Dear Mistress,

I've been in a relationship with my girlfriend for a year. We are monogamous, and presumably most of our other lesbian friends are, too. However, when our group goes out on the town and the tequila shots start flowing, it generally turns into a no-holds-barred make-out fest. Our friends are all very flirty, and they view
French kissing as other people view handshakes — no big deal.... Read more

About a year ago, Scott Beck got an email that cost him $75,000. It wasn’t from a Nigerian claiming to be the administrator of a millionaire’s estate, but from a company in New York called On Demand Books. In the email was a picture of something that looked like an office copy machine, but could take a digital file and turn it into a library-quality paperback book in a matter of minutes.... Read more

It’s hard to escape the bare butts in John Douglas’ current exhibit at Burlington College. Like the steelworkers in The Full Monty, produced by Lyric Theatre last weekend, he lets it all hang out in some of his images.... Read more

Curses, Foiled Again
Belgian authorities said two robbers overestimated how much dynamite it would take to blow open a cash machine in Dinant. The blast caused the building behind the ATM to collapse and killed both robbers. Bank officials said they wouldn’t have gotten any money anyway, since the ATMs are designed to implode when forced open and destroy all the cash inside.... Read more

“When you’re from Cleveland, it’s not about, like, jumping on the bandwagon. It starts when you’re a kid, and then you’re loyal for life.”

The tipsy woman expounding from the back seat had grown up in Cleveland, a point of great pride, apparently. Also in the cab were her husband and two friends — a couple visiting from Staten Island. She was bound and determined to make sure everyone in the cab, including me, understood definitively that Cleveland Indian fans were the greatest baseball fans in the world.... Read more

When the barn door of the Vermont Woodworking School opens, the smell of sawdust sweeps like a wave. Inside is a neat mix of machines, books and dust. Carina Driscoll, the school’s cofounder and executive director, is as no-nonsense as she is knowledgeable, explaining the founding of the school, its recent relocation from Colchester to Fairfax and the woodworking programs, which offer total-immersion instruction toward associate’s and master’s degrees in fine-furniture making.... Read more

The Houle Story
Are there any Vermonters left in Vermont? In response to Ken Picard’s article about embattled select board member and town S.O.B. Mary Houle [“Is Mary Houle Rescuing Richmond or Tearing It Apart?” October 28], I’d like to pose that question: Are there?... Read more

What a week for State Auditor Tom Salmon, the Vermont GOP’s Golden Boy and crusading voice of fiscal restraint and personal responsibility.

First was the news in last week’s “Fair Game” that Salmon has not always balanced his own books — specifically, he racked up more than $30,000 in debt while living in Los Angeles and was taken to court and ordered to repay it.... Read more

In one of Valerie Hird’s large, untitled drawings, five women inhabit the paper like uneasy roommates. Each woman’s gaze guides the viewer’s eye through the picture. Each individual refers to the others while remaining distinct. This sense of separate yet shared experience permeates Hird’s exhibition of “The Maiden Voyages Project” at the Flynn Center’s Amy E.... Read more

(Lonely Hiway Records, digital download)

OK, Vermont musicians. Raise your hand if you’ve released a really good full-length album this year.

Just as I suspected, I’m seeing quite a few hands out there. Good, good. Now, keep your hand raised if you’ve released two really good full-length albums this year.... Read more