Cover Story
Best Supporting Activist: Uber-organizer Chris Wood is the man about Montpelier
Chris Wood is nursing a double mocha latte at the Capitol Grounds in Montpelier, and he seems to know every hippie, yuppie and crusty farmer who comes into the coffeehouse. Even those who don’t greet him tend to take notice. At 6-foot-4, the lean political activist and arts agitator stands out in any crowd. Plus,…
Six Actors in Search of Pirandello
If you want help unraveling the knot that is The Probable Pirandello’s Wife, playwright Herb Propper is the last person to ask. “Why don’t you see it yourself and tell me what it’s about?” he says with a guffaw. “I think it’s a metaphysical exploration of really complex, neurotic, erotic relationships between people and their…
Haunting License: The Haunting of L. by Howard Norman
A snapshot of photography in the 1920s: Ernst Leitz introduces the first 35mm Leica camera. George Eastman, of Eastman Kodak fame, goes on safari to Africa. General Electric invents the flashbulb. The spirits of dead Eskimos are captured on film as they drift up to heaven. One of these developments is the work of an…
Hurray for Hollywood, Sort Of: Good may have triumphed at this year’s Oscars, but greatness was ignored
History was made and justice done on a number of fronts Sunday night. Not that deserving people didn’t leave the 74th annual Academy Awards empty-handed. As everyone knows by now, though, both Best Actor and Best Actress Oscars were won by African-Americans for the first time. In fact, Halle Berry is the first black actress…
School Choice: Introducing a college-bound daughter to a suitable bachelor of arts
In some cultures, the parents of a 16-year-old girl would plot their daughter’s future by consulting the local matchmaker. As ours began the spring semester of her junior year in high school, David and I did the academic equivalent: We paid a call to the college-guide section at our local bookstore. We were initiating the…
Riding High: Vermont’s laid-back Olympians go with the snow
The scene was just like I’d pictured it Ñ two snowboarders, a guy and a girl, casually dressed and posed under a large Burton banner. Hordes of media and fans waiting for interviews and autographs. But Vermonters Kelly Clark and Ross Powers appear unexpectedly mortal and nonchalant for a couple of gold-medal winners. Clark, a…
Tony Gets Religion
Running out of allies who could maintain a straight face, Anthony Pollina has pulled the plug on his legal and public relations war against the Democratic Party, Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, Attorney General Bill Sorrell, the Tooth Fairy, the Wicked Witch of the West and anyone else who dared question his purity. Wise move.…
Mencken Connections
Third-rate men, of course, exist in all countries, but it is only here that they are in full control of the state, and with it of all the national standards….It would astound no one but the most romantic if the goddess of liberty were taken off the silver dollars to make room for a bas…
Waste Not?
The shit almost hit the land last week at Burlington’s Intervale. That is, until its board got wind of a potential controversy and pulled the plug on plans to take nearly 3.6 million pounds of chicken manure per year from the Vermont Egg Farm in Highgate. After getting an earful from small-farm advocates, environmentalists and…
Flick Chick
Many people believe that today’s Islamic fundamentalists are on a par with 20th-century Nazis, and that liberating Kabul is akin to conquering Berlin. The battles of Operation Enduring Freedom, the thinking goes, carry much the same significance as D-Day or Iwo Jima. With the memory of 9/11 still palpable, terrorism seems as heinous as fascism.…
