By Dom Cioffi I take coaching seriously. Because of this, most of the kids who play or have played on my teams probably think I’m too serious (this includes my own son). But I look at it this way: if you’re going to play a sport and you want to improve, there’s only one way…

By Lani Duke RUTLAND—Neal and Patricia Whitney began opening their home to high-risk girls in need of foster care about 1993. In 2008, they were named Rutland's Foster Parents of the Year. Over time, they provided a home to more than 200 children through the Vermont Department of Children and Families. In 2012, the DCF…

By Leonard Perry, UVM horticulturist and Charlie Nardozzi, garden consultant It’s vegetable planting time in most of the area. In valleys and warm areas plant tomatoes, peppers, beans, lettuce, squash and cucumbers at the end of May. Many gardeners like to plant around Memorial Day. In colder areas you may want to wait until early…

By Joe Rankin “Boy, he’s really red! I don’t think I’ve ever seen them that red before,” my wife said admiringly of a male purple finch crunching sunflower seeds at the feeder. He was a nice burgundy. The male goldfinches were getting yellower, but still looked scruffy. The birds made me optimistic that spring would…

I write this on the heels of Earth Day, 2016. I have been working too much. For the first time in my life, I am really caught up in the rat race. It is difficult to separate myself from it, because my endeavor is literally to save the world one rooftop at a time, but…

Last week I wrote an NBA-related article about the league’s shift toward conference parity and, at the end of the piece, I speculated that the regression of the Western Conference was one of the reasons the Golden State Warriors were able to achieve a record-setting 73 wins. A friend, discussing the article with me, argued…

Back in the 1950s when I was a child if you wanted an ice cream soda or a sundae, you could head to one of the downtown Rutland drug stores. They had lunch counters where you could get sandwiches and ice cream treats. These stores were not part of a chain and they didn’t offer…

Cal Garrison a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Sagittarius Moon, with levels of tension being induced by aspects that will make it hard to take care of business and get our needs met, at the same time. Most of the stress comes from a waxing…

Courtesy of Kitty Kindbud The Kind Buds are part of Killington Resort’s annual Dazed and Defrosted concert being held Saturday, April 23. This Saturday, April 23 is the 2nd Annual Dazed and Defrosted concert at Killington Resort—and it’s a must do for music lovers and good times. This year the concert kicks off at 11…

By Dave Mance III Some years sugaring season goes by the book, which is to stay things start cold, and over the course of four to six weeks spring arrives gradually and consistently. In such a scenario, the syrup usually starts out light-colored and sweet, then as the weather warms and the microbial load in…

I am sitting down to dash this off on day 155 of skiing this year. This has by far been the best worst year of skiing I have ever seen. Cold nights, warm beautiful days and a huge thick slab of blue Vermont ice to ride into May. We complain about the weather, but we…

In case you hate basketball enough to have ignored the NBA so completely as to have missed this, in which case you probably shouldn’t actually read this particular column—the big storyline in the NBA this season was the Golden State Warriors, who broke the all-time regular-season record for wins with 73, eclipsing Michael Jordan’s Bulls…

By Dom Cioffi Since the dawn of psychology, mankind has wondered, Is it nature or nurture that makes us who we are? Is it our genes or the environment in which we are reared that determines the kind of person we will be? No one can argue that each side plays an important role in…

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, on the whole, are looking absolutely fabulous. Pluto, Jupiter, Vesta, Mercury and Hygeia are all in harmonious aspect with the North Node of the Moon. Loosely translated this means, we should…

By Tiffany Soukup When I was a child, I looked forward to spending summers with my grandmother at our family cottage on a Canadian lake. Every year, as soon as I was out of the car, we would run to the point to look and listen for loons. As an adult, I still watch loons.…