By Dave Hoffenberg This Sunday, Nov. 16, head to McGrath’s Irish Pub from 4-7 p.m. for Irish Band Aid featuring Extra Stout and Gypsy Reel. All donations will go to support Doctors Without Borders work with Ebola virus patients in West Africa. Pat Max, from Extra Stout who sings and plays guitar, whistles and bodhran,…

By Dom Cioffi Some memories are burned so completely into your psyche that any recall of them immediately conjures up exact nuances of the moment they occurred. Many times this is because the particular memory was accompanied by an intense injection of adrenaline at the moment it occurred. That was certainly the case for me…

By Meghan Oliver This time of year, squirrels and chipmunks are rushing to fill their winter larders with seeds and nuts, often loudly squabbling with each other. It’s harvest time in the woods, and not just for mast falling to the ground. Apios americana–the groundnut–is in its prime, but you’ll need a shovel for this…

By Kate Robitello The great debate over the effects of soy has long been in existence, especially amongst the primarily plant-based consumers. As the most third most subsidized crop in the U.S., soy products are in the majority of grocery store snacks and can even be found in many cosmetic products. However, soy is a…

By Cindy Phillips Actually, I have no desire to be President. But last week was Election Day, so the political catch phrase seemed fitting for this column. There really aren’t a lot of positive sides to getting older. Our memory fades, our waist expands, our eyesight blurs and people seem to get on our nerves…

By Dom Cioffi I always chuckle when I see a movie where a grandfather is depicted as an amenable old man who takes his grandson to baseball games and pizza shops and showers him with gifts of love and adoration. I chuckle because I did not have this experience – far from it, in fact.…

By Joe Rankin There’s something in us that can’t help but be impressed by an old tree. Perhaps we’re simply in awe of something that has outlived generations of humans and will outlive us. We acknowledge this when we compare the giant sequoia groves to a cathedral. When we compile state lists of big old…

By Brett Yates I’m asking you, not telling you. This isn’t a fashion advice column. But I do have some views on the subject. The first thing I believe is that, if you live in a cold-weather state, there is no item in your wardrobe more important than your go-to winter coat, in terms of…

By Julia Purdy The 138-mile Scenic Route 100 Byway zigzags up the center of the state, from Massachusetts almost to the Canadian border at Newport, stitching together the two halves of Vermont in a continuous panorama of villages, farmlands, mountains, and streams. The north-south mountain ridges frame a natural corridor for a continuous highway that…

By Julia Purdy In recent years the U.S. Forest Service has made it even easier for visitors with disabilities to experience the forest up close and Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest is no exeption. Initial efforts locally were spearheaded at the grassroots level through partnerships with the Rutland Lions Club and the Rutland office of…

“What (f)lies beneath”—avian blood-suckers By Meghan Oliver When you find a bird feather in the woods and stoop to pick it up, does your mom’s voice echo in your brain? Can you hear her say, “Birds have lice, don’t pick that up!” Mom was mostly right. Birds can have lice (although you won’t catch lice…

By Julia Purdy The Freeman’s Oath—renamed the Voter’s Oath in 1994—is unique to Vermont. Like so much that is exceptional about Vermont, it is traceable to our very beginnings. It may come as a surprise to many that Vermont does not appear in the list of the original 13 colonies, because it was never a…

By Cindy Phillips One of the partners at my firm is on an extended business development trip to China. I received an email from him this week and the last line read, “Please water my plant.” I walked into his office and saw a wilted piece of greenery, leaves drooping almost to the floor. I…

By Dom Cioffi Like most people, I live under the false sense that I’m actually in control of my life. Even though I’ve spent countless hours reading and contemplating the idea that free will and control are illusionary, I still manage to approach my day-to-day life under the perception that I’m directing the show. This…

By Dom Cioffi If you’re a parent and your son or daughter plays a sport, there’s a good chance that you’re going to find yourself involved in practice at some point.  I had already been coaching for years when my son began to enter the world of child athletics. He determined that baseball and basketball…