Letter: 2019 Zoning Articles Are a Step Forward for Williamstown's Future

The present bylaw amendments are modest, commonsense proposals that represent the smallest impactful change voters seem likely to embrace at this time.

Letter: Another look at Williamstown Warrant Article 33

In my opinion, it is better for the Planning Board to reach for reasonable goals and build on successes rather than overshoot and achieve nothing. Let's get this right, with broad community support, and move forward.

Letter: Williamstown Planning Board Election

Perhaps more townspeople will just say "No" to the progressing destruction of a lovely, traditional New England town.

Letter: Honor All Our Children and Community

We understand that some of the public may be tiring of this issue, but for folks like us, we continue to be willing to speak out on behalf of the children, and all others who contributed to the creation of the historic works reflecting the past economic life of the community and its ancestors.

Letter: Birch for Williamstown Planning Board

'Long Shot': Proves a Winning Bet

Pulling no punches in its hardly veiled muckrake of the current four-flushers down in Foggy Bottom, this delightfully quixotic confection, heir to the screwball comedies directors Frank Capra and Preston Sturges buoyed Depression Era audiences with, is shrewdly enjoyable.

Letter: Dante Birch for Williamstown Planning Board

I am breaking my habit now to endorse Dante Birch for the Williamstown Planning Board because he possesses the personal qualities that are essential to the success and credibility of town boards.

Letter: Amy Jeschawitz for Williamstown Planning Board

Williamstown will voters will face an important election on May 14, and it is crucial that Amy Jeschawitz be re-elected to the Planning Board.

'Avengers: Endgame': What the World Needs Now

The seriocomic adventure tale, a panoply of the very latest computer magic to suffuse the silver screen, is rapid-fire action most of the way, it is ultimately an exuberant kaleidoscope of technology, friendship and the separating of truth from the deceit of those who would bamboozle us. I

'Teen Spirit': Youth, Not Wasted on the Young

Still, my rooting was cautious, always respecting in fearsome awe the uncertainty of youth and the mysteries it held. One misstep and you're on the pre-gentrified Bowery, squeegeeing car windows, or at least that's what my Mom warned whenever she had trouble waking me for school.

Letter: Pittsfield's Pickleball Service a Fault

The fact that the city of Pittsfield is prepared to disburse $350,000 in support of a project for just 151 citizens seems irresponsible enough. That there is no plan for maintenance when park maintenance in our city is already an issue shows a lack of planning and foresight.

'After': Of Good Girls and Bad Boys

You know the stereotype. He is the ubiquitously tattooed bad boy on the outside, yet capable of quoting from "Wuthering Heights" or "The Great Gatsby." But perhaps so could Hannibal Lecter.

Letter: DA Harrington's Task Force Reshapes Response to Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault

Letter: DA's Decision on Prevention Programs Hurts Children & Families

Sadly, District Attorney Harrington has made the recent decision to eliminate this important educational and prevention programming and we as a community should be asking why.

'Us': It Takes Two to Terrorize

Granted, the "scare me, scare me" crowd may be disappointed by the dearth of old-fashioned, unremitting shocks to body and soul. But if one gives serious thought to this feature-length affirmation of cartoon pundit Walt Kelly's theorem that we have met the enemy and he is "Us," it's probably the scariest prospect of all.

Letter: Unresolved Community Conflict

In Pursuit of Beetle Happiness: Part 3

But many beetles degrading and destroying our forestlands summon us to rally in support of effective means to control destructive species that can decimate large stands of our very important trees. Many beetle species and their larvae are equipped with stout jaws or mandibles that are adept at chewing and shredding wood.

Letter: Downed Poles and Electrical Outage

We would like to thank the gentleman from National Grid who arrived shortly after downed poles and wires interrupted our electrical service for seven hours after the terrible wind storm Monday.

Letter: Quit Smoking for Heart Health

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking is a leading cause of heart disease and heart disease is a major cause of death among African Americans.

In Pursuit of Beetle Happiness: Part 2

The most obvious beetle in the milkweed patch is the rosy red milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetraophthalumus), surprisingly hard to find in any beetle/insect book. Go Google. Occupying a restricted niche, it is found almost exclusively foraging on milkweed leaves and blossoms.

'The No-Collusion Oscar Picks 2019'

The phone rang, as it usually does whenever I'm sitting in the third-floor witch's hat of my haunted Victorian home in some gothic-like, small New England town with a dark past, anguishing over my Oscar picks. The voice at the other end sounded like Alec Baldwin at first.

Letter: Community Penalized by Pillar Art Decision

In Pursuit of Beetle Happiness: Part 1

In pursuit of beetle happiness, I can cast a note of optimism about the many beetles at large in museums and private collections, that may bring us a profound joy, allowing our sense of inquiry to thrive like a child set loose in New York's American Museum of Natural History.

Letter: TEDx Talks on Community Exclude Community

One percenterism at it's finest!

'Serenity': It's all Just a Big …

Once upon a time, a screenwriter penning a fantasy that painted him into a corner could flee the strictures of his premise and weave a magical ending by suddenly having his protagonist awake from a dream, i.e., "The Wizard of Oz" (1939). Now, as employed in "Serenity," the Brave New Cyber World has created a newfangled escape clause for fiction writers needing to explain away flights of fancy for which there is no logical explanation, at least not in our old, plain, three-dimensional world.