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WBA Names B.E.E.C. Community Leader Of Year

by WBA | Town News

The West Brattleboro Association (WBA) announced its Community Leader of the Year recipient during its annual Holiday Party on Monday, December 14, at The New England House. The winner of this 5th annual award is the Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (BEEC).

Programs and activities BEEC has sponsored in its 24 years of existence include vacation camps attended by more than 100 children each year; various school and classroom programs throughout Windham County including preschool, elementary, and middle schools, both public and private. In addition, BEEC holds the Forest of Mystery at Halloween; organizes the Salamander Crossing Brigades for the first warm rainy nights of the year; and runs other nature-oriented activities (many free) including stargazing for adults and families, tracking wildlife in the snow, watching beavers in their habitats, and Sunday morning walks called AM Ambles. It also leads the Vernal Pool Monitoring Project and collaborates on the Pollinator Awareness Initiative.

Act 46 Study Committee Agenda and Minutes

by Not Signed In | Education

ACT 46 STUDY COMMITTEE

Representing the Brattleboro Town School District, Dummerston Town School District, Guilford Town School District, Putney Town School District, and the Vernon Town School District
http://www.wssu.k12.vt.us

NOTICE OF MEETING

The Act 46 Study Committee will meet at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 17, 2015 at the Putney Central School.

1883 Advertisement for Van Doorn & Son

by cgrotke | History

Another in our series of old December ads from the Phoenix.

This is for that popular downtown store in the Crosby Block, Van Doorn & Son. Have you been there recently?

This holiday season they are offering special bargains on silverware, as well as decorated tea, breakfast, and dinner sets. They also have fancy wares and novelty items, and both hanging and table lamps.

Winter Solstice 2015

by RCastine | Nature

This year, the winter solstice will occur on December 21st at 11:49 PM EST. It’ll be the shortest day of the year in which Brattleboro will receive about nine hours of daylight. Happy holidays!

Orchard Street Pottery 4th Annual Solstice and Seconds Sale

by slowinski | Arts

Orchard Street Pottery will be offering its 4th annual Solstice and Seconds Sale this Sunday afternoon, December 20th, from 12 noon until 5pm in the studio and showroom at 658 Orchard Street, Brattleboro.  

Potter Walter Slowinski makes wood-fired, salt-glazed stoneware and porcelain teapots, pitchers, bowls, cups, mugs, vases and other ware.  This annual sale features deeply discounted prices on pieces with minor flaws or on discontinued designs.  

BCTV Schedules For The Week Of 12/14/15

by BCTVProg | Media

BCTV channel 8 schedule for the week of 12/14/15

Monday, December 14, 2015

12:00 am North Branch Nature Center Lectures – Living with Black Bears

1:30 am Vermont Humanities Fall Conference 11/14/15

3:00 am Six Figure Farming – Pt 3

4:00 am VT Workers’ Center: Brattleboro Beats, Bluegrass 6/7/15

6:25 am DCC: Chris Schadler – Becoming Wolf 11/13/15

Green Party Caucuses

by Will Stomp | Politics

Dear Friends,

With the Paris Climate conference finally setting the stage for concerted action on behalf of the Earth and Nature, it may very well be time for our local politics to reflect this sea change.   Neil Johnson has written an urgent appeal to help get the Green party registered as a statewide party in Vermont.  Its time has come.  He needs four more town to caucus.  It needs to be done by tomorrow (Monday, 12/14).  Emily Peyton will be organizing the caucus in Putney.

Who said life can’t be exciting, if you wait until the last minute!

Cheney & Clapp 1881 Advertisement – Holiday Bazaar and Christmas Museum

by cgrotke | History

In December 1881 we see an ad for Cheney & Clapp announcing their store as a “Holiday Bazaar and Christmas Museum,” which is quite a boast.

They can make the announcement, though, because of the wide range of items available for you to buy from them, including Teaching Bibles for the teachers out there that you know, a “bewildering variety” of cards from the best makers, diaries, books, statuary (who doesn’t need a statue?) and work baskets. They also have dolls and toys.

“We Choose To Go To The Moon”

by Vidda | Op/Ed

 3:42 minutes
Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon in 1969. There have been six manned U.S. landings between 1969 and 1972. A cursory trolling of the Internet will bring a trove of manned moon landings hoax claims and debunkers of the hoax theory. Did man walk on the moon or not?

One strong indicator against man walking on the moon hoax is that if the 1969 landing was a hoax, then all six manned missions to the moon were a hoax, as well as all of the unmanned vehicles landings and all the manned orbits around the moon. If a hoax is in order, then it would not make sense to create a hoax for just the first manned mission but to create a hoax for the entire array of Apollo missions.

In fact, there are too many indications that the manned landings were for real.

Externalities

by tomaidh | Opinion

I awoke this morning, and turned on the radio. It was the ending of the Thom Hartman show on KVT.

A caller was discussing what he called “externalities”

 [Factors whose costs are not reflected in the market price of goods and services. Externalities are a loss in the welfare of one party resulting from an activity of another party, without there being any compensation for the losing party. Externalities are an important consideration in cost-benefit analysis.   (businessdictionary.com)]

Hartmann commented that the American business model calls for privatizing the profits and socializing the externalities.

He cited two examples:

Weekend Creativity Series: Hue and Saturation

by cgrotke | Creative

This week we’ll study some color theory with Scott Naismith, a Scottish landscape painter, and dive into aspects of hue and saturation with him.

I’ve been doing art all my life, yet still struggle with color. I love black and white lines and using pens and pencils to shade things with hatch marks and smudges. The 256 shades of greyscale suite me well, and they could keep me busy forever.

I Miss the Reformer Christmas Stocking

by Tego | Op/Ed

I miss reading all the comments and good wishes in the donation column. I miss having a local charity that gave 100 percent of the proceeds to its intended beneficiaries.

I miss Pat Smith running the newspaper campaign. I miss how people would write: In lieu of local Christmas cards. I miss how you could write anything you wanted and make it as long as you wanted and it would get printed.

Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda & Notes – December 15, 2015

by cgrotke | Town News

It’s time for another Selectboard meeting, and time for them to make some decisions about the Waste Management District budget, changing from weekly trash pickup, and single stream recyling.

They’ll also ponder the Police Fire Facilities project, award a bid for Elliot Street bridge repairs, approve some grants, and hear the annual report from the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance (formerly the Downtown Alliance, formerly Building a Better Brattleboro).

You can bring up other issues not on the agenda during public participation. Attend in person, watch on BCTV, or read about it hear after the meeting.

Flipshare Users: Can You Help?

by Tego | Sci-Tech

I love my Flip video camera, I know Cisco stopped supporting it a couple years ago, but it’s been working fine until this week. Flipshare no longer works for me. I’d like to pow- wow with others who have encountered, or better yet, worked through this problem. Anyone out there with a Flip who does not want to give up? Please contact me here or by e mail at info@theresamaggio.com. Thanks. Tego

A Nuremberg Trial for US Funding Slaughter of Syrians Destruction of Libya Iraq Afghanistan

by jay janson | Op/Ed

TITLE:
A Nuremberg Trial for US Funding Slaughter of Syrians Destruction of Libya Iraq Afghanistan by jay janson

DESCRIPTION:
“Assad killed his own people peacefully protesting!” Sound familiar? Substitute ‘Gaddafi’ for ‘Assad,’ and one is on one’s way to bring to mind so many other similarities made to be forgotten in TV, radio and printed news and entertainment in Western media, media owned by corporations profitably investing in the illegal and unconstitutional use of US Armed Forces and CIA. CIA creation and use of ‘Islamic’ terror is reviewed.

TEXT:

1889 Advertisement for Mexican Feather Cards

by cgrotke | History

It is the Christmas fad this year, after all, so why not stop downtown and pick up a Mexican Feather Card for someone you love? They are very affordable, and everyone wants one.

While there, you might consider a celluloid booklet or two as well.

At Geo. A Briggs & Co.’s, for the 1889 holiday shopping season.

Open House for Jerry Carbone

by msquare | Town News

LIBRARY OPEN HOUSE FOR JERRY CARBONE

The public is invited to an Open House at the Brooks Memorial Library on Friday, Dec. 18 from 4 to 7PM to celebrate Jerry Carbone’s work for and at the Library.

Jerry Carbone has been a leader in Vermont public libraries for 37 years.  Under Jerry’s leadership, Brooks Memorial Library broadened and deepened its mission to become a community hub, a resource for lifelong learning, and a center for multimedia literacy for the 21st century. 

In his 23 years as Director, Carbone worked tirelessly to sustain public and private library funding and inspired a major bequest that will help ensure the library’s continued role as a model for public library service in Vermont.  He started working at Brooks on November 4, 1978 as a Reference Librarian and became the Director in 1993.