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Dear Folks: August 21, 1994
Dear Folks,
Sunday morning, gray sky, gentle breeze, preparing for a rain. Another rain. It’s like a tropical rainforest around here this summer. Inside and outside things droop and sweat and mold. Outside the vegetation is so thick it’s almost overbearing. Squash vines with leaves the size of umbrellas are traveling over the garden, over the lawn, taking over the world. [...]
Dear Folks: July 24, 1994
Dear Folks,
I’m somewhere over the Midwest, returning home from Colorado — the longest journey I’ve taken in six months, which is some kind of a travel-abstinence record for me. It’s been a lightning trip. Got on a plane in Lebanon NH Friday morning, arrived in Aspen at noon (their time), spent the afternoon and evening with a bunch of Monsanto [...]
Dear Folks: June 19, 1994
Dear Folks,
Whew! What can I say?
It’s been quite a week!
The very best part has been the rejoicing of all my friends. The Germans have a word Schadenfreude, which means, if I understand it right, taking joy in the bad luck or suffering of other people. I don’t know whether there’s an opposite — Freudenfreude? — which means taking joy in [...]
Dear Folks: May 23, 1994
Dear Folks,
Having sailed through the Winter From Hell — 35 below and snowstorm after snowstorm — without the slightest sniffle, I woke up yesterday on one of the most brilliant days of the spring with a seized-up throat. Last night I tossed around and built up towers of pillows, trying to keep one nostril open — you know how much [...]
Dear Folks: April 23, 1994
Dear Folks,
What a spectacular time of returnings and openings and loosenings and beginnings is the month between the end of March and the end of April!
When I last wrote you the land was white and frozen. I was celebrating the first muddy spots and the return of the robins. Now the fields are showing green. At the protected front of [...]
