A WORD ABOUT NEWPORT
It's been home for most of my life, although for years I thought I'd return to Vermont, where I was born and lived for my first 14 years. But when we arrived in Rhode Island in 1966, the state took hold of us: its historical ghosts, its beauty and, most of all, its tumultuous public life, which inspires and disgusts at the same time. Why do people stay so long? Probably just to find out how it's all going to turn out. AUDIO PLAYER TEST
Music is a big deal in my life. And it's something I can't do: can't carrying a tune, play an instrument, remember words or melodies, don't have any rhythm. Every year, our family sends out a CD to friends with what we like - it's almost always folk and bluegrass - and some of them even say they like it. Here's an example of what's on the 2011 CD - it's a cut by Becky Chace and Brian Minisce of Rhode Island. The album is "Raw Materials," and the cut is a terrific take on Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." VIDEO PLAYER TEST
Lucie once again is called to duty. This time, she's testing the video application. Not her fault that it's a second rate, iPhone video. |
THE BASICS
* Born: Middlebury, Vermont, June 10, 1942, the son of Jessie and the Rev. Harry H. Jones, an Episcopal minister. * Schools: Elementary schools in Middlebury; one year of high school at Northbridge High School, Whitinsville, Mass., and the rest at Lenox School for Boys, Lenox, Mass., now closed. * College: Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., graduated in 1964 with a BA in English. * Career start: Began with a summer at United Press International in Hartford, Conn., followed by two years at the Springfield Union in Massachusetts. * Major newspaper: The Providence Journal, reporter from 1966 until 2001. Twice manager of the paper's Newport news bureau; most work as a general assignment reporter in the main newsroom. Major beats included banking, healthcare economics, the environment and media coverage and criticism. * Freelance writer: Since leaving the Journal, freelance writing, initially much of it for the Providence Phoenix weekly alternative paper. Also wrote a history of Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital; and then one about The Miriam Hospital, which took four years and was printed in 2011. * Family: As I note on the home page, I'm not including much about the people I love, just because I don't want to put them in play on the Internet. |
THE PICTURES
The good, some would say, the spoiled life. I've lived in some of the nicest places on earth. Click on the photos to see larger view. |