Archive
Besides his books, Bill has written a variety of poems, short stories, opinion pieces, and more.
The Power of Making
We recently visited London’s Victoria and Albert Museum to see a show called “The Power of Making.” The show begins with this eloquent statement by its curator, Daniel Charny: “Making...
Vermont’s Working Landscape: A Worthy Investment
In time and perhaps with age, we learn to doubt or at least question the predictions of gurus and futurists. Our landscapes are riddled with the remnants of “model communities”...
“Job Creators?”
I was what conservative business interests would have you believe is a “job creator.” I, and several very smart managers ran, and some still do, a company that worked with...
Religious Wars
Whether I am ushered into the next world by a choir of cherubs or a bevy of trident-bearing imps, or whether I just compost quietly in nature’s great recycling system...
The Land of the Free … in Jail
The most expensive service our government provides to its citizens, other than heroic healthcare in Medicare, Medicaid and the VA, is to lock them up. According to the Bureau of...
When Words Collide
The essence of a good cultural collision is usually found in language, the malaprop’s a good example. Growing up in Morrisville in the shadow of Stowe’s social ascendancy in the...
Slip Slidin’ Away
Life promises us nothing. The quality of our lives is determined as much by arbitrary circumstance as it is by our individual capacity for learning and enterprise. And if we...
The Attraction & Failure of Absolutism
Social conservatives like to use the phrase “moral relativism” to describe their liberal counterparts, perhaps because absolutes are simple and easy to remember, if not to live by. Our judicial...
No Easy Answers
Life is a balancing act. Complex truths are easily overwhelmed by simplistic ideologies and yes-no answers. The currently popular debate that pits free-market capitalism against shared responsibility for our community’s...
Mt Abraham Academic Excellence Night Comments
Thanks for inviting me to join you in this celebration. It’s always a pleasure to return to Mount Abraham. I enjoyed my time here greatly and my children Steve and...
Air Travel, Isn’t It Just fun?
After my wife stuffed a last minute contraband wheel of very ripe Livarot cheese into her carry-on luggage, we entered the airport, cleared security, and settled into our seats for...
The Edifice Complex
I’m not sure when the term “edifice complex” was coined. I first heard it applied editorially to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s building spree in Albany followed by the erection...
