ArcaMax

Rabbits. Rabbits! They're hopping all over New England, my yard included. They need to eat and, being rabbits, have lots of mouths to feed. What more could a rabbit want than a fresh head of cabbage, organically grown by my calloused hands?

Warmer winters have exploded rabbit populations in much of Canada and the eastern U.S. Other regions, ...Read more

One of the recently vandalized monuments is a statue of poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Someone smeared "BLM" and "(expletive) Slave Owners" on the seated figure prominently displayed in the city named after him, Whittier, California.

It happens that Whittier was a fiery abolitionist from Massachusetts. In a famous 1833 pamphlet, he called ...Read more

Those who care to wager on a visit to Las Vegas will confront mixed messages on mask wearing, to say the least.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board just issued a rule requiring casino guests to wear face coverings at tables and card games only if there are no shields between dealers and each player. Other gamers are encouraged to wear masks but don...Read more

What didn't happen in Tulsa last weekend was gratifying and a relief. The protests against racism were overwhelmingly orderly. President Donald Trump's rally also proceeded without serious incident and, notably, without much of an audience.

And this didn't happen for lack of provocation. Trying to whip up excitement for his revived rally ...Read more

COVID-19 is not at all over and shows every sign of staging a return. We've been through a lot of fear, depression, and losses of income and loved ones. Much can't be changed, but the leadership can, from sloppy governors to President Donald Trump at the top of the heap. Trump seems not just incapable of forming a rational response to a virus ...Read more

Some say the pandemic has become a permanent ally in the fight against climate catastrophe. It has jump-started a drop in the burning of fossil fuels, and that will continue. Others say this is short-term thinking: The public may abandon its concerns over global warming as it tries to climb out of the economic hole left by the COVID-19 lockdowns...Read more

You know you have a stupid declaration on your hands when you have to explain what some on your side really mean. Such is the burden of Democrats trying to limit the damage from the childish demands to "defund the police."

Oxford's U.S. dictionary defines "defund" as "prevent from continuing to receive funds." To the educated ear, ...Read more

Farm-to-table refers to freshly grown produce -- that is, fruits and vegetables not transported from some distant time zone or even hemisphere but recently harvested on boutique acreage just outside town. The foodie media trumpet the virtues of local food sources, and their cosmopolitan audience tries to honor them when they visit farmer's ...Read more

Sweden offered hope that the coronavirus could be reined in without great inconvenience or economic pain. Unlike its neighbors in Scandinavia and elsewhere, Sweden didn't put its people in strict lockdown. Restaurants, bars and shops buzzed with their usual customers. Gyms stayed open, and kids under 16 went to school.

Images of Swedes sunning ...Read more

I come here not to condemn Amy Cooper, the white woman who called police and falsely claimed that an African American man named Christian Cooper was attacking her, but rather to praise Christian Cooper, who had done nothing more than ask her to leash her dog. The confrontation happened in New York's Central Park, where dogs are supposed to be ...Read more

When the pandemic hit this winter, city people with second homes moved into them. This upset the rhythm of beach, lake and mountain communities that attract a lot of "summer people" -- but not until the summer.

As for winter destinations -- Florida, Arizona, Texas or any ski area -- the snowbirds seem to be lingering into the spring. Full-time ...Read more

Joe Biden still has time to do the smart thing and name New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo his running mate. The top two reasons would be Cuomo's proven competence managing his state's coronavirus crisis and a strong personality unafraid of that other son of Queens, President Donald Trump.

We know. Biden pledged to name a woman as his vice president. ...Read more

I just lost a dear elderly friend to cancer. Home hospice workers kept him comfortable. He spent his final weeks watching spring unfold in the outdoor Eden he had nurtured for decades. He died peacefully at night with me present.

My friend's death had little to do with COVID-19. One can say that he was spared the trauma of getting hit by that ...Read more

Joe Biden has not been loudly beating up on President Donald Trump for his pathetic performance during the coronavirus crisis. The pandemic has already killed over 80,000 Americans and cratered the economy. And the United States has become an object of international pity.

"Why is Biden sitting at home?" chronically anxious Democrats ask.

...Read more

The hashtag #BelieveWomen stemmed from an era when women claiming to have been sexually assaulted were broadly dismissed. That is, if you ignore the history of white women falsely accusing black men of rape. Those women were largely believed and the accused often summarily tortured and hung by the neck from a tree.

Ida Wells, an African ...Read more

Last year seems a lifetime ago, but even then, cash was no longer king. The greenback had already lost its premier role as Americans' medium of exchange in dollar terms. Plastic card and digital transactions had taken over. And that's how stores, restaurants and other businesses seemed to want it.

COVID-19 has accelerated this process for ...Read more

No surprise that Americans have spent much of their lockdown watching TV -- nor that one of the most-watched shows has been "The Golden Girls." First aired in 1985, the sitcom portrays four older women, three widows and one divorcee, sharing a house in Miami.

They're "sheltering in place" in that they don't have outside jobs to go to. They do ...Read more

When Germany let smaller stores reopen, the expected didn't happen. Officials thought that shoppers would burst out of their five-week lockdown and spend, spend, spend. They were wrong.

As the manager of an espresso machine store in Berlin told the Financial Times, "No one really wants to go shopping right now."

Same story in the Atlanta ...Read more

The coronavirus has rearranged American life. Mask wearing and social distancing is still required in the stores, gyms and restaurants now open, or set to be, across the nation.

But what about the big, crowded cities? New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco and, of course, New York have become the virus hotspots mainly because they put people in ...Read more

The bizarre collapse in oil prices reflects a world largely shut at home. People are no longer driving much or flying at all. Factories are silent. The supply hasn't changed radically in the past month. It's the demand that's crumbled.

Environmentalists, hold that thought.

Friends on the environmental left are not always swift at gauging how ...Read more