Candace Page

What do you make of a pile of debris that includes old tennis balls, empty beer cans, crushed plastic foam, sodden socks, discarded masks and a gargantuan collection of plastic containers? On a sunny Earth Day on the Church Street Marketplace, the answer was: You build a trash monster. All you need is the help of a Lake Champlain cleanup crew and a handful of small children wielding tongs to artfully place the disgusting throwaways.

click to enlarge © Dreamstime/BGrocker Trump supporters marching to the U.S. Capitol on January 6 My reporting career had barely started when — after a bitter-cold night covering a department store fire on Burlington's Church Street — a coworker grinned at me and said, "Remember, being a reporter is the most fun you can have with your clothes on." He was right, I thought then and still believe now, 40 years later. The thrill of the chase for the truth. The pleasure of a scoop.

click to enlarge courtesy of the GRafton Inn The Grafton Inn A couple of years ago, Grafton resident Joanne Boswell was dining at the Grafton Inn and heard two people from Maine chatting at the next table. "I said, 'Excuse me — Maine is so beautiful; why do you come here?'" she recalled.