Dover Bicentennial Best Birthday Competition - It’s Birthday Cakes Unleashed!

DOVER, VERMONT—The Dover Bicentennial Committee is cooking up the “Best Bicentennial Birthday Cake Competition“ to help celebrate the 250th birthday of Dover.

“This is a fun and feel-good way to celebrate the Bicentennial and bring attention to your business,” says Mary Lou Raymo, head of the all-volunteer committee. “And, yes, we have prizes—first place is $500, second place is $250 and there will be honorable mentions, as well. We’ll also be promoting a Cake Tour for locals and tourists, alike, so we encourage participation.”

Lady's Mantle tea
Two sips of cool evening air
The man left hanging . . .

I was talking to Steve West and Chris on the radio today, and used an expression that I thought everyone knew — I referred to a color as "skyblue pink." They looked at me mystified, and I was mystified too until I realized that they had no idea what "skyblue pink" was. So I had to explain that it's a fanciful color that you use when no other color will do — along the lines of "you could make it skyblue pink, and I still wouldn't wear it."

Later on, it occurred to me that there are probably a lot of expressions like that, that come from who knows where and are particular to a small number of people emanating from a particular region or area of endeavor.

In Jeff’s family, it was mostly chocolate or vanilla, once in a while strawberry. Once at Aunt Yetta’s, Jeff had tasted butter-pecan, and he had coffee ice cream a few times at grandma's.

One day, Jeff saw a big kid licking a cone with green ice cream. He wondered what it was, and a week later when he saw green ice cream again, he asked Rifka, his sister.

“It’s pistachio,” she told him.

Jeff did not mention it again, but he thought about it. He wanted pistachio ice cream, but when his father took them to the store that Sunday for a treat, Jeff asked for chocolate.

I have a delightful writing addiction that I need to support. Thus, I'm offering 2 to 3 days a week at your disposal.

As a lifelong educator/manager/cultural-creative, I have untold talents to tap. My customer-service ability builds business, my organizational drive inspires action, and my initiative generates confidence and expansion.

With such an avid mind, it's imperative that I be engaged at whatever I do--which is a challenge given that I've explored every part-time position in this area since becoming a parent 15 years ago.

Sometimes the “new kid” has to fight.

Although diplomacy usually worked for Jeff, during his freshman year as a Realtor, he did get into a couple of scrapes.

The first fight was triggered when his managing broker, Harry, tried to give Jeff a 15% “referral fee,” for a transaction in which Jeff had procured the buyer, and was entitled to 50%. In answer to Jeff’s protest, Harry said: “It’s too late... It’s a done deal!”

But Jeff ended up getting the money due to him, when he brought documentation to Pip, the company president. Pip did not like trouble, preferring to take the course of least resistance.

In the mid 1980s we lived in a cabin without utilities, wore only used clothing, and spend money freely only on wholesome, organic food. Before our son was born, I took whatever low-paying job I could get.

Sometimes a low-paying job brings you in contact with wealthy people.

When I began to work for Mr. Lumbar (name fictionalized) the irony was lost on me that his home was located on Poverty Row. Some people have a second home in Vermont: Their Poverty Row house was a third home. Their first home was a Gramercy Park penthouse, and they also owned an ocean-front home with a sailboat.

The sign reads, “Fresh Poems.” A handsome young fellow with dark, curly hair, sits on a folding chair, his fingers caressing his Smith-Corona. Today this young man’s saxophone is nowhere in sight. Today is dedicated exclusively to poems.

A man slows down as he approaches. Then he stops, reads everything on the sign, “Weddings, Memorials, Blessings, Blasphemies, Bar Mitzvahs,” but nowhere on the sign is there a mention of money. The man wonders how much is the fee. He walks on, and into the Co-op to buy a lemon.

Over the years, this man has developed a knack for selecting lemons: Not too shriveled, not too fresh. Just ripe.

Vermont’s most fiery and innovative reggae band, Mo Ambesa, will be releasing their first full length CD, titled ‘Metaphor,’ this weekend. Recorded over a span of several months, the CD highlights the raw energy of a live Mo Ambesa show combined with the lyrical clarity and fine-tuning available in the studio.

The entire process was engineered by the band, from tracking to mixing to mastering; the bulk of which was done at OnTheGround at the Barn, a venue born out of an acoustically retrofitted barn in Townshend, VT. The sound is true to the group: high energy and uplifting dance music born out of love and dedication. This is a strictly VT roots project in the old spirit of taking what one has and making something great.

This isn't my creation, but I just had to pass it on.

"Believe it or not, this sentence is grammatically correct and has meaning: “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” First devised by professor William J. Rapaport in 1972, the sentence uses various meanings and parts of speech for the term “buffalo” (and its related proper noun “Buffalo”) to make an extremely hard-to-parse sentence.

Hello Brattleboro,

We are Columbia University film students, shooting a short film in Bellows Falls. We are looking to raise the remaining funds to make our film a success.

Here is a synopsis of the story:

Tick Tock Time Emporium is an Alice in Wonderland-esque story about Max, a mischievious little girl who discovers a shop on the edge of town that is unlike any she’s seen before; instead of selling jewelry or appliances, this store buys and sells time.

1.) Remember the 2-second rule? Forget it.

2.) Swim while fully clothed.

3.) Nothing in the fridge gets tossed while still identifiable; no, wait; I should think this through.

If you are in downtown Brattleboro this week and run into the undead, chances are they aren't interested in eating your brains. Local zombies will be playing a part in this week's BCTV Summer Video Camp.

A group of talented young people have set out to make a zombie movie in one week. To accomplish this task, they will be out and around Brattleboro videotaping scenes for the production.

The deadline for the Brattleboro Goes Fourth parade isn't likely to be changed. Independence Day is the 4th of July, just over one week away. The show must go on!

Behind the Estey buildings on Birge Street we've been hard at work on our parade entry and it is slowly starting to take form.

We've been busy at the Estey Organ Museum recently. Here are some photos of work on our float for the 4th of July parade, and some shots of people getting the new Harald Bode exhibit ready for opening day on Saturday.

(The big float-related goal for today was to mount a seat on the back.)

Pictures of the Strolling of the Heifers 2010 expo on the Common and at the Retreat, contributed by Stevil.

Lise and I just drove back from my sister's wedding near Easton, Md. Along the way we snapped some photos of the New Jersey Turnpike, Verazano Narrows Bridge, 278 through Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

For readers originally from the New York and New Jesey area... enjoy!

For those who have never been, some of these pictures may seem a bit strange. No mountains. Not a lot of trees. Mostly cement and steel.

The Planning Services Department is pleased to announce the Plan Brattleboro 2011 Photo Contest. Entrants are asked to submit photographs that show what makes Brattleboro a great place to live. The contest runs through July 15, 2010. All submissions have the potential to become part of the 2011 Town Plan and/or town documents, posters and websites.

The Plan Brattleboro 2011 Photo Contest is a part of the Town Plan rewrite process. “The current Town Plan features historical photographs which are beautiful in their own right. However, this is a document that charts the course for the Town’s future and we want this next Plan to feature current images of Brattleboro,” said Sue Fillion, Planner.

I have posted the short film on You Tube. It was made possible by Doug Cox, who makes violins (and fiddles) in West Brattleboro.

I am pretty pleased with it, and glad it is now completed.

It's not really a momento mori, it's too joyous to fit that category, exactly, but it is related to that classical (Mediaeval genre)