By the Book: Middlebury author Jay Parini waxes poetic on the literary life
As sure as you can get two eggs and toast for $2.35 every morning at Steve’s Park Diner in Middlebury, you can find Jay Parini parked at a booth along the wall, writing poetry. The author starts each day with breakfast, coffee and a 75-minute session writing rhymes. Even in the breakfast rush, nobody bothers…
Hip-Hop Herbie? Herb Hancock
Few musicians can claim any significant impact on the evolution of their field. Keyboardist Herbie Hancock, however, has influenced successive generations in at least three ways. In the mid-’60s, he set the standard for impressionistic post-bop piano work as a member of Miles Davis’ last acoustic quintet. The electronic fusion he recorded in the early…
Sweet Deals: Chocolatier Linda Grishman has a candy-do attitude
Chocoholics, beware: Learning about Linda Grishman’s job could activate your cravings. You might even want to jot down the phone number of a local 12-step program. The 52-year-old Bur-lington resident makes chocolate — all day, every day — in the basement of her New North End home. Not feeling weak in the knees yet? Consider…
Cardinal Sin
In Boston, there are growing calls from prominent citizens for Cardinal Bernard Law to resign as archbishop. Since the 1980s, the Cardinal of Boston knew about pedophile priests under his supervision. Instead of reporting the crimes to authorities, he merely transferred the sexual predators to new parishes and new victims. In Portland, Maine, the Catholic…
Hackie
“Yo, Jernigan — over here!” Hearing those shouted words, I pulled my cab over to the curb. It was mid-afternoon and I was on North Street, having just dropped a fare in the Old North End. I turned to see a man of about 30 trotting across the street towards my window. His clothes looked…
Dead Air
Ever notice how no one on television uses the phrase “media circus” anymore? I suspect that’s because the electronic medium has largely degenerated into one big ’round-the-clock circus itself. Millions tune in to watch Tonya Harding duke it out with Paula Jones. Meanwhile, Ted Koppel can’t get ABC executives to return his calls. Can things…
Flick Chick
A cultural touchstone of the 1960s, The King of Hearts ran for something like five consecutive years at one Boston-area theater. With an antiwar message that resonated in the Vietnam era, the quirky cult film also entranced a populace just emerging from the previous decade’s stultifying conformity. Although the zeitgeist has changed to rah-rah conformity…
Ground Hog Wild: The Ground Hog Opry
It’s standing room only at the Hyde Park Opera House. The locals may be starved for entertainment in this small burg in the Northeast Kingdom, but that’s not the only reason they’re piling into the historic theater on Saturday night. The popular Ground Hog Opry is in town and, by jeezum, it’s been at least…
‘Hawk’ Eye: A former helicopter pilot targets the movie about the U.S. raid in Somalia
The movie and the book, Black Hawk Down, refer to a U.S. military operation in Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1993. An elite U.S. Army force, supported by Black Hawk helicopters, seized corrupt African warlords who were diverting food aid from their people. During the operation, which lasted less than two days, enemy militia shot down…
Headed for Trouble: Rough Landing on a Soft Cranium
A little advice: If a masked perpetrator is holding you up with a 9mm pistol and tells you to put your hands in the air, do it. Even with your cheek mashed into the barroom floor, a faceless psychopath hovering above you, don’t waste a second. Otherwise, it could mean three slugs in the back.…
