Columns

When May arrives, it’s time to think about spending time in your yard and gardens. But all of your time outdoors shouldn’t be spent working. After all, you need a break from doing “chores”. Creating your own oasis will entice you to relax and enjoy nature while you are outside. Find a spot where you…

It’s over. Wait, seriously, it’s over? It’s like the second week of May and my friends are putting their skis away for the season. Some of my spring friends I didn’t even get a chance to ski with and it’s all over? It’s all over and I was just getting started, just getting the hang…

“Eat the meat!” I can hear my grandmother’s voice bellowing through the kitchen like it was yesterday. She was famous for her Sunday Italian meals, which she relentlessly provided to an extended family throughout her life. My grandmother grew up in “The Gut” of our city, where all the Italian immigrants (including her parents) had…

The longer, warmer days of spring spark phenological changes in trees, from root to tip. As the limbs of trees stretch and twist toward the sky in search of sun, their trunks grow wider to support the new weight. New wood is added year after year to the cambium, the area of a tree just…

A cohort of Vermont’s social service providers has embarked on an editorial campaign challenging the House’s recent legislation that would disrupt the status quo of homeless services funding administration. Angus Chaney, executive director of Rutland’s Homeless Prevention Center (HPC), appears to be the author of the editorial and is joined by about a dozen fellow…

Director Jeremy Workman’s documentary, “Secret Mall Apartment,” spins a crazy yarn about a group of Rhode Island street artists who, in a brazen and ingenious-level piece of establishment corporate defiance, fooled the Providence Place security for four years by building a secret apartment within a hidden nook of the mall structure. Artist Michael Townsend is…

It never felt like this before. My chest was in the right position and wasn’t getting bounced backward every few turns. My right shoulder wasn’t getting jammed into itself with every pole plant, forcing my torso up and my entire body to stretch out. That beautiful extension that forces me to then retract everything while…

Only three people have ever cut my hair: There was the older gentleman that my mother brought me to when I was young. Then there was the son of my dad’s barber, who cut my hair for decades. And finally, there’s the guy I’ve been going to for the last several years. I especially liked…

As the days get longer and the sun warms the forest floor, hepatica flowers emerge. These charming early bloomers captivated the writer and naturalist John Burroughs, who extolled their “winsome grace” in his poem “Hepatica.”  Hepatica flowers close on cloudy days and when night falls to preserve their pollen for when pollinators are most likely…

Regardless of which corner of the globe you’re reading this in, there is no denying we are in a dramatically different timeline. In many ways, we’ve lived so lifetimes in these past five years that 2019 seems like an eternity ago. It seems that people have become ideologically captured, emotionally dysregulated, and completely disconnected from…

Saturday, May 10 at 7 p.m.—KILLINGTON—Chad Hollister and his good friend Jeff “Primo” Poremski are playing Mission Farm in Killington for an intimate, limited-seating concert. I’ve known Chad for 25 years and have always liked his music. My favorite music is music that moves you, and his definitely does. There’s a message behind his music,…

Hank Azaria is bringing his Bruce Springsteen show to the Paramount Theatre this Saturday, May 3, at 7 p.m. Alongside him will be the EZ Street Band. This is a show not to be missed. You may not know Hank musically, but he has four Primetime Emmy Awards for The Simpsons, another for his recurring…

Housing and homeless advocates are missing the big opportunity to solve the homelessness crisis in Vermont by focusing on hotel vouchers instead of a real solution that would result in finding homes for everybody who needs one, preparing them for their tenancy, staying with them to ensure that they remain housed, and partnering with landlords…

Before we dive into this week’s theme—public engagement in the TIF district process—we wanted to provide a short update. On Monday, April 21, the Rutland City Board of Aldermen approved a modification to the TIF District, as requested by the Vermont Economic Progress Council (VEPC). With that change in place, VEPC has officially approved the…

It’s a challenge.  For years, we’ve been spring skiing the same trail in the same way with the same lines. You knew the bumpers would hold court on the skier’s left, both on the middle and bottom sections. Man, do they love that final section where they could show off for the Umbrella Bars. It…