By Brett Yates Last week, I wrote a column whose conclusion I myself found, at the very least, debatable. Fortunately, my conception of my job here has never included a requirement to be correct—every week, I try my best only to put forth a single thought that might be interesting, and that’s all: my opinions…

By Dom Cioffi I want to believe this chapter of my life is over. On Friday of last week, I traveled to Jacksonville, Fla., for another check-up concerning my cancer battle. It was exactly a year ago when I went down for my first appointment after having agreed that the doctors at the Mayo Clinic would…

By Cal Garrison - a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of a late, Scorpio Moon and a newly birthed Sun in Virgo. If this gives us free reign to approach things any way we want, I am going to take full advantage of that option and use…

DOUG MIANULLI By Dave Hoffenberg Nearing the end of summer is no fun, but it does mean something good and that is the return of Dougiepalooza at the Clear River Tavern on Saturday, Aug. 25 from 6 p.m. til midnight. This annual event is all about good tunes and family fun. This year’s event kicks…

By Marguerite Jill Dye Animals bless our lives and give us joy. Especially our pets. They love us unconditionally and connect with our deepest selves. How I miss our black lab, “Luke.” I remember how careful I had to be of having a fleeting thought like, “We should go for a walk.” For when I…

By Brady Crain I continue to do too much. I am between the rock and the hard place of being far more capable than I was before my surgery, and inexplicably in more pervasive pain than I was before my surgery. What is puzzling about the whole thing is that this is not disabling pain.…

By Kevin Theissen During your accumulation years, you may have categorized your risk as “conservative,” “moderate,” or “aggressive” and that guided how your portfolio was built. Maybe you concerned yourself with finding the “best-performing funds,” even though you knew past performance does not guarantee future results. What occurs with many retirees is a change in…

By Brett Yates This month, following social media pressure upon their employers, two workers in the San Francisco Bay Area were fired for holding opinions widely deemed abhorrent. The first was a Google engineer who circulated a memo criticizing certain internal corporate policies: specifically, the diversity initiatives that Google had implemented in order to help…

By Dom Cioffi Ever since my first major rock concert in high school, I have been a fan of live music productions. It didn’t matter if it was a local band playing in a nearby nightclub or a nationwide act performing for thousands of fans in an arena, that feeling of a thumping bass line…

By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of a New Moon eclipse, with both lights situated at the 28th Degree of Leo. This makes it nearly impossible to shed any light on the matter, because the lies and deceptions that permeate current events have gone so…

By Kevin Theissen U.S. markets The markets closed sharply higher for the month of July, fueled by strong corporate earnings, solid economic data and dovish comments by the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.54 percent while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index increased 1.93 percent. The NASDAQ Composite picked up 3.38 percent,…

By Brady Crain This was supposed to be a reunion story. Ten days ago as I was packing my car to leave Jersey City, I met someone very special.  I was carrying my first load of bags to the garage where my car was parked, and one of the neighbors in the yard said ,…

By Marguerite Jill Dye At a time when we may be on the brink of war with a country with which we’ve never had diplomatic relations since its partitioning between Russia and the U.S. after WWII, I am especially aware of the importance of international programs and exchanges that promote friendship and understanding for world peace.…

By Mary Ellen Shaw If you lived in the Rutland area back in “yesteryear,” you will remember the numerous jobs that were available in area factories. ”Yesteryear” from the point of view of my own early remembrances goes back to the 50s and 60s. However, some factories from that period had their beginning long before…

By Michael J. Caduto More than 3,000 years ago, the Chinese believed that a dragon ate the sun during a solar eclipse, so they gathered outdoors to drive away the beast by beating pots, pans and drums. Some 500 years later, the Greek poet Archilochus wrote that Zeus had turned day into night. In Australian…