Op-ed
ENEMY WANTED. Serious enemy needed to justify Pentagon budget increase. Defense contractors desperate. Interested enemies send letter and video (threatening okay) to Enemy Search Committee, C/O Ben Cohen, Burlington, VT 05401. By Ben Cohen A couple weeks before 9/11, you may have seen this job posting in the newspaper. At the time, our politicians couldn’t…
Curtain Calls: Uncovering Vermont’s painted past
A landscape from another time and place overlooks the dusty, rarely used second floor of the land-locked Starksboro Public Library. Mounted in the proscenium arch of a small stage, a painted canvas curtain shows fishermen hauling their net onto a beach, with a lighthouse in the distance. The design incorporates a make-believe plaque that reads…
Lady Lock: In Vermont pro-wrestling rings, Lisa Hayes is the grand dame of slam
In this corner, shouts Roy Haynes, from a land unknown, comes Lisa The Adjuster! The Adjuster raises her fists triumphantly and stomps the mat, gearing up for the match. This afternoon, she will have blood. And in that corner, from Hollywood, California, Michael Monroe, The Movie Star! The tiny Justin Lussier The Movie Stars…
Wander Boys: A band of itinerant musicians sings in hobo harmony
Rik Palieri is a tramp and a hobo. And if you think those are insults, then you just don’t get it. “A hobo works and wanders,” explains the Hines-burg musician. “A tramp dreams and wanders. And a bum drinks and wanders.” Palieri’s wandering spirit has led to gigs all over the world, introducing him to…
Saving Faces: A close-up look at Vermont photographer Ethan Hubbard
The directions to Ethan Hubbard’s house are complicated. Miss one of the turns and you can wander Orange County’s serpentine back roads for awhile without seeing any vehicles except tractors, and the dodgy cell-phone service makes it hard to call for remedial instructions. Along the way you pass homes both country-chic and, more typically, run-down…
Road to Victory!
Lake Champlain was the beautiful backdrop the other day as Democrat Doug Racine tried to claim the crown of the “environmental candidate” for governor of Vermont. A dozen card-carrying environmentalists lined up on the sea wall behind him. Even the mama ducks and the baby ducks lined up on the waves behind him. The sun…
Under Whose God?
Well, score one for our side, however briefly and without a prayer of success, if you’ll forgive the expression. I refer to the “God” business — that is, the “under God” business — and the decision of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the inclusion of the words “one nation under God” in…
Chunky Monkey Business
It’s no secret that Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield made a fortune playing the underdog. For more than 15 years, they were the counterculture hippies in the corporate world. In the end, though, they proved to be better at bringing home the loot than most of their button-down brethren. Ice cream was their product, but…
Work: Allen Parker, redemption center sorter
The din of clanking bottles and cans is music to Allen Parker’s ears. He found his dream career — redemption — about six years ago. At 33, the Burlington resident is proud of his speed and accuracy in a frenetic operation that handles an estimated 26,000 empties on a busy day. Parker, a wiry man…
Flick Chick
holy roles When the “under God” crisis broke last week, Republican lawmakers lined up with telegenic precision to recite the deity-friendly pledge of allegiance in front of the U.S. Capitol. Other reactions were equally daft. As CNN interviewed customers at an Atlanta coffee shop, an irate citizen proclaimed: “The Consti-tution guarantees freedom of religion, not…
