The shots might have pushed her over the edge. Our family of four was preparing for a six month stay in Rwanda last year, and my 10-year old daughter was growing increasingly ambivalent about the prospect. Now there were rabies shots to contend with? She toughed it out, we went, and a year later we…
Category: Random Rants
Here are two printouts: one’s about alcohol, one about marijuana. They explain how the law and law enforcement look at this stuff (spoiler alert: they don’t like it). Let’s be really clear: what you’re looking at are the actual, non-negotiable consequences if you get caught drinking or smoking. 1) You will get a $300 fine…
Sadly, Norwich, VT native and all-around nice girl Hannah Kearney is no longer defending Olympic freestyle moguls champion. Billed as the favorite and hoping to repeat her gold medal performance from Vancouver, she instead had a tough final run at the Sochi Olympics and ended up “only” winning bronze. It was disappointing to herself and…
Young Fulani boys in Benin must undergo a whipping battle in which they trade blows with another boy from a different tribe in order to become a man. The sticks they use to whip each other have sharpened points and thorns all over them to maximize the pain they inflict, and both boys attempt to…
I received a news flash this morning from Dartmouth announcing an $8 million grant to study the effects of arsenic on children. Really, now? Can’t we just agree that it’s probably not a good combination and leave it at that? Is it really worth spending $8 million to prove that kids, on a whole, do better without…
I so badly wanted to use the word “corpuscular” to describe Chris Christie, but the dictionary says it means, “Any cell or similar minute body that is suspended in a fluid.” And while BridgeGate does have Christie suspended in very deep doodoo of his very own making , he’s no minute body, and that wasn’t really what…
“It was a dark and stormy night” And all was quiet at the trail side condos at Jay Peak. Not a lot of action at 1:22 in the morning. Then, just for shits n’ giggles, the fire alarm decided to go off in #406. Again. Like it had done a few hours earlier. Shrieking, ear-piercing;…
I turn 45 later this year (gasp!), and the rules of the game clearly state that this entitles me to 1 (one) full-blown midlife crisis (void where prohibited, some restriction apply; see package insert for full details). Faced with the traditional options: an affair (too much hassle) or a motorbike (too dangerous) this renegade-with-a-receding-hairline opted…
Down the Path to Better Solar His brainchild may look like a postmodern sculpture, but Bill Bender is an engineer at heart, not an artist. When he isn’t busy helping his daughter Kristen climb mountains or biking with his younger kids to school, the unassuming Norwich resident is quietly revolutionizing solar energy. Bill remembers taking a course…
You know you’re shopping at Walmart when the housewives wear camo and check their holiday shopping list carefully before they put an additional six pack of Coors Light in the cart. ‘Tis the season, after all. Damn, but this time of year brings out the unrepentant cynic in me. I don’t do holidays, particularly not…
