Community

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 campaign

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Community

Camp Unleashed: 'Cause Dogs Get SAD Too

Help your best buddy beat the winter blahs with Camp Unleashed's Winter-Wonderland Weekend, February 20 -22, a rural retreat for dogs and their owners (or, as the powers that be at Camp Unleashed refer to those who feed, walk, bathe, and take dogs to the vet, "their

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Community

Dan’s Diary: Yes, the New Yorker

What are the chances that you would come across three residents of our region within a six-page stretch of a single issue of The New Yorker? In the January 26 issue, there is commodities trader Jim Sinclair of Sharon, CT, quoted in Ben McGrath's story on doomsayers, "

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Community

Dan' Diary: Hollywood on the Hudson

We're going to be more interested than usual in the Academy Awards this year, because two friends of Rural Intelligence, whom we featured last year, have a big stake in the outcome: Courtney Hunt, the director of Frozen River (which closed last year's Berkshire International Film

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Community

Is There A Humane Way to Kill Mice?

I wasn't feeling particularly pleased with myself the other day when I found dead mice in both my garage and in the cupboard over my refrigerator.  I was feeling guilty. I have heard people talk about humanely getting rid of mice, but I wondered if that is just

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Community

Powerless: Ten Lessons Brought Home by the Ice Storm

For many of us, the morning of Friday, December 11, dawned dark indeed.  After a night of freezing rain, every twig and branch on every tree was heavy with ice, which was both eerily beautiful and spectacularly destructive.  Top-heavy trees fell on power lines, leaving thousands of households in our

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Community

Community: How To Think About How To Give

The mailbox is full not only with greeting cards but solicitation letters from worthy charities of every imaginable sort. Giving to the local volunteer fire department and library is a no-brainer, but how do you effectively make donations that are meaningful to you and your neighbors as well as helping

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Community

The Inauguration: The Next Best Thing to Being There

On January 20, 2009,  three million people—no wait, make that five million people, or is it ten million?  Anyway, as many people as can possibly squeeze in are expected to turn up in Washington, D.C. to bear witness as President-Elect Barack Obama becomes the 44th President of the

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Community

The Wonderland that is Winter Walk

Come as a clown, a clock, a character from Dickens, or simply as you are.  Bring the kids, the dog, grandpa, and your most exacting, hard-to-please friends.  Like Hudson itself, Winter Walk, the annual citywide holiday festival that takes place this Saturday, December 6, from 5 to 8, is a

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Community

Christmas Past is Present in Stockbridge

“Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas (Home for Christmas),” Norman Rockwell.Oil on canvas. “McCalls,” December 1967. ©1967. Licensed by Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, IL. From the permanent collection of Norman Rockwell Museum. All over the United States, people fantasize about an old-fashioned Christmas, the kind you see in the paintings

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Community

Community: The Many Ways of Giving to Food Banks & Pantries

Hunger is the last thing anyone reading this is likely to suffer this week, as we overeat our way through Thanksgiving, the kick-off of the caloric bonanza that lies in the month ahead.  Or, if we do "suffer," it's from good hunger, the kind that'

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Community

Dan's Diary: Guilt-Free Mail Order

If you're like us, you want to support local businesses this holiday season, but sometimes it's conscience vs. convenience, and all you want to do is order from a catalog or website. You can shop online guilt free at Blue Q, the Pittsfield-based company that is

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