Karl Lindholm: Kelly, Noelle, and ‘the Bat!’

“The Bat” sits prominently on the windowsill in the office of Middlebury College softball coach Kelly Bevere. It’s a crummy old bat really, not much good for anything now, worn out, pretty much out of hits, but assuming a deservedly honored spot. 

Matthew Dickerson: Skiing at Rikert in March can excel

I’m standing on the snow at Rikert next to my wife Deborah, clicking my cross-country ski boots into my bindings.

Karl Lindholm: ‘Value on the margins’: Phillies scout Erick Dalton

The image of a baseball scout in the popular mind is that of a wise and wizened veteran of the game, the way scouts are portrayed in “Money Ball,” for example, or like Clint Eastwood in the movie “Trouble with the Curve.” Well, the game has changed.

Matthew Dickerson: Of long skating rinks and big snakes

The same climate change that is dramatically shortening the season for outdoor skating across the north — including places like the Rideau Canal Skateway — is also opening up new habitat for Burmese pythons to move northward.

Karl Lindholm: Winter Carnival, Panther Olympians: Becky Fraser

This weekend is the 100th Middlebury Winter Carnival and I find myself absorbed, perhaps ironically given the above, by Middlebury ski history and culture.

Matthew Dickerson: Wendell Berry, the Bagginses, and more on walking

As soon as I hit “send” on last week’s column, I began pondering various works of literature that illustrated the virtues of walking and which have inspired me over the years to be more appreciative of the practice.

Karl Lindholm: ‘Candlesticks always make a nice gift’

I love watching movies with my kids, now adults. These days, that usually means watching from home in a darkened living room on the big TV, without phones and other distractions.  

Matthew Dickerson: A meditation on walking

My wife Deborah and I like to go walking. We are not interested in walking the Appalachian Trail. Nor even the Long Trail. Although we both find longer walks in new places enjoyable, most of our walks are just 20 minutes long on familiar trails in the woo … (read more)

Karl Lindholm: ‘Is this heaven?’ ‘No, it’s Pepin’

If I were the impresario of the Middlebury Men’s Alumni Basketball Weekend, I would have done it up right, with great hoopla.

Matthew Dickerson: Fishing on thin ice

Even before stepping out onto the ice of Bryant Pond 30 minutes before dawn on New Year’s Day, I could tell it was going to be an unusual opening to Maine’s ice fishing season. 

Karl Lindholm: Warming up to the college’s sports hall of fame

About 10 years ago, I got wind of a plan to initiate a Middlebury College Athletics Hall of Fame to coincide with the construction of the new field house. I thought this was a very bad idea and I wrote to the big shots at Middlebury and told them so.

Matthew Dickerson: What fish taught me in 2022

It’s probably not accurate to say that fish taught me anything. Numerous fishing outings on which I failed to interact with any actual fish is evidence that I don’t even understand their language.

Matthew Dickerson: Brutality, gentleness, nature and Advent

The natural world can be brutal. 

Karl Lindholm: The Castigliones of Middlebury — and Joe!

Now, dear readers, what you may not know is “Voice of the Red Sox” Joe’s relationship to Middlebury and Middlebury College. 

Matthew Dickerson: A reflection on writing and place

When it comes to films and works of fiction, we often think in terms of character development. Did the main characters change? If so, how and why? We don’t always ask that of non-fiction. But we ought to.

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