EAST MONTPELIER — Some years ago my wife, my younger daughter, Martha, and I stopped for the night in the ancient town of Nettuno, on the west coast of Italy. It happened to be the feast day of La Madonna delle Grazie, a major festival featuring carnival rides, various team competitions, and[Read More…]
A Yankee Notebook
Ripping and Tearing
EAST MONTPELIER — Years ago, during my days as a remodeling contractor, we often had to demolish an existing structure, a wall, or plaster and lath in order to begin to work our magic. I asked my guys to list such labor on their time cards as “R&T” – Ripping[Read More…]
There’s Excitement in the Offing
EAST MONTPELIER — The week started off Friday night at midnight with a full lunar eclipse. A thick, rain-filled warm front followed right behind, and the snow began receding from my yard. Sugar-makers began posting steam-filled photographs of their operations, which will be followed shortly by more photos of two-wheel[Read More…]
We Never Saw the Like Again
EAST MONTPELIER — The year 1985 has often moved me to invoke Shakespeare: “So fair and foul a year I have not seen.” But let’s focus on just the fair for the next few minutes. In the middle of an Alaskan February night, Dudley and I were skiing on a[Read More…]
He’d Have Known
EAST MONTPELIER – The events of this past weekend in the Mad River Valley of Vermont highlighted a well-known, but rarely discussed, feature of Washington, D.C., politics: the tin ear. I like to call it the imperial ear. It listens, but doesn’t hear. Instead, it assumes. And last weekend, it[Read More…]
A Legally Nonexistent Creation
EAST MONTPELIER – The news, the commentaries, the opinions, and the speculations all flood in here like the water we used to shoot under dormitory doors with dustpans and watering cans. The net effect is hard to ignore. You’d have to be a confirmed Luddite or hermit to be unaware[Read More…]
Last Week was no Exception
EAST MONTPELIER – I once had a student who collected inspirational quotes, aphorisms and sage-sounding advice. He’d become a leader of groups of young boys in a program that borrowed extensively from the Outward Bound model that posed challenges designed to stimulate personal growth and self-reliance, and made good use[Read More…]
Freezing my Bippy on a Frozen Lake
EAST MONTPELIER – To tell you the truth, I wasn’t looking forward to spending Saturday morning freezing my bippy on a frozen lake in Vermont. Friday had been really windy: windy enough to make Kiki think somebody was coming up the driveway in a large truck. The thought of standing[Read More…]
Goons Crashing the Gates
What’s an old fellow to do? My sources of information are letting me down. The news of the day comes into my house mainly via the internet, a New York Times subscription, a couple of local newspapers, and brief sessions with commercial-haunted CNN (insurance of all kinds, mesothelioma lawyers and[Read More…]
It’s Dark at the Foot of the Stairs
EAST MONTPELIER – The New York Times, according to a friend of mine, advises us not to read or watch the news first thing in the morning. The resultant depression or confusion, apparently, can affect the rest of our day and our general affect. I concur. In old age, I’ve[Read More…]
She’s Doing the Best She Can
EAST MONTPELIER – Living alone, as I do, and being an extrovert, which I am, I get a little lonesome at times. Not the hand-wringing lament sort of thing, but rather the recognition that it’s been a day or two since I’ve experienced human interaction. Kiki’s great, and a constant[Read More…]
A Cherished Friend has Returned Home
EAST MONTPELIER – I’ve looked out the windows quite a lot this past week, and each time the thought sweeps across my mind: Now, this is the way it’s supposed to be. Snow everywhere, and not just transitory, but settled in to stay a while. Thermometers at 10 degrees or[Read More…]
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