About 2,000 tailgaters ago, I wrote about tailgating [“Your driving evokes murmurations in nature. Now slow down and back off!,” Essay, April 13, 2022]. I was open to thinking that tailgaters' ideas about tailgating could be something altogether different than mine. After all, they're looking at my rear end while I'm looking for their front end.
I likened tailgaters to flocks of birds dancing in three-dimensional high-speed harmony and warned that all it takes is one tailgater, bird or human, with a sprained wing or cardiac arrest to throw an entire system of highway flyers or drivers out of whack.
And although I'd never observed an undulating flock of birds spin out of control, I had seen tailgaters do so. I used tailgating as a vehicle to caution readers that our incredible rate of unsustainable consumption will rear-end us over the edge of the very systems we depend on.
I was a bumper away from forgiving tailgaters. After all, not seeing the hood of the car behind me while going 70 mph had to be my fault, particularly when there were plenty of opportunities to pass.
Grace Cottage Hospital has joined a nationwide initiative to improve health care specifically for older adults. The Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative is helping hospitals and other care settings implement a set of evidence-based interventions specifically designed to improve care for older adults. In its letter congratulating Grace Cottage Hospital...
A federal investigation found that the Twin Valley Unified Union School District failed to prevent a “hostile” school climate that included “targeted peer harassment” at Twin Valley Middle-High School, officials announced on March 16. In a settlement with the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office, the district...
The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department says it has begun to receive reports of bears coming out of their dens as the weather warms, and that now is the time to take these proactive steps to help prevent bears from looking for food in your yards and neighborhoods: – Take down your birdfeeder. Between late March and December, birdfeeders should not be used. You can attract birds by planting bird-friendly native plants instead. Check out Audubon's Native Plants for Birds...
Town seeks volunteers for boards BRATTLEBORO - The town is looking for citizens to serve on the following committees and boards: ADA Committee; Arts Committee; Citizen Police Communications Committee (CPCC); Design Review Board (Alternate); Development Review Board (Member and an Alternate); Fence Viewers; Honor Roll; Inspector of Lumber, Shingles & Wood; Planning Commission; Senior Solutions; and Weigher of Coal. Applications and more information about various committees and boards can be found at brattleboro.org, or by calling the Town Manager's office...
This April, student work from Dover, NewBrook, Jamaica, Townshend, and Wardsboro schools will be on display at the Moore Free Library and Crowell Gallery. Unified Arts teachers in the West River and River Valley school districts have been collaborating in connection with Vermont's Red Clover books. The Red Clover Book Award is designed for children in kindergarten through fourth grade. Each year, thousands of Vermont school children read the 10 nominated picture books and vote for their favorite in the...
The Vermont Theatre Company is pleased to present Earnest! A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. This version of Oscar Wilde's wittiest play will be like no other version available, having been lovingly reimagined and modernized by director CC. While the text has been edited some for time and clarity, the material and language of this production of Earnest largely remains the same, but with a twist. We follow Algernon, the middle class black sheep in a family of successful entrepreneurs,
New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA), is creating employment opportunities for aspiring aerialists, acrobats, jugglers, clowns, and more. Each year, NECCA sponsors a graduate to attend Vegas International Variety Act (VIVA) Fest, an international circus gathering and competition based in Las Vegas. This year, in addition to the sponsored student who receives financial support to attend, eight other aspiring circus professionals from NECCA were accepted into VIVA Fest to compete in the Emerging Pro category. NECCA co-founders and on-staff...
It is always easy to spend money, but keeping track of rising costs is difficult. Join Southeastern Vermont Community Action's (SEVCA) Financial and Energy Coach Kevin O'Brien at a free workshop on Monday, April 10, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Brooks Memorial Library's upstairs meeting room, to gain a clearer picture of money management opportunities. This workshop will also be streamed online. The financial world is confusing and often predatory, but there are tools one can use to...
Guitarist Hiroya Tsukamoto will perform in Wendy's Jazz Soiree Series in Guilford on Sunday, April 9, at 3 p.m. There will be no intermission and masks are optional. Admission is $15–$20 at the door. Call 802-254-6189 for information and directions. Hiroya Tsukamoto is an innovative guitarist and composer who fuses folk, jazz, and world music. Born and raised in Japan, he received a scholarship in 2000 to Berklee College of Music and came to the United States. He now lives...
Obituaries • Susan Marie Briggs, 64, of Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Died March 24, 2023 at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., following a courageous third battle with cancer. Susan was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts on Jan. 29, 1959, the daughter of Herbert and Theresa (Pratt) Day. She was raised and educated in Greenfield public schools, graduating from Greenfield High School with the Class of 1977. She went on to attend the Thompson School for Practical Nursing in Brattleboro, where she...
Most of Windham County may have gotten whacked with an epic amount of snow in the March 13-15 storm, but the warm spring sun has whittled away at the snow in the hills and dried out the fields in the valleys. After a couple of weeks of “gym ball,” the local high school baseball and softball teams are ready to get outside. The grass will be brown and there will be a snowbank or two still lurking, but weather permitting,
After 32 months, seven program extensions, and more than 3.6 million meals distributed, the Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE) pandemic relief program ended on March 31. Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE) was funded through a contract provided by the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development to Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA), made possible by over $46 million in federal FEMA funding supplemented with a $1.3 million allocation from the Vermont Legislature, and advised by a Statewide Task Force, including perspectives from...
Holy Week is honored at St. Michael's Episcopal Church on Bradley Avenue from Palm Sunday through Easter morning. While the public is welcome to all services, a few of broader interest are, first, the Tenebrae on Wednesday, April 5, at 7 p.m. This Holy Week tradition - otherwise known as the Service of Shadows - is not a time of celebration, “but a time of contemplation, meditation, and prayerful reflection of what this time in the Passion (the suffering) of...
Alexander Leonard is 18 and a senior at Bellows Falls Union High School. On Feb. 10, he was recognized in a resolution passed by both the Vermont House and Senate for “his heroism and decisive action” for his response to a fire in his family home when he was just 17. His response to that fire was something Leonard had been training for. He recently finished a one-year trial period as a volunteer with the Rockingham Fire Department, at the...
A Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) exhibition of drawings by famed pop artist Keith Haring, originally scheduled to close on April 16, has been extended to June 11. The works in the exhibition were previously slated to ship directly from Brattleboro to Barcelona for an exhibition opening this spring at the Moco Museum. With that exhibition now scheduled to open in November, BMAC visitors have two more months to enjoy Haring's iconic art. “Keith Haring: Subway Drawings” includes a...
Having more and more information available online is great, until the power goes out and you live in a place where cell phone service is spotty to nonexistent. Switching homes to heat pumps to reduce carbon emissions is also great, until the power goes out and you have no way to heat your home. These two points were highlighted by the March 13-15 snowstorm that blanketed parts of Windham County with as much as 3 feet of snow and left...
As an undergraduate at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, John Steven Gurney discovered his love for children's books. He has illustrated more than 100 children's books over the years. But there, he found that “children's books were only some of the things I wanted to illustrate,” said the artist, who has also has worked on fiction book covers, editorial illustrations for magazines, puzzles, and advertising posters. His journey from Brooklyn to Brattleboro came after living in Brooklyn for 17...
Vermont State Police are investigating a fatal March 30 shooting at on Birge Street. Tamico Williams, 21, of Hartford, Connecticut, died of gunshot wounds to the torso and the manner of death was a homicide, according to an autopsy completed on April 1 by the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Burlington. According to Brattleboro Police, the department received a 911 call shortly before 8 p.m. reporting the sound of gunfire at a residence at 14 Birge St. Responding to...
A resident of Morningside House shelter was held without bail after pleading not guilty to a first-degree murder charge in the gruesome April 3 death of the facility's coordinator, Leah Rosin-Pritchard. Zaaina Asra Zakirrah Mahvish-Jammeh, 38, was ordered Tuesday to receive a mental health evaluation. Prosecutors allege that she bought a hunting hatchet during the weekend and used it to take the life of Rosin-Pritchard, 36. “She is a danger to others and potentially to herself,” Judge Katherine Hayes said...
This morning, I found out that Leah Rosin-Pritchard was beaten to death with a hatchet. The description I heard from an eyewitness was graphic and brutal. I am shocked by this loss of life, and I am profoundly sad because I believe this was preventable. I will honor Leah and her radical empathy by telling parts of my own story as it relates to events and circumstances that led to this tragic incident. My relationship with Leah was professional. I...
Ousted Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) Principal Steven Perrin alleges that the board used him as a “scapegoat” and “sacrificial lamb” after learning of abuse by past teachers in the district, specifically Robert “Zeke” Hecker. In his lawsuit against the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU) and Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) boards, Perrin, who is represented by Theodore Kramer, claims that his “termination can only be explained as the Board's decision to scapegoat Plaintiff in light of vocal public pressure...
It's taken a lot of work, but as the crew that pulled together the first concert in the Ray Massucco Memorial Concert Series readies for its second show, “things are starting to fall into place,” according to production manager Ezra Veitch. On Friday, April 7, with doors opening at 6:30 p.m., Rays the Roof Productions brings back to the Bellows Falls Opera House two acts: Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Peter Mulvey, who has been doing concerts in Bellows Falls for...