In the 19 th century, 25,000 women convicted of petty crimes such as stealing a bucket of milk were transported to Tasmania, then known as Van Deimen’s Land, with “tin tickets” stamped with their convict numbers hung around their necks. Harwich author Deborah J. Swiss’s 2010 acclaimed non-fiction book, “The Tin Ticket: The Heroic Journey of Australia’s Convict Women,” is about to be made into a television ser...

Paul Saliba is certain that kindness can solve a lot of problems. The Nauset Regional High School junior from Harwich knows from firsthand experience that kindness can uplift people and improve their day, but in Saliba’s mind, being kind can have an even greater impact. “Bringing more kindness, in my opinion, helps other people have better days,” Saliba said. “I believe kindness can change the world.” Salib...

“Hold your head up high and greet the world like the incredible steel magnolia you were meant to be.” “Steel Magnolias” opens the Chatham Drama Guild’s 91st season of entertainment with a six-member all-female cast, each a uniquely talented actress, dramatizing the stories of women seeking their own personal blossoming. And it all happens on women’s territory, Truvy’s Beauty Parlor in Chinquapin, La.  Brigh...

Starting the summer season with a play set at Christmastime compels audiences to immediately shift gears to get into “Straight White Men,” which runs through June 24 at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT). It's WHAT’s first performance back on the Julie Harris stage since 2019, and the staffers are as pumped as little kids on Christmas Eve. “It’s great to have energy back in the building again,” said Lig...

June on Cape Cod is one of my favorite months. It has many of the joys of summer without all the crowds or heat and humidity. The past week or so I’ve been roaming around in the sand, both on the beach and on dune and salt marsh trails. Fortunately for me, there are many to choose from all over the Cape. Sand dunes are beautiful to behold but they are full of challenges for the plants and wildlife that have ad...

In a week where the news just got worse and worse, I took off on a drizzly morning to walk through rhododendron gardens drenched with color and raindrops. Originally begun as breeding gardens for rhododendron hybrids and classic varieties by Charles Owen Dexter a hundred years ago, the gardens at Heritage Gardens in Sandwich Village have become a favorite place for springtime and summer walks for locals and visit...

Think “Blazing Saddles” on steroids or Monty Python if set in the Old West, with a dash of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and you might come close to describing “Tumacho,” the show making its regional premiere at the Cape Rep in Brewster. This hilarious show is silly and inane and is giving audiences some well-deserved laughs in this unsettling time. “I think I’m going to wake up in the middle of the night laughi...

The Chatham Drama Guild will open its 2022 season with "Steel Magnolias" by Robert Harling, directed by Anna Marie Johansen, on Friday, June 3. Performances will continue throughout the month of June. “Steel Magnolias” is set in a small community in Louisiana. When a young beautician arrives in search of work at a local salon, she enters a world in which a group of women share a bond of friendship and travel ...

A children’s book that painter Alice Stallknecht never finished.  Puffer fish and tonsillectomy “tools.”  Chatham’s sport and sailing clubs. These intriguing topics are all included in three new exhibits at the Atwood Museum, Home of the Chatham Historical Society (CHS) this summer. In addition, the museum will host six Thursday evenings of live music for the first time. Stallknecht (1880-1973) arrived in C...

Anne Levine has a photo of her three cousins in the village they grew up in in Kyiv. Now 61, she still looks at it to this day. "The three of them were murdered in Auschwitz," she said. "Their names are forgotten. I've kept their picture around my whole life." Levine's family has a complicated relationship with its homeland. Her paternal grandparents, Ukrainian Jews, fled the country during the pogroms of W...

Connor Brickley donned a few different colored uniforms during his nine-year professional hockey career. He sported red, blue and gold as a member of the Florida Panthers, the team that selected him with the 50th overall pick in the National Hockey League’s 2010 draft. He also wore red, white and blue while playing for the New York Rangers, and many other colors as a member of various American Hockey League te...

One of the positive things that came from staying home more over the last few years was that many people got outdoors to experience nature in ways they may not have before. Even those that were used to being outside, whether walking, hiking, sailing, biking, kayaking, or even just sitting in the backyard or on the beach daydreaming got to increase the time they spent doing so. Many began new outdoor hobbies and a...