Jerry Goldberg
‘Nothing kissy, Jerry’
I'm sad today because I just heard that Valerie Harper has passed. And I'm glad, because for a while I got to know her a little.
Among the highlights of my almost 24-year CBS career was my assignment to sell shows produced by Mary Tyler Moore's company, MTM Enterprises, to audiences and advertisers.
A conversation with Mary Giamartino, owner, the Hotel Pharmacy
A couple of fledgling pharmacists from New York and New Jersey set up shop in Brattleboro. Thirty-five years later, their landmark enterprise continues to offer the best pharmaceutical care love can provide.
So you walk into this imposing Gothic church that must've been quite a star in the firmament of local houses of worship in its day. The vaulted ceiling alone is a spirit-lifter - especially since that's often what folks need if they're visiting a pharmacy. How many times at...
A conversation with Brian Mooney and Vaune Trachtman
A writer and a photographer meet at Marlboro College and fall in love. And 21 years later, they give the world Storymatic — their ‘little boxes full of Yes!’
I'd been down that hall before: third floor, down the corridor from the circus, next to the giant red octopus hanging from the wall. No, you can't make it up when you're talking about the Cotton Mill. Everything's possible - and nothing makes sense. And that's the beauty of...
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A conversation with John McLeod, owner, Vermont Bowl Company
On the January Saturday morning of my interview with John McLeod, I was running late. Having careened my way over the hills from Brattleboro, the 25-mph speed limit into and out of downtown Wilmington was as frustrating as ever, until that stretch of five or six buildings on the north side that signal the last of Wilmington for a while -- and the go-ahead for a heavier foot. Truth be told, I've sped through the west end of that town...
A conversation with Janice Warren, president of OneReport
For all the steps I've climbed and the drives I've taken in pursuit of these stories of folks we ought to know more about, what keeps me moving forward full-throttle is the chance to get to know people like Janice Warren. Warren's company, OneReport, is “advancing corporate responsibility [by] bridging investors, stakeholders, and reporting organizations in one platform,” according to its website. She lives (at least in a technical sense - having met her, I'm pretty sure she puts in...
A conversation with Wilbur Rice, the owner of Equipe Sport
As I drove past the Townshend Dam Diner - that one-of-a-kind best-turkey-croquettes eatery sandwiched between Townshend and Jamaica on Route 30 - I realized how long it'd been since I'd been up that way. And certainly how long it'd been since I whipped through Rawsonville, a tiny crisscross of energy at the junction of Routes 30 and 100. The spouse and I had motored through this village lots of times in the old days, when the Manchester outlets' promise of...
A conversation with Julie Lineberger and Joseph Cincotta
It's almost impossible to have spent eight years at the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce without keeping up to speed on the work of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility - an organization whose mission is “to foster a business ethic in Vermont that recognizes the opportunity and responsibility of the business community to set a high standard for protecting the natural, human, and economic environment of our citizens.” For eight years as a member and four as chair of the...
A conversation with the founders of New England Center for Circus Arts
One of the perks that come with a Chamber of Commerce gig is a front-row center seat at the pageant of players who step onto our community stage every day to show us what they've got. From service providers to shopkeepers, builders to bakers, they weave the fabric of our community - and we are enhanced by every thread. I first became aware of the Smith sisters when they brought their circus-production company, Nimble Arts, to the scene. Whether they...