Question: What do you call a boomerang that doesn't come back? Answer: A stick.

Brookfield's Jeremy Levine, 31, has heard that chestnut more than once. It happens when you're in the boomerang business, and Levine owns Crescent Moon Boomerangs.

Boomerangs?... Read more

It’s a tale with a happy beginning, a troubled middle, and knock wood - a happy ending.... Read more

Rob Hitzig, co-owner of The Lazy Pear Gallery in Montpelier, is excited about an unusual public art exhibit that’s popped up around the capital city. “SculptCycle 2008,” a collaboration between the Montpelier Downtown Community Association and the central Vermont arts community, is a summer-long event featuring 20 sculptures made mostly from recycled bicycle parts. “The pieces do not have to be 100 percent recycled, but bicycle parts need to be in the sculpture,” Hitzig explains.... Read more

When his time comes, Dean Goss, 42, knows exactly where he wants his ashes scattered: on the waterfall at Bristol Memorial Park on Route 17. That’s where Goss got his first taste of an airborne stream 40 years ago. “I am a little kid walking down the path,” he remembers, “seeing the falls starting on the lefthand side of the path and coming toward a pretty impressive footbridge over a very deep gorge.”... Read more

Packed in quart-sized Baggies, the stuff looks rich, crumbly and decidedly illegal. But the label states otherwise: It’s nutrient-rich humus, a.k.a. Premium Quality Worm Castings — the end product, literally, of thousands of red worms, also known as red wigglers, tiger worms, manure worms, stink worms, fish worms, dung worms, fecal worms and striped worms.... Read more

You’re at a craft fair, poking through sundry handmade goods, when Sarah Green’s vibrantly colored textiles grab your attention — aprons, potholders, pillows, bags, coasters. But wait, back up. Those are no ordinary potholders. They’re works of art: three layers of sweatshirt material sandwiched between new and vintage fabrics at front and back. And, yes, they’re “eco-friendly,” made mostly from recycled cloth. But it’s the images on the fabric that catch your eye. These are definitely not your grandmother’s potholders. Or even your mother’s.... Read more

It's catchy, quirky, cryptic, trendy. It also leaves people scratching their heads. Eat More Kale?

In the past five years, these three words — in their distinctive, stubby black typeface — have become part of the central Vermont landscape, culture and vernacular. You've seen them printed on T-shirts, and on round green bumper stickers affixed to the backs of cars and trucks. Go to a website called eatmorekale.com, and you can even purchase the motto on an organic cotton onesie for your bouncing baby.... Read more

On most mornings, tiny handprints smudge the display window and front door of Shaline Bridal. Little girls, says owner Shaline Kirkpatrick, are fascinated by bridal gowns — the daily deposit of fingerprints is proof, and she’s happy to see them at her Montpelier shop.... Read more

Were it not for Todd Hebert’s Geronimo T-shirt, beaded-and-fringed buckskin jacket, and ball cap that reads, “Native American,” most people would take the goateed, 36-year-old Persian Gulf vet for a native Vermonter. Of course, by definition he is: Hebert is one of some 5000 Abenakis in the region. He is also the curator of the new Ndakinna (“Our Land”) Cultural Center and Museum on Rt. 2 in East Montpelier, through which he’s determined to educate visitors on all things indigenous.... Read more

It was a typewriter with balls — literally. Before the modern miracle of the word processor, no self-respecting secretary could live without an IBM Selectric typewriter, with its revolutionary golf-ball-like, rotating typing element. Heavy-duty, state-of-the-art and putty colored, the machine’s industrial silhouette has graced millions of desks around the world.... Read more