By Dom Cioffi Last week, as I was putting the finishing touches on my column, I faintly overheard a newscaster announce from the television in a nearby room, “Folks, we have a developing story from the West Coast.” His tone suggested a level of alarm normally reserved for major news announcements so I immediately took…

By Susan Shea Perhaps you’ve caught a glimpse in your headlights of a mouse with a very long tail, leaping across the road at night.  Or maybe your cat has deposited a specimen on your doorstep. This is the jumping mouse.  My orange tabby, Marmalade, seems to specialize in catching them.  The two jumping mice…

By Scott Funk It isn’t so much that I hate this phone as it is that I miss its predecessor. I’d just gotten where I was comfortable with it when they took it away. The guy at the phone store said it wasn’t compatible with the new 4G network. “No problem” he said, “you’re overdue…

By Cindy Phillips Robin Williams was one of us. He was a Boomer. He shared our era in all its wonderment and maybe even more. In fact, I am sure it was more. He grew up with Shari Lewis, Lambchop and Charlie Horse. I am sure he watched the Mickey Mouse Club and had a…

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…