Author Archives: floegel

Winter’s Tale

12/13/2012 – 9:41 pm

The long nights of the year are upon us and the diversity-celebrating, non-denominational holiday lights of Burlington wink on in the late afternoon as the sun sets not far from where it rises, off in the mountains to the south (first Green, then Adirondack). The kitchen is the warmest room in the house, with the […]

Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Things in My Shed

12/6/2012 – 12:58 pm

With this post, my New Year’s resolution is complete.  (Just in time to start working on a new one.)  I promised myself in January that I’d pay more attention to the world immediately around me this year and would dedicate my first commentary of each month to that topic. Although most of these comments have […]

Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Betrayed by a Trusted Caregiver

11/29/2012 – 10:23 am

Attention sociologists: How would you like the rare opportunity to study what happens when 400 vulnerable children in seven states are taken from what is universally acknowledged to be the most supportive foster-care program in the country and placed into the care of already-overburdened government agencies in their respective states?  Track their outcomes five, ten […]

Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Gratitude for Here and Now

11/22/2012 – 11:49 am

Happy Thanksgiving.  It’s a bright sunny morning in northwest Vermont and if we had huge balloons shaped like cartoon characters, we would absolutely have them inflated and crashing into trees and traffic lights, so I’m grateful for my municipality’s modesty. I’m grateful my state was prepared for this year’s big storm and even more grateful […]

Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Chump Change = No Change

11/15/2012 – 4:57 pm

Let me apologize in advance for all the numbers that follow, but they’re important. Eleven men died on Deepwater Horizon the night BP’s Macondo well blew out in April 2010.  It’s one number we shouldn’t forget and no number can be placed on the loss their families and communities suffered and continue to suffer. The […]

Posted in Commentary, Global Warming, Oil | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Through the Watershed

11/8/2012 – 1:54 pm

I imagine you’re as sick of political campaigns as I am, so I want to make a few last points about what happened Tuesday and then I hope we can stop thinking about politics for a few months at least. Maybe it was exhaustion, but by the time Mitt Romney conceded early Wednesday, I had […]

Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary, Electoral Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Between Two Worlds

11/1/2012 – 3:05 pm

It’s November and we have yet to have good hard freeze along the shore of Lake Champlain.  The temperature did touch the freezing mark for a hour or so early last week, causing the green leaves of the grapes, wisteria, hydrangea and apricot to be suddenly shot through with yellow. I raked the yard Sunday; […]

Posted in Commentary, Electoral Politics | Tagged , , | Comments (0)