By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Moon that will enter Taurus right before sunrise on April 16. As usual, there are a ton of aspects to consider: Venus and Pluto are trining each other – the Sun is entering a conjunction with…

By Kevin Theissen Does investing strike fear in you? We once heard somebody say the word “fear” stands for “False Evidence Appearing Real.” That seems to apply to investing. Here’s why. The stock market makes some people nervous. This can be especially true for young people who grew up during the Great Recession. Not only…

Painting by Marguerite Jill Dye by Marguerite Jill Dye Vermonters and fellow nature lovers know the power our magnificent mountains, forests, and woods have on our wellbeing. If I hadn’t experienced nature’s healing effect myself, I may not have understood the forest’s curative energies on the human immune system. Years ago, after travels in Turkey…

By Dom Cioffi I spent this past weekend in relative silence. This wasn’t because I was on a meditation retreat or happened to be alone. No, I barely spoke this weekend because the final two rounds of The Masters golf tournament were on, and when The Masters is on, I’m generally transfixed. The Masters is one…

By Susan Shea When I was growing up, my family rented a vacation home on a mountain in southern Vermont. One night we were awakened by our dogs barking. Soon we heard a persistent gnawing on the outside of the house. My dad went to investigate. His flashlight beam revealed a large porcupine with black,…

By DJ Dave Hoffenberg Spring is in the air and that means a pond will be in the snow. This Saturday, April 14 marks the annual Killington Resort Pond Skimming event when 100 competitors will try to make their way across the pond or crash and splash. The wetness starts at 11 a.m. After the skimming,…

By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of an Aquarius Moon, with all kinds of aspects to consider. Let’s dissect a few of them just to make sense of things that might complicate our reactions and experience if we don’t pay attention to what’s going…

By Dom Cioffi My son has enjoyed the last week off due to spring break. During the last seven days, he has successfully accomplished nothing. At least I thought he accomplished nothing, until he came to me with a strange problem. “Dad?” he queried while holding his hand up in front of my face. “I…

By Marguerite Jill Dye The other night, I couldn’t sleep. I was worrying and my husband was snoring. I crept downstairs and caught Stephen Colbert’s interview with Sean Penn. His face was drawn and his hair was disheveled. He’d taken an Ambien after a red-eye flight and looked like an exhausted, absent-minded professor. As he…

By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s Horoscopes are coming out in the wake of the Full Moon, and the annual Easter rituals. As I sit down to write my weekly astrological musings, with the light of a Scorpio Moon bearing down on my raft of Scorpio planets, and my mind burnt…

The Paramount Theatre is the place to be on Friday night, March 30, at 8 p.m. for the reunion performance of Cry Cry Cry — a folk supergroup consisting of acclaimed singer-songwriters Richard Shindell, Lucy Kaplansky, and Dar Williams. All three of them play guitar and sing, and Kaplansky also plays mandolin. I had the…

By Dom Cioffi I read an article recently about a growing addiction among NBA players. It’s not chemically related, nor does it involve alcohol or sex. The addiction centers around the videogame “Fortnite.” “Fortnite” is a survival game (akin to “The Hunger Games” movies) where players are dropped into remote locations with other players. The…

By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul Often, during my forays into the woods behind our house, I wonder who might be occupying the holes carved into tree trunks by time and nature. The barred owls I hear hoo-hoo-hoo-hooing, maybe, or the chittering red squirrels. And, chances are, there are raccoons in some of those hollows, high above…

By Mary Ellen Shaw The elements of decorating seem to come together so easily when you watch the process on HGTV. However, that hasn’t always been the case when I have changed the décor in my own home. My inability to make a decision got its launch right after college. I had come back home to…

By Kevin Theissen Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn—they’ve all fallen prey to hackers who exposed passwords and other personal information for hundreds of thousands of their users. If you haven’t yet had your password stolen, chances are, it may be only a matter of time. Hearing the word “hacker” may conjure up the image of a teenaged kid…