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Columnists

The Mast-Head: World Without Insects

Estimates are that close to half of all insect species are falling and that a third are in danger of extinction.

Oct 20, 2022
The Shipwreck Rose: Now, Voyager

My grandparents had a passion for steamships that, as these family inclinations do, has somehow trickled down to me.

Oct 20, 2022
Gristmill: Doubling Down on Dubus

Andre Dubus’s essay “Giving Up the Gun” has renewed relevance in this political moment and with New York State’s struggles with concealed carry laws.

Oct 13, 2022
Point of View: A Day to Open Up to the World

In the end, we only have each other, and in the end, disembodied, it’s the extent to which we’ve nourished the creative spirit, of mankind, of our country, of our town, of our village, that lives on.

Oct 13, 2022
The Mast-Head: Coexisting Warily

This is the time of the year that deer are killed by vehicles here in great numbers.

Oct 13, 2022
The Shipwreck Rose: Emma Fleetwood

Everyone and their sister is selling their own lifestyle these days, attempting to be an influencer. Everyone thinks their own taste is good taste, and almost everyone is wrong.

Oct 13, 2022
Gristmill: It’s a High-Flying Flag

The glories and mysteries of Mount Morris.

Oct 6, 2022
Point of View: Yes, Yes, I’m No Hoarder

There’s a place for everything and everything’s not in its place is more or less the maxim I have lived by.

Oct 6, 2022
The Mast-Head: A Favorite Beech

A favorite tree behind the Star office will soon be no more, thanks to a disease affecting beeches that is spread by a newly discovered nematode.

Oct 6, 2022
The Shipwreck Rose: How Dumb School Is

“Annotating is garbage,” my son said. “Annotating is how you ruin a book.”

Oct 6, 2022
Gristmill: Fan Bids Flak Man Adieu

Thoughts on Joe Flacco, the hard-luck Jets, and team loyalty.

Sep 29, 2022
Point of View: Commission a Giant Tick

I don’t know why the sculpture of a bull was put up in Herrick Park. Is it to remind us of Wall Street, which also has one?

Sep 29, 2022
The Mast-Head: History Repeats, Kind Of

My son, Ellis’s, first game as a member of the East Hampton Middle School football team comes up this week, and it has gotten me thinking about when I was his age and switched schools, too.

Sep 29, 2022
The Shipwreck Rose: Scratch and Sniff

Sometimes a smell is more than just a smell, and we need to lift up the rug and see what's festering.

Sep 29, 2022
Gristmill: In Mrs. Sage’s Footsteps

A 5K in Sag Harbor joins road racing with historical sightseeing and live music.

Sep 22, 2022
Point of View: ‘All We Played for Was Love’

Autumn has its music too, Keats said, though it’s not all that melancholic at the moment to my mind because, with 11 high school teams to cover, I must be nimble.

Sep 22, 2022
The Mast-Head: Everything Is a Scam

Everything is a scam. That is what I tell my friends, family, and co-workers about basically anything that comes in from an unfamiliar number or email address. “Never answer the phone,” I say to them.

Sep 22, 2022
The Shipwreck Rose: Sunday Edition

No one says “doggie bag” anymore. And who thought we’d have an opportunity to use the word “catafalque” in 2022? Also on my imaginary list of trendy words of the year, I nominate the phrase “out of pocket.” Everyone is saying “out of pocket” right now, but everyone is using it to mean something different.

Sep 22, 2022
Gristmill: Big Fat Decision

So what’s it gonna be, college-wise, core curriculum lockdown or pick and choose your classes as you see fit?

Sep 15, 2022
Point of View: ‘Mucha Itcha’

The very day that Peter Spacek’s chigger cartoon appeared in our paper two weeks ago I got them.

Sep 15, 2022
The Mast-Head: On an Empty Bay

For all the boats kept around here, most are idle most of the time.

Sep 15, 2022
Gristmill: Backyard Buzz

The unexpected appearance of hummingbirds has been a highlight of the summer.

Sep 8, 2022
Point of View: Still an Experiment

One of the major thrusts in our founding documents, as I understand them, was to shield this democratic republic from autocracy.

Sep 8, 2022
The Mast-Head: ‘Chigger’ Time Again

Avoiding the leaf litter and damp grass where up to a thousand or more tick larvae lurk is the best strategy this time of the year.

Sep 8, 2022
The Shipwreck Rose: Moody Street

When I navigated off the interstate, I knew exactly where the graveyard would be with Kerouac’s grave.

Sep 8, 2022
Gristmill: Batter Up

The D.H. comes to the National League, and no one misses the old ways.

Sep 1, 2022
Point of View: What Cicero Said

Where meanness, which surfaces every now and then, comes from I don’t know.

Sep 1, 2022
The Mast-Head: On the Flight Path

Step outside of the East Hampton Star building on Main Street on a summer day and there is a very high probability that a private jet will be overhead.

Sep 1, 2022
A cultural aversion to commercialized vistas — a near-universal dislike of unnecessary signs — goes back a century in East Hampton. The Ladies Village Improvement Society led the charge against billboards, playbills, neon, and other forms of visual clutter.East Hampton Star archive The Shipwreck Rose: The Signless Town

We’re going to get petty this week, reader. Let’s get trifling. Let’s talk about signage.

Sep 1, 2022
Gristmill: Parting Ways

Shades of Jimmy Carter, the part of my hair suddenly switched sides.

Aug 25, 2022