Vermonter.com

It’s not very often that we get an email from a celebrity. The last one was a few brief conversations with William Sanderson’s (Larry of Darryl & Darryl fame) wife about getting him to do an interview with Vermonter.com. Unfortunately for us, he became quite busy with the new “Deadwood” HBO series so we were moved to the back burner.

That’s ok though because we recently received an email from one of those famous “where are they now” celebrities, the infamous Vermont Teddy Bear “Crazy For You Bear“. Here’s what he had to say:

“I can hardly bear what I’ve been reading in all the Vermont news lately (yes, bears can read along with other things we can do in the woods). It seems like only yesterday when a firestorm of controversy erupted over my Valentine holiday debut. Yes, I had my ten minutes of fame but it was not under the best of circumstances.
Now, I am reading that several communities have turned their collective backs on mentally ill Vermonters, by adopting a “not in my back yard” position. Hmm, bless my fuzzy butt. Aren’t many of these same folks the ones who so vehemently objected to my presence just awhile back, claiming that my very existence was offensive to the mentally ill? Perhaps. This “bearly” makes sense and curls the tufts on my ears with befuddlement!

Ok, so the good folks of Vermont (or whatever woods they wandered in from) weren’t crazy about my Valentines appearance (although a lot of enterprising folks on Ebay just LOVED me to death). As a tolerant, “let bygones be bygones” type bear, I can live with that.
Mentally ill folks deserve the right to live in nice places too. Whether it’s Greensboro, Westmore, Stowe or Woodstock…wherever. Grin and bear it. Why do elite, so-called “gold town” communities try to pawn off people they view as undesireables to poorer communities who don’t have fat wallets and million dollar homes?
As a famous Vermont author once wrote in his many correspondences to yours truly, “You know, we might be slow and simple people, but when push comes to shove, we’ll often defend even some of our worst enemies. Loyal to one another is an understatement.”
Respectfully submitted,

Crazy For You Bear

Some one suggested the other day that I should move the Vermonter.com journal to the Vermont site at myspace.com. Well, the Vermonter paid a visit to myspace.com and didn’t find any other “Vermont sites” so maybe I’ll start something up. I remember the big, blog trend which was roughly equivalent to the Pet Rock of the new millennium. Oh, yeah…the blog fad has already faded, right along with Howie Dean and the scream heard ’round the world.

So the great question is to post a Vermont site at myspace.com. Hmm, maybe! I have some provocative photos of naked cows to post that would make Louie the Cowman blush. But then again, after watching a recent Dateline NBC, I might be worried about all those myspace.com predators out there wishing to take advantage of Vermont’s young heifers. Sure is a dangerous world out there these days!

I’m a young, bored heifer who likes to hang out with friends

There was another big clearance sale at the April Cornell warehouse this Sunday. Not a sight to be missed if you’re a spectator rather than a participant. Like many other men, I sat in the car like a Golden Retriever wanting to simply “go for a ride”, while my wife ventured inside.

I had been inside the first clearance sale a few weeks previously and after 5 minutes, I couldn’t wait to escape. This time, I would hide out in the relative safety of my car and watch the adventure unfold, relatively safe from the “feeding frenzy” taking place inside the warehouse.

My first thoughts were of the clearly placed signs in the adjacent parking lot, which quite obviously stated “NO PARKING IN THIS PARKING LOT”. I had to chuckle at the vast number of Susie Homemakers who ignored the signs and parked there anyway. Then, they would skittle out of their cars and either jog or outright sprint away from their vehicles, in order to avoid being seen. One really bold lady parked dead center in front of one of the signs. Either there’s a vast number of illiterate housewives and single Sallies in the Burlington area or a defiant group of Commancheros ready to break all rules in favor of the search for the holiest of feminine grails…women’s clothes!

I felt a little sympathy for the small handful of men who were reluctantly dragged along to the extravaganza. One poor guy looked as if he was being dragged off to the gallows as his wife prodded him along nervously saying “C’mon Jim, there won’t be nothing left if you don’t hurry up!”. What kind of incentive is that? If anything, he then started to walk more slowly. No doubt thinking about the damage toll about to be inflicted upon his credit card.
The automobile traffic was equally hectic and erratic. I watched as impatient shoppers honked in vain at people merely trying to back their cars out and leave. I guess they never reasoned that before you can pull into a parking space, you have to let someone out first.

All in all, quite an adventure. To be fair, I’d have to say that men would probably act the same if Hooters announced a 10 cent draft beer day special. Although for some reason, I don’t think our wives would sit patiently out in the parking lot waiting for us.

P.S. My wife only lasted less than a half-hour inside the April Cornell warehouse. There were as she described it “300 people in line waiting to pay for their purchases” and she didn’t want to wait. God bless her!

Dogs are disappearing and authorities in the Northeast Kingdom believe people are stealing them to support their drug habit. In Caledonia County, nearly a dozen dogs have turned up missing –many of them puppies. There are a couple of theories of why the dogs are disappearing. The animals could be taken and then sold to finance a drug habit. Or the dogs are being sold to laboratories for medical experiments.

Jo Guertin/Animal Control Officer “the younger ones, they probably could get 4 or 5 hundred dollars for a puppy even without the papers.”

New Vermont made movie starring Kris Kristofferson coming in May 2006, from Kingdom County Productions:

“Based on the award-winning novel by Howard Frank Mosher, Disappearances is a spellbinding tale of high-stakes whiskey-smuggling, a family’s mysterious past, and a young boy’s rite of passage.

Quebec Bill, desperate to raise money to preserve his endangered cattle herd at the end of a long winter, resorts to whiskey smuggling, a traditional family occupation. He takes his son, Wild Bill, on an unforgettable journey that will long remain etched in the viewer’s mind, through vast reaches of the Canadian wilderness and into a haunted and elusive past. What they find is the stuff of genuine legend.”

Also, be sure to check out the fantastic book by Scott Wheeler “Rumrunners and Revenuers: Prohibition in Vermont” for the true story and it’s effects on the state of vermont.

Looks like free broadcast TV will soon become a thing of the past. A recent article in PC Magazine mentions that in 2009, all television broadcasts must be in digital (meaning you pay for the signal) and that analog (meaning rooftop antennas) will be discontinued. What if your TV is older and cannot receive digital signals? Not to worry. You can purchase a convertor box and spend some more of your hard earned money. Now, isn’t technology great?