When I retired recently, my former employers gave me a pen. I hope I don't lose it.
I really love pens, yet I'm an expert at losing them.
Lately, I've been writing with an old Cross pen that still works after having been stored in a box for 20 years or longer. I lost that one a few weeks ago and looked everywhere for it.
I crawled around on my hands and knees, I removed cushions, I rolled back carpets, I stuck my hand bravely into unexplored spaces under furniture, I moved the computer and all its attached accessories and myriad tangled wires - all without success.
Testing for COVID-19, vaccinations continue at BMHBRATTLEBORO- Brattleboro Memorial Hospital continues to offer COVID-19 testing and vaccinations. The Vermont Department of Health recommends testing for people who have symptoms of COVID-19, have had close contact (within 6 feet for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour...
I am making a significant gift to an remarkable local project of the Black and Indigenous led/owned SUSU commUNITY Farm. They are more than halfway to their goal. Wouldn't it be incredible to fund them the whole way? Life is better for everybody when we invest in an equitable...
I have assisted the great work of Action Corps to advocate on issues related to Centre Congregational Church's “Just Peace Church” designation to our Vermont representatives in Congress. I recently participated in a call to Sen. Bernie Sanders' office to encourage him to introduce another Yemen War Powers Resolution, which would pressure the Biden administration to insist to Saudi Arabia that it halt its war and naval and air blockade against Yemen. Yemen is the largest humanitarian crisis in the...
“Walking, Drawing and Painting: Recent Works by Collin Leech” will open with a Gallery Walk reception on Friday, June 4, from 4 to 8 p.m. The exhibit includes cropped, collaged paintings on paper; encaustics; and oil paintings by Leech, known for her highly stylized mixed media work. Leech teaches at the River Gallery School and has shown her work in the area for over two decades. According to a news release, these abstracted landscapes “are less about recording what the...
On May 13, Gleyber Torres, an infielder for the New York Yankees was confirmed in a press release from his team to have contracted COVID-19. The very next day, while outside of a Domino's Pizza that was still takeout only, I was accosted by a man who was angry about the continued use of masks. If he had been voicing his opinion in an online forum or a letter to the editor, I would have sympathized. But I know there...
The Vermont Public Places Awards program, designed to shine a spotlight on public places and spaces, recently recognized the recently completed Saxtons River Park as one of 11 noteworthy projects around the state. According to a news release, the biennial awards program “honors projects that promote positive public uses and benefits by creating, preserving, or enhancing exterior or interior public space, green corridors, and networks of spaces.” Nominated projects “can be either completed or in the conceptual or master plan...
Outdoors at Sandglass returns for two weekends, with intimate events in the Sandglass Theater backyard with “Footpath to the Puppets: Attempts at Fight” (June 4–6) and “Suspended Disbelief,” an exhibition of new works by associate artist Jana Zeller (June 12–13). “Come see how we mere mortals have tried to soar through our technology, our struggle to grow wings, our philosophical gymnastics, and our spiritual ladders to reach the Angels! And yet, our flights of the imagination have kept us alive...
College news • The following local students recently graduated from the University of New Hampshire in Durham: Katrina Ewens of Londonderry, A.A.S. (with honors) in applied animal science; Tom Burrows of Brattleboro, B.S. in nutritional sciences; Tyler Germain of Brattleboro, B.S. in business administration/marketing; Tessa Tavares of Putney, master's in social work (MSW); and Alyson Jacobs of Stratton, B.S. in business administration/entrepreneurial studies. • Phelan Muller of Brattleboro received a bachelor of arts degree from the College of the Holy...
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present New England's acclaimed roots, rhythm, and harmony quartet Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem for the fifth concert of the 2021 Next Stage “Bandwagon Summer Series” on Friday, June 4, at 6 p.m., at Cooper Field. The musicians offer four-part vocal harmonies, indelible songs, fiddle, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, and a homemade percussion kit of cardboard boxes, tin cans, caulk tubes, packing-tape tambourines, bottle-cap rattles, Mongolian jaw harps, and a vinyl suitcase.
On Friday, June 11, the parking lot of Epsilon Spires will transform into an open-air movie theater for the second installment of the 2021 Backlot Cinema Series. The evening features films that use anaglyph 3D technology, a process of combining images tinted red and blue to create a stereoscopic effect when viewed with special glasses. Programming Director Jamie Mohr said in a news release that she was inspired by how 3D films “allow the audience to actively participate in the...
Historian William Hosley will present “Where Art and History Meet - Rockingham Meeting House Burying Ground” on Wednesday, June 9, from 7 to 8 p.m. This is the fourth in a series of talks sponsored by the Rockingham Historic Preservation Commission in partnership with the Rockingham Free Public Library. The free lecture will take place via Zoom. Part of the grounds of the Rockingham Meeting House, designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service, the graveyard has burials...
In-Sight Photography Project, 183 Main St., will begin an in-person summer session of photography classes for ages 11–18 on June 21. Participants with all skill levels, creative interests, identities, and financial backgrounds are welcome. No one will be turned away for lack of ability to pay class fees, and no scholarship application is required. In-Sight offers both digital and analog classes at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels, and the nonprofit has served more than 3,000 youth since 1992. This...
Jonquil Clouet Boyle, 30, of Brattleboro, beloved daughter of Dianne Clouet and Kenneth Boyle and cherished sister of Eleanor Cautela-Clouet, died suddenly of an accidental overdose after a four-year struggle with heroin use. Jonquil was born in New York City on April 23, 1991, and she died in New Orleans on April 29, 2021. She grew up in Brattleboro, and the town was often her home base as a young adult. She was named after an ephemeral spring flower and...
This past spring, both Jamaica and Brattleboro residents voted to opt-in to retail cannabis, meaning that regulated cannabis is going to be a reality for many Windham County communities. However, retail cannabis operations will not fully roll out and be accessible to the public until mid-2022. That means there is still plenty of time for adult users to become informed on how to properly store and secure legal cannabis in their homes. In prevention, we know that one of the...
For the June 4 Gallery Walk, Gallery in the Woods will feature “Brattleboro Farewell,” a show of the linocut landscapes of highly acclaimed artist William Hays. After living in Brattleboro for almost 35 years, Hays is resettling in nearby Massachusetts. The show will feature some new work completed during the pandemic as well as selections from his large body of work. “If you are familiar with Hays's collected works then you are aware of the complexity, skill, and vision that...
When the high school baseball season began, Brattleboro varsity coach Chris Groeger was bemoaning the youth and inexperience of this team and thought this might be a rebuilding year for the Colonels. Instead, they went 10-1 and picked up the No. 3 seed in the Division I tournament. They got a bye into the quarterfinal round, where they will host the winner of the first round game between No. 6 Colchester and No. 11 Mount Mansfield on Friday at 4:30...
SoBo Studio, a dance space and performance art collective, has partnered with Next Stage Arts and its Fables storytelling night to host a free stand-up comedy and humorous storytelling performance that will take place Saturday, June 5, at 5 p.m. on the Town Common. This show will be performed by locals who are experiencing their first time performing stand-up comedy and storytelling in front of a live audience. All participants spent the winter working on their material in a comedy...
A group of energetic teachers, parents, and students built raised beds at the Brattleboro Area Middle School (BAMS) in mid-May, revitalizing the tradition of school gardens. BAMS teachers Jess Montenieri and Elyse Wadsworth wanted to see more opportunities for students to engage in outdoor learning. Reflecting on the past year, Wadsworth noted that “it's been difficult to see students spending so much time on Zoom with very little opportunity to move around, go outside, and just be kids. We saw...
Keith Hermiz, an advanced emergency medical technician who serves as president and training officer of the Grafton Rescue Squad, has been named by the Vermont Department of Health as its 2021 Emergency Medical Services Educator of the Year. In announcing the award, Will Moran, emergency medical services chief at Vermont Department of Health, credited Hermiz for his determination not to let EMS education be a victim of the pandemic, which caused most classes and training programs to be suspended. After...
It's time, once again, to make the doughnuts. And the bread. A saga with as many twists as a cruller came to an end on May 27 with the news that a family-owned Canadian baker is buying the recently closed Koffee Kup Bakery of Burlington and its subsidiary, Vermont Bread Company of Brattleboro. Mrs. Dunster's Bakery, a Sussex, New Brunswick–based company that distributes its breads, doughnuts, muffins, and cookies across Atlantic Canada and Maine, made the purchase announcement within hours...
Flanders Fields is not far from Hürtgen Forest, where Jim Carr fought the Battle of the Bulge in that blistering cold that December of 1944, and not far from the POW camp where Richard Hamilton suffered that horrible winter. John McCrae's poem “In Flanders Fields” reminds us today of why we are here: * * * §In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow §Between the crosses, row on row, §{emspace}That mark our place; and in the sky §{emspace}The larks, still bravely...
Editor, author, poet, and queer mother of two, Diana Whitney is making waves in the world of young adult poetry. Her anthology, You Don't Have to Be Everything (Workman Publishing), was released this spring and has gone through multiple printings. It reached No. 1 on Amazon's new release list for the Self-Esteem for Teens & Young Adults category. The anthology features 68 intersectional and intergenerational voices across eight chapters: “Seeking,” “Loneliness,” “Attitude,” “Rage,” “Longing,” “Shame,” “Sadness,” and “Belonging.” Within a...
Newly elected Rep. Leslie Goldman, D-Rockingham, sat alone at her computer feeling sad. The Vermont Legislature had just adjourned. Instead of a celebration with colleagues, Goldman exited her first legislative session by clicking the Leave Meeting button on her Zoom account. “I would imagine, it's like when you do a play and there's a wrap party,” she said. “There was no opportunity to celebrate as a team, or as a group, so I felt sad about that.”(1) The 2021 Legislative...
Part celebration of the end of the pandemic, part reflection on a turbulent time in the United States, and part remembrance of the service of Vermonters in our nation's wars, this year's annual Memorial Day service on the Town Common was filled with many different emotions. There was joy at being able to hold ceremonies unmasked and without restrictions, with the American Legion Band performing in public for first time in nearly two years. The May 31 service, hosted by...