Editor’s note: The following is the second in a series of reviews of randomly selected, low-quality, made-for-TV Christmas movies. In the first scene of “The Mistle-Tones” (2012), our heroine—running late for an audition—slips in the shower, tumbling into a pratfall […]
Category: Column
Movie Diary: On the dark side
By Dom Cioffi Years ago, when I was between the ages of 10 and 12, I attended an overnight summer camp in northern Vermont. It was affiliated with our church. Along with the requisite games of capture the flag, swimming […]
A Vermonter’s ode to Texas
By Brady Crain I won’t go so far as to say you get a bad rap, Texas. You are the purveyor and exporter of so many things that I neither care about nor need. Football, exceptionalism to excess (exceptionalism that […]
When mushrooms attack
By Rachel Sargent The oyster mushroom: delicious, frequently spotted on veggie pizzas, and predatory. That’s right. The hyphae of many fungi, including the oyster mushroom, attack and paralyze prey. Then, as R. Greg Thorn of Western University enthusiastically described, the […]
Made-for-TV Christmas movies: “12 Dates of Christmas”
The following is the first in a series of reviews of randomly selected, low-quality, made-for-TV Christmas movies. The most disconcerting element of the fictional universe of the 2011 ABC Family movie “12 Dates of Christmas”—the tale of a Manhattanite named […]
Foolish things
As I look back at some of the foolish things my friends and I did in our youth, I can only say, “What was I thinking???” One of the pranks many of us pulled was calling people and asking, “Do […]
Rockin’ the Region with Marshall Tucker Band
If you spent 44 years with the same employer, you must love the company. If you’ve been in the same profession for 60 years, you must really love what you do. Both of these statements are true and apply to […]
What a drag it is…
By Dom Cioffi In retrospect, I should have warned my son about the “scene” he was walking into. But then again, sometimes it’s better to let life unfold and talk about it later. I could see his eyes widen as […]
With cooler water, better prospects for shad migration?
By Michael J. Caduto There was a time in the waters known by the Abenaki peoples as Kwenitegok, “Long River,” when migratory fish moved in such multitudes that their backs appeared as a living bridge from shore to shore. After […]
The last steps I’ll run
Br Brady Crain So, Dallas. I love Dallas. My family is in Dallas. Five uncles and aunts, 15 cousins, uncounted first cousins twice removed. All of these people migrated from the scene of the original crime in Newton and Wichita, […]