The student-run community news site of Vermont State University - Johnson

Basement Medicine

The student-run community news site of Vermont State University - Johnson

Basement Medicine

The student-run community news site of Vermont State University - Johnson

Basement Medicine

Springfield, Vt. in the turn of the century

Springfield: Vt.’s seventh circle

Thomas Benton March 28, 2013

Here’s the scene: There’s a body on the side of the road in southern Vermont. Maybe alive, maybe dead, but no one cares. They just drive on past, and if they take their eyes off the road to glance...

Of all the dreams in all the heads in all the world...

The Dame in the Diner Dream

Richard Schlong March 28, 2013

The New Mexican mountains had all the jagged curvatures of a lie-detector test, and in the sunset on the other side I saw truth. Time to stop slacking in Sante Fe, put on my slacks and head back to the...

Once Dan had settled into Alaska, Clint convinced him a beard was necessary. All Alaskan men, and some women, carry them on their face to keep warm, he had told Dan. Although Dan protested at first, he gave in. After about three or four months wearing the scraggly mess on his face, he decided Clint had made a fool of him long enough. Dan shaved it about four or five months ago.

Dan and Clint: a friendship begining

Dan Schwartz March 28, 2013

I was going to tell you about my sex life, but that’s not much of a story anymore. Then I got 1,800 words into an essay about crippling depression, but we’ll save that for later; that’s not first...

Scott Baker of Burlington at the Three Needs

Get Shorty: Burlington on cue

Don Eaton March 28, 2013

“A proficiency at billiards is a sign of a misspent youth,” wrote Twain. If true, then the Three Needs in Burlington is home to an assortment of hustlers whose youths, in aggregate, constitute the...

Cara in the Danvers McDonalds

Kevin and Cara’s Crazy Caravan II

Kevin Paquet March 14, 2013

Kevin Paquet is a 2009 JSC graduate. He, his wife, and their cats are currently crawling south in a camper from 1969 hooked to an SUV from 1994. For earlier installments see Basementmedicine.org. On the...

The author in Þingvellir

Icelandic February: fissures and phalluses

Anna Maria Liccione March 14, 2013

So...Iceland in February. When I started telling people I was going to Iceland for a few days over break, I got some strange reactions. "Usually people go somewhere warm during the winter in Vermont,"...

Cold enough for ya? Polar Splash raises cash for local charities

Cold enough for ya? Polar Splash raises cash for local charities

Liz Beatty-Owens February 22, 2013

On an average Saturday morning driving down Route 12 in mid-February, passing through the small town of Elmore, Vermont, you might find a Chevy truck idling outside the general store and a few cross country...

The Terrors of Ice and Bad Teaching

The Terrors of Ice and Bad Teaching

Kassandra Cousineau February 22, 2013

Martha Lance has been the Learning Resource Center Coordinator in the TRIO office at Johnson State College since 2010. She heads up the tutoring arm of the academic support services, and serves TRIO students...

They were trying to take the paper back.  So I went under hard cover.

To Have and Want Not

Richard Schlong, Private Eye February 21, 2013

I’d been ransacking Robert Parker’s body like Sharon Stone on her wedding night. Body of work, that is. So I gave it a break. Ernest Hemingway was on the shelf. I took him off. “To Have and Have...

What drives Jerry Mitchell?

What drives Jerry Mitchell?

Don Eaton February 7, 2013

Jerry Mitchell is an investigative reporter who lives in Jackson, Mississippi. He has written for the Clarion Ledger, Jackson’s daily paper, for nearly 30 years. Mitchell built his award-winning career...

Kevin and Cara’s Crazy Caravan

Kevin and Cara’s Crazy Caravan

Kevin Paquet February 7, 2013

My name is Kevin Paquet. Let me tell you a story. I graduated from Johnson State College, as many of you will someday do, in May of 2009. Our commencement speaker was the former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan....

A Glimpse: Learning Specialist Richard Simmons

A Glimpse: Learning Specialist Richard Simmons

Kayla Friedrich February 7, 2013

The Academic Support office offers services such as tutoring, advising, and general help for students with, or without, learning disabilities. Richard Simmons is JSC’s learning specialist responsible...

Her music hung over the city thicker than fog, like heavenly pollution.

The Queens Pied Piper

Richard Schlong, Private Detective February 6, 2013

The only thing she played better than the trumpet was my heart. It wasn’t hard to play my heart: just a couple keys, a few possible notes, no real exertion required. Sometimes just a pretty face would...

The Big Screen

The Big Screen

Richard Schlong, Private Dick December 6, 2012

"It’s a love story!” he was saying. “‘Love in the Dark’! Surely you must see a lot of women –” “Kid,” I said, cutting him off, “the only women I see are in magazines.” Christmas...

Migrant Justice brings home the reality of Vermont’s hidden workers

Migrant Justice brings home the reality of Vermont’s hidden workers

Mariah Howland December 6, 2012

For generations, America has been extolled as the land of opportunity. But such a statement ignores the reality faced by the migrant community. When a young man newly employed in a job to provide for his...

Eddie.

Justice for Dogs: Local nonprofit provides rescue and more

Dylan Archbold December 6, 2012

Eddie will lose an eye but at least he will survive, thanks to Justice for Dogs, a non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to the rescue, care and placement of animals that otherwise might perish. Eddie...

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals’ Matt Burr on a Bill Allen drum kit.

Bill Allen’s big beat: Cambridge drum maker a hit with musicians

Leigh Robtoy December 6, 2012

Bill Allen went from geophysicist and geologist to owner and operator of a small drum company out of Cambridge, Vermont mostly on a whim and a love of building drums.  Green Mountain Drums was incorporated...

Smuggs sinks big bucks in new snowmaking

Smuggs sinks big bucks in new snowmaking

By Don Eaton December 6, 2012

Air is expensive. Compressed air that is, and the manager of snowmaking at Smugglers’ Notch Resort can show you the numbers to prove it. If you thought your fuel bill was high last winter, you should...

Clean, green, chemical hygiene machine:  staff spotlight on Keith Kirchner

Clean, green, chemical hygiene machine: staff spotlight on Keith Kirchner

Mariah Howland November 15, 2012

His title may seem vaguely sinister, oxymoronic, and just plain mysterious depending on how you feel about chemicals, but for Johnson State College Chemical Hygiene Officer Keith Kirchner, it’s all in...

MASSHOLE!  Our Bay State curmudgeon bloviates on rotaries and roundabouts

MASSHOLE! Our Bay State curmudgeon bloviates on rotaries and roundabouts

Don Eaton November 15, 2012

If two wrongs don’t make a right, but three lefts do, does that make rotaries not just right, but in fact a spiraling computer proof of god’s own intentions, a coiling helix encoded with his plan for...

The Hot November

The Hot November

Richard Schlong, Private Investigator November 15, 2012

It was November but I was stuck in September, mostly because I didn’t have anything to be thankful for and I hoped if I gave September another chance something might come up. Monk’s “Misterioso”...

Kings of Chaos, where beauty is skin-deep

Kings of Chaos, where beauty is skin-deep

Michelle Sawyers November 1, 2012

As you enter through the glass doors to Johnson’s new tattoo parlor ‘Kings of Chaos’ a whiff of sanitizer hits your nose as you gaze upon the two red cubicles that decide your fate. While you...

Documenting women’s oppression globally

Documenting women’s oppression globally

Lindsay Brown November 1, 2012

“Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” is both a book and documentary that follows New York Times journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn through 10 countries...

The Beast of College Hill.

The Big Fat Wolf

Richard Schlong September 26, 2012

This story was credited to Dixie Schlong, Public Educator. I’d made a friend named Cain. He shortly thereafter became the first evidence of death I’d seen in as long as I could remember. I went...

Vermonts best burger... nice buns, too

Vermont’s best burger… nice buns, too

Donny Eaton September 23, 2012

The Burger Barn, fast becoming the worst kept secret in Lamoille County, is continuing the long and proud tradition of quirky, Vermont roadside snack stands with its top quality, gourmet hamburgers. Early...

Home sharing offers solutions for home owners and seekers

Home sharing offers solutions for home owners and seekers

Dylan Archbold September 23, 2012

Finding a place to live is difficult, and this is especially true for graduating students in this economy. Home Share Now is an organization that might have the answer you are looking for, if you are looking...

New Edelweiss deli makes way for mans best friend

New Edelweiss deli makes way for man’s best friend

Dylan Archbold September 21, 2012

After closing its doors briefly for remodeling, owners Ralf LaBelle and Ken Schlegel’s Edelweiss Bakery & Deli has returned with a new version of this long-established Johnson eatery. While Edelweiss...

Just me mowing the lawn.

The Dixie Chick

Richard Schlong September 11, 2012

This story was credited to Dixie Schlong, Public Educator. We were sitting on opposite sides of the living room – possibly figuratively as well. We had nothing in common but the cups of coffee we held....

Painting the town

Painting the town

Mariah Howland September 7, 2012

Once every two weeks for a year, JSC Professor of Fine Arts Ken Leslie drove to the Vermont Statehouse in Montpelier, climbed the 201 steps to the narrow balustrade at Ceres’ toes, and completed a sketch...

Hop heaven on East 7th Street

Hop heaven on East 7th Street

Whitney Nellé September 5, 2012

The second I walked through the aged wooden doors of McSorley’s Old Ale House on East 7th Street in New York City, I knew I was among friends. The bartender, dressed all in white with short grey hair,...

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