whatever. If a man collects something he loves and appreciates, it's likely that, at several points in his collector journey, he'll be challenged by his loving and concerned spouse.

The summer season has come to an end and all the summer memories have been made, which can only mean one thing: Back-to-school season has begun! Please be sure to leave your house with plenty of time to get to school or work, or to run your errands in town. Remember that at almost every town road, there could be one to 10 children waiting for the bus.

When I was a child, my grandfather kept his heavy Webster's Third New International Dictionary on a midcentury oak side table by his desk. Nothing else was on that table, although underneath was a little drawer with a large knob in which he kept an old tobacco pipe or two that he no longer smoked.

I am walking my new golden retriever puppy, Teddy, on Cundy's Harbor Road. It is Teddy's first walk, and as he bounds along, I struggle not to get bound up by his leash.

August can be a lot of things to a lot of people. For some, it's the last hurrah of summer, with final trips to the beach and lingering sunsets.