Issue: August 2012
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Art school extends its reach
IS183 goes off campus to public schools, downtown Pittsfield By JOHN TOWNES Contributing writer STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.Over the past two decades, IS183 Art School of the Berkshires has become well known for the classes and workshops it offers at the historic Citizens Hall building in the village of Interlaken. But the nonprofit art school also has read more
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Channeling a pioneer of comedy
Local artist’s one-woman show tells the story of Totie Fields By STACEY MORRIS Contributing writer SALEM, N.Y. If you’ve ever had a good belly laugh courtesy of the likes of Kathy Griffin, Rosie O’Donnell or Chelsea Handler, you can thank Totie Fields. Fields’ name may conjure up a hazy memory or be completely unfamiliar, depending read more
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Finding fulfillment in a grass-fed flock
Professor’s sideline grows into full-fledged farm By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer CLERMONT, N.Y.Jennifer Phillips’ love affair with grazing animals, and her subsequent farming career, started 10 years ago when she acquired a few lambs to mow her then two-acre yard. “I got my initial inspiration for mowing with sheep from the cover story of an read more
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Law targets food wastes
By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer RUTLAND, Vt.Tucked away from the rows of groceries at the Rutland Area Food Co-op are five-gallon buckets with lids, filled with food scraps that most customers wouldn’t want to take home. But those buckets move out the door faster than some of the foodstuffs on the co-op’s shelves. The co-op’s read more
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Is privatization the cure?
Counties push to sell public nursing homes, citing budget pressures By THOMAS DIMOPOULOS Contributing writer William “Beaver” Watkins remembers how “it all went to hell in a hand-basket.” Two years ago, the Washington County Board of Supervisors began to consider privatizing Pleasant Valley Infirmary, the county-owned nursing home in Argyle. Watkins, the Cambridge town supervisor, read more