The Beauty of Baseball

The Beauty of Baseball

(THREE GENERATIONS OF FANS: My father’s boyhood baseball glove from the 1930s, holding a ball signed by my son’s Little League team, which I coached. Photo by Tom Robotham) By Tom Robotham  The one constant through all the years has been baseball. ~...
ESSAY: Fifteen Minutes a Day

ESSAY: Fifteen Minutes a Day

  By Tom Robotham Last December in this space I wrote an essay about my renewed interest in studying French with an app called Duolingo. I’d fallen in love with the language while taking it for two years in college and have always wished I were fluent. Alas, I...
ESSAY: Fifteen Minutes a Day

Prologues to What is Possible

  By Tom Robotham  I dwell in Possibility / A fairer House than Prose – Emily Dickinson  On January 20, I turned on CNN first thing in the morning to watch the long hoped for departure of Donald Trump. As he flew away I was overwhelmed by a sense of relief. The...
Practicing

Practicing

(Tom Robotham — on the left — has been perfecting his French with Duolingo so he can better converse in the future with local Parisians like this street vendor selling books and art along the River Seine) By Tom Robotham  J’apprends Français. Well, a...
ESSAY: Fifteen Minutes a Day

Now What?

BY TOM ROBOTHAM On the morning of Nov. 7, I was watching CNN, fervently hoping that they would finally call the election in Joe Biden’s favor. When they did, at 11:26 a.m., I let out a whoop that was likely heard throughout West Ghent. Van Jones—a CNN commentator whom...