State of Mind: Yum!
So there I was on my back in the dentist’s chair. Have you noticed you no longer “sit” in a dentist’s chair? The staff reclines you so your head is lower than…
Soldiers Unknown and Known
Last week, we (“Grammie” and “Gramps”) received a number of text messages with photos from our grandson, who was on his way to Scouting’s…
A State of Mind: Food Fights
It’s almost spring! That means it’s time for me to go through my closet, sort through my collection of polo shirts from last summer,…
State of Mind: War With the Machines
I just read a book that detailed how trees and other plants communicate underground through the tiny fibers of fungi called mycelium. It was fascinating…
A State of Mind: Tales from the Piggly Wiggly
Lately I find it very confusing to watch the news on TV. It is unnerving to watch video footage of large groups of armed…
A State of Mind: Look (Quick)! Up in the Sky!
When I was a kid, Christmas Eve almost always involved a ride in the car to search the night sky for the red light…
State of Mind: Connections
Many years ago, when I was coming of age, I found myself living in the “Jim Crow” South. Over the decades since, I have…
State of Mind: On the Cusp
Each year on November 11 we celebrate what was once called “Armistice Day” — the day in 1918 the armistice, or truce, that “paused”…
A State of Mind: What’s in a Name?
As I was driving through Colchester last week I noticed one of those elaborate carved wood signs at the end of a heavily wooded…
A State of Mind: Making a Splash
I know summer is just about over, and school has restarted for many of the kids out there, but there is still lots of time…
One Big Beautiful Hustle
I heard a snippet of the song “Mister Bojangles” the other day, and it brought to mind an incident I witnessed in New Orleans…
A State of Mind: Runs Good — Some Rust
(Apologies to Banjo Dan Lindner) A few days ago I noticed the license plates of both my car and truck had not wintered well.…
A State of Mind: The Mail Must Go Through!
If any town should have a beef with the United States Postal Service, it is Montpelier. Consider the frustration of getting the USPS to…
State of Mind: War of the Whirls
Many people these days are very concerned about what they see as the sinister potential of robotics and artificial intelligence. “What if,” they ask,…
State of Mind: Cold Comfort
Here we are in the middle of yet another cold/flu/COVID-19 season, with rising numbers of infections. We know numbers are rising not by the…
Greenland Again? But Wait! There’s More!
The incoming administration recently floated some interesting proposals for reorganizing world maps. One of those proposals is a leftover: The United States should purchase,…
O Tannenbaum
It was 200 years ago (1824) that Leipzig organist and composer Ernst Anschütz penned the modern lyrics of the German song “O Tannenbaum” as…
State of Mind: Tales of Better Angels
I had fully intended this column to be about a phenomenon called ‘Hobby Horsing.’ If you are not familiar with that “sport,” which started in…
State of Mind: The Unkindest Cut
As we all know, paper cuts can be nasty. I had one just the other day that required 48 stitches. Well, . . .…
State of Mind: Lost in Translation
It has always bothered me that although I start gardening in March, I must wait until August or September to start picking produce such…
Trotting to a Different Drummer
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about with climate change and the possibility of flooding, asteroids striking the earth, and the supervolcano…