If your childhood and adolescence were like mine, you saw quite a few movies.
For me, in those days, that meant going out to a theater, a place like the old Paramount at Newton Corner where I remember seeing Mickey Rooney as an irrepressible teenager in one of his 13 Andy Hardy films. in I saw at least one other film, now forgotten, in the long-demolished Watertown Square theater known by local kids as the Flea House.
Hispanic Ambassador
The name Myron Taylor will surely not ring bells in the memory of most Americans. But I remember him as the man Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed in 1939 as his personal representative at the Vatican.
FDR knew better than to propose Taylor as ambassador. That nomination would have stirred up widespread anti-Catholic feeling in this country. And it would not have gained the necessary approval from the U.S. Senate.
Elders on the Road
Shortly before my 75th birthday, five years ago, I renewed my driver’s license. On that occasion, I did so without leaving my desk.
All I needed to do was go online to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, fill out some basic information, arrange a credit card payment, and send in the application electronically.
Letter-Writing Readers
Usually when we columnists are targeted by a group of letter writers, we can expect grief. Most of the time, the responders want to protest something or other.
They probably feel irate about an opinion that strikes them as outrageous and they want the columnist to get it right or, at least, to suffer from their feedback.
For me, however, it did not work that way last week. The five correspondents ─ two from Texas, one from Arkansas, one from North Carolina, and one from Staten Island ─ all wrote friendly messages in longhand.
Harvard Beats Yale 29 to 29
On November 23, 1968 I spent the afternoon high on the roof of venerable Harvard Stadium. That vantage point afforded me a spectacular panoramic view of Boston and Cambridge. It also provided a privileged downward view of the most storied football game in Ivy League history.
Darwin’s Style
Charles Darwin, a master of English style, in late life could write: “Looking backwards, I can now perceive how my love for science gradually preponderated over every other taste.”
Happiness in Later Life
If asked to predict, what personal traits do you think would make later life happy?
Having studied the matter for decades, psychiatrist George Vaillant has made his choices. His two top candidates are: social aptitude and the capability not to abuse alcohol.