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Burton Cole

The road less traveled by made too much of a gasping difference

Many years ago, poet Robert Frost penned the famous lines, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” Bob, buddy, I know what you mean. I got lost too. A wrong turn, and wrong turn there, and next thing you know, ...

30 years later, back to dorm life

After 30 years of living in a house in the country, I’ve moved to a small apartment in the city. It’s dorm life all over again, but with bad knees and fewer escapades involving random male stupidity. I grew up in the country, where we boys could run, holler, spit and throw things all we ...

The Cap’n and I are going to be ship shape — or barge shaped

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but now that summer nears, I’m going to get back in shape. Oh, you’ve heard that one before have you? Well, I mean it this time. No seriously. Ah, c’mon, that wasn’t supposed to be the humorous part of this column. I started yesterday. Well, ...

Eh, where are the anvils kept, Doc?

Because I value continued learning, I eagerly studied a series of nature documentaries the other day. One of the episodes featured a rabbit, a duck and a befuddled hunter. “It’s rabbit season!” the black drake spluttered. “It’s duck season!” the gray bunny countered. Duck: ...

Cousin Ollie and the robot spy cow

Things had been slow around the farm. “You’re always slow,” Cousin Ollie chided. I glared. But Ollie didn’t notice since he was jumping three or four paces ahead of me, as usual. “I don’t run unless a bear’s chasing me. And since there aren’t any bears in our ...

Without wives, men flounder in wrongness

Until I was married, I didn’t know when I was wrong. I needed someone in my life to tell me what to do. To tell me if that shirt goes with those pants. To inform me of what foods I like and which I despise. (I still think she had it backward when it came to beets and Boston cream doughnuts. ...