Opinion

The phrase “back to school” means different things to different people.

I went up the coast of Maine last week and came across a wonderful little café and it was so good I pulled out my pad and pen and sat writing for a couple hours.

A dear friend once said to me out of the blue, “Today it will have been forty years since the last time I vomited,” and I said to her, “How do you celebrate an anniversary like that?” It was a witty moment, one of many in our friendship, and if we’d only collected them all, we could sit down and write a Cole Porter musical, but we didn’t and anyway Cole Porter isn’t so hip anymore and we’re busy doing other things.I, for one, have been on a tour doing a one-man show and having a great time until last week in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, after a dinner of six oysters on the half shell, clam chowder, and a lobster roll, I awoke at 4 a.m.

Last weekend, I was able to make a rare escape out of town for a couple of days, visiting a a rural retreat transformed from a 1920s school for the blind into a hotel/convention center/and so much more.The weekend happened to be a slow one for Buffalo Ridge Resort and Spa, and so much of the staff had time for conversation as we were on the first night at least, the only two guests.

Throughout the summer, I’ve been spending time here and there fishing - an activity I haven’t done since I was still able to claim teenager status.

I was listening to this story, a good story, an enjoyable story, an entertaining story and then the storyteller quickly wraps it and says, “so without further ado” and proceeded to get onto a whole other thing.And I wanted to say: Wait?

I did something last Sunday I’d never done before in my 82 years.

I’ve been on a solid high ever since July 21 when I was sitting in a café on South Wabash in Chicago, the El rumbling overhead, and the word came that Joe Biden had stepped out of the race and that Democrats now could find a candidate who demonstrates energy and acuity and passion and is not simply trying to pronounce all his words clearly.

This being a big election year, I wanted to be sure to remind anyone interested in utilizing the Letters to the Editor space in the newspapers of the Cherry Road Media policies involving Letters to the Editor.

I don’t know how much you think about sharks but I used to think I think about sharks the regular amount.