In the produce section at the grocery store the other day, I was pleased to see cherries are in season. I wasn’t pleased to see they cost nine dollars a pound. These were not organic cherries but conventional, pesticide-sprayed fruit. What makes them expensive is that they were trucked in from Michigan […]

As I write, another teeming downpour pounds northwest Vermont. Over seven inches of rain fell in May, more that twice the average and a new record. A record summer for mosquitoes is predicted, even if the rain abates. A mild winter and heavy spring rain will bring the Green Mountains all sorts of bug and […]

George W. Bush, who proclaimed America’s “oil addiction,” in his January State of the Union address, exhibited a classic symptom of addiction Tuesday: denial.
As the price of a gallon of gas heads for (and beyond) three dollars, Mr. Bush proposed a truly meaningless agenda, asking oil companies to invest some of their outrageous profits in […]

A quarter century ago, when I began purchasing cigarettes and gasoline in significant quantities, a pack of smokes and a gallon of gas went for about the same price – 65 or 70 cents.
Last week, a gallon gas was selling for about $2.65 in Vermont and while I was filling up, I noticed a pack […]

It’s winter in Vermont, although it’s 40 degrees in Burlington, there’s no snow on the ground and my neighbor, Tom, is moping about the house. He has a new collapsible ice shanty, auger and tip-ups sitting in his basement unused, because the ice on Lake Champlain (what there is of it) is not thick enough […]