Discover More from This Category: Columns

It’s boot-hiking season

May 11, 2017
Boot-hiking season is here! As some of you may or may not know, boot hiking season is one of my favorite times in Killington. When everyone else is getting out their lawn chairs and firing up the grill, I am sharpening my crampons, eager for the time when the lift will not be running, and…

Six other historical catastrophes that Andrew Jackson could’ve averted

May 11, 2017
By Brett Yates “I mean, had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War. He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War. He said, ‘There’s no reason for this.’ People…

$1 invested in 1802

May 11, 2017
By Kevin Theissen How much would $1 be worth today if invested in 1802? Professor Jeremy Siegel of the Wharton School put together a chart of real returns for various investment asset classes, adjusted for inflation that shows what would have happened if you had invested one dollar in 1802 and held it through Dec. 31,…

Aspects will push and pull

May 11, 2017
By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under a Libra Moon. I see all kinds of aspects. The issues that we associate with them will take us all over the map. By that I mean, there are some days when the stars line up to test our ability…

Game on

May 11, 2017
By Dom Cioffi On Dec. 19, 2006, a young Swedish high school student named Felix Kjellberg registered a YouTube channel, uploading occasional short videos not unlike thousands of other early users. His interest was sporadic and purely for fun and entertainment; he never dreamed he would eventually become a worldwide Internet sensation. A few years…

National treasures

May 3, 2017
By Marguerite Jill Dye Have you dared to sit on a cliff overlooking Yosemite Falls? Have you watched the sun set over Bryce Canyon as its conical shapes seemed to rise and fall? Have you hiked up the rocky river inside Zion’s narrow canyon walls? We did, and are anxious to return to do it again.…

Wild leeks

May 3, 2017
By Virginia Barlow The white bulbs of wild leeks, also called ramps (especially in the South), can be eaten year round, but it’s the early leaves that are most appreciated. In pre-freezer days, ramps were the first greens available after five or so months of potatoes, and they were considered important as well as tasting…

Talking it out over a beer

May 3, 2017
By Brett Yates Out of all the political debates you’ve ever had over drinks at a bar, how many of them, in retrospect, do you think were worth your time? The new Heineken commercial (titled “Worlds Apart”) that’s been making the rounds on social media is about political differences and the possibility of overcoming them.…

Putting a price tag on your health

May 3, 2017
By Kevin Theissen We hear over and over again how important it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle. But being healthy for its own sake isn’t easy—especially when you’re facing down temptation or battling procrastination. For some, the monetary benefits of a healthy lifestyle may offer helpful incentive. Being healthy not only makes you feel good,…

186 days on snow and counting, plus my tuba epiphany

May 3, 2017
As of the submission of this article, I have skied 186 days this year at Killington, already more than my previous very respectable year where I skied nearly every operating day (and we haven’t even hit May yet). They did a spectacular job of snowmaking this year, putting down the last of the pad in…

Give yourself space

May 3, 2017
By Cal Garrison a.k.a. “Mother of the Skye” This week’s horoscopes are coming out in the heat of the Beltane Crossquarter, under the light of a Cancer Moon. With aspects that put the Moon in a position to rattle more than a few cages before the day is out, between a square to Uranus and…

Living out loud

May 3, 2017
By Dom Cioffi The moment is burned into my mind: It occurred around 2007 on a weekend when my niece was home from college. I had read several recent news stories about a young tech company called Facebook. The organization had developed a social networking platform a few years earlier that was gaining new users…

Lessons from Silas, Shiloh, and Thomas Merton

April 26, 2017
By Marguerite Jill Dye  “When ambition ends, happiness begins,” Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk and mystic wrote. My husband, Papa Duane, and “I,” “Gammy Jill,” just spent a few unambitious and happy days with our 19-month-old grandson, Silas, in Massachusetts. The days were full and exciting watching him explore the world. There are many lessons to learn…

High water and hidden possibility on the soggy edge of spring

April 26, 2017
By Dan Lambert The word has fallen out of use since the late 1800s, but you might hear its echo this time of year wherever streams carve channels through the land. Listen for the sound of water rushing over rocks and bursting into spray at the crest of a wave. The word is “freshet.” This…

From unwashed gym socks of a teenager to my ski boots: stenches of a reformed slob

April 26, 2017
Remember those socks that sat all year in your high school gym locker? Calcified, petrified with sweat, they felt like sandpaper putting them on; they smelled like a kimchi factory staffed by gangrenous skunks. Had your mother known that they even existed, she would have slapped you, washed your mouth out with soap, and burned…