Saturday, May 19th, is Kids' Day at the Brattleboro Farmers' Market! Kids can come sell things they make themselves-- no cookies from mixes, please!

The market is open from 9am to 2 pm and hosts music by Mike Cressey from 11-1. It is spring planting and our growers have lots of vegetable, herb, flower starts, as well as hard-to-find perennial plants and shrubs.

William Golding followed up his first and most famous work with a book about our progenitors, and the clash of species. A tale of our earliest ancestors coming in contact with our next earliest ancestors. The work is a novel, so the story takes flight into inner worlds, in a language of sensations and fragments of perception. But Golding has the underlying facts pretty straight, and once the unusual rhythm sinks in, his story is truly compelling.

Written so that events unfold in real time- from the viewpoint of an impulsive Neanderthal. The book is very successful in bringing life back to its raw elements. Down to earth, so to speak. It's a story of family, of tribe, of fundamental relationships.

For those who knew him, he needs no introduction. (Hi Tiny)

For those who didn't know Chuck Brown, you might be interested to know his story.

He traded cigarettes for a guitar while in prison for aggravated assault in the 1950's. Fast forward to the mid-1960's and he was performing top 10 hits in DC nightclubs.

WASHINGTON, May 16 – Gov. Peter Shumlin today joined Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) in announcing that Vermont could receive more than $30 million in additional federal funding for Tropical Storm Irene recovery projects.

Shumlin on May 3 asked President Obama to increase the reimbursement rate for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s public assistance program. Leahy, Sanders and Welch wrote to Obama urging the president to grant the state’s request.

WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Peter Welch hosted the 31st Annual Congressional Art Competition for high school students at The Gallery at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier on May 14th.

Caleb Wimble, who attends the Austine School for the Deaf was honored with the Congressman Welch’s Choice award for his piece, “Cat and Dog (Grant Wood).”

According to The Recorder the Four Leaf Clover restaurant in Bernardston was shut down due to unpaid meals taxes....apparently they owe over $81,000.

SEVCA in collaboration with Vermont Green and BuildingGreen of Brattleboro will be offering a 2-day course 'How Buildings Work' to entry level construction workers or those interested in entering the building trades. Veterans are encouraged to register.

This course will provide participants with all the information, understanding, and resources one needs to completely change the way they think of homes. Basic building science principles will be used to demystify home performance and operation using a combination of classroom presentations, discussions, group and field work.

I recently drastically reduced my electric bill by simple not using the clothes dryer.

Here is one way to do that, and still get your clothes dry faster than simply hanging them on the line. It uses a tiny fraction of the nuclear or coal generated electricity that a clothes dryer would use.

Transition Putney, Sun, May 20
Herbal Identification Stroll, with Cindy Hebbard
1:30 – 3 pm, Meet in Front of Putney Coop

Have you wanted to learn more about the local plants that can help you and your family with common health complaints such as the common cold, acne, PMS, digestive distress and osteoporosis? Please join us for a leisurely stroll as we identify around two dozen common weeds found in our yards, roadsides and gardens. We will discuss their medicinal and nutritional benefits, how they have been traditionally used, and whether there is any modern scientific information to support their use.

I understand there have been more peafowl sightings around town. Peter "Fish" Case has had a peacock in his backyard for about a week and a peahen was spotted yesterday near the Outing Club.

Anyone missing some birds?

The big town news of the evening came when it was learned that 34 year veteran of Brattleboro Department of Public Works, Rick Ethier, would be retiring in June.

The big decision of the evening was to grant SeVEDS $50,000 in two equal installments. The second $25,000 is contingent on other towns pledging matching funds.

Grant applications were approved, international students were celebrated, and a special guest visit from Senator Illuzzi punctuated the evening.

Read on for details.

The Citizen Police Communication Committee met Tuesday evening at the Brooks Library to discuss a recent incident in which a Brattleboro Police Department officer shot and killed a stray dog at Green Street School.

Four members of the CPCC were present as well as Chief Wrinn and Captain Fitzgerald from the Brattleboro Police. There were also approximately 10 members of the public and two members of the press. Tristan Toleno presided, saying that the CPCC has no fixed chair and that he had volunteered to faciliate this meeting. He said that the meeting would last one hour, and that the first complainant, Isabel, and the Police would speak first, and then citizens as time permitted. As it turned out, everyone got to speak.

(sign at experienced goods)

Scripting Hitchcock: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie
Thursday May 17, 2012, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM


Scripting Hitchcock explores the collaborative process between Alfred Hitchcock and the screenwriters he hired to write the scripts for three of his greatest films: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie. Drawing from extensive interviews with the screenwriters and other film technicians who worked for Hitchcock, Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick illustrate how much of the filmmaking process took place not on the set or in front of the camera, but in the adaptation of the sources, the mutual creation of plot and characters by the director and the writers, and the various revisions of the written texts of the films.