Not all the numbers, but some significant ones. As we ring out the year, the price of gas averages $2.98 per gallon in the US, up 64 cents from a year ago. The price of oil is $96.93 per barrel, up from $55.95 at the end of 2006. Gold is selling for $840 an ounce, […]
“As the days grow longer, the cold grows stronger.” That’s the old Vermont weather adage that refers to the fact that every year just after winter solstice, the thermometer heads toward zero. Vermont has always had white Christmases and New Year’s Eve is usually unutterably cold. Good night to stay inside. This year, we had […]
Illegal drugs are big news here in Vermont. In Windsor county, Robert Sand the state’s attorney (the equivalent of a district attorney) has long been an advocate of reforming marijuana laws. He says prosecuting cases and sending people to jail for small amounts of marijuana is a waste of taxpayer money and diverts resources from […]
When I was third grade at St. Margaret Mary’s School in the late 1960s, we used to have “the SRA box” in the corner. The SRA box had dozens of color-coded sheets, each sheet had a little story and a few questions at the end. We’d read a story, answer the questions, Mrs. Ortolani would […]
This isn’t a Christmas story, per se. It’s about soap. It takes place in Louisiana in June, far removed from the climate and symbols traditionally associated with Christmas, but the more I contemplate the “Christmas spirit” the more this story pushes to the front of my mind. The June in question was 2001, before specific […]
Ohio journalists Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman have been charging that the way voting was conducted in their state in the 2004 presidential election was suspicious almost from the moment George W. Bush was declared winner. Winning Ohio gave Mr. Bush his second term in office. Now a report from the Ohio Secretary of State […]
The Gathering Storm?
In the autumn of 1979, I was a college freshman; majoring in history and watching it unfold. The Solidarity movement emerged from the shipyards of Gdansk as I arrived at school. Eight weeks later, Iranian students took staff at the US embassy in Tehran hostage. Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan on Christmas Eve. Each event sounded […]