Ralph Gardner Jr.

If one can go into mourning over a kitchen appliance that’s what I experienced when I recently plugged my beloved Braun Citromatic orange juicer into an electrical outlet, as I’ve done a thousand times before, placed half an orange on top of its juicing cone and pressed down.

With the exception of a few stragglers, hummingbirds have departed the Hudson Valley for their winter homes in southern Mexico and Central America. Most of those that remain can be spotted at an exhibition called “Cross Pollination; Heade, Cole, Church and Our Contemporary Moment.”

You’d expect a father to be proud of his children. But I’m proud of their friends, too. I realize this is a sweeping generalization. But I’ve been impressed by their intellects, mobilization on social issues, and willingness to put their sweat and money behind the causes they believe in-- even if many don’t have a lot of discretionary income as they start families and careers.

Fall allegedly arrived at 3:21 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday. Nobody informed the maples trees around our house. Their leaves, brown and gnarly, started cascading to the ground several weeks ago.

I don’t know whose idea it was to start the New Year on January 1st? Why would anyone want to start a new year in the dead of winter? The Jewish religion and school administrators far and wide got it right when they designated September as the month that we return to school and work in earnest.

Rural Intelligence, a stylish weekly newsletter about the Berkshires, Connecticut and the Hudson Valley this week featured a story about a garden tour happening today, Saturday benefiting the North Chatham Free Library. The twist is that it’s a vegetable garden tour, not a flower garden tour as these events typically are.

Here’s the email my wife and I received from our daughter, Lucy. “Our IT guy made us all take this spotting scams quiz so I thought you guys might want to…

Behold the mosquito. Actually about a dozen of them. Or was it fifty or a hundred swarming me one evening this week? It’s hard to tell with these pests.…

Is America better off today than it was one year ago, in July 2020. Absolutely! Prove it you say. This time last year I was glued to my TV, glued being a…

Just because you’re getting old doesn’t mean you can’t change and improve. I’m not talking about myself. I’m referring to our swimming pool. The pool,…