Ben Boettger

Connecting unmet needs to untapped resources

Brattleboro Time Trade celebrates community self-help

Gabriel Weiss, a self-employed gardener in his 20s, moved from Maine to Brattleboro in September of 2013 knowing no one here and connected to no group.

He made it work.

In short order on arrival, Weiss became one of 85 new members to join Brattleboro Time Trade (BTT), a not-for-profit organization that facilitates an exchange of services among its members who do business by “time credits,” the time trade's self-described “alternate currency” worth an hour per credit.

Those credits add up and can be spent on services from any other member in kind. Different groups refer to this economic arrangement as “time trading” or “time banking.”...

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The last picture show?

Vermont’s indifference to the film industry is keeping Hollywood away, and driving local filmmakers away

In the climax of D. W. Griffith's 1920 silent melodrama Way Down East, the film's heroine is trapped on an ice floe rushing toward a waterfall. The frozen river that served as the stage for her peril, and subsequent dramatic rescue, was constructed in the editing room from footage...

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Epic fantasy

Marlboro author’s debut novel hits print as the first book of a trilogy

On Jan. 14, Brian Staveley became a published author when his debut novel, The Emperor's Blades, was released by science fiction and fantasy publisher, Tor Books. Although this book is his first, Staveley's literary journey has already been a long and varied one, taking him from the study of...

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