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My Swimming Pool at Forty
LISTEN A portrait of the pool at middle age RALPH GARDNER JR. Just because you’re getting old doesn’t mean you can’t change and improve. I’m not talking about myself. I’m referring to our swimming...
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A museum for the birds
Visitors to the “Birds in Art” exhibition at the Wendell Gilley Museum check out “Raven Celebrates Inventing the Wheel,” 2020, by Paul Rhymer, bronze and stone. Mounted on the wall are items from the...
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And Now for Some Good News
LISTEN Fresh corn CREDIT RALPH GARDNER JR Is America better off today than it was one year ago, in July 2020. Absolutely! Prove it you say. This time last year I was glued to my TV, glued being a...
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Are the Mosquitos as Bad at Your House?
LISTEN Aedes aegypti mosquito CREDIT CDC Behold the mosquito. Actually about a dozen of them. Or was it fifty or a hundred swarming me one evening this week? It’s hard to tell with these pests....
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Gone Phishing
LISTEN Here’s the email my wife and I received from our daughter, Lucy. “Our IT guy made us all take this spotting scams quiz so I thought you guys might want to try, because I have a sinking feeling...
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You Can Go Back to Summer Camp
LISTEN Ralph Gardner, Jr. Jim Root at Lone Pine Camp in Paul Smiths,NY You can visit the past through books and movies, but rarely does the opportunity arise, as it did this week, to do so in...
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Just Canadian Desserts
LISTEN Ralph Gardner, Jr./A slightly squished Nanaimo bar I’ve always felt a sense of camaraderie towards our Canadian neighbors, though they’d be forgiven for not feeling the same about us. (Robin...
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Fleeing Upstate on 9/11
LISTEN The pandemic has made clear how lucky those of us are, who have been able to shelter in nature and work from home. But the realization of my good fortune dates back much further than the Covid...
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Why are bath toys only for babies
Sep 10, 2021 Theo Salisbury Baum enjoying his bath — and his bath toys. Photo: Sarah Salisbury GHENT, N.Y. — Pamela Salisbury, owner of the eponymous Pamela Salisbury Gallery in Hudson,...
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Happy New (School) Year
LISTEN I don’t know whose idea it was to start the New Year on January 1st? Why would anyone want to start a new year in the dead of winter? The Jewish religion and school administrators far and wide...
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What’s Happening to Maple Trees?
LISTEN Ralph Gardner Jr. Fall allegedly arrived at 3:21 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday. Nobody informed the maples trees around our house. Their leaves, brown and gnarly, started cascading to the ground...
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Staring at a climate catastrophe without blinking
LISTEN Ralph Gardner Jr. Lucy Gardner and her Bear’s Head tooth mushroom You’d expect a father to be proud of his children. But I’m proud of their friends, too. I realize this is a...
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Summer’s Last Hummingbirds
LISTEN Hummingbird in flight Allison Dunn/WAMC With the exception of a few stragglers, hummingbirds have departed the...
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Reuse it or lose it
LISTEN Ralph Gardner Jr./The author’s juicer If one can go into mourning over a kitchen appliance that’s what I experienced when I recently plugged my beloved Braun Citromatic orange juicer into an...
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Take the Home Heating Challenge
LISTEN Ralph Gardner Jr./Vintage thermostat It may be little more than a symbolic gesture, but my wife and I are resisting cranking up the heat at our house as far into the fall as possible; while...
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Welcome California climate refugees!
LISTEN Ralph Gardner Jr./David and Alix Becker Alix and David Becker celebrated their first season as Hudson Valley farmers with a late September Saturday afternoon “Fiesta del Campo” party at their...
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Is detailing your car a character flaw?
When it comes to car detailing, it’s the little things that matter. A job well done requires pursuing the dust and dirt into every nook and cranny, including the air vents. GHENT, N.Y. — I attempt to...
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hand sanitizer
LISTEN I swallowed hand sanitizer last week. But it’s not what you’re probably thinking. I wasn’t seeking some home pandemic remedy. I’m fully vaccinated and boostered. It was all a mistake and a...
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History comes knocking
LISTEN Max Cane at the site of an 18th century homestead on the writer’s property photo: Ralph Gardner Jr. When a stranger comes walking down your driveway during hunting season, experience suggests...
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Z for Zamboni
LISTEN Z Behl on the Zamboni she decorated for the Wollman Rink Artist Project Photo credit: Geanette D. Moses If money were no object I’d buy a Zamboni for our pond. For those unfamiliar with this...
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