Vox clamantis in deserto
But wear long pants
“Way to the Sea,’’ by Nancy Friese, in the “Radical Quiet’’ show opening at the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, N.H., on Aug. 8.
Elan Abrell: Potential dangers of ‘pest control’
Eastern Wild Turkeys which are very common in New England.
From The Conversation (not including image above)
MIDDLERTOWN, Conn.
After wild turkeys attacked an 83-year-old woman in May 2026, sending her to the emergency room for stitches, police warned residents of Alameda, California, to avoid interacting with the animals. Wild turkeys can be particularly aggressive during mating season. They can also damage property: digging up gardens, staining decks with their droppings and occasionally attacking cars and windows when they mistake their own reflections for rival turkeys.
Turkeys may be a nuisance to Alameda’s human residents, but they have also been highly valued by multiple cultures throughout the history of North America. Given these threats to human safety and property, is it fair to call this quintessentially American bird a pest?
As an anthropologist who studies human-animal interactions, I have found that the idea of a “pest” is a flexible concept that changes over time and across cultures. Just as one person’s weed can be another’s wildflower, the category of pest is a subjective one that depends on social, aesthetic and economic values within a particular culture.
If Turkeys decorate American dinner tables and are pardoned by presidents, are they still pests?
Labeling an animal a pest typically justifies the use of harmful or deadly methods to remove undesirable species from human spaces. But these methods can lead to costs that far outweigh their benefits, causing unnecessary suffering for not only the so-called pests, but also for humans, other animals and entire ecosystems.
Understanding why people label certain animals pests can help society respond to potential conflicts while minimizing harm to both humans and animals.
What is a pest?
The English word “pest” comes from the Latin word “pestis,” meaning plague, instrument of death or destruction, or nuisance.
The Black Death is one of the most infamous historical examples of the link between disease and pests. This pandemic of bubonic plague spread via rodents carrying infected fleas, killing an estimated 25 million people in the 14th Century in Europe. The discovery that animals carried the plague gave rise to one of the earliest pest control professions: the ratcatcher.
Some animals that humans consider pests are synanthropes: wild animals that have adapted to human habitats for the various benefits they receive from human activities. Sometimes, this adaptation is self-directed, as in the case of rodents or coyotes attracted to human food stores.
Pigeons have adapted well to urban living with humans. Catherine Falls Commercial/Moment via Getty Images
But humans often contribute more directly to the adaptation of synanthropic animals, as in the case of pigeons, one of the earliest domesticated bird species. The wild descendants of domesticated rock doves, pigeons still thrive in human environments where they can find food and nest in the clifflike edifices of buildings.
People have also contributed to the spread of nonnative or “invasive” species. Maritime travel dispersed rodents and feral pigs across countless island ecosystems. Misguided efforts at controlling other pests, in this case insects that damage sugarcane crops, led to the introduction of cane toads in Australia.
Animals out of place
Many pest animals pose no actual threats to humans or their ecosystems, but this does not stop people from seeing them as trouble.
Most species of spiders, for example, are harmless to humans and can help eliminate insects that may be even more unwelcome in a home. And despite their status as despised backyard invaders, moles actually provide benefits to gardens by aerating soil and consuming insects and mollusks that feed on plants.
To understand why harmless animals are still often perceived as pests, you can look to anthropologist Mary Douglas’ foundational concept of matter out of place. In her 1966 book “Purity and Danger,” Douglas argues that cross-cultural concepts such as purity and pollution are based on normative ideas about the proper places for particular things.
Squirrels become pests when they wander where people say they shouldn’t be. Jed T. Hoyt/Wakelee's Pharmacies/California business ephemera collection/California Historical Society via Flickr, CC BY
Dirt, for example, is not a specific unclean substance, but a social category people use to describe matter that is in a place where it does not belong. Mud smeared on your clothes, skin or eating utensils, for example, might be dirt in this sense, whereas mud on the ground would just be a part of the soil where it belongs.
Pests, similarly, can be understood as animals that violate spatial boundaries determined by cultural values. For example, a deer and her fawn grazing in a meadow, or a family of squirrels nesting in a tree, might become pests if they were to start grazing on prized rosebushes or nesting in an attic.
Like plague-spreading fleas, these animals can pose real harms to humans, but the category of pest need not be tied to an objective assessment of risk.
Potential dangers of pest control
Designating animals as pests can sometimes do more damage than the animals themselves.
Historical efforts to control or eradicate pests illustrate both how culture influences which animals are placed in this category and the unintended consequences that can arise from putting them there.
The culling of sparrows through China’s Four Pest Campaign, which lasted from 1958 to 1962, led to mass famine after causing ecological imbalance. Wikimedia Commons
In 1532, the Tudor Vermin Laws provided bounties for killing a broad range of species perceived as a threat in Early Modern English society to agricultural food stocks. These animals included badgers, bats, crows, foxes, hedgehogs, otters and owls, among many others. Vilified for superstitious or erroneous beliefs, many of these species did not actually compete with people for food or pose other significant dangers.
Four centuries later, in the mid-20th Century, China’s government similarly encouraged people to eradicate over a billion sparrows to prevent them from depleting grain supplies.
These policies in England and China pushed many species to the brink of extinction, inflicting ongoing harm on ecosystems while failing to address food supply problems. In the case of China’s anti-sparrow campaign, a failure to recognize sparrows’ ecological role as insect predators led surviving swarms of locusts to devastate the grain crops, contributing to mass famine that killed nearly as many people as the Black Death in Europe.
Contemporary efforts at pest control have also caused unanticipated collateral damage. The pesticide DDT notoriously caused widespread harm to ecosystems while also posing a significant risk to human health. The regular use of chemical rodenticides is a danger to humans, companion animals and wildlife.
New ways of coexisting
Humans have very good reasons to be concerned about potentially harmful species. Indeed, the mosquito, one of the most common pests around the world, is also responsible for more human deaths than any other animal.
However, the category of pest has often provided an overly simple framework for targeting other animals for extermination, in many cases with serious ecological consequences.
Beyond the many harms of efforts to eradicate pests, the concept of pest itself has contributed to human violence by providing a powerful metaphor for dehumanizing marginalized groups throughout history.
Rather than denigrating other animals as pests, people can address potential dangers of other species while also taking responsibility for how we contribute to these fraught relations. Understanding pests as a subjective cultural category opens space for questioning whose interests are served by such designations, who is harmed by the label, and what possibilities for alternative relations may exist.
As in the case of Alameda’s turkeys, leaving other animals alone and finding ways to coexist may lead to better outcomes for all.
Elan Abrell is an assistant professor of science and technology studies at Wesleyan University.
He does not work for, consult, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Wesleyan University provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.
Channeling ‘family mythology’
Painting by Kelly Sinnapah Mary, in her show at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Conn., through June 13, 2027.
She says: “When I paint, I am channeling both my family mythology––the stories that have been told to me, the memories I have––and broader histories and cosmologies to imagine a new world.”
The museum says the show brings together “a comprehensive view of her work to date and will include approximately forty paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and installations across two immersive institutional environments including the debut of new work.’’
What new federal housing act means for New England
“Men Building a House,” aka “Building Boom’’ (oil on canvas, 1937), by Louise Emerson Ronnebeck
From The New England Council (slightly edited)
BOSTON
On July 11, 2026, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act officially became law, marking the most significant federal housing legislation in decades. After months of bipartisan, bicameral negotiations, Congress delivered a comprehensive package designed to increase housing supply, modernize federal housing policy, and help make homeownership and rental housing more attainable for American families.
For New England, where housing affordability has become one of the region’s defining economic challenges, the legislation represents an important milestone.
The New England Council applauds the leadership of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and the Democratic sponsor of the legislation, as well as members of the New England Congressional Delegation who helped shape and advance the bill. We especially recognize Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, who serves alongside Senator Warren on the Senate Banking Committee; Masssachusetts Representatives Stephen F. Lynch and Ayanna Pressley, and Connecticut Representative Jim Himes for their leadership throughout the legislative process.
While no single law can solve the nation’s housing shortage, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act establishes a strong federal foundation for expanding housing opportunities by reducing unnecessary barriers to development, modernizing financing tools, supporting manufactured housing, strengthening community development programs, and encouraging policies that increase the supply of homes across the country.
Why This Matters to New England
Housing affordability continues to affect nearly every sector of New England’s economy. Employers across the region increasingly cite housing costs as a barrier to attracting and retaining workers, while families face rising home prices and limited housing inventory.
The need for action is clear. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston reports that home prices across New England rose by roughly 50 percent between 2020 and 2024, driven largely by a shortage of available housing. At the national level, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies continues to identify housing supply as one of the country’s most pressing economic challenges.
The bill serves as an important first step toward addressing those challenges by giving communities additional tools to build more housing and improve affordability.
The Council’s Advocacy
The New England Council and its Housing Working Group have supported the ROAD to Housing Act since its introduction.
Last fall, the Council published an op-ed in New England business journals highlighting the need for comprehensive housing reform and submitted a formal letter to Congress urging lawmakers to advance the legislation. Throughout the legislative process, the Council has remained engaged with policymakers and members on the bill’s progress.
That conversation continued June 16, 2026, when the Council, in partnership with Liberty Bay Credit Union, welcomed Congressman Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA). The discussion centered on a message echoed by employers across the region: housing is no longer just a quality-of-life issue, but a workforce and economic competitiveness issue.
The enactment of this housing package reinforces the importance of that conversation and represents meaningful progress toward expanding housing opportunities across New England.
Looking Ahead
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is an important milestone, but it is only the beginning.
The New England Council looks forward to continuing its work with policymakers, industry leaders, and members to advance practical solutions that increase housing supply, improve affordability, and strengthen New England’s workforce and economy.
We thank the members of the New England Congressional Delegation whose leadership helped make this landmark legislation possible and look forward to supporting the successful implementation of this historic law.
For more information, please contact Natasha Silva, the New England Council’s director of Federal Affairs, at nsilva@newenglandcouncil.com.
And when the public is corrupt?
Detail from “Corrupt Legislation’’ (1896), by Elihu Vedder, at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Three New Englanders on corruption:
Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well".
John Adams: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other".
Henry David Thoreau: "The fact which the politician faces is merely that there is less honor among thieves than was supposed, and not the fact that they are thieves".
Yes, we’re ready to go
“Another Country” (acrylic on can), by Bekka Teerlink, in the group show “New Members,’’ at Kingston Gallery, Boston, through Aug. 2
She says:
“I paint psychological landscapes built from pieces of the broken world around me. Recurring themes in my work included houses, gardens, and portals to other places and times. I grew up moving from place to place and never felt rooted in one place. From this experience, I developed an obsession with ‘home,’ especially of the homes I didn’t have. I daydreamed of places I wanted to live, drawing fantasy floorplans and illustrations. In my paintings, those imagined spaces began to merge with the real ones I’d experienced, creating a personal world that exists outside of any specific time or location.’’
Superb stone, but don’t breathe the dust
“Sheldon’s and Slason’s Marble Quarry” (West Rutland, Vt. (oil on canvas, 1851), by James Pope, at the Middlebury (Vt.) College Museum of Art. Marble and granite quarrying became a major industry in the Green Mountain State in the 19th Century. It’s much diminished now.
We’ve thrown away the powerful tool of ‘soft power’; lessons from the British Empire
Areas of the world that were part of the British Empire with current British Overseas Territories underlined in red. Mandates and protected states are shown in a lighter shade.
—Map by RedStorm1368
WEST WARWICK, R.I.
When President Trump, on the first day of his second term, closed the U.S. Agency for International Development and began dismantling the Voice of America, he also severely curtailed what had been America’s soft power dominance in the world.
With those actions, we abandoned something of inestimable value: the ability to project Americanism, our ideals. Trump retired an entire diplomatic system that had served the United States well since we more or less inherited it from the British.
“Soft power” was codified as a concept by the late Harvard professor Joseph S. Nye, Jr. in four books published between 1990 and 2023.
While Nye made soft power his own — he coined the term in 1990 — and wrote, lectured and testified before Congress about it, he never totally convinced conservatives what a valuable weapon it was in the national armory.
The proof of that is in the current administration’s indifference to diplomatic and social muscle, and its lack of a mechanism to talk to the Iranian people in Farsi, their language.
Nye believed an important part of soft power was our educational system, and U.S.-educated foreign students going home and spreading the good news about America.
I believe, although it was never thought of that way, that soft power was one of the things that kept the British Empire together. I saw it in action in Africa as colonial rule waned.
James R. Schlesinger, who served as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, director of the CIA, secretary of defense, and secretary of energy, was a friend of mine throughout his public career and afterward. The one question he asked me constantly was how the British Empire was able to hold together with so few troops spread across so much of the world.
Schlesinger, a former history professor, wondered how those lessons might be applied to America in the late 20th Century.
I told him that it was a combination of the hard power of the Royal Navy and British Army but also, importantly, of the then-unnamed soft power.
Take the massacre in Amritsar, in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab. This occurred on April 13, 1919, when a local British commander in the Punjab feared a meeting in a garden might turn violent and opened fire without warning on thousands of unarmed civilians. Official figures reported 379 dead and 1,200 injured; Indian estimates exceed 1,000 deaths.
This massacre hardened Mahatma Gandhi’s attitude to British rule over the subcontinent. His initial reaction, on hearing of the slaughter, was disbelief that the British would do such a thing. He had bought the soft-power assertion of British values, of decency.
Winston Churchill, then serving as the minister of war, told Parliament early the next year that the shooting was “unalterably monstrous.”
I tried to explain to Schlesinger over many evenings, over many years, what I had seen growing up in British Africa as the essence of British soft power.
To me, it boiled down to a kind of moral posture, a determination to project British justice as inviolate, British exceptionalism as a moral force, and a general admirable state of decency. The term soft power hadn’t yet been created, but it was the essential ingredient in British colonial administration.
When American commanders sought the “hearts and minds” of the Vietnamese, they might well have said they were seeking to establish “soft power.” But it was too late.
The concept of soft power and how it blossomed for America has wilted under the Trump administration. The posture now is that economic and military power are how we project influence and authority.
Ironically, while I think that Nye did something of great value in identifying and promoting the concept of soft power, he and I didn’t enjoy a warm relationship. He had been President Jimmy Carter’s point man for nuclear disarmament and had favored an end to nuclear reprocessing as well as other aspects of the U.S. nuclear ecosystem.
In 1977, we debated in London, and the argument got so intense that we spilled into the street, shouting at each other.
On X: @llewellynking2
Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of White House Chronicle, on PBS, and an international energy-sector consultant. He’s based in Rhode Island.
On of Harvard Prof. Joseph Nye’s best-known books.
Those who own and run us
See:
https://www.americanrulingclass.com/
and:
On Aug. 1, the Criterion Channel will begin streaming the award-winning 2005 dramatic-
documentary-musical The American Ruling Class. Written by and starring Lewis Lapham, the
iconic longtime editor of Harper’s Magazine, directed and edited by John Kirby, and produced
by Libby Handros, the film became a festival favorite thanks to the frank, original, and hilarious
way it explores the typically dark themes of money, class, privilege, and power in modern-day
America.
The film follows two fictional Yale grads as Lapham, playing himself, takes them on a tour of the
corridors of power while they decide if they are going to rule the world … or save it. The young
men are escorted through a variety of Fortune 500 boardrooms, high-profile philanthropic
organizations, top-tier society dinners, and even Pentagon press briefings. Along the way, they
meet and chat with a long list of real-life luminaries, including Robert Altman, former Secretary
of State James Baker, former Senator Bill Bradley, former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown,
Walter Cronkite, author/journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, folk singer Pete Seeger, then-New York
Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., and Kurt Vonnegut.
“Though our list of interviewees included both those who considered themselves Democrats
and those who identified as Republicans, we noticed little real difference in their general
outlook on policy matters,” says Kirby. “And interestingly, they all made the same claim: ‘There
is no such thing as a ruling class in America.’ To spice things up and have some fun, we decided
to go beyond the standard documentary format. Producer Libby Handros and I hit upon what
we think is an interesting new genre: the ‘dramatic-documentary-musical.’”
“The Criterion Channel is the streaming service for those who love film, and we are honored
that the prestigious Channel’s curators have deemed The American Ruling Class worthy,” says
Handros. “Making this film and taking it to festivals around the world was an unforgettable and
extremely eye-opening experience. This film was Lewis’s baby, and I so badly wish he were still
alive to see it on Criterion.”
Lapham passed away in 2024; The American Ruling Class also features the final film
appearances of Oscar-winning director Robert Altman and Slaughterhouse Five author Kurt
Vonnegut, as well as the first big-screen appearance of hip-hop star Azealia Banks.
Selected quotes from the film:
“The ruling class is the rich, who really command our industry, our commerce and our finance,
and those people are so able to manipulate our democracy that they really control the
democracy.” —Walter Cronkite
“To what end the genius of the Wall Street banks and the force of the Pentagon’s colossal
weapons? Where does America discover the wisdom to play with its wonderful toys? The
questions touch on the character of the American ruling class. And if they’re hard to answer, it’s
because we like to pretend that no such thing as a ruling class has ever darkened an American
shore — or danced by the light of an American moon.” —Lewis Lapham
“Of course there’s a ruling class, and it’s based on money. It’s a very simple problem: You can
buy a jet plane of your own, or you can buy a president.” —Kurt Vonnegut
Selected Reviews:
“Part Monty Python, part Michael Moore, The American Ruling Class is an entertaining clarion
call for all citizens to consider who has power, how they acquired it, and most importantly, how
they keep it.” —Kino Lorber
“Kirby approaches the topic in a light, entertaining manner that holds viewer interest...
Recommended for audiences concerned with our future and how others see us.” —Library
Journal
“John Kirby’s astonishing documentary/drama/musical (yes, really) … also serves as a call to
arms for everyone to think about how their actions will affect the future in which we live.
Narrated and written by the wonderful, laconic Lewis Lapham, this should not be
missed.” —The London Observer
“While fooling around with my TV, seeking out the Cubs-Sox ball game, I accidentally
encountered a remarkable and revelatory documentary. The American Ruling Class KO’d me,
telling ‘ordinary’ citizens who it is — or what means are used — to run our ‘democratic’ society.
The mentor of two of the ‘heirs’ just out of Yale University was Lewis Lapham, the most hip and
perceptive editor of all our monthlies. It is an astonishing program — but, more important, tells
us who really runs things. P.S. I missed the Cubs-Sox game, nothing was lost, much was
gained.” —Studs Terkel
“[A] satirical tour thru the corridors of power with Lewis Lapham... The film takes on our
political and financial elites, the top of America’s food chain, but it’s all for a purpose: to remind
us of those who are struggling just to make ends meet.” —Bill Moyers
“[An] entertaining documentary, The American Ruling Class offers a guided safari through the
tribal haunts of the power elite.” —Vanity Fair
“That unusual animal, the political documentary with high-wattage star power.” —Variety
“I know we’re not supposed to have favorites, but I’ve seen this movie twice and I love
it.” —Tribeca Film Festival cofounder Jane Rosenthal, quoted in The New York Times.
Awards and Accolades:
Official Selection at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival; won Best New York Documentary —
Special Jury Mention
Official Selection at the 2005 Columbus International Film & Video Festival; won the
Silver Chris Award
Official Selection at the 2005 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
Official Selection at the 2005 Woodstock Film Festival
Press contact: Libby Handros, lhandros@aol.com
More chances for escape
“Dogs in the Garden” (encaustic painting), by Nancy Whitcomb, a Providence-based artist and member of New England Wax.
And ‘a cow’s purpose’
“Missing’’ (oil painting), by Lucy Yan, in the “Emerging Voices” show at the Copley Society of Art, Boston, through Oct 5.
The gallery says that “Yan switched careers from engineering to full time oil painting following the death of her artist grandfather (爷爷). Engaging classical realism and impressionism techniques, she reveals intimate contemplations with viewers: grief, queer love, a cow’s purpose….’’
Chris Powell: Indignation industry triumphs at New London post office
MANCHESTER, Conn.
Connecticut has been just about conquered by the indignation industry, as was indicated again the other day when the post office in New London inadvertently offended a customer -- the president of the city's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People -- because its doorbell chime happened to play, among other songs, a few bars from "Dixie" during the Juneteenth holiday weekend. The customer complained that "Dixie" is racist because it was sung in minstrel shows and was adopted as an anthem by secessionists during the Civil War.
Instantly intimidated, the post office got rid of the chime's "Dixie" melody. But the complaint was just a matter of guilt by association.
There is nothing racist about "Dixie." Its lyrics are a simple celebration of the South. Many inoffensive songs originated with or were popularized by minstrel shows. While secessionists adopted "Dixie," they weren't the only ones who liked it. It was written by a Northerner prior to secession, first became popular in the North, and the great liberator himself, the destroyer of slavery -- Abraham Lincoln -- declared it a favorite song.
At the White House on the day after the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, the president told a serenading crowd: "I have always thought ‘Dixie' one of the best tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted yesterday that we fairly captured it. I presented the question to the attorney general, and he gave it as his legal opinion that it is our lawful prize. I now request the band to favor me with its performance."
The band did so, and the song is still enjoyed by people of goodwill even if some people of bad will might like to make hateful use of it.
Music and lyrics can stand on their own.
Francis Scott Key, author of the "The Star-Spangled Banner," the poem that, set to an old British melody, became the U.S. national anthem, was a slave owner and as federal attorney for the District of Columbia persecuted abolitionists. But there is nothing racist in his poem, which, if somewhat ironically in light of the author's background, proclaims "the land of the free."
The German composer Richard Wagner hated Jews. But he is associated with hatred of Jews less because of his operas, which are not explicitly anti-Jewish, than because Adolf Hitler fervently promoted the composer's work as part of the Nazi movement. Even today performing Wagner's operas is informally banned in Israel.
Mark Twain joked that Wagner's music "is better than it sounds." Twain might agree that while the melody and lyrics of "Dixie" are better than the politics of some people who liked them or still do, the singer and the songwriter are not necessarily the song.
Besides, to live in Connecticut and be offended by a few bars from "Dixie" played by the post office door chime may require one to be almost blind to many worse things. Even as the controversy in New London was developing, a national survey reported that Connecticut is among the most racially and economically segregated states. The racial performance gap in the state's schools long has been notorious, along with the state's big racial disproportions in poverty, housing, crime, imprisonment, and health.
Ever preening in self-righteousness, political correctness celebrates its intimidation and shaming of people who have meant and done no harm. So it might have been better if a postal clerk in New London had dared to tell the customer who complained about the door chime that Juneteenth is not what it is said to be -- the anniversary of the end of slavery in the United States -- but just a P.C. contrivance, since slavery actually continued in the United States for six months beyond June 1865 until the 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6. That's the day for celebration, with "Dixie" on the musical program, as it was for Lincoln.
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years (CPowell@cox.net).
Engaging with uncertainty
Untitled diptych (flashe and acrylic ink on Arches Aquarelle paper), by Gerri Rachins, in her show “Selected Works on Paper, 2008-2025, at the University of Maine’s Zillman Art Museum, in Bangor, through Sept. 5.
The artist says:
“This selection of abstract paintings …. explores the space between external experience and inner reflection. The work arises from an ongoing engagement with uncertainty—personal, cultural, and perceptual—and reflects a sustained inquiry into the condition of being in flux.
“Working on heavyweight paper, I use process, materials, and physical action to investigate tensions between order and disorder, control and chance, and form and formlessness. Rather than arriving at fixed conclusions, the images remain open, reflecting shifting conditions and competing forces while inviting viewers to question what they see.’’
A lonely trout species
A Wild Eastern Brook Trout.
Excerpted and edited from an ecoRI News article, except image above.
Wild Eastern Brook Trout are the only species of freshwater trout native to Rhode Island, and their numbers are shrinking due to such factors as climate change and habitat loss.
Organizations such as Trout Unlimited and the state Department of Environmental Management believe they speak for the trout, but that doesn’t mean they agree on what the fish have to say — especially when it comes to the question of stocking Rhode Island ponds, lakes, and rivers with brook trout raised in hatcheries.
“The fish, they don’t have a voice. Nobody knows these brook trout exist here. [People] don’t see them, they aren’t like rabbits or deer, they’re invisible,” said Richard Benson, a longtime member of Rhode Island Trout Unlimited (RITU), a nonprofit that supports freshwater and fishery conservation.
These trout used to be found in waters from Maine to Georgia, but their footprint is only about 5 percent of what it once was. Opponents of the practice of stocking fish — the process of releasing fish raised in hatcheries into waterways for anglers to catch — which has been a Rhode Island practice since the late 1800s, say the stocked brook, brown, and rainbow trout compete with wild native trout.
‘Then you can breathe long as you don’t inhale’
Smoke from forest fires in Minnesota and Canada sweeping into New England.
If you visit American city,
You will find it very pretty.
Just two things of which you must beware
Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!
Pollution, pollution!
They got smog and sewage and mud.
Turn on your tap
And get hot and cold running crud!
See the halibuts and the sturgeons
Being wiped out by detergeons
Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly
But they don't last long if they try.
Pollution, pollution!
You can use the latest toothpaste
And then rinse your mouth
With industrial waste.
Just go out for a breath of air
And you'll be ready for Medicare.
The city streets are really quite a thrill
If the hoods don't get you, the monoxide will.
Pollution, pollution!
Wear a gas mask and a veil
Then you can breathe
Long as you don't inhale!
Lots of things there that you can drink
But stay away from the kitchen sink.
The breakfast garbage that you throw into the Bay
They drink at lunch in San Jose.
So go to the city
See the crazy people there
Like lambs to the slaughter
They're drinking the water
And breathing (cough) the air.
Lyrics for songwriter, performer and mathematician (including at Harvard and MIT) Tom Lehrer’s (1928-2025) song “Pollution,’’ written in 1965.
Fluidity festival
“The Sea” (oil paint and fabric collaged on canvas), by Angel Otero, in his show “The Ocean Forgot Your Garden,’’ at the Newport Art Museum, through Jan. 10.
Image courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and the Vito Schnabel Gallery
The museum says this exhibition "considers the sea as a metaphor for connection, passage, and the movement of memory across geographies, histories, and lived experience. Splitting his time between Puerto Rico and New York, Otero maintains a deep connection to the island, where the sea is a constant physical, cultural, and historical presence and uses that experience with the sea to create layered, fluid and dynamic representations of the water juxtaposed with domestic objects.’’
‘New England’s God forever reigns’
In Boston’s Central Burying Ground
Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
And Slav'ry clank her galling chains,
We fear them not, we trust in God,
New England's God forever reigns.
Howe and Burgoyne and Clinton too,
With Prescot and Cornwallis join'd,
Together plot our Overthrow,
In one Infernal league combin'd.
When God inspir'd us for the fight,
Their ranks were broke, their lines were forc'd,
Their ships were Shatter'd in our sight,
Or swiftly driven from our Coast.
The Foe comes on with haughty Stride;
Our troops advance with martial noise,
Their Vet'rans flee before our Youth,
And Gen'rals yield to beardless Boys.
What grateful Off'ring shall we bring?
What shall we render to the Lord?
Loud Halleluiahs let us Sing,
And praise his name on ev'ry Chord.— Lyrics of the Revolutionary War song “Chester,’’ by William Billings (1746-1800). This version was written in 1778. It was common practice in the 18th Century to label musical tunes with arbitarily chosen place names. Still, each New England state except Rhode Island has a town named “Chester.’’
She’s seen a lot
“Portrait of Lois Dodd” (oil on canvas), by Marjorie Kramer, in her show “Then and Now,’’ at The Front gallery, Montpelier, Vt., through Aug. 2.
The gallery says:
“Kramer’s paintings draw on a vitality or ‘spirit resonance’ palpable to the viewer that comes from working directly from life.
“She shows landscapes, flowers, portraits and still lives.
“Some highlights from the show include a portrait from many years ago of the painter Lois Dodd (they traded portraits), a majestic wide summer landscape done near Kramer’s Vermont home that could be coupled with a winter landscape that could only be Vermont with its bright February raking light, and intimate still lives that show the meaningful in nature’s everyday acts.’’
After consulting with your wealth manager
“Morning Match,’’ by Jonathan McPhillips, at Lily Pad Gallery, Watch Hill, R.I.
Boston needs a lot of rain now
From The Boston Guardian; article by Jules Roscoe
(Robert Whitcomb, New England Diary’s editor, is The Boston Guardian’s chairman.)
Boston’s groundwater levels are trickling downwards amid a two-year statewide drought and the lowest precipitation levels recorded in 26 years, according to the Boston Groundwater Trust (BGT).
Much of Boston is built on infilled land, which is supported by wooden piles. Those piles need to be fully submerged in groundwater in order to be stable and preserved. If groundwater levels drop too low, the piles become exposed to air, which opens the door for bacteria, fungi, and bugs to eat away at the wood and weaken the entire base structure of the city. Groundwater levels, therefore, are critical, and the BGT is responsible for monitoring them.
During the winter thanks to some intense snowstorms, groundwater levels were looking up, BGT Executive Director Christian Simonelli said at the time. But the city would need substantial rain during the spring and summer months to keep that boost, and it did not get it.
“We need rain,” Simonelli said. “The first six months of this year are the driest that we’ve ever tracked.”
Simonelli wrote in a BGT newsletter last week that Boston typically receives more than 22 inches of precipitation during the first half of the year.
“However, this year, we have recorded 11 inches,” the newsletter said. “This total is the lowest we have ever recorded for the first six months since we began tracking in the year 2000.”
Massachusetts has been in a drought since August of 2024, and the Energy and Environmental Affairs department lists the northeast region of the state, including Boston, as Level 3, Critical Drought status.
“We’ve been seeing these prolonged periods of drought more recently within the past five years,” Simonelli said. “The city of Boston is generally consistent between 45 to 50 inches of precipitation. But some years over the past five years, we’ve had 60. And then other years, we’ve had 30. There’s much less consistency than there ever has been before.”
The levels aren’t the lowest they have ever been, though, which Simonelli attributes to city and state partnership to improve sewer and pipe infrastructure. The BGT monitors groundwater levels through observation wells throughout the city, and when a particular spot dips, it asks the owner of that infrastructure to check for a structural problem, like a leak or a burst pipe, that could be impacting the water. “We own the wells, but we don’t own the infrastructure that directly affects the groundwater,” Simonelli said. “That’s why those agencies are so important. We’re the canary in the coal mine jumping up and down saying something’s wrong. But it’s them going out there, investigating the underground infrastructure. And when they find an issue, like a pipe that may be broken, a manhole that may be leaking, they go ahead and fix that.”
The BGT has noticed some hotspots of low groundwater levels at Copley Square and along Dartmouth Street in the Back Bay. Observation wells in the latter are recording their lowest groundwater levels on record.
“While the recent lack of precipitation has undoubtedly contributed to the decline, the sustained downward trend points toward a likely infrastructure-related problem,” the newsletter stated. The BGT said it would continue working with the city to inspect all manholes, pipes, and sewer laterals in that area to find the potential problem.