Archive - Dec 2010 - Page
December 16th
As I languidly flipped through a children’s toy catalog one morning an item caught my eye. It’s the kind of educational toy catalog that we probably get because we are members of the natural foods co-op. There were virtually none of the toys or games from my childhood — no lawn darts, no Jimmy the Greek Odds Maker Poker.
Every year at about this time, I get the urge to put on a red-and-green apron, crank up the Christmas music, and bake cookies. The warmth of the oven, the aroma of cinnamon wafting through the house, the thought of sharing homemade treats with loved ones — it all puts me in a holiday mood.
Unfortunately, it’s usually a bad mood.
Despite my good intentions, baking cookies leaves me stressed out. I end up with flour in my hair and misdirected feelings of animosity toward Burl Ives, Bing Crosby and yes, even Jimmy Stewart.
It’s Christmas, the season for gift giving. Or, if you’ve taken a trip to your mailbox lately and had to bring a wheelbarrow or small dump truck, you also know it as the season for catalogs.
MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury Union High School girls’ basketball team on Tuesday caught offensive and defensive sparks in the second quarter and defeated visiting Fair Haven, 41-27, in an opener that pitted two top-five Division II seeds from last winter.
The Tigers trailed late in the first quarter and were being badly outrebounded when Coach Cindy Atkins called for a switch from a zone defense to man-to-man.
This is the tenth in a second series of essays and reflections about politics and the moral life. The themes of the essays are drawn from Plato’s Laws, his last and longest philosophical dialogue written shortly before his death in 347 bce. Lawsis a fictional account of a conversation involving three old men with long experience in politics: Cleinias, from the Cretan city of Cnossos, Megillus, from Sparta, and an Athenian stranger who is not named, but who may be Plato himself. They have assumed the role of founders of a new Cretan city, Magnesia.
December 15th
Popular alt-rock band Guster's music video "Do What You Do" takes place in Addison County's very own Bristol. Holley Hall, Vermont HoneyLights and other local businesses make cameos in the footage that was taken in August. See the full article in Monday's paper.
December 13th
MIDDLEBURY — United Way of Addison County has reached 60 percent of its $775,000 goal in its 2010-2011 fund drive, nicely ahead of last year’s pace as the campaign enters the critical holiday giving season, officials said on Thursday.
It was in September that local United Way launched its annual fund drive to aid the county’s many nonprofit human service agencies. Organizers set the same goal as last year — a threshold of $775,000 that the United Way fell $40,000 short of realizing for 2009, in large part due to the sluggish economy.
BRISTOL — Amidst filling out college applications, going on campus visits and completing routine homework assignments, Mount Abraham Union High School senior Rosie Nelson also finds time each week to Skype with the students and faculty of the New Life School in Ghana.
Nelson, 18, on her second trip to Ghana, volunteered at the school for 11 weeks this past summer, during which time she and her 22-year-old German roommate Christina Rohmann worked together to eliminate the practice of caning from the school’s bylaws after witnessing it firsthand.
