In the houses where my family lived as I was growing up, books abounded. Loads of them filled the shelves in our living room and many others resided in the bedrooms of our parents and those of my siblings and me.
My father was a newspaper man–reporter, columnist, and editor– and took it as part of his work to read widely. Buying the latest books was made easy for him, thanks to Victor, a fellow who regularly came around the offices of Boston newspapers and sold the books at a reduced price.
Where are the best places in the US to live if you want to age successfully? If you guess cities in Florida or Arizona, you are wrong.
New rankings broadcast earlier this month on the PBS News Hour, present five choices among large metropolitan areas. You may be surprised to discover that our area, described as Boston-Cambridge-Quincy Mass–New Hampshire, finishes in fourth place, ahead of New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, which finishes only fifth.
Bragging is not a pretty activity. People with any sense try to avoid it. Those who indulge in it usually find themselves losing friends quickly.
The young people I know do not seem particularly boastful. After all, they do not yet have much to brag about.
Most citizens know what our country’s Secretary of State does. Now that our former senator, John Kerry, holds that office, Massachusetts residents are even more likely to be aware of his work.
This Commonwealth has a Secretary of State, too: William Galvin. I would lay odds that many, if not most, of my fellow citizens do not know what he does.
What’s the best way of improving this country’s ailing health care system?
The answer of many politicians is plain: just make cuts.
But that’s not the way Donald Berwick looks at the problem. This Boston-area physician, 66 years old, who until recently was President Obama’s director of Medicaid and Medicare, has a better idea.
James and I met on the occasion of his 27th birthday. This African-American young man had come to my neighbor Cathy’s home to speak about his life and the agency that has turned him around.
His father is still in prison as he has been throughout James’s growing up. One of his brothers was murdered and another brother is also in prison.
The building where I go to swim each day has five doors on the way into the locker room. If others are walking behind me or in front of me, they often hold these doors open for me.
Many of these door holders are young people, college age. When I say “thank you,” they often say in return “no problem.” Those who don’t know me are likely to call me “sir.”