This Month’s Featured Articles…
Amy Clampitt in the Berkshires
In 1992, American poet Amy Clampitt purchased a modest house near Lenox, MA, with part of the money she had received that year in a grant from the MacArthur Foundation. The MacArthur Foundation makes six-figure, so-called “genius grants” to “individuals who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future.” The award has been given to literary luminaries such as John Ashbery and Cormac McCarthy in the past, among many others. These grants are precious to mid-career artists and [...]
What We Talk About When We Talk About Vacations
There is something inherently interesting in asking someone about their vacation plans. Beyond the social propriety of inquiring about the status of a fellow human being, travel plans can be quite revealing about the personality of the traveler. Do they go to the same place every year, or do they explore new destinations? Do they only travel in the summer or throughout the year? Do they prefer mountains or oceans, resorts or roughing it? “If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then [...]
Tomatoes 10 Ways
Hooray, it’s tomato season! There’s really nothing like a sun-ripened tomato. From the look, the feel, the smell and the taste, a ripe tomato just says summer. It’s strange to think that it wasn’t until the late 1800s that the tomato’s popularity with Americans began to solidify. Before that, the fruit that’s a relative of deadly nightshade was thought to be a fairly tasteless and potentially poisonous plant. This didn’t deter everyone, and they were cultivated and enjoyed in many places, but they were not [...]
The Professional
On a rainy afternoon before 52 Main started serving tapas and wine at 4pm, I sat down with Eleanor “El” Nurzia to talk about her career. El explained her history in the restaurant business starting at age 16 and how she decided to open a tapas restaurant in the Village of Millerton seven years ago. […]
Terni’s: Defining a Century in Small Town America
How do you define history? When we recall our time as students slumped over our desks in History class half staring, half lazily daydreaming, at the bulky hardcover textbook before us, is it those scholarly historical accounts? Names? Dates? Many of us are all too familiar with how history reads, but how does it feel? For the residents of Millerton, NY, many of whom have spent their entire lives with the image of a modest, nineteenth century, three story saloon-style sporting goods store permanently etched [...]
