Opinion

Judging by the relative calm on Main Street at midweek since Labor Day, East Hampton’s population has returned to the seasonal, weekend-versus-midweek, boom-and-bust pattern of pre-Covid-19 days.

A straight father of three sings the praises of Judy Garland.

We salute the people who make the elections run so well in difficult times.

My mother, Helen Selden Rattray, has the longevity genes of the Greenland shark. She will be turning 90 years old on Sunday.

In honor of the official start of autumn on Sunday, we have a few specific suggestions for making the most of every moment of your favorite month.

It can happen here: Applying a professor’s Tourism Area Life Cycle metric is revealing, bordering on bracing.

An office goldfish heads to the great fish pond in the sky.

Feeding the beast: On the 800-pound gorilla that is the National Football League.

The East Hampton Town Board is talking about zoning tweaks that had been proposed in response to a more all-encompassing call for greater building restraints. Just as it had discussed back in May.

It’s been a long, long time since we actually were amped about a candidate for political office, but we are very much amped for John Avlon as a stellar candidate here in the First Congressional District.

Rediscovering the pleasures of AM radio.

The clock is ticking down to Election Day, Nov. 5. Are you ready? Today is a good day to make extra sure there’s no snafu.

I learned from a cheap book I read once on dream decoding, back when we read books, that if you dream of swimming or of the sea that what you are really dreaming about is your subconscious.

Turnout is what ultimately determines tight elections. To a great extent, the idea of swing voters is outdated in these highly polarized times. What matters now is which party can get more of its side off the couch than the other.

Plastics come from multiple sources and have been accumulating in the environment for at least 70 years, since they came into our lives.

There is a certain kind of camaraderie that occurs at the counter of the beer store that I believe happens nowhere else.

Someone who grew up in Bridgehampton (this columnist, for one) might think all there was to Leonard Riggio was Minden, his vast and venerable Ocean Road estate. But his passing calls up more.

A pertinent subject came up at a meeting of Amagansett’s citizens advisory committee Monday, when members heard from a representative of the Devon Yacht Club, which is seeking permits to rebuild its clubhouse. In short, what was the point of the meeting?

One of the indignities of getting older is having hair that will no longer express your personality in a way that adequately represents who you think you are, deep down. Our hair betrays us with age.

Time was, East Hampton was famous as the anti-signage town. Have you noticed an uptick in signs on our streets in the last year or two? We don’t like it.

Remembering the first time I came to the East End 30 years ago also rekindles thoughts of the skyline of India, and my home country’s independence.

As the recreational boating season hurries to a close here in the Northeast, my ideas of a summer spent at least part of the time afloat on Cerberus slip away.

When a county investigator instantly “gets,” and appreciates, a just-deceased family member.

The Springs School District is proposing a change to its safety plan regarding lockdown drills, and it’s a smart and necessary change in protocol.

We get a lot of questions from readers here. It is, after all, a local newspaper.

Make an appointment now. The Centers for Disease Control says you probably need to get a flu shot by Halloween.

Around 9, cars start pulling up and guys meander onto the field, one by one, groggy and disheveled, animated by caffeine and muscle memory. They soft-toss and take B.P. and let the weight of the week rise into the morning mist.

From the Springs dog park to dogs on the beach, we have been fielding a lot of letters about dog controversies lately.

My ballet teacher was Gordon Peavy, who had his studio in the Odd Fellows Hall on Newtown Lane, above what is now the Chanel store.

As far as seasonal pursuits like swimming, sailing, and eating white corn go, we plan to continue to pretend it’s still summer up through October, but otherwise, an early autumn sounds great.