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By GENE STAMELL

By GENE STAMELL

By GENE STAMELL

I received some disturbing news this morning, in the midst of the joyous holiday season. The news was delivered, online, by Sam Ezersky, a 26-year-old that loyal fans will undoubtedly recall from my column of Nov. 13, 2023 titled “Every day, a...

By GENE STAMELL

 As a child, I never celebrated Easter. In the spring, my family looked forward to Passover and the seder, at which the kids could search for hidden afikomen (matzoh wrapped in a napkin) and request presents from the adults at the table. (One year, my...

By GENE STAMELL

 In this column, I hope I don’t come across as an old, persnickety curmudgeon, unable to adapt to ever-changing times and mores. Yes, I still use boring he/him pronouns, but I fully accept and approve of people choosing the pronouns and lifestyles...

By GENE STAMELL

 I’m an X-Large. I used to be 5-foot-9; I am now 5-foot-7 and I still wear an X-Large.It isn’t pretty, dear reader, but there will be no problem fitting me into a coffin or oven.I’m leaning toward the latter, but I’m still undecided.It is not unusual...

By GENE STAMELL

I compose this column on a deck overlooking the Pacific Ocean in a seaside town of Newport, Oregon. I have just returned from the Lincoln County Fair, a mini-festival of vendors, livestock auctions, and country music, a venue that cried out to me,...

By GENE STAMELL

 It is a ludicrous endeavor to attempt to fit all human beings into two distinct categories. But if my life depended upon my doing so (or if I were to refuse to do so at the risk of being condemned to sit in a cinema, watching “The Piano” over and...

By GENE STAMELL

 Columnist’s note: The following contains many parenthetical asides and seemingly unimportant details that somehow, one hopes, lead to a conclusion that the reader finds moderately interesting or entertaining or, at the very least, bearable.  Once...

By GENE STAMELL

No doubt, some of you Pioneer Valley folks will read this column and want it renamed “A Wimp’s Tale” or something to that effect. “Oh, the poor man! A bat is living in his house. Alert the Armed Forces, call out the SWAT team! How will he survive this...

By GENE STAMELL

For the great majority of my life, I haven’t given the term “narcissism” much thought. The condition simply didn’t cross my radar. Certainly, I have known a number of people who possessed large, overinflated egos, but it wasn’t until I started...

By GENE STAMELL

One morning, a number of years ago, I found myself standing in line at a Starbucks counter.The woman in front of me was screaming into her phone, arguing about what seemed to be a rent dispute. Obviously irate, she was completely unaware of her impact...