By Tom Joyce Sugar on Snow martini is a seasonal favorite! Gallipo’s farm on Grove Street in Rutland Town is where I first experienced the magic of the sugarhouse. It was just a short walk across the fields of Gerdon’s farm and over two rock walls to the sugar shack. There was nothing quite like…

It’s hard to imagine the days when a TV was not part of a home. But that was the case on our street until the early 50s, when gradually families started to acquire one. Being told by your parents that they had bought a TV was the greatest news a child could hear. For me…

By Elise Tillinghast A deer died by the river near my home. The crows found it, as did other scavengers–a bald eagle and two big brown raptors that were hard to identify. Both had white flecking on their heads, wings and bodies, but the markings didn’t match up, bird to bird. They looked unkempt and…

For more than a decade, the soap company Dove has sought to subvert unrealistic mainstream beauty standards by encouraging women of all shapes, sizes, and colors to love their bodies. The latest ad in the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty revolves around a “social experiment” filmed in San Francisco, Shanghai, Delhi, London and São Paulo,…

By Dom Cioffi I drove my family to Florida recently for a week’s vacation on the beach. We opted for driving instead of flying so we could afford a better hotel with better amenities.  I do most if not all of the driving on trips like this while my wife and son watch movies and…

By Karen D. Lorentz Two years ago I received a gift certificate for a massage at the Killington Grand Spa. Having put it in a safe place so I wouldn’t lose it, I kept forgetting I had it. Then last month I was visiting the doctor for a neck injury and headache sustained in a…

Submitted The Wailers There are many bands that replace their lead singer, but to be the lead singer of The Wailers where the late, great Bob Marley stood is really something special. I don’t need to introduce you to Bob Marley because his music put reggae music on the global musical map, selling a staggering…

Have you noticed that new feature on YouTube where, once you’ve finished watching a video, a 10-second countdown begins, after which a new video of YouTube’s choosing automatically starts? This audience-retention stratagem was introduced experimentally late last year for randomly targeted users, and apparently it was successful enough to become the new norm. YouTube’s “autoplay”…

By Kristen Fountain All of a sudden, sap season is here and winter’s on its way out. Chances are, though, a few more snow or ice squalls are still to come. The next time you find yourself driving behind a big plow truck, take a look at what’s coming out of the spreader. What is…

By Dom Cioffi Sometime around 1915, a dapper 33-year-old Italian immigrant named Charles arrived in Boston, Mass., looking to embark on the great American dream. Prior to arriving in the big city, Charles had spent time in prison for forging checks and smuggling immigrants from Canada. However, having paid his debt to society, Charles was…

By Michael J. Caduto Walking through the woods on a cool spring morning, I saw a barred owl in an old maple tree. I circled the owl three times from a distance. Its head kept turning to follow me, tracking my movements with three complete revolutions. One of the owl’s chicks had fallen from the…

With Easter upon us I can’t help but reminisce about how the occasion was celebrated back in my day. The Easter Bunny certainly had his role just like today but because I grew up in a Catholic family the religious significance of this special day was stressed. Our first “challenge” of the season began on…

After 17 years of Leno and Letterman, our crucial late-night television talk shows are in an unusual state of flux: in the past 14 months, Jimmy Fallon has taken over “The Tonight Show,” Seth Meyers has taken over “Late Night,” Stephen Colbert has transferred from “The Colbert Report” to “The Late Show,” Chelsea Handler has…

By Dom Cioffi Sometimes all it takes is a lucky break. Such is the case for Reyn Guyer. Far from a household name, Guyer has hit it big in the toy industry not once, but twice in his lifetime. But none of his industry fame or millions of dollars would have materialized had it not…

By Barbara Mackay The transition from February to March is not subtle. With hardly time to recover from a truncated month, we attend Town Meeting, cede an hour to our clocks, and navigate spontaneously erupting frost heaves. The forest is going through a seasonal transition, too, but at a more leisurely pace, and often invisibly.…