“Like an express train going through a tunnel.” That’s how my grandfather, Reuben Hopkins, described the sound of the German shell that screamed by his lookout post 100 years ago during World War I. The action he was seeing was not in the fields of France, but atop the Life Saving Station in Orleans. The artillery was from a U-Boat that had attacked a tug and its barges three miles off Nauset Beach. It was a p...

In the old days, people ate herring. They’re impossibly bony and oily, but they helped make human existence possible on Cape Cod since the beginning of time. The Wampanoags and the European settlers who followed relied on them as a food source during long winters, and as a means of fertilizing crops in the springtime. But what have herring done for us lately? Plenty, it turns out. Atlantic herring and their...

'Hooked' On Parade Planning Editor: On behalf of the 2018 Chatham Independence Day Parade Committee I would like to sincerely thank the previous committee for all of their hard work and incredible organization. Brad Schiff, Danielle Jeanloz, John King, Stephanie Hamilton, and Jan Fields left us an incredibly detailed plan that made it very easy for us, as an entirely new committee, to pick up where they left ...

I was in my house, minding my own business, corralling errant dust bunnies from under the bed, when another, more critical bunny crisis descended upon me. The gran’chillun bounded in, clamoring for my presence in the backyard where their mom was on poop patrol. In the middle of the lawn, as she was about to fling a pile of you-know-what into a bucket, she thought she saw it move. It was not, in fact, a pile of yo...

We are about to enter that time of year when the various and diverse segments of Harwich’s society attempt to live together in relative harmony. Full-time residents, second homeowners, returning snowbirds, business owners, employees, and customers, J-1 Visa holders, college sports players, vacationers and tourists; over the next three-four months all of these will interact in ways that hopefully will prove mutual...

If you're planning on going out on the waters of Chatham Harbor, Pleasant Bay, Nantucket Sound or Stage Harbor in the coming weeks, do yourself a favor. Attend Saturday's harbor update session sponsored by the Monomoy Yacht Club. This winter was not kind to east-facing beaches, the outer beaches and the above-mentioned waterways. Four nor'easters ripped sand from the shores, rearranged inlets and shuffled shoa...

Rosanne Can Tune Up Editor: Now that ABC cancelled her show due to a deplorable racist Tweet, Rosanne Barr will have plenty of time to perfect her rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Remember when she screeched out the National Anthem at a Padre's game back in July 1990? Mike Rice South Wellfleet-based   Art And Film Happily Converge Editor: I wanted to take this opportunity to thank...

I'm done with negativity. It's something that's not easy to avoid these days. It's everywhere. It permeates our lives like an incubating virus, hiding inside otherwise innocent seeming words and phrases in everyday conversation, on the news and TV, in newspapers and on websites. And I'm not just talking about politics, world, national and local. Although if leaders set the standard for the rest of us, no wo...

Don't Give Up On Monomoy Bill Editor: I’ve done some research on H.R. 1157 regarding the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.  Here is my take on it.  It’s on “death watch.” Although Congressman Keating sponsored and submitted the bill, he has not “championed” it.  There are no co-sponsors.  Not even Niki Tsongas, Massachusetts Third District, who sits on the Natural Resources Committee! It was disappointin...

Chatham Selectmen are justified in being upset over the failure of Congressman William Keating to be more aggressive in pushing forward legislation on the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge boundary. The bill has been around for more than two years; in its current form it was refiled in February 2017 as H.R. 1157. It gained the endorsement of the House Committee on Natural Resources in December but has languished i...

Sounds Like Another W. Chatham Editor: I find it concerning that it was voted to ban balloons starting after this summer. I do stop down once in a while to see the beaches. I have never seen piles of deflated balloons as claimed. I find it hard to believe that several hundred were counted in a three- or four-month time period. This is beginning to sound like the one of the reasons we needed two new rotaries...

“Once upon a time there was a tavern Where we used to raise a glass or two Those were the days my friend We thought they’d never end We sing and dance forever and a day We’d live the life we choose We’d fight and never lose For we were young and sure to have our way”   Gene Raskin wrote “Those Were the Days” and Mary Hopkin sang it. The song reached number two in 1968 on the Billboar...