Post-screening crowds at Cannes or Sundance often encounter publicists on cell phones, a symbol of self-importance in the movie industry. By contrast, audiences spilling out of a theater at the Lake Placid Film Festival last weekend were besieged by youngsters selling Girl Scout cookies. That's not to say the fest lacked Hollywood glitz. Martin Scorsese was the guest of honor, after all. But for five days, the little Adirondack town manages to combine the excitement of cinema with a charming, down-home ambiance.... Read more

Move over, "American Idol." Destinee has been designated "the star of the day" at her Winooski Head Start class, where everyone gets a turn in the spotlight. The 4-year-old sings along with a dozen other tots led by teacher Jim Berns. They happily follow him on a tune that encourages them to identify wrists, elbows, knees, ankles and other visible body parts. When he points to his armpit, one boy repeats the word "elbow." Hey, anatomy can be a tricky subject.... Read more

The phone lines lit up Friday morning as political folk from Vermont to Foggy Bottom read the blistering attack editorial in The Burlington Free Press titled "Wal-Mart's Bernie."

The author, Editorial Page Editor David Awbrey, began: "News item: U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders has secured $1.2 million in federal transportation funds to smooth traffic flow at the proposed site for a Wal-Mart store in St. Albans.

"Hmm... Is that the same guy?... Read more

Both the Burlington Free Press and Adelphia Cable got booed at the Medeski Martin and Wood concert last Friday night at Memorial Auditorium. In a single, applauso-meter moment, the mostly younger audience lashed out at the corporate media sponsors of the Discover Jazz Festival when their names were announced from the stage. Appropriately, The Point got a mixed reaction -- it's part of a small New England radio chain -- and Vermont Public Radio inspired cheers all around.... Read more

"What do you do?" It's a pretty vague question, but when we hear it asked in a social setting, we're likely to answer with our occupation. We are our work. That's the concept behind the musical Working, currently running at Middlebury Town Hall Theater. While an evening of theater typically offers escape from the drudgery of day jobs, this Middlebury Community Players production celebrates and laments industry in ways that deepen appreciation for the myriad tasks that define the working world -- and the soulful, thoughtful, driven people who carry them out.... Read more

His old tool shop smelled

of machine oil, sawdust,

and men who couldn't

care less how they smelled.

There, on Saturday

afternoons, the men

turned up tall bottles,

leaned against work benches,

lathes, drills, or vises;

they fooled with hammers,

planes, and screwdrivers

while they talked away

the time, occasionally

erupting with one

of those mighty beer

belches that impressed

the belt-high grandson

just hanging around,

knowing eventually

he'd be offered one

short sip, then laughed at

for the face he'd make.... Read more

Warning for our male readers: The following article contains big words and complex sentences. It might be a good idea to have a woman nearby to explain it to you.

It has been a hard day. Your assistant at work is out with the flu and there is another deadline fast approaching. Your wife is at a business conference, so you have to pick up your son at daycare, make dinner, clean the kitchen, do a load of laundry, and get Junior to bed before you can settle down on the sofa with those reports you need to go over.... Read more

Since it break-danced into the national consciousness a quarter-century ago, hip-hop, it's safe to say, has become the mainstream. Witness its dominance on the Billboard singles charts, and the ubiquity of baggy-ass rapper clothes on kids in the suburbs.... Read more

Jane M. never for a moment suspected that her elderly mother, Nora, could become a victim of abuse. Nora lived in a very safe retirement village in a Southern state where her friends and neighbors routinely checked in on one another. If anything went wrong, she could push a panic button in her apartment and, within minutes, medical workers would arrive at her door. Nora suffered from a heart condition, several small strokes, osteoporosis and Parkinson's disease, but the 77-year-old widow was mentally sharp until the day she died.... Read more

Beneath the sea, a race of fluid-breathing people wages submarine warfare, oblivious to threats from the world above. On a flat Earth, a girl dreams of building a bendable boat that will sail safely over the edge of the world to the other side. In settlements that cling to the walls of a bottomless pit, people live subject to an iron law: no littering.... Read more