We've said it before and we'll say it again: A concerted effort has to be made to bury utility wires. With warnings of more extreme weather due to climate change, storms like last week's brutal nor'easter may become more common. Tens of thousands of Cape Codders and Southeastern Massachusetts residents spent days without power after winds of hurricane force or greater downed trees and branches, which in turn p...

Existential Questions About Flicks Editor: I would agree with James Cole’s review of the “slow pacing and preachiness” of “Midnight Mass” (Oct. 7) except for one nagging question. Why do I keep thinking about the series? And why do I watch series like this? Or as I just did, watch movies like the 2019 flick “The Lighthouse” starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson portraying two men serving a stint ...

It was 30 years ago on Oct. 31 that three separate weather systems converged just offshore, creating the destructive Halloween Storm – dubbed the Perfect Storm by author Sebastian Junger – that ravaged the east-facing coastline around Boston. As it was, the storm’s greatest fury was spent offshore, where it famously claimed the fishing vessel Andrea Gail of Gloucester, which went down with all hands. Though th...

Help Stop Teen Vaping Editor: The start of the school year and new routines brings new worries about teen vaping. These concerns are important, especially now, because smoking and vaping may put people at higher risk of complications from COVID-19. One in three Massachusetts teens vape, and talking with young people about the dangers of vaping can make a difference. Learn more and watch videos at GetOutr...

Upcoming special town meetings in Chatham (Saturday, with a Sunday rain date) and Orleans (Monday) deal with issues of significance to each community. In Chatham, upgrading the town's municipal drinking water wells is the focus of two of the three warrant articles (the third is a housekeeping measure). Funds from water revenues are being sought to complete and bring online two wells to bolster the town's water...

Bench Disrespectful Dog Owners Editor: Each morning as I set in front of Chatham Cookware on Main Street I watch a constant parade of people who bring their dogs to urinate in the doorways of store, on post and signs, and the most objectionable of all, when they urinate on the bench between the little chamber of commerce building and Yankee Ingenuity. It is a favorite of many. If you come by later in the da...

Stop Unwanted Airport Development Editor: The roadway project in West Chatham has been an outstanding success, benefiting everyone, calming traffic and easing those hair-raising intersections. Unknown to many people another danger lurks, brought home by that plane accident in Provincetown recently. The center of West Chatham Village is designated as a so-called "Runway Protection Zone" (RPZ) The FAA demands...

Mandates have been shown to increase the rate of COVID-19 vaccinations. Federal workers, staff in healthcare facilities and Massachusetts State Police are all under mandates to get the shot. Many private employers have also mandated vaccines for their workers, including airlines. Courts have thus far upheld vaccine mandates, even over union objections, as was the case with the Massachusetts State Police. Given...

Sometimes it takes a threat of dire consequences to snap people out of complacency and provide the motivation for action. That, in our view, seems to have been behind Harwich Cranberry Arts and Music Festival Chairman Ed McManus' recent comment that the popular festival would have to end its long run without a new infusion of volunteers. To be clear, it was not an empty threat; this fall's Beach Day event had to ...

Facebook has dominated the news the past few weeks, following a whistleblower's revelations, via a series of stories in the Wall Street Journal and more recently in television news interviews, that the social network is aware of the harm the platform causes and deliberately pushes posts that promote misinformation and division. Frances Haugen was scheduled to testify before Congress Tuesday in hearings that are l...

What Happened To Colonial Ordinances? Editor: This: Thanks for the art history lesson. When I first saw the Sept. 9 Shark Cove my reaction was "that's a Mondrian trout, who's this De Stijl character?" Thanks to Google I now know that De Stijl (the style in Dutch) was Mondrian's art movement. That: Whatever happened to the Colonial Ordinances of 1641-47 where the Massachusetts Bay Colony conveyed most, but ...

“How's the paper doing?” That's one of the most frequent questions I'm asked, and I know other members of The Chronicle staff hear it often as well. It came up quite a bit in the past year thanks to two things: COVID and increasing publicity about the loss of local newspapers and news coverage nationwide. The short answer is that the paper is doing just fine, thanks. We were certainly nervous in March 20...