Discover More from This Category: Columns

Prig Latin and Goy Vey Yiddish

June 5, 2024
By Bruce Bouchard and John Turchiano Editor’s note: Bruce Bouchard is former executive director of The Paramount Theatre. John Turchiano,  his friend for 52 years, was formerly the editor of “Hotel Voice,” a weekly newspaper on the New York Hotel Trades Council. They are co-authoring this column collaborating to tell short stories on a wide…

A June 1 miracle

June 5, 2024
We got there at 7:30 in the morning, a good 90 minutes before the lift was scheduled to spin and discovered an already developed line. Skis and snowboards were laid on the ground, one right after the other, in a line that would eventually extend from the Superstar Quad around the Umbrella Bar and K-1…

The reality of fiction

June 5, 2024
I drive a black Ford Ranger. It’s a basic truck with few bells and whistles other than heated seats and a cover for the back bed so my golf clubs don’t get wet.  My wife hates trucks and is persistently complaining about my need to own one. My response is always the same: It’s convenient…

With nature

June 5, 2024
Rain falls, making puddles, and putting droplets on spider webs. How beautiful it is, just sitting there in the rain, enjoying what is around you. Just being present in the moment. Makes you so happy. So you just sit there. In the rain, with nature.

International travel lessons amidst progress on the home front

June 5, 2024
Building our Killington Dream Lodge: Part 16 The second floor framing on our Killington Ski Lodge was growing a little week by week. One of the slowdowns was only two beams could be transported at the time atop our station wagon each week (to avoid caving in the roof). As Dad progressed, I stayed in…

The many and varied ways caterpillars avoid predation

June 5, 2024
In “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, Alice stumbles upon a large mushroom. She peeps over the edge and encounters a caterpillar “smoking a long hookah, and taking not the slightest notice of her or anything else.” If Alice had touched the creature, she might have been in for an even bigger shock—forked horns,…

Face the truth, there’s potency in deciding

June 5, 2024
There is such potency and power in the act of deciding. It’s so potent that in fact, it has the capacity to change everything. Once you’ve reached a conclusion and the choice is made, all there is left to do is follow through.  But why is the decision itself hard? Is it the narrative on…

The Nicholas Green story: An American family tragedy abroad transforms seven lives  

May 29, 2024
Taken two years after the tragedy, members of the Green family gathered with the recipients of Nicholas’s organs. Back row (l-r): Reg Green, Maggie Green, Andrea Mongiardo (heart), Francesco Mondello (cornea), Tino Motta (kidney), Anna Maria Di Ceglie (kidney), Eleanor Green. Front row (l-r): Laura Green, Maria Pia Pedala (liver), Domenica Galleta (cornea), Silvia Ciampi…

Remembering the Woolworth store

May 29, 2024
Rutland City back in the ‘50s had three stores that could be considered “variety stores.” They were well known “chain stores” namely F. W. Woolworth, M.H. Fishman and SS Kresge. They were located just doors away from one another on Merchants Row. Of the three variety stores F.W. Woolworth was my mother’s favorite. We often…

‘Shiffrin Gold’

May 29, 2024
The K Cloud had its way with us this Memorial Day, with a fog so thick that you didn’t realize you had gotten to the bottom of Superstar until you saw the two bright orange slow signs ahead in the mist. It was like being in a whole other world, our world, where only the craziest…

A rock in a hard place

May 29, 2024
My wife and were out shopping recently when we stumbled upon a small concert taking place in a nearby park. It was one of those early evening performances that most cities sponsor throughout the summer months. There were people sitting on blankets in the grass while others had brought beach chairs. A few daring folks…

The wonders of aerialinsectivore flight 

May 29, 2024
When I worked at a barn one summer during college, I marveled at the swallows that nested in the structure’s eaves and corners. I watched the iridescent birds swoop, flutter, and dart with amazing dexterity between the small spaces above the stalls. These acrobatic birds are aerial insectivores, a group that also includes other swallows,…

Mountain Meditation: Our magical mountain retreat in an upside down world

May 29, 2024
Building our Killington Dream Lodge, Part 15 Dad, a mechanical engineer, understood the principles of levers, pulleys and gears. He used them to lift heavy beams to the second floor and on top of the frame. It had to be done methodically, piece by piece with planning and forethought. He bought the materials as his…

Jump

May 29, 2024
By Isabelle Gieder My tires whiz as I zip down the mountain, darting through rock and sticks. I lean into a turn and whip my bike around. I see a jump in front of me. I steady the bike and pump. I launch off of the jump. Time seems to slow as I fly through…

The cost of conformity

May 29, 2024
The threshold has been crossed that will define the next 12 months.  To face towards the light, you must first face the depths of doubt, your shadows from the past and decimate all uncertainty. Bow only to those who can place judgement upon you. And that will not be who you think.Strike the match. Light…