Monthly Archives: January 2019

COLD AS IT GETS by Peter Nolan Smith

Mount Washington is far from the tallest mountain on the face of the Earth, however in 1934 the summit observatory recorded the strongest wind on the planet at 231 mph or 372 km/hr. Winter temperatures on Agiocochook, or “Home of the Great Spirit” regularly dropped as low as -50F. Death from hypothermia can occur within […]

Super Cold

2014 For Worse And A Little Better

Some of 2014 was the best of years, but after New Year’s Eve the year had rough spots for old Christmas trees and me. Winter came in the first week of January. Wind whistled through the drafty bedroom windows of the Fort Greene Observatory. Snow buried the soccer field in park at the end of […]

Bet On Crazy 10 / The Taylor Diamond

All diamonds have stories. Little ones maybe a sentence. Bigger ones deserved more time and not everyone tells the story the same. The stories like the stones have lives of their own. The bigger the stone the more the stories. One afternoon Manny’s partner, Jerome, was showing a 7.04 Cushion Cut Round Diamond to a […]

James Brown The Man Who Saved Boston

In the late 1960s after Arnie Ginsberg finished his evening shift on WMEX, I twisted the knob to WILD broadcasting a universe of music unknown to top 40 radio; Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Booker T, Tina Turner, and James Brown. Civil rights meant freedom for soul. Blacks were welcome on TV, but no one was ready […]