Welcome to Ask Roulette, the newsletter. We have a live show in NYC tomorrow! Thursday, December 28th, 7pm. Get your tickets now, or just swing on by.
How does this work? Each newsletter you’ll see one reader’s answer to the previous question. Then you’ll see the question they have for the list, which you can respond to if you’d like. Or you can just read and enjoy.
Previous asks:
What’s your favorite thing about your neighborhood?
Tiina answers:
I observe wildlife regularly in my wooded neighborhood of western Massachusetts. Hawks perch above my bird feeders, hoping to feed on a sparrow or chickadee. A few years ago, a black bear tore down the deck railing to access bird seed, but the bears aren’t hibernating much anymore because of the mild winters. They seem less voracious and panicked. Foxes and coyotes in the nearby woods scream their intentions at potential mates. And then sometimes have their litters under a neighbor’s shed.
But it is the wildlife that lives nearby at Hampshire College that is truly fascinating. For about 25 years I have run into college students attempting to adapt to the forest and farmland that surround their small school. One of their annual traditions is the Easter Keg hunt, which starts very early Easter morning. Quarter kegs are hidden in the creeks and students race to find them. Some revelers inevitably get lost and find their way to our neighborhood, taking naps on our lawns until their friends retrieve them.
Yet the students are engaging whenever we see them on a trail. Some are leery of our pack of off-leash mutts, but they are almost always happy to connect. One day, a young woman stopped us, “Do you know what time it is?”
“About 9:30.”
“Um. Uh. Do you know what day it is?”
A mean farmer owns part of the land on the other side of Hampshire. I’m sure he has his reasons for being cantankerous, although chasing us off his land with his tractor was terrifying. His biological weapon of choice is the wet manure he dresses his fields with. Unfortunately, a flock of students didn’t know about this routine when they spent a Saturday night sleeping in the open air. They settled down amidst the islands of moo poo. We know this because we were walking our dogs one early morning just in time to see them wake up. And scream.
Tiina asks:
What advice did you receive as a child that you would never pass along to your own child?
If you’d like to answer this question, you can simply hit reply to this email and write it in. Be sure to also include a question that you’d like to submit next. And tell us a story — your answer will be the bulk of the next newsletter. We will only use your first name, but if you wish to answer anonymously, let us know. Or, leave a comment.
Thanks to everyone who responded, we got so many great stories. See you next week.