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Community

Twenty Questions for "Devotion" Author Dani Shapiro

In the dozen years since Dani Shapiro published her best-selling memoir, Slow Motion (Random House), she has become a full-time country resident and written several well-received novels like 2007's Black & White. Now, with her just-published memoir, Devotion (Harper, $24.99), which chronicles her

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The Salisbury Ski Jumps - Our Winter Olympics

For 84 years, the Salisbury Winter Sports Association (SWSA) has promised Olympic level competition at the Annual U.S. Eastern Ski Jumping Championships, and the SWSA is good to its word. Last year, we got to see Pete Frenette compete on historic Satré Hill. This year, he's not

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Community

Coming Together for Haiti at the Mahaiwe

With mixed emotions, the lucky ticketholders filed into the Mahawie theater in Great Barrington on Friday, January 22, for the first of James Taylor’s two benefit concerts for Partners in Health which does important relief work around the world. These die-hard JT fans—who made the concert a

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Excursions: Historic Fashion, The Inside Story

The inventor of the loincloth may have been the first homo sapien to get TMI.  Undergarments have been shaping the truth ever since. Bodies never change, but since fashion silhouettes do with great frequency, it falls to underwear to make things right—to cinch the bits that bulge and puff

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Community

Laps of Luxury: Where To Swim During the Winter

For some reason, most of the pools in our region seem to be locally-guarded secrets—but no more. You can buy day passes at all of them, and, except for the pool at the preppy Hotchkiss School, you gain access to other fitness equipment like treadmills and weight machines.

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Community

James Taylor: For Haiti, More Than Just His Heart Goes Out

They billed this spur-of-the-moment booking as An Intimate Evening with James Taylor.  Ticket sales began Tuesday, January 19th, at 9 a.m., on-line or in person at the Mahaiwe Box office, and the prices were steep.   The occasion, of course, is a benefit concert for Haiti

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Hudson On My Mind

Scott Baldinger is a writer whose work has appeared in Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times and other publications. He has been living in (and taking pictures of ) Hudson for  six years. This piece appeared previously in a slightly altered form on Melissa Stafford's website, Hudson

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Community

Greetings, Neighbors! Our First Annual Holiday Poem

Season's greetings, County Kin Let the merriment begin! Happy Hanukah, Merry Christmas Is it local? That's our litmus. The arts and farms help define us So much driving, the only minus. True, this is a magic region It's rural life that we believe in

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"Along Route 7" with Photographer Stephen Donaldson

"I love Route 7," says photographer Stephen Donaldson. "It's not only the history of our region, it's the history of our country. It's the road the defines western New England."  Stretching from  Norwalk, CT, on the Long Island Sound to

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Community

Excursions: Holiday Fetes and Strolls

Holiday spirit is highly infectious—no way you'll catch it at home, watching t.v., and all it takes is one trip to any mall to guarantee immunity well past New Year's Eve.  Our small town holiday festivals, on the other hand, are veritable petri dishes

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Berkshire Taconic's Neighbor-to-Neighbor Program

"Poverty is all around us but it's more hidden in our region than in other places," says Jennifer Dowley, the president of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, noting that 15,000 people in Berkshire County alone receive fuel assistance. "Whether you're in Millbrook

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Community

Road Trip: Sinterklaas is Comin' to Town

A fairy tale: A town was going through a time of trial, as towns often do when they grow.  Newcomers were impacting the outcomes of elections, and some even took exception to the quasi-religious celebrations that took place seasonally in their children's new schools.  For their part,

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