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Cameron Miller

Cameron Miller

Finger Lakes Times

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DENIM SPIRIT: Small, simple things

We have a rectangle of grass in front of our house that is just big enough for a picnic. But why would we want a picnic in our front yard? The bigger...

yesterday 3

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: It’s safe to keep reading!

Well, the last two columns have been rather serious, what with the decimation of the Earth at our fingertips and the existential hazards of me-ing and...

17.04.2024 10

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: Cheeseburger, cheeseburger!


Had a cheeseburger lately? Maybe you had a celebratory cookout on Monday in the shadow of the eclipse? Or maybe you took the night off from cooking...

11.04.2024 5

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: We all do it …

We all do it. The only question is whether we recognize it when we do it, and then, what we do about it. I am speaking of me-ing and other-ing. Some...

27.03.2024 6

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: All because of the dog

If I had recorded it on my phone the video would have only lasted 15 seconds. It happened near the tunnel by the lake. An atomic, blood-red orb rose...

20.03.2024 10

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: The light and dark sides of our choices

With all the frenetic hype seeking to commodify the solar eclipse, the vernal (ver, Latin for spring or youthful) equinox has been forgotten. I always...

13.03.2024 4

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: The struggle behind the curtain

I wonder if you share my dislike of poems about poets, novels about authors, and movies about actors. Often the subjects are a privileged class of...

28.02.2024 5

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: No more hating on gulls

Although it is a poor reflection on my character, I’ve admitted this before: I just do not trust them. I never met one I liked and I won’t be...

21.02.2024 7

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: Did anybody say, ‘Taylor Swift?’

Taylor Swift, really? I just wrote that to get in on the glory of a transcontinental mega-star. Actually, I am a little starstruck myself because just...

14.02.2024 3

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: Consulting the dead

Sometimes I wake up with lines of poetry in my head that are streaming across the bridge from sleep into wakefulness. That’s probably more than you...

07.02.2024 4

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: Minnie Mouse

My mom had a neighbor friend who spent most mornings sipping coffee at our yellow linoleum kitchen table. They often disagreed about things and...

31.01.2024 20

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: The eyes to see it

Did you know this column appears in what is called the “Opinion” section of the newspaper? That means I get to share my opinion about things....

24.01.2024 8

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: A form of healing

17.01.2024 4

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: A sense of foreboding

It was 24 degrees the morning I wrote this, the sky a gunmetal gray tinged with ragged ribbons of nearly black clouds. The flags on the Long Pier...

10.01.2024 4

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: ‘The Blueberry Principle’

Aren’t you relieved to get past the annual flurry of media bites that drag us through a retrospective of the past year as if we hadn’t lived...

04.01.2024 10

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: Together, as we look for what’s hiding in plain sight

It is Christmas Eve and there are so few cars in my neighborhood it feels like there’s a plague. Surely everyone has purchased any gifts they are...

27.12.2023 9

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: What we know

The guilty pleasure of a sunny, warm Ides of December. Forty degrees on an early, sun-drenched morning, Roger riding his bicycle along the lake as if...

21.12.2023 4

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: This is about nothing (but you might want to read it anyway)

Remember the comedy series “Seinfeld,” often described as a show about nothing? Well, this is a column about nothing in case you want to stop...

13.12.2023 10

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: A birthday and ‘early elderly’

There are things they never tell you about getting older. I am not certain who was supposed to tell us, but it seems like someone could have without...

06.12.2023 3

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: The complexity of ordinary

There is something healing about a newborn in your arms or laying still upon your chest. Snuggled in and snuffling, her breath and yours at peace with...

29.11.2023 4

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: Winter Moth

Imagine two pedals from a white Cosmos blossom, flying low just above the blades of grass and fallen patches of leaves. Her wings were pale, as if she...

22.11.2023 10

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: Just one more rant

I am feeling grumpy about a few things. Maybe you share my discontent. Each item represents entire categories of rants too deep and broad to list...

08.11.2023 3

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: Finish the job, doggone it

“CITY OF GENEVA! Slow the traffic down!” How many accidents and injuries need to happen before you slow the traffic on Lakefront Drive (notice I...

01.11.2023 4

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: Powerful ideas vs. the idea of power

A Mary Oliver poem, “One or Two Things,” describes the gnarled root at the source of our discontent as, “ … like a sharp iron hoof, at the...

25.10.2023 10

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: Parallel universe

Isn’t it fascinating how differently we all respond to being ill? Some people, when they are sick, want to be pampered. Others want to curl up and...

18.10.2023 3

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: Hidden in the ‘Golden Hour’

This time of year is lovely, and I usually write a column about the turning seasons, noticing the small things like the microbial reasons autumn...

11.10.2023 5

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: This is a rant

Rant — A verb: to speak or shout at length in a wild, impassioned way. To hold forth, fulminate, bellow, vociferate. A noun: a tirade. This is a...

04.10.2023 2

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: This is not a sports column

I once lived in Columbus, Ohio, and the effect Ohio State football had on the mood of the city reminds me of the Bills’ influence on our region....

27.09.2023 3

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: 5784

What time is it? That depends upon who is keeping time. It is now year 5784 on the Jewish calendar, now that Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year —...

20.09.2023 1

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

DENIM SPIRIT: One step at a time

Some days, just picking up that first foot to take that first step is a chore. You know what I’m talking about, when your foot and your leg just...

13.09.2023 2

Finger Lakes Times

Cameron Miller

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