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Clippings by John Flowers: Chance encounter boosts family

Posted on June 13, 2013 |
By John Flowers



I had kept abreast of his life during the past three years very impersonally and from afar, through Facebook. I didn’t know how to break the ice, because the last time I saw Charlie, he was in diapers making mayhem. Now in his mid-20s, I learned that Charlie was still making some mayhem — though thankfully not of the law-breaking variety, just through his rock band and other youthful pursuits.

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Greg Dennis talks about cars: From Bug to C-Max

Posted on June 13, 2013 |
By Greg Dennis



We all remember that first car.

Mine was a 1970 VW Bug, bought at Weybridge Garage in 1974. The yellow paint was fading, and it already had 90,000 miles and several pounds of Vermont rust on it.

But it was a Bug for sale at a time when Bugs were so cool as to seem nearly a legal mandate for a young man in his early 20s.

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Ways of Seeing: Faith and doubt are often together

Posted on June 13, 2013 |
By Rev. Andrew Nagy-Benson



Nagy Benson.jpg

“I’ll believe it when I see it!”

As a child, I became familiar with that expression. It might have had something to do with my walking into the house with muddy sneakers for the billionth time. Or my incessant insistence from the backseat of the station wagon that my sister was on my side — she crossed the line! At times like these, my mother would give me a look and offer a well-earned corrective. Before the bench of maternal justice, I’d offer guaranteed forecasts of better behavior. The Judge looked hopeful, if unconvinced.

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Community Forum: Some health care barriers remain

Posted on June 10, 2013 |
By Kelly Stoddard



This week’s writer is Kelly Stoddard, director of government relations and advocacy in Vermont for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

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Clippings: Vermont's size is a big strength

Posted on June 6, 2013 |
By Xian Chiang-Waren



Everything in the West is bigger. That was the thought going through my head as our car sped east on Route 2 through North Dakota just after sunset late last August, watching the fluorescent lights of Williston, N.D., flicker away behind us.

They weren’t the only lights. As far as the eye could see, hundreds of fires blazed from holes blasted into the prairie. The scale of industry and vastness of the Great Plains were overwhelming. We drove east pushing 75 mph for almost two hours. For almost two hours, on either side of the road, the fields were burning.

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Around the Bend: House cooling plans full of hot air

Posted on June 6, 2013 |
By Jessie Raymond



Last Saturday night, during a period of heat-induced delirium, I briefly reconsidered my longstanding opposition to air conditioning.

My inner stoic Vermonter says A/C this far north is a sign of weakness and a waste of money. True, I am not stoic by nature or a Vermonter by birth, but I still believe artificial cooling is for sissies. Just Saturday afternoon, in fact, I had been bragging to a friend that our bedroom is always cool enough for sleeping, even during heat waves.

I swear I never heard the minor piano chords threatening in the background.

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Ways of Seeing: Anger should be handled like fire

Posted on June 6, 2013 |
By Joanna Colwell



I was talking on the phone with a dear friend, and boy was she mad! She was so angry that her voice had a hard edge to it, her breathing was rapid, and my chest felt tight just listening to her speak. Her emotion was so immediate, so current, so fresh. The incident at the root of the rage? It happened 24 years ago.

Here’s the thing about anger. It is like a fire that makes us hot. When we tell the story of what someone did to us that made us so angry, we are feeding the fire, adding more and more dry kindling to encourage the blaze.

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Community Forum: Alcohol awareness needs to start early

Posted on June 6, 2013 |
By Beth Diamond



This week’s writer is Beth Diamond, a regional resource specialist at Vermont 2-1-1 and a member of the Addison County Prevention Partnership.

Each year the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency (NCADD) sponsors National Alcohol Awareness Month to encourage local communities to focus on alcoholism and alcohol-related issues. This year, NCADD highlighted the important public health issue of underage drinking, a problem with devastating individual, family and community consequences.

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Clippings by Andy Kirkaldy: Say thanks to people who matter

Posted on May 30, 2013 |
By Andy Kirkaldy



When I sat down recently with soon-to-retire Ferrisburgh Central School teacher Alana Lilly, I asked her the standard question about the highlights of her 30 years at the school.

As is always the case, not all of an interviewee’s response made the final cut for a story. Not everything fit: After all, in 30 years, Lilly, like other teachers with similar careers, had made an impact at her school. 

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