Recently, while visiting the rocky shores of Rhode Island and relaxing at George’s Beach in the unseasonable warmth of a protracted Indian summer, I watched a steady stream of monarch butterflies rise above pine and flaxen tangles and pass by our beach chairs.

Back in high school English class our teacher introduced us to the timeless poem Elegy in a Country Churchyard ; then he made us memorize all 128 lines of it.

Growing up in small-town, mid-century America, some of my friends were Girl Scouts. So I wanted to be one too - mostly to get the green uniform and Thin Mint cookies.

In the early 1970s Amory Lovins called for a transformative new approach to providing electricity. He called it the nega-watt – because, he said, the cheapest, greenest and cleanest watt of electricity is the one not used.

A recent review of public retirement and healthcare plans by Pew Charitable Trusts shows that many U.S. jurisdictions are on an unsustainable path.

More people these days are asking whether the high cost of a college education is worth it, and many people are noticing the many expensive nonacademic facilities that some colleges and universities have built, partly to compete for students.

In 2015, there were more than 52,000 drug overdose deaths in just that year. In 2016, it's estimated that number will be exceeded by 10,000 more.

Some will be surprised to learn that The Crying Game, Like Water For Chocolate, Reservoir Dogs, Clerks, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting, Life is Beautiful, Garden State and Pulp Fiction are just a few of the large and diverse group of films that were produced by Miramax, Harvey Weinstein’s production company. And while they all remain classics in their respective genres, they unfortunately will now be forever associated with the taint, or stain, of scandal.

By insisting that NFL owners should fire players who kneel during the national anthem, President Trump may have actually validated their exercise of free speech under the First Amendment.

As you turn off busy Route 7 in Ferrisburgh and pull into Rokeby, the historic home of the Rowland Robinson family, you might think that you’re entering a different world But you’re not.