For current articles and essays, visit my Substack, Hoppyard, or see my Boston Globe author page.
Songs of a grocery store checker and the white-throated sparrow
In the early 2000s, one bird made up a new tune and it went viral across North America. I have an unscientific theory why.
Excerpt:
“But it’s also the grocery checkers and the insurance customer service agents and the thrift store shoppers and the rogue sparrows whose soft absent-minded voices release so much happiness into this world. In such times of stress, this is one of the most basic weapons in the arsenal of good humanity.”
What I discovered by accidentally deleting the novel I’d been writing for 30 years
Losing the work was devastating. But it also freed me of some baggage.
Excerpt:
“The number one thing to remember when working on an old vehicle is that you must keep track of the small things; screws, nuts, bolts, washers, clips. One tiny thing slips through your fingers into the gravel driveway and the entire build is on hold. Each project is controlled by what gets lost, what stays lost, and what was never there in the first place.“
What happened to Amy?
Statistics show the woods are safe. But the outliers are still haunting.
Excerpt:
“How do we reconcile these very real fears with equally real data that proves the fear is unjustified?”
Looking for America
We’d gone west to dig for dinosaur fossils and to excavate my hometown’s shameful past. A rodeo flag bearer showed me what I’d been missing most.
Excerpt:
“And as the vast semi-arid grasslands opened up to usher us into their endless nothingness, I turned to my two traveling companions, exhausted from a morning of digging diplodocus vertebrae out of a dry summer hillside, and said, ‘Look, kids. It’s home.’ “
I (barely) survived the eclipse drive from Vermont to Boston
And I realized then that we were the zombies, all of us in our cars.
Excerpt:
“At that point we were still sandwiched between two tricked-out Toyota Land Cruisers with roof-high snorkels and survival gear strapped to the top that were acting as the road etiquette enforcers; if someone tried to use an exit lane to dart ahead, the Toyotas moved as one to block the lane. But even they, who were actually equipped for a zombie emergency — or at least mild to moderate flooding — were stuck in traffic.”
Holding out hope for the roses
Why does everything have to be so fragile? These bushes thrived for years with only the occasional dump of pureed banana peels at the roots. Why die now?
Excerpt:
“Since COVID-19 hit everything feels so tenuous. We had to hide inside for months to prevent touching the wrong thing, breathing the wrong air, and it felt like the world itself was made of thin glass. For many of us our gardens were the only real thing we had, the continuity of seasons and growth and sharing something beautiful with neighbors when we could no longer sit for coffee. And now there is a significant pile of terrifically stabby sticks in the yard because rose bushes can just die on a whim?”
The missing puzzle piece
Each puzzle piece performs a specific and unique function and no more. But that one function is everything.
Excerpt:
“The jigsaw puzzles are shelved with games in the far back corner of the thrift store, which was once home to a JCPenney or Filene’s and now houses second-hand ghosts. Like any good thrift store, it’s teeming with people at any hour of operation: Carts bump and kids dart and someone laughs loudly in housewares, a private joke with a public punchline.”
That time 6 million Reddit users came together and created something, together
The online experiment created a gleeful culture of alliances, joyful sabotage, and appreciation of work done well.
Excerpt:
“Early Saturday morning, as the battle for the contested pixel border between the US flag and the transgender flag was reaching a truce and the Among Us character pestilence was still in its infancy, it became apparent that apocalypse movies have it wrong.”
A healthy development
At the center of Boston Children’s $1.2 billion expansion is the Hale Family Building.
Excerpt:
“But the $636 million building also serves a catalyst for a new approach to patient care. That starts with the simplest detail: a pedestrian bridge that will make it easier for parents and patients to get into the hospital from the parking garage.”
From Hillary Clinton to WWE, the week’s winners and losers, in T-shirts
Excerpt:
“This week, Clinton’s campaign store started offering the ‘Everyday Pantsuit Tee’ for $30. The bottom part of the outfit is up to the buyer to complete.”
New Year’s resolutions for Charlie Baker
Excerpt:
“In an October debate, Baker choked up when recalling a 2009 encounter with a fisherman whose sons’ lives were ‘ruined’ when they became fishermen themselves. The story had some fuzzy details, such as the existence of its main character, but Baker seems to have a passion for the industry and should follow through with some real fishermen face time.”
Boston Harbor: Dredge with care
As important to a culture as steeped in history as Boston’s is what isn’t yet known.
Boston Globe, Ideas section, 2014
Excerpt:
“Two years ago, a visitor to the harbor islands stumbled on a palm-sized metal disk that could change history: A King Henry trade weight (note the lower-case ‘h’ with a crown in the lower right corner) that would have been in use in England between 1496 and 1558. If its provenance could be verified, it would be the earliest known evidence of European trading on the North American Atlantic coast.”