Gazing down Church Street, Brian Sisco takes a drag off a Marlboro and ponders a city proposal that would snuff out his regular smoke breaks.

“How far can the government go?” asks Sisco, a 25-year-old Burlington resident who works at his father’s store, Designers’ Circle Jewelers. “I realize children and families come here, but I’m not blowing smoke in babies’ faces.”... Read more

11/8/09: The Green Mountain Hounds carry on the illustrious tradition of fox hunting with a modern day twist - instead of hunting actual foxes, the hounds trail the scent of anise.

Music:Renaissonics, Carols for Dancing, "Gaytas," "Fum, Fum, Fum"

Location: Charlotte, Richmond, VT

Bob Fountain is teaching me to walk the line. It doesn’t involve any actual ambulation. I can walk the line from a sitting position if I choose. What it does involve is clicking this confounding white controller that is leashed to my wrist until my bobble-headed video game avatar moves to the extreme right-hand gutter.

See, Fountain is teaching me how to play Wii Bowling. As I am learning, “walking the line” is bowling speak for tossing the ball down the lane so it flirts with the gutter but doesn’t actually fall in.... Read more

If samurai warriors existed today, Stephanie Shohet would definitely make the cut. She has the swords, the fearless attitude and a pair of ripping biceps that make her seem far more menacing than she is. All she needs is a topknot and an elaborate suit of armor, and she’d be all set.... Read more

Located on the outskirts of Northfield, the place locals call the Devil’s Washbowl is a basin-shaped terrain of streams and caves full of fallen, moss-covered rocks. Some people might go there for a hike. Burlington’s Joe Citro went in search of Pigman.... Read more

When we “fall back” for daylight saving time this Sunday at 2 a.m., most Vermonters will enjoy an extra hour of sleep and then grouse about the earlier sunsets.... Read more

Sure, figure skating is pretty. It’s also merciless. A year of top-flight coaching and competition costs more than a year at most colleges, and a bad evening can send the value of that investment plunging. “Three and a half minutes and it’s over,” says coach Carol Heiss Jenkins in Christine Brennan’s 1996 book Inside Edge.... Read more

Unless you’re a medical researcher, science geek or local business buff, chances are you’ve never heard of BioTek Solutions, a Winooski-based company that makes “multi-mode microplate readers” and “microplate pipetting systems.” But you probably have heard of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and bird flu — diseases for which scientists are finding lifesaving cures with the help of BioTek brand equipment made right here in Vermont.... Read more

I could have been somebody instead of a hack, which is what I am. That’s what I say to myself en route to the ice rink. It’s not that I can’t skate or shoot; I just haven’t learned to play hockey with chutzpah.... Read more

10/11/09: The 2nd Annual Giant Pumpkin Regatta transformed the Burlington Waterfront Sunday with crowds of cheering fans and a bevy of floating pumpkin vessels.  The money raised will go toward the Linking Learning to Life program called PILOT.... Read more