Peter Berger: An actual alert
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Peter Berger, who has taught English and history for 30 years and writes “Poor Elijah’s Almanack.” The column appears in several publications including the Times...
View ArticlePeter Berger: To the Class of 2020
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Peter Berger, who has taught English and history for 30 years and writes “Poor Elijah’s Almanack.” The column appears in several publications including the Times...
View ArticlePeter Berger: Protecting free speech
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Peter Berger, who has taught English and history for 30 years and writes “Poor Elijah’s Almanack.” The column appears in several publications including the Times...
View ArticlePeter Berger: Seeking our monuments
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Peter Berger, who has taught English and history for 30 years and writes “Poor Elijah’s Almanack.” The column appears in several publications including the Times...
View ArticlePeter Berger: Welcome back, maybe
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Peter Berger, who has taught English and history for 30 years and writes “Poor Elijah’s Almanack.” The column appears in several publications including the Times...
View ArticlePeter Berger: God save the United States
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Peter Berger, who has taught English and history for 30 years and writes “Poor Elijah’s Almanack.” The column appears in several publications including the Times...
View ArticlePeter Berger: ‘And of the Independence of the United States’
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Peter Berger, who has taught English and history for 30 years and writes “Poor Elijah’s Almanack.” The column appears in several publications including the Times...
View ArticlePeter Berger: With a high hand
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Peter Berger, who has taught English and history for 30 years and writes “Poor Elijah’s Almanack.” The column appears in several publications including the Times...
View ArticlePeter Berger: Racism’s long, deep history is now in full view again
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. The black-and-white photograph is a glimpse of American life. These are working-class...
View ArticlePeter Berger: Leon Trotsky and the Grand Old Party
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. Leon Trotsky was a model revolutionary intellectual — wild eyes, wild hair, and...
View ArticlePeter Berger: The Ides of March are come
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. A soothsayer warned Julius Caesar to beware the Ides of March, the date of the new...
View ArticlePeter Berger: Show me the money — what Covid vaccine incentives tell us
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. I have often seen people do things for others, without any apparent self-interest....
View ArticlePeter Berger: A few words about the tyranny of facemasks
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. Over the gate to Auschwitz the Nazis hung a lie: Arbeit macht frei. It means “Work...
View ArticlePeter Berger: General’s words emphatically wrong, profoundly dangerous
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. Retired general Michael Flynn was Donald Trump’s national security adviser for 23 days....
View ArticlePeter Berger: ‘Hovering With Phantoms’ is Poor Elijah’s Christmas offering
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. Every year in the darkest days, “A Christmas Carol” finds its way to Poor Elijah’s...
View ArticlePeter Berger: Benchmarks and the Fever Guy
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. Back when chalk was considered high-tech and we were younger men, Poor Elijah and I...
View ArticlePeter Berger: The evidence of a seditious plot is only mounting
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. Every evening Abby and her Human patrol the half-acre of snow and trees that divide...
View ArticlePeter Berger: ‘Morality and the ice pop’: A reflection on ethics and moral...
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. From time to time I teach my students lessons in ethics, the branch of philosophy that...
View ArticlePeter Berger: The burden of duty, and worries about nuclear weapons
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. It used to be an American maxim that party politics ended “at the water’s edge.” Now in...
View ArticlePeter Berger: Intolerance in the context of transgender identification
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. We’re every day a more embattled and embittered people. To be sure, real issues divide...
View ArticlePeter Berger: It’s ludicrous to pretend that guns aren’t part of our gun problem
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. Ten years ago, in the wake of Sandy Hook, a plaintive headline begged, “Can we now talk...
View ArticlePeter Berger: Separating church and state protects each from the other
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. Valedictory addresses should be more than platitudes about “four great years together...
View ArticlePeter Berger: No issue matters more than the preservation of the republic
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. I’ve always preached to my students that every American generation bears the solemn...
View ArticlePeter Berger: The 28th Annual Emperor Awards
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. When Poor Elijah founded the Emperor's Academy, he intended our awards as celebrations...
View ArticlePeter Berger: Edward, Ben, and what they saw for the future
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. Half a century ago, my history professor showed us a photograph of Britain’s Edward VII...
View ArticlePeter Berger: Poor Elijah’s Almanack — a blessing on your house
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. It’s been half a century since Poor Elijah first spent Christmas Eve with Ebenezer...
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Fairlee board votes to add town-level septic regulation
A bloom of green algae can be seen under the surface of the water near a lake house on Lake Morey in Fairlee on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. Though it does not produce toxins, environmental scientist...
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Peter Berger: Can a government of Boeberts, Greenes and Trumps long endure?
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. My dictionary defines “regret” as “to think of with a deep sense of loss.” Its origin...
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Peter Berger: With all that’s changed: Poor Elijah’s look at firearms
“Poor Elijah’s Almanack” is written by Peter Berger of Mount Holly, who taught English and history for 30 years. I began my vigil when Donald Trump descended on his golden escalator. Since then,...
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VTrans floats idea of Route 5 bike path from Massachusetts to Quebec
A new proposed bike route would connect Massachusetts to Quebec. Image by Markus Spiske via Pexels This article by Frances Mize was first published Nov. 19 in the Valley News. FAIRLEE — Town leaders...
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