Random Acts
I stood leaning against the rear fender of my cab as the evening Amtrak came to a noisy stop. It was early June and I didn’t expect much. The students were gone and the summer tourist season wouldn’t begin in earnest for a few weeks. I was watching a few travelers disembark from the front…
Back Talk
moving objects After curating exhibitions at the Fleming Museum for 11 years, Janie Cohen is taking over as director on July 1. The 45-year-old Burlington resident has already proven she has the vision — and the connections — to deliver the big picture. She masterminded a Picasso print show that graced the Queen City seven…
Flick Chick
The Cannes Film Festival on the French Riviera is renowned for the sometimes outrageous antics of celebrity wannabes, but a low-key gathering in the Adirondacks attracted its fair share of attention-getters this year. Last Thursday’s opening reception at the third annual Lake Placid Film Forum was the setting for some bizarre movie make-believe. An unsuspecting…
Daddy Dearest: Mr. Potter by Jamaica Kincaid
What does it mean to a young girl to have a loving father or not to have one? Go to any bookstore and youll find authors insisting on the need for male role models in a young boys development; visit any multiplex and you can see a teary celebration of the mother-daughter bond. The…
Hard Copy: A second-generation editor credits her source
Every morning over breakfast, my father would read The New York Times. Then he would leave the paper on the table for my mother, and on his way to the bus, buy a second copy to read during the 45-minute commute from our home in New Jersey to New York City. Then all day long…
A Male Tale: A recovering adolescent makes a case for cooties
I first began to learn about the fundamental nature of male-female relationships in the second grade, and it was a cruel but critical life lesson. My first crush was Cindy Harrington, a three-and-a-half-foot brunette with a bowl cut only slightly longer than mine. She was the one girl in second grade shorter than I was.…
A First Cut: a salon neophyte gets the gentleman’s treatment
On Sunday afternoons when my hair got shaggy, my mother used to bust out the electric clippers, a pair of scissors and an old sheet to collect snipped locks. My dad, my brother and I took turns sitting in the kitchen chair as she trimmed and shaped, modifying her approach to our individual scalps and…
Stand By Your Woman: The good guys behind Vermont’s leading ladies
We’ve all heard the proverb alleging that “behind every great man is a great woman.” For centuries, women have settled for that role — and its attendant faint praise — without ever considering the reverse. Does the über-spouse theory also apply to high-profile females? Might there be more dynamic dames running around if they had…
Pure Pop: Phish’s first father calls in from the road
Halfway through a monthlong, cross-country tour, Trey Anastasio is getting croaky. The former Phish front man continues to be the primary singer in his new nine-piece band; even with back-up support, singing 25 nights out of 30 is brutal on the vocal cords. Though he admits he needs to learn how to say no, Anastasio…
No Way, José
Sanders rails against IBM, while the Burlington City Council approves naming North Beach after Bernie.
