EAST MONTPELIER – There are several good features of my current racket of working with a television program rooted in the outdoors. I get to visit places I’d never have been able to get to myself, or, in some cases, even heard of. I get to meet and interview some[Read More…]
Willem Lange
A Perfect Way to Celebrate our Birthday
EAST MONTPELIER – Years ago, the national anti-tobacco campaign slowly and with little apparent effect chipped away at Americans’ deadly addiction. That battle is far from over, but the results have been significant. Now in recent years, we’ve been getting warnings from dermatologists and cancer specialists about exposure to the[Read More…]
What if an Alien Species . . .
EAST MONTPELIER – In midsummer, the sun works its way around to the back of the house and a little before sunset floods the back porch with light and heat. This evening is no exception. Hot as it is, though, I know I’ll miss it when in a few weeks[Read More…]
Still, We Persist
EAST MONTPELIER – Donald Trump is a tough target for journalists and commentators to hit. Like a high-flying bomber that spews metallic chaff out its back end to confuse the radar of missiles, he so consistently floods the news cycles with outrages that by the time anyone has the chance[Read More…]
A View of my Beloved Country
EAST MONTPELIER – Making hay while the sun shines and the roads are free of slippery impediments to travel, I did a little extra driving this past weekend. In the process, I got a better-than-usual view of my beloved country, on the car radio, passing through small towns, on my[Read More…]
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
EAST MONTPELIER – On Sunday mornings of the weekends that Bea drives up from Nahant, if the weather is warm and pleasant, we put the top down on the roadster, assure Kiki we won’t be gone long, and tool leisurely downstream along the Winooski River to Middlesex for coffee and[Read More…]
We Can Always Repeal It
EAST MONTPELIER – My kid was mountain biking on a hill near his home in Arkansas and realized he’d lost his cell phone out of his pocket somewhere along the trail. Without his phone, he was incommunicado, but another rider lent him his. He called home, his wife hit “Find[Read More…]
We Just Visited Them in their Stalls
by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – My tour group’s transfer from Salzburg to Vienna was nothing if not leisurely. Our bus first took us to the gigantic abbey at Melk, a typically imperialistic pile of stone decorated with heroic figures. Thence we boarded the “Austria,” a cruise boat that took[Read More…]
There’s a Bright Spot for Those of Us Traveling
EAST MONTPELIER – It’s difficult to complain about the length of a flight to Europe when you consider what our ancestors went through to get here. Their tears at the sight of the Statue of Liberty weren’t just from inspiration; they were overjoyed to get off that boat. Still, the[Read More…]
Many of the Travel Problems Solved
EAST MONTPELIER – My oldest child, Virginia, turned 65 this past week. This sort of thing usually evokes, on social media, the comment, “Goodness! Where did the time go?” I shall avoid that; I know perfectly well where the time has gone since that sunny spring day in Keene Valley,[Read More…]
If Anything but Friendly, Butt Out
EAST MONTPELIER – Of all the numskull, hammer-headed, misguided, ham-handed, tin-eared ideas floated by our current president (and there have been many, by my count), the one about annexing Canada as a fifty-first state has got to rank in the top 10 world-wide. His supporters claim he was just joking.[Read More…]
My Love Affair with Small Boats
EAST MONTPELIER – The tips of my tamaracks are starting to turn green, the coltsfoot is in bloom, and a phoebe is singing in the brook bed below the kitchen. The sun is out, and if the thermometer goes up another five degrees, I’ll fire up old Helga (she’s 27[Read More…]
