Recently overheard in a nearby store: Local man (with a tone of disgust): “Well – they’re here again. I saw them yesterday.” Store owner: “Who?” Local man: “Them. They had bicycles on the back of their car.” The local man: a retired resident of the Cape. Them: Visitors. Tourists. Early vacationers. People he was not terribly happy to see. Was he thinking as he spoke, “I wish they would close those bri...

Even climate change skeptics can't dispute the evidence which shows that regional sea level rose approximately one foot over the last century. That's the highest rate in 3,000 years, according to a recent study on sea level rise in Pleasant Bay conducted by the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown under the auspices of the Pleasant Bay Alliance. In another century we may be nostalgic for that historic sea l...

Hi I'm Kat and I was a Facebook addict. (All together now, “Hi Kat.”) Until recently when I did something that in this day and age is probably considered shocking. I disabled my Facebook page, at least for a while. The truth behind my decision is as simple as it is complex. I have depression. For those who aren't familiar, depression goes beyond feeling "meh" or "blah." It can mean difficulty just waking up in...

Changes to the off-shore fishery, most obviously the disappearance of harvestable quantities of cod, forced the Cape's commercial fishermen to alter the species they target. Dogfish and skate now constitute the vast majority of the more than 14 million pounds of fish landed by Chatham's dayboat fleet at the fish pier last year. Local culinary tastes, however, have yet to adapt. Most of the fish brought in over...

Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers both enjoyed success with the 1947 song “I Guess I’ll Get the Papers and Go Home.” It is a somewhat obscure song and I admit I had to reach to find it. I like to relate each of my columns to a song or a lyric. This song was written by writers completely unknown to me: Hughie Prince, Dick Rogers and Hal Kanner. In case you are wondering, it was not that Richard Rodgers, the p...

Cape Community Comes Together for Autism Editor: The Cape Cod community joined Cape Cod Village, a non-profit organization developing innovative housing and support services in Orleans for young adults with autism, on May 5 in Brewster. UnMASKing Autism, a masquerade gala, was the organization’s inaugural “signature” fundraiser. Cape Cod Technical High School's graphic arts department generously offered th...

One of the most important pieces of unfinished business now before the town of Chatham is the disposition of the western boundary of the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Legislation currently before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources aims to set the boundary at low water, where it has historically been understood to be. In its comprehensive conservation plan for the refuge, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife ...

  Candidate Should Be Recognized Editor: The Chronicle, of course, has the absolute right to endorse the selectman candidate of its choice. What I object to, in your editorial of May 3 is your lack of acknowledgment of the other candidate in this race. Seth Taylor is a hard-working, sometimes-too-outspoken advocate for many in Chatham whose voice would otherwise go unheard. He is diligent in seeking all...

I don’t know their species. They are roses. They’ve always been there, from my earliest memories. I could look them up, I suppose, on the pretext of seeing what they need to thrive. But they thrive on their own, more or less, with a little maintenance. They stretch along the split rail fence that runs up from the grassy end of Water Street, near the slope down to the Mill Pond. The only break is at the drivewa...

When it comes to downtown shopping district, there's no doubt – and we'll admit to being biased here – Chatham has the best on the Cape. And perhaps beyond, an opinion we apparently are not alone in sharing. Lsst week USA Today released its “10 Great American Shopping Streets,” and sharing the list along with shopping districts in Columbus, Ohio, Delray Beach, Fla., Pasadena, Calif, and Denver, Colo., was litt...

Ballantine And Howell   At last week's Harwich Town Meeting, outgoing Selectmen Peter Hughes and Angelo LaMantia were recognized for their combined 24 years of public service to Harwich. With their departure there will be a major absence of experience on the board. The three remaining selectmen – Michael MacAskill, Jannell Brown and Julie Kavanagh – have a total of five years of service on the board and a l...

Hasty action seems to be the rule of the day in Washington, where sweeping legislation is rushed through to meet an artificial deadline. Fortunately, that's not the case with the menu of ballot questions awaiting Orleans voters on May 16. They'll find five items that have been well vetted by town officials and, as of Monday night, by town meeting. That body said yes to a new DPW/natural resources facility, to ...