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…]
A Yankee Notebook
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…]
There’s Plenty to Talk About
EAST MONTPELIER — Both my friend Bea and I have functioning automobiles, which is fortunate, because we live (when you factor in stops for coffee, washroom, or gasoline) about four hours apart. We pretty much trade weekends for travel, and get together about twice a month. She’s still teaching, so[Read More…]
Instead, Their Brilliance was Spent on Us
EAST MONTPELIER – “THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not[Read More…]
There’ve Got to be Brigades
MONTPELIER — Keeping up with the shenanigans of the Trump administration is like the old kids’ game of setting three frogs on a table and trying to stop them from jumping. As soon as you think you’ve got one outrage pegged, another pops up in a spot you didn’t expect.[Read More…]
Visiting Territories Beyond Their Control
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…]
