By Sue Murphy I admire people who enjoy camping. I’d love to be able to say that the thing that made me relax was to leave my warm bed and cell phone and TV behind to spend a few nights sleeping on the ground. Sadly, this is not true. In fact, the very idea makes my throat close up. Like Fran Lebowitz said, I find I am not one of those people who wants to get back to nature. I … [Read more...]

By Sue Murphy Red alert: Valentine’s Day is approaching. If you are lucky enough to have a special someone in your life, it’s time to start thinking of something special to do for them. Oh sure, the two of you laughed and poo-pooed the idea of Valentine’s Day. You called it cliché, a blatant consumer trap. You assured yourselves that you express your love for each other every … [Read more...]

By Sue Murphy Variety is good. The world is far more interesting because there are different types of people, different genres of music, different flavors of Kool-Aid. When I write my column, I bank on the fact that readers will be open to a slightly different point of view. In certain instances, however, it’s nice to be able to approach a situation confident that you … [Read more...]

By Sue Murphy Fact: To become a friend of the library in the small New England town where my parents grew up, I had to prove that I was not a robot. Fact #2: I didn’t make it. I had no idea that robot library patronage was such a problem. Are there covert bands of robots plotting to take over the craft fair? Would the silent auction be reduced to complete silence? Is there a … [Read more...]

By Sue Murphy I’ve been watching a lot of Christmas movies. You could hardly avoid them this year given that three channels started running them back-to-back before Halloween. I know I’ve talked about this glut before, but I have to tell you, when the other channels are filled with fires and treachery and crimes so horrible they require a separate unit on the police force, … [Read more...]