By Susan Shea On a hike this spring, we walked through a clear-cut area with tall grass and brambles. Afterwards, our pant legs were crawling with black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), also known as deer ticks, the kind that carry Lyme disease. Scientists with the Vermont Department of Health recently examined over 2,000 ticks and found…

By Brady Crain I promised last week that I would start doing more interesting things to write about. Then came a few good hard intellectual and emotional kicks to the groin.  I won’t get into it too much, but this sort of thing used to spin me out for weeks, or months, even years. How…

By Marguerite Jill-Dye I sat in the library of a great man whose vision has touched people’s lives all over the world. His name is Father Ernesto Bustio from Guemes, Spain, in the Province of Cantabria. His adjoining office walls and rafters were filled with shelves of slides, videos, photos, and DVDs of the people…

By Brett Yates Sour Patch Kids, the iconic child-shaped treat invented in the 1970s by a Long Island man named Frank Galatolie, are, in my opinion, perhaps the greatest mass-produced American candy. To me, their astringent artificiality best captures the essence of what “candy” means in an industrialized society. It’s not a “sweet,” not a…

By  Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Virgo Moon, with aspects that show me that all we have to do is pay attention to what’s in front of us, knowing that life’s astrological underpinnings form the backbone for every aspect of our experience.…

Pip the guinea pig, peaking out from his blanket fort By Brady Crain I have, based on the orders of everyone, been taking it much easier.  I lift or do pushup/pullup sets every two days, walk at least once a day, and trail run every two to three days, between four and 12 miles. Easy…

By Kevin Theissen It doesn’t take a degree in finance to see that the cost of college continues to rise. In its 2015 report, the College Board showed that public four-year institutions raised prices an average of 3.4 percent annually between the 2005-06 and 2015-16 school years. Put another way: A $5,000 education in 2005-06…

By Marguerite Jill Dye I feel as if I’m abandoning a sinking ship, leaving America for a pilgrimage across Spain during this perilous time of crises, turmoil, and uncertainty. Keeping up with the news, one can only wonder, has Armageddon begun? Scenes from “Mad Max” and “Water World” flash before my eyes, movies I never…

drawn by Adelaide Tyrol By Brett Amy Thelan I once heard of a biologist with a clever party trick: regardless of where or when a given party was taking place, he claimed that he could produce a wild salamander in 15 minutes or less, and more often than not, he delivered. I suspect he never…

By Brett Yates I’m aware that nearly everyone is probably tired of hearing about Confederate statues by now. But before I finally move on from the Unite the Right fallout and restore this column to its regularly scheduled programming, I want—for one very particular reason—to go back to Trump’s Charlottesville response last month, when he…

By Dom Cioffi Years ago, I spent the summer break in between my sophomore and junior years of college living in Cape Cod with several friends. The idea was to earn a little money and partake in the party scene as much as possible. I was used to living with a roommate in college, but…

Illustration by Adelaide Tyrol By Declan McCabe My students and I were conducting research in the Winooski River floodplain at Saint Michael’s College last week when the buzzing became particularly intense. A brisk walk is enough to outdistance mosquitoes, but deerflies combine fighter jet speed with helicopter maneuverability. And a slap that might incapacitate a…

By Kevin Theissen In March, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) offered some ideas about innovation in America. It’s a topic that deserves some attention as “recent data suggests that innovation is getting harder and the pace of growth is slowing down. A major challenge in business and policy spheres is to understand the environments that…

By Brady Crain A crowd in the Boston Common recently marched in protest of the Free Speech rally and against white supremacy. By Brady Cain It took me quite a while to digest what happened in Boston. One of the most memorable parts of the march was the heat (standing in a crowd on sunny…

By Marguerite Jill Dye We attended the very first gathering of the Woodstock Social Justice Initiative, a last-minute rally for love, equality, and peace on the Green in Woodstock. Seventy-plus local residents demonstrated in solidarity with the people of Charlottesville and took a stand against white supremacy, racism, and anti-Semitism. WSJI co-founder Mary Ellen Solon…