Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • Earth Notes: Effects of rapid growth

    By Kenneth Roy My love of the outdoors was first felt when in the late 1940s when we moved from our city home each year for three months to our lakeside summer home in New Bedford, Mass. Each year, I looked forward to leaving the city environment with its house-to-house crowding, and noisy, rowdy neighbors. […]

  • Small World: Joining the world of work

      By Henry Precht BN Columnist Not many more weeks before school is out for the summer. That used to mean — when I was in high school and college — time to find or start thinking up a summer job. Not that our bunch didn’t have jobs year around — using our red wagons […]

  • Small World: Learning our lessons from others

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Last week, I attended a lecture on the challenges facing Germany delivered by a ranking officer of that embassy. Her remarks easily led to reflection — despite the distractions of spring with flowers bursting forth on trees, bushes and bulbs. Much easier to doze off, coaxed by sweet breezes. But […]

  • Small World: A time of testing

      By Henry Precht BN Columnist There is a school of political scientists that argues candidates for high office ought to be selected by examination rather than ballot.  Not a very significant or noisy school, to be sure, but it’s a thesis that bears examination. Let’s say those in the presidential contest were sat down […]

  • The Reading Life: Boiling Point

      By Peter Bollen BN Columnist In an exclusive interview for The Bridgton News, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and author, Ross Gelbspan explains the present state of climate change and global warming. Gelbspan authored two groundbreaking books, The Heat is On and Boiling Point, including many articles and features over the past two decades dealing […]

  • Small World: Passing of the Old Guard

      By Henry Precht BN Columnist Three men who helped shape the modern Middle East died this past month. Very different in many ways, they achieved renown and, yet, at the end met failure. Mohammed Hassanein Heikal, a confident of President Nasser, was for 17 years editor of Cairo’s Al-Ahram, the most influential newspaper in […]

  • Small World: Time for another American revolution?

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Had enough of the party primaries and caucuses? Think the country ought to do a better job of selecting a president? Get back in line, please. There are thousands, yeah millions of Americans who think the same way. Which is an oblique way of saying I have a few ideas […]

  • Small World: Confession of a con-victim

      By Henry Precht BN Columnist All the world, it seems to me, is made up of conmen (or conwomen, as you will learn) and their victims. I suspect that those taken advantage of form the larger number. Pretty clearly, I fall into that latter category — or perhaps the verb should be I have […]

  • Small World: The art of the deal

      By Henry Precht BN Columnist Scene: Mid-November 2016. The Pope and newly-elected Donald Trump are sitting together in a small (three-table) café. A rather run-down place, it overlooks the Tiber, which is muddy with a bunch of oil spots spinning on its surface, trapped by trash. The oil comes from Trump’s seaplane, which landed a […]

  • Uppermost House: A shave too close

      By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist I am a clumsy person. I stumble and careen and narrowly miss common obstacles as I walk through my own house and office. Tripped over a chair last week while scurrying into the next room to answer an intercom message from my boss. “What was that horrible noise? […]