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Community

The Real Housewives of Berkshire County Sing Out

Technically, Lisa Kantor, Pam Rich, Laurie Schiff and Debbie Zecher are not housewives. "We're all wives and mothers with jobs," says Zecher, the senior rabbi at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire in Great Barrington, where she has worked since 1992. But Dangerous Women: An Evening of Song

By Editor

Food

Fresh: A Digestible Documentary About Food

Fresh, which screens this Sunday at the Moviehouse in Millerton as part of their free FilmWorks Forum series, is not just another "ain't it awful" documentary about the villainous food industry.  More upbeat and folksy than the recent Food Inc., Fresh, makes quick and fair-minded work

By Editor

Community

Portrait of the Pittsfield Artist as a Young Man

Michael Boroniec calls himself an Art Soldier, which is fitting since he's on the front lines of Pittsfield's cultural revolution.   A ceramic artist and painter who graduated from Taconic High School and went to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) on full scholarship, he

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Community

Twenty Questions for Novelist Diane Meier of Kent, CT

Diane Meier's debut novel, The Season of Second Chances (Henry Holt and Company), is about Joy Harkness, a 48-year-old tenured professor of literature at Columbia University, who is gifted as a teacher and scholar but hapless and hopeless in her personal life. New York City has not been

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Community

Karen Lee Creates a Hullabaloo to Benefit the Lenox Library

Karen Lee is the Lady Gaga of Lenox. She's the unlikely chair of an improbable fundraiser—Burlesque for Books—at the venerable, white-shoe Lenox Library on Saturday, March 27. The three-tiered evening features the music of Kristen Gray & Michael Raye, a performance by the Sugar Shack Burlesque

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Community

Community: Bank Locally, It's a Wonderful Life

When it comes to financial matters, I am no go-getter.  Generally, I open an account at the bank nearest home and sit by mutely while my husband, who actually seems to understand credit default swaps, handles the investments, which he does through a large firm whose letterhead changes with every

By Editor

Community

Milestones: We're Celebrating Our Second Anniversary

During our exhilarating second year of publishing Rural Intelligence, we helped celebrate many local milestones such as the 10th birthday of MASS MoCA, the 15th anniversary of Barrington Stage Company, the 40th anniversary of the Norman Rockwell Museum, the 75th birthday of the Berkshire Botanical Garden, and Marge Champion´s

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Community

Deja Vu: Sam Pratt's All Over It Again

Back in 2005, when Hudson community activists Sam Pratt and Peter Jung celebrated their hard-won victory over St. Lawrence Cement, they believed that seven intense years of battle had ended in triumph.   New York Secretary of State Randy Daniels' unequivocal ruling had instructed the town authorities in Hudson to

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Community

A 'Step-Down' House in Salisbury That's A Cut Above

The journey from alcoholism to altruism has brought Pete Hathaway back to the scene of the crime.  In 2004, when he moved from New York City to a 19th century Greek Revival mansion that he renovated on Main Street in Salisbury, CT, he had a grand, perhaps grandiose, vision. He

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Community

A Step-Down Facility That's a Cut Above

The journey from alcoholism to altruism has brought Pete Hathaway back to the scene of the crime.  In 2004, when he moved from New York City to a 19th century Greek Revival mansion that he renovated on Main Street in Salisbury, CT, he had a grand, perhaps grandiose, vision. He

By Editor

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 interdenominational search for faith,

By Editor

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 sell-out

By Editor