Rural Intelligence
Community

Tracy Seckler Is A Mother On a Mission To Save Lives

Mother's Day, like every other day of the year, is bittersweet for Tracy Seckler. The high-energy, one-time elementary school teacher lives in a 200 year-old-farmhouse in South Egremont, MA, with her adoring husband, Benjamin (a doctor whom she met when they were both undergraduates
By Editor
Style

Wishing Won't Do it, Saving and Slaving Will

Some would argue that the ramshackle property you see at left is my house.  This is a scurrilous contention I would hotly deny. What I see when I look at my house is not what you see, or anyone else, for that matter.  When I look, it is already painted
By Editor
Arts

The 4th Annual Berkshire International FIlm Festival Will Be Boffo: May 14 - 17

Kelley Vickery is feeling guilty because she is praying for more rain next weekend. The founder of the Berkshire International Film Festival knows that more people will buy tickets for the 70 films she will be screening from May 14 - 17 in Great Barrington if the sun isn't
By Editor
Community

The Porches Inn at MASS MoCA

I have to make a confession: I was skeptical about staying at Porches. Although I love visiting MASS MoCA, I could not imagine paying to spend a night in converted Victorian factory-workers' houses across from the museum in order to wake up in North Adams instead of my
By Editor
Arts

Dan's Diary: Jarvis Rockwell—The Son Also Rises

When I innocently walked into the gallery at 73 Main Street in North Adams on Saturday morning, I was drawn by an enormous, stepped pyramid covered with thousands of plastic action figures and small rubber dolls.  I was captivated and charmed, because this work of art had an anthropological quality
By Editor
Food

Foraging for Ramps with Chef Peter Platt

Update:  Knowledgeable naturalist Russ Cohen (click on comments below) will be conducting a foraging walk at the Hawthorne Valley Farm in Ghent on Saturday. June 6, sponsored by the Columbia Land Conservancy. Farmed + Foraged: A Weekend of Spring Flavors,  on May 15 - 17,  is a farm-to-table dining event
By Editor
Food

AgriCulture: Fruitfully Multiplying

Peter Davies is a dealer in world textiles and kilim rugs, particularly those from Turkey, a destination he knows well and for which he also is a travel consultant.  His partner, Mark Scherzer, this week's correspondent, has his own law firm, specializing in health law.  For most of
By Editor
Parties

Community Foundation of Northwest Connecticut Reaches Out

It was a blue-blazer occasion when Dan Dwyer and James Montanari invited friends and neighbors to their house in Salisbury to learn more about the Community Foundation of Northwest Connecticut, which supports worthy causes in 20 smalls towns and cities in the foothills of the Berkshires. With an endowment
By Editor
Community

Dan's Diary: The Daffodil House

Every town has one or two. If you're lucky, there may be half a dozen houses with breathtaking fields of daffodils, which make you take scenic detours this time of year.  In Salisbury, CT, one of the most stunning roadside attractions belongs to Inge Heckel, the former president
By Editor
Community

DUI Inc., A Growth Industry

Now, let's get one thing straight from the outset: I am against drunk driving, even if it's a friend who is doing it.  I have been a supporter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving since it was founded in 1980. I cheered the judge who threw the
By Editor
Arts

From Pittsfield to Pougkeepsie: The Evolution of "The Burnt Part Boys"

Four years ago, Julie Boyd and William Finn announced that they would start a Musical Theater Lab in Pittsfield, which would make its home at Barrington Stage Company's Stage 2. They said it would be an incubator for new musicals, and it got off to a brilliant start
By Editor
Parties

The NW CT Arts Council Culture Mix at Infinity Hall

Infinity Hall, the music venue in Norfolk, CT, that has gotten universal raves since opening last fall, co-hosted a "culture mix" for artists of every sort on April 29, with the Northwest Connecticut Arts Council, which was only established five years ago.  The multifacted event was a
By Editor

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