Columns
Mountain Times columnists share personal experiences on themes they’ve chosen as a focus. Find a personality you relate to and follow them weekly!
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Music to my ears
January 2, 2025
As a teenager, one of my most prized possessions was my stereo. The multi-unit system sat atop the dresser in my bedroom for years before following me to college and on to my first apartments. Nowadays, we only need a smartphone and a Spotify subscription to enjoy our favorite artists. Still, decades ago, serious music…
Robert Eggers’ methodical ‘Nosferatu’ plays like a Masterpiece Theater Hammer film
January 2, 2025
Director Robert Eggers’ re-imagining of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic “Nosferatu,” which itself was a thinly disguised ripoff of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” sneaked into theaters Christmas Day, just in the nick of time to give all the Goth kids nighttime refuge from all the family holiday parties, to sink their teeth into some counter-programming. For…
White-footed mice seeking a warm house
January 2, 2025
During winter, I often hear gnawing and the scurrying of little feet inside the walls of our house. Mice have taken shelter in our old farmhouse again. Although I hate killing cute creatures, after we had to hire a carpenter twice to remove sections of our walls and take out smelly mouse nests, we resorted…
Accept to achieve
January 2, 2025
This week, social media feeds across the internet will be bursting at the seams with “new year, new me” posts. Self-improvement and lofty goals are always a good thing. However, what about self-acceptance? What would life feel like if you met it in the moment, from exactly where you are? Psychologist Carl Rogers said, “The…
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Consistency
January 2, 2025
I began this column five years ago, this past November. I started with an article about the Killington World Cup over Thanksgiving Weekend. I was supposed to write a special in-person local introspective on the race and call it a day. But somehow, that one article evolved into one after the other, and until now,…
Picture this
December 26, 2024
Ninety-nine percent of the time, while I run, I listen to either podcasts or audiobooks. My runs generally last one hour, so for those 60 minutes, I am a captive audience. I can thoroughly engross myself in listening and develop a deeper understanding of what’s being discussed. However, when Dec. 1 arrives, things change. On…
Rooms available in old Rutland
December 26, 2024
Plans are in the making for a new downtown hotel in Rutland. Reading about it prompted me to think about the lodging options available to people in the 1950s when I was growing up. My friend Mary Jane and I took a fun trip down memory lane, recalling the places we could remember. But to…
Skiing pink snow
December 26, 2024
Stepping out of the gondola a little after 4:10 p.m., we can barely see anything with our goggles on. The sun is scheduled to set in about seven minutes, and you can feel the darkness. The lamps are on along all the wooden railings heading toward the peak lodge, and you can see the patrol…
Horned larks enliven sleeping fields
December 26, 2024
Halloween is long past, but you may notice devilish figures hanging out in scrubby fields and open areas this winter: horned larks. These birds are North America’s only true lark species. They reside year-round in parts of the Northeast, such as Vermont’s Champlain Valley, but disperse across the region more widely in winter, when the…
The rhythms of nature
December 26, 2024
The rhythms of nature are completely cyclic. Nothing operates in a linear fashion. This is something to keep in mind if you’re holding your breath until 2025. While you might be excited to bring in the New Year and its stellar configurations, it would be worth your while to reflect on the year that’s been…
2024 year in film: Naughty and nice list
December 26, 2024
As 2024 draws to a close, it would seem fitting to offer up a top-ten best-film list and maybe throw in a worst-of-the-year list, too. However, I live in Vermont, which is not a large market for the film industry, and we hardly have any theaters in the state where new films can be seen,…
‘Yule Log 2: Branching Out’ and ‘Dear Santa’: Two lumps of coal for your movie stockings
December 18, 2024
In keeping with the spirit of the holiday season, I found it only fitting to review some current holiday film offerings. The biggest holiday movie offering of the season, at least in terms of cast and Hollywood budget expenditures, is the Rock vehicle “Red One.” It’s streaming now on Amazon Prime after a less-than-stellar box…
Hot laps and powder dreams: Living the Killington lifestyle
December 18, 2024
We were skiing everything the weeks around World Cup. Over 5 feet of snow fell in Killington on top of no real base, and man, did we ski it all—Hot laps in the Canyon on 100% natural snow with no end to the greatness in sight. It was a glorious few weeks that will go…
‘Here,’ there, and everywhere
December 18, 2024
Several years ago, while on a work trip to Denmark, I took a stroll into downtown Copenhagen to take in the sights. I enjoy roaming the cities I visit, hoping to catch a glimpse of something new and interesting or find some delicacy I’ve never tasted. Denmark is notoriously rainy, but the sun was shining…
VPIRG report provides tips for avoiding potentially toxic plastic stuff this holiday season.
December 18, 2024
Nowhere on Earth is free from plastic pollution these days, from the highest mountaintops to the deepest ocean canyons. The problem gets worse each year and seems to peak during the holiday season when household trash rates in the U.S. increase by 25% or more. Much of that trash is plastic waste that will be…
The evergreen Christmas fern
December 18, 2024
Tromping through our woods in December in search of a Christmas tree, I often notice an evergreen fern, one of the few green plants on the forest floor this time of year, other than young conifers. An easy fern to identify, it grows in fountain-like clumps and has glossy, dark green leaflets or pinnae. This…
The turning of the Sun
December 18, 2024
The turning of the Sun marks a significant turning point of light. In the Northern Hemisphere, the light of the Sun will embark upon its ascent of increased light that will peak in June’s Summer Solstice. While in the South, the Sun’s arrival in Capricorn sees the slow descent into shorter days and longer nights.…
Remembering Christmas from the ‘50s
December 11, 2024
Each generation has its own memories associated with Christmas. When I was growing up back in the 50s, there were certain trends from that period that are unlike those of today. I think it’s safe to say that there were more “real” trees than “fake” trees in people’s homes back then. Those looking for a…
When the dream takes a detour
December 11, 2024
I’ve been to World Series Games in Yankee Stadium during the 1990s, with Pettitte on the mound and 56,000 cheering, the entire structure shaking violently. But I’ve never experienced anything quite like the moment when 39,000 people felt our hearts drop into our stomachs as we went from cheering beyond ourselves, ready to burst into…
