The biggest reason why Howard Dean's popularity has skyrocketed while the President's approval rating has crashed is without doubt the souring of public sentiment over the situation in Iraq. On Sunday morning talk shows, administration heads appear ever more flummoxed, struggling to convince viewers that U.S. forces are achieving something worthwhile by rebuilding that country and helping to create a representative government.... Read more

A chilling chronicle of unbridled adolescent angst, Thirteen will probably resonate with anyone who remembers puberty as a bumpy ride. For me, age 12 was the last bastion of carefree childhood. Suddenly, all my friends became interested only in boys, with a requisite concern about the clothing and makeup likely to attract them. Helpless to resist the junior-high zeitgeist, I was particularly drawn to two girls who flirted with danger.... Read more

The spectacle of the Bush administration trying to lie its way out of the fiasco in Iraq would be funny if it weren't so -- what's the word? Pathetic? Outrageous? Insulting? I'd write about something else if they gave me a chance, but they never do. Lying is what this pack of varmints does best, and most. When they aren't lying, they're "misspeaking." And when they're not doing that, they're making it up.... Read more

Events of the last month indicate Republican Gov. Jim Douglas has suddenly realized a good image on the environment is key to his winning a second term in office. But does the image match the reality?

Everybody knows Jimmy D campaigned as a champion of job growth and economic development. He promised to build the Circumferential Highway and he repeatedly trashed environmental groups such as the Conservation Law Foundation for opposing it. Douglas went all out on the campaign trail to portray CLF as the Saddam Hussein of Vermont.... Read more

Burlington's Paquette Arena was chilled to its usual meat-locker briskness when Betsey Krumholz and her husband Charlie arrived for their son's first day of hockey practice. It was an early morning in September 1991 as their son A.J. and a dozen or so other gear-clad kindergarteners scampered onto the ice. When the Krumholzes signed up their son for the "Mites" Division of the Burlington Amateur Hockey Association, they knew several parents would be sharing the coaching duties, which basically means teaching kids the fundamentals of the game.... Read more

The Lost Ski Areas Project began as a twinkle in the eye of a curious teenager. Twelve-year-old Jeremy Davis was heading to North Conway, New Hampshire, from his home in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, on his first big family ski trip. He had just fallen in love with the sport and was keenly interested in all its aspects. Driving up Route 16 through West Ossipee, the family passed under the old gondola cable of the closed Mt. Whittier ski area. Later on the same trip, Davis spied Tyrol, another closed resort, from the summit of Black Mountain.... Read more

What hierarchy of love and choice
shall have exacted it of us,
that to the shame of all our yearning
the body goes foul on its bones, beyond
its own or any pardon?
The sky already is quivering
with snow, and I think how it was
all summer the leaves of the McIntosh
were green as I have imagined ice
at the hearts of glaciers to be green,
while in July there were times
when, about to sleep, I might have sworn
that by morning the lawns would be stiff with frost,
the calendulas collapsed on their stems,
petals corollas of golden ice;
might equally have sworn... Read more

Like all great tragedies, Othello is pretty much failsafe. No matter how many times you've seen it, you still find yourself hoping against hope that the inevitable, awful denouement won't come to pass -- and you're still startled and moved when it does.... Read more

Yo La Tengo are one of the most engaging, inventive bands making music today. Soaking up the sounds and styles of 50 years of rock history while remaining alert to modern experimentalism, the Hoboken, New Jersey, trio has been producing an uncompromising and varied body of work… since most of their current fans were in elementary school.... Read more

We know a lot more now about the dangers and disasters of U.S. empire building in Iraq -- the ongoing bloodshed, expansion of terrorist activities, the budget-busting costs of occupation, the stretching and undermining of the military, and the increased sense of fear many Americans feel as a result of the invasion.... Read more