Editor

Food

Let Them Eat Pie

Late winter and early spring means birthday season for my family: beginning on Valentine's Day with my husband, our little clan's birthdays then follow in succession through the end of March (save my son, whose outlier August birthday is the source of much consternation, at least

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Community

Milestones: We're Celebrating Our First Anniversary

This has been an exciting, exhausting, entertaining and educational year for us. We have worked to unite the residents of Berkshire, Columbia, Dutchess and Litchfield counties—a tri-state community rich in culture, natural beauty and smart, interesting people. More than anything, we want to encourage local exploration. We are

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Style

Saville Row (with Sass) Comes to Bangall

Interior designer Selina van der Geest does the sort of work—high quality, fundamentally fitting-and-proper, but with just enough edge to make it simultaneously lively and au courant—that leaps off the pages of Elle Décor, where it is routinely published.   It follows, then, that her renown for

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Style

Find Comfort in Cocooning at Nest in Millerton

When times are harsh, people find comfort at home.  And when you're home a lot, you want to fluff up your nest. This impulse for "cocooning," as trend forecaster Faith Popcorn labeled it back in the 1980s, is a constructive way of coping. 'We are

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Food

Foodies-and-Farmers Mix it Up at "Carhartts and Cocktails"

Ever wonder about all those farms referred to on menus? Who is the farm girl behind Farm Girl Farm?  Now's your chance to find out. This Sunday, March 1,  Mezze Bistro + Bar in Williamstown and Allium in Great Barrington will host simultaneous afternoon farm-to-table mixers.  The

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Community

Dan's Diary: Lobbying for Trader Joe's

A few weeks ago, it was the residents of Sharon and the neighboring towns of Amenia, Millerton and Salisbury, who had started a letter-writing campaign to Trader Joe's, suggesting they open in the old Trotta's supermarket. Now, Cultural Pittsfield is using Facebook to wage a

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Arts

To Hell with Home Alone: We've Got Oscar Parties!

Come on, admit it, you love it: the red carpet fashion show, the fatuous exchanges between the stars and Chris Connolly, the host's lame jokes, the "humble" acceptance speeches (even when the Academy voters get it dead wrong).   The Academy Awards is one of those ties

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Arts

The Banff Film Festival Comes to Lenox

Most film festivals last a weekend and then they're over. The organizers of the Banff Mountain Film Festival in Canada, which is devoted to movies about outdoor sports and adventure travel, take a broader view and send their festival on the road for six months, and this weekend

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Food

Food Shopping: In Praise of Otto's of Germantown

Designer Carey Maloney of M (Group) normally writes our Rural Restoration Blog in the Style Section, but this week he delivers a paean to his local grocer instead. 215 Main Street in Germantown was the home of the Central Market from 1927 until two years ago when the doors closed.

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Arts

A Musical Sleuth Revives Works by a Lost 19th-Century Composer

Just when you think you've heard it all—the entire classical music canon—Close Encounters With Music's artistic director Yehuda Hanani pulls another rabbit out of a hat.  The trick this time is the re-discovery of a heretofore virtually forgotten 19th-century composer, Eduard Franck,

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Parties

Clermont's Red-and-White Pre-Dinner Party Reception

The Friends of Clermont's festive Valentine's dinner parties at an assortment of wonderful nearby houses was preceded on Saturday, February 14 by a red-and-white reception at the Robert Livingston historic site in Germantown.  Alas, most of the furnishings at this most graceful of riverfront

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Parties

Everyone Loves Lizzie at Shakespeare & Company

It was an early Valentine's Day for Elizabeth Aspenlieder on Thursday, February 12,  when the longtime Shakespeare & Company actress was honored with a cocktail reception before she performed in the one-woman play Bad Dates. Everyone was talking about how Lizzie had received a well-deserved rave

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