Living the Dream By Merisa Sherman I’ve always loved Vermont. As a kid, my parents would pick my sister and me up from school every Friday afternoon and we would make the four hour trek in our Jeep Grand Wagoneer. The woodie kind. And we’d head out skiing first thing on Saturday morning. It was…

Hey, Jack. I just wanted to fill you in on the last week. What a whirlwind! Everyone was shocked when you left – I mean everyone. You were the talk of the town. I know, you would have preferred being the focus of another big win on the courts, but this was next-level news. I…

By Kevin Theissen The uncertainties we face in retirement can erode our sense of confidence, potentially undermining our outlook during those years. Year after year, few retirees say they are very confident about having enough assets to live comfortably in retirement. And more are either not too confident or not at all confident. Today’s retirees…

The Outside Story By Susan Shea I grew up on a street lined with tall, stately elms. While walking to school one day, I found a bird’s nest that the wind had blown down. The nest was a beautiful, silky gray pouch. My teacher helped me identify it as a Baltimore oriole’s nest. Over the…

By Cassandra Tyndall This week brings another dramatic turning point in 2020 in the form of the Summer Solstice. The term solstice is Latin for “standing still.” As the sun reaches its highest point in the Northern Hemisphere, it remains stationary for approximately three days before it ever so slowly begins its southern decent. In…

By Dom Cioffi I lost a good friend this past week. In fact, a lot of folks lost a good friend as Jack Rogers touched the lives of countless people in his brief 51 years. I first met Jack on the basketball courts as a teenager. He played for a different high school in the…

By Merisa Sherman My grandfather called it “settin’.” The act of someone sitting on their front porch, presumably in a rickety old rocking chair passed down from generation to generation, just watching the world go by. Perhaps they would be fanning themselves and drinking a glass of sweet tea. They seem to be without a…

The Outside Story By Rachel Mirrus Many of us avoid close encounters of the eight-legged kind, but if you’ve ever come eye to eye with a spider, you’ve probably noticed they have several more eyes than we do: most have four pairs. What do they do with so many eyes? Well, it depends on the…

Tree Talk By Gary Salmon One is a novel and the other a “how to book” detailing nature restoration, both serving to the reader an unforgettable message. Richard Powers’ powerful novel “The Overstory” reveals much of the ugly history of tree management in this country. Nearly a dozen characters are developed in “The Overstory” and…

By Gary Salmon At first I didn’t even notice it nestled under the root flare of a big white pine stump cut several years ago. But the idea of a white pine seedling growing while being sheltered by its larger former self was too much to ignore. The little 2-inch tall white pine seedling germinated…

By Merisa Sherman All I did was pull into the Kent Pond parking lot, moving from the paved apron and onto the extremely dry crushed rock. My mountain bike slipped out from underneath me and I found myself floating slow motion through the air. My left hand hit the ground and I saw my lower…

By DJ Dave Hoffenberg It’s going to be a while before we can see live music in person once again. Even when it is eventually allowed, the best it will be is semi-normal. Online shows are the new thing and everyone is doing them. What caught my attention for this article is Silas McPrior who…

By Dom Cioffi I received an email recently from a metropolitan arena where I’ve seen numerous concerts and sporting events through the years. At some point, they got ahold of my email address, likely for ticketing or venue info, and now they semi-frequently send me marketing materials to further entice me into returning. However, this…

By Kevin Theissen In April, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) surveyed U.S. small businesses. It reported, late in 2019, before the coronavirus crisis, 35% were healthy, 35% were stable, 23% were at risk, and 6% were in distress. Having a majority of healthy and stable small companies is a positive economic sign…

The Outside Story By Susie Spikol Some people have life birds, species of birds they’ve waited their whole lives to see in the wild. I don’t have one of these, but I do have a life mole. I’ve been waiting to catch a glimpse of Condylura cristata, the star-nosed mole, ever since I learned about…