By Dom Cioffi This past Saturday was a bad day. Now don’t get me wrong, I know “bad” is relative. Right now there are middle-aged men in Iraq who are reluctant to let their children go outside for fear that a suicide bomber may annihilate the street corner that they live on; right now there…

By Tim Traver I don’t often shake down my cat for a dead mouse, but I did think it was fair, considering that he is always shaking me down for his cat food. I wasn’t going to eat his mouse. I needed it as bait, to see if I could catch a burying beetle. Burying…

By: Brett Yates Despite a plethora of local opportunities and a healthy interest in fermented malt beverages, I’d never attended a beer festival until this month, when some friends convinced me to go to the New England Edition of Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp Across America in Portland, Maine. I now have some thoughts on this…

By Cindy Phillips I am currently facilitating self-defense classes for women at my firm. To be clear, I am arranging the classes – not teaching them. That would be a classic case of the blind leading the blind. Years ago I ran the community education program for our school district and we offered such a…

By Karen D. Lorentz Mountain resorts across the nation are increasingly adding more activities, events, festivals, and attractions to entice visitors to their areas in summer. “Summer business at resorts nationwide is growing and has been trending upward for the last decade,” said Michael Berry, president of The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). “Summer business…

By Rachel Sargent The bank in front of our house is a dense tangle of arching canes and thorns as large as cat claws. I wriggle further in, lips pressed against the pain of scratches and fingers straining for that last, fattest, blackest berry. I brush it, and it falls into the gloom of leaves…

By Carolyn Dean “Ahhh,” the middle of July has finally arrived and it is what we’ve been waiting for all year. The chance to take long winding hikes, swim in countless mirrored lakes, and work the gardens for fresh homegrown veggies and flowers. Vermont is peaking with vivacious nature and recreational splendor that makes us…

In my 26 years I’ve spent an unusual amount of time taking long road trips, including enough coast-to-coast journeys that I can no longer remember how many times I’ve been out to California and back. For me, one of the more significant minor pleasures of these adventures is the moment where, pausing at a gas…

By Dom Cioffi What do Luke Skywalker, the Buddha, Odysseus and Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” all have in common? Answer: They are all the same person on the same journey. I know that statement sounds a little absurd, but according to the great writer, philosopher and mythologist, Joseph Campbell, these four individuals along…

By Cindy Phillips I know I recently wrote a column about my impending 60th birthday. I shared my accumulated wisdom with those who were younger, but who aspired to be wiser. But at the time I wrote those cranial nuggets, I was still technically 59. Well as much as I tried to ward off that…

By Dave Hoffenberg I had the honor and pleasure of speaking to the Gathering of the Vibes Festival pioneer, Ken Hays. The Vibes, as it’s called by the fans, is about to put on its 19th annual event. This festival has grown over the years from a weekend festival with 3,500 people to a four-day…

By Dom Cioffi “What are you, a vegetarian?” the old guy said with a snide slant to his delivery. My ears perked up at this statement as I stood in line behind two men, each ordering their lunch special at a local Chinese restaurant. The younger guy accompanying the old man looked concerned by the question,…

By Cindy Phillips … but words can hurt like heck, too. Cyber bullying is just plain sad. We hear tragic stories on a regular basis, especially involving teens. Social media sites pose a venue for people to lash out at others in an undercover format. Is it human nature to be more brazen when we…

The Outside Story: The skinny on snakes By Susan Shea If you have a wood pile, you may have come across a shed snake skin ― a translucent, onion skin-like wrapper imprinted with the snake’s scale pattern. Or perhaps you’ve seen one along a foundation or stone wall. Why do snakes shed their skin? Most…

The summer of LeBron, part II Four years have passed since the last Summer of LeBron, when NBA fans and execs waited to see whether LeBron James – the best basketball player in the world – would sign a new contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers or jump ship to the Miami Heat. He stunned the…