Above the green and sturdy earth

Above the green and sturdy earth

Melissa O'Brien, News Editor

   I turn 53 this weekend, the same age at which my mother’s mother died of breast cancer. I have heard of people dreading this kind of thing: arriving at the age at which a parent or grandparent died. I don’t feel that kind of fear or doom so much as a kind of sorrow, that I never knew my grandmother. We have so many ways to detect, diagnose and treat breast cancer now that my mother and sister and I have been able to be vigilant, something I would imagine my grandmother wasn’t.

Broken, sort of

Broken, sort of

Melissa O'Brien, News Editor

My son, Sam, posted a video to his Instagram account the other day. It’s what he and his tribe call an edit, I think, a compilation of pieces of footage of him skiing this winter, put to music.

Sunny Side Up – The humble task of discovering the inarticulate speech of the heart

Sunny Side Up – The humble task of discovering the inarticulate speech of the heart

Carrie Fenn

When Melissa approached me about writing a column for The Charlotte News, I asked what she needed.  “The only need is to fill the paper with as much meaningful content as possible.” I’ve been rolling her words over in my mind for a couple of weeks now. It’s a nice image—filling something, anything, with meaningful content. And her request struck me as a metaphor for life. 

The Mesa

The Mesa

Jordan Blucher, Contributor

As Jeff turned off the pavement onto a narrow dirt road, the late afternoon sun shone into his eyes. It had been three weeks since she had collapsed on the kitchen floor, and this would be the twenty-second sunset he would watch without her.

A short story: Drones in the sky

A short story: Drones in the sky

Jorden Blucher

Gretchen lay awake staring straight up into the darkness, praying the door would open. Never had he gone out at night for this long, and she knew if he had been taken they would come for her next. She fought the urge to put their emergency plan into motion. Just a little longer, she thought, as she began to pray more vehemently.

Global environmental change: A clear and present danger

Global environmental change: A clear and present danger

Jim Hyde

Last July, shortly after president Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate accord, I wrote a piece for The News bemoaning the slow progress that has been made in addressing global climate change and controlling greenhouse gas emissions (charlottenewsvt.org/2017/07/26/health-matters-time-new-climate-change-message). Since I wrote that column, Scott Pruitt, the current EPA administrator, has followed through on the president’s threat to roll back the Clean Power Plan reducing carbon emissions from coal fired power plants, announced plans to delay rules aimed at setting fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, attacked rules limiting methane emissions from oil and gas wells and attacked efforts to set appliance efficiency standards. This has occurred with little if any adverse political consequences for the protagonists and only a tepid response from environmentalists and public health advocates.

A dinner in Madrid

A dinner in Madrid

Sandi Detwiler

In the early evening, the five of us gathered in the still steamy plaza to enjoy a last dinner together. Our table was littered with plates of sautéed peppers, vinegary bocherones, fried calamari and glasses of vino verde.

CCS student dishes up kindness and selflessness on Chopped, Jr.

CCS student dishes up kindness and selflessness on Chopped, Jr.

Melissa O’Brien

In the end it came down to the tortellini. One kid had too much and the other almost had none.
A couple of weeks ago, my daughter, Coco, made her television debut in a competitive cooking show on the Food Network. It had been a long and sometimes grueling process, but she’s the kind of kid who employs laser focus when she makes her mind up about something, and so we persevered.
It began a year ago when we noticed that there was an open call for contestants on a show called Chopped, Jr. We filled out the application and sent a home video and not long after received a call. Next came a Skype interview, then another, and then things got kind of crazy when it became clear that Coco had been chosen to be on the show.

A childhood of uniforms

Carol Alfred, Contributor

I would not describe my childhood as uniform, it was uniformed, beginning when I entered 1st grade at St. Bernard’s Grammar School for Girls. At first I was excited to wear the plain navy-blue jumper, white blouse with Peter Pan collar, white socks and gold ribbon tie. Yet, that excitement faded with each year of wear.

The art of manliness

The art of manliness

Jorden Blucher, Contributor

The house has been clutter free for two and half weeks! No, I did not ship the boys off to boarding school. I just happened to listen to a podcast (Number 214 from the Art of Manliness) with author Caroline Webb, who wrote the book How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life. It was a fascinating interview that touched on a lot of great ideas and changed the way I run the house and how I approach each day.