Discover More from This Category: Columns

Going rogue

August 14, 2015
By Dom Cioffi Forty years ago this summer, on a Friday night in June, Universal Pictures released the film “Jaws” to curious audiences across the country. Within days it would become a monumental hit and a cultural phenomenon. The film is now regarded as the very first summer blockbuster because Universal took a unique approach…

The Outside Story

August 13, 2015
Bobcats, the “phantoms of the forest” By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul The distinctively feline tracks through the snow in our woods last winter intrigued me. They would follow the narrow ski trail a ways, then meander into the trees or, sometimes, seem to disappear altogether. There was no way, I thought, a house kitty was so…

Not in our backyard

August 13, 2015
Ever since I was a boy, I thought it would be really fun someday to watch the Olympics in person. Alas, I might have actually fulfilled this dream if, in late July, Boston had not dropped its bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. That said, the city of Boston almost certainly made the…

Heat stroke, dehydration and the changeover to ketosis

August 13, 2015
So heat stroke is a thing, apparently. Remember last week how I talked about my trying to get back into ketosis from glycosis? So in the middle of this week (adhering to my previously mentioned three on-two off schedule), I went for an 11 mile trail run. No big deal, under 2,000 feet of climb.…

Power-holders to be brought to their knees and destroyed — or redeemed

August 12, 2015
By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week's Horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Cancer Moon with aspects that make it easy for me to say, "We don't need an astrologer to tell us things are messed up; it's blasting over the loud speaker. You'd have to be deaf, dumb,…

Rockin’ the Region with Donavon Frankenreiter

August 7, 2015
Submitted DONAVON FRANKENREITER This Saturday, Aug. 8, head to Snowshed Base Lodge at Killington Resort to listen to the cool jammin’ sounds of Donavon Frankenreiter, part of the Cooler in the Mountains concert series. He is really excited to be coming back to the mountains of Killington. I told him about the new adventure center…

Altitude Sickness

August 7, 2015
So the general plan is paying off.  I am avoiding listening to the dirty little must-go-faster demons in my brain stem, and I am achieving gains without injury or the crushing fatigue that I encountered in my road training in previous months. The training schedule that I am experimenting with is short run, long run,…

The fish and love connection

August 7, 2015
When I read about the recent engagement of Polly Lynn and Jason Mikula, co-publishers of The Mountain Times, it brought back memories of my own connection between “true love” and fish! In case you missed the article, Polly and Jason got engaged on the banks of the Madison River in Cameron, Montana, while on a…

Cutting the cord

August 7, 2015
I recently took a bold step into the future: I’ve “cut the cord”—that is, I no longer have cable TV service. I did this in part to save money and in part due to pressure from various magazine articles about how “millennials” are increasingly “cutting the cord,” relying on Internet streaming to fulfill their entertainment…

The Outside Story: Keeping it clean downstream

August 7, 2015
  By Declan McCabe In peaceful streams, aquatic macroinvertebrates such as crayfish, stoneflies, and caddisflies travel over and under submerged rocks, foraging for other invertebrates, leaves, and algae. When rain falls, their world turns upside down. At first only the surface is disturbed, but before long, runoff reaches the stream and increases its flow manyfold.…

“Let’s blow everything off and go for it”

August 5, 2015
By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week's Horoscopes are coming out under the light of an Aries Moon. Redoubled by the fire of the Sun in Leo, and amped up by the power of the Lughnassah Crossquarter filling the matrix with the kind of energy that only shines down on us during…

Driving the point home

August 5, 2015
By Dom Cioffi Summer vacation is a gift to children, but as most parents realize, the logistics of finding a place for your child every day for three months can prove daunting. No amount of planning or money can deter the occasional hiccup when no one is around to watch them and no place is…

Tasting the difference with Dan Foley

July 31, 2015
Beer is a social beverage. Yes, even the most outgoing of us may sometimes drink alone (cue the George Thorogood song), but I will take a leap and say that for most of us, our greatest occasions of enjoying beer have been when we are in the company of others. The beer may have been…

All the president’s writers

July 31, 2015
When E.L. Doctorow died last week in New York at the age of 84, Barack Obama took to Twitter to honor the late author: “E.L. Doctorow was one of America's greatest novelists. His books taught me much, and he will be missed,” our president graciously tweeted. It marks the seventh occasion during the Obama presidency…

Transition to the trail

July 31, 2015
It's been an interesting week here in The land of Brady.  As promised, I increased my training, and started to get serious. I had a short three mile run from Schoolhouse Road to the end of the sidewalk and back, which was a speed record breaker for me, at an average pace of 8:18 per…