Stuck in Vermont Moves to Seven Days

OK, I know I should not count my chickens before my ship has hatched and all that jazz but can I just be really happy for just one second and crow merrily from the rooftops? YES! I can! This is my blathering blog and I can be as obnoxious as I please! Plug your ears if need be.

You know the fairytale Cinderella? The poor evil stepsisters (who are far easier to relate to than bland pretty Cinderella) try so hard to jam their enormous feet into the petite glass slipper, but it is to no avail. I think in some versions, they even cut off their toes to crunch their bloody feet into the dainty little shoe.

Well, that has been me for a long time now, trying to jam my foot into a slipper that didn't fit. How heavenly is it to put on a shoe and have it feel just right? That is how working for Seven Days feels, like a comfortable old shoe. Only, that sounds all wrong. But you get my drift.

Stuck in Vermont has a new home and it is at Seven Days. The move is courtesy of Online Editor/Blogger extraordinaire Cathy, beautiful site design for STVT by Don (ooh, red and black, how classy-n-punk!), most excellent logo design by Scott and fabulous song in the opening credits by The Smittens.

I am so excited and have more ideas for vlogs than I can keep straight in my head. VT is full of interesting people, happenings and stories and I can't wait to sink my teeth into them! CHOMP, chew, chew, swallow!

Be on the look out for vlogs about the VDay Blizzard, Oscars in VT, First 50, Mardi Gras and Keely and Du - and that is just this weekend! And please comment with any feedback/ideas you have! STVT is a work in progress but now that I am wearing shoes that fit, it is sure to be a fun ride! Wait, does that make me Cinderella? Eeek!

PS And while I am crowing, did you know the fabulously talented Seven Days writer/editor, Margot Harrison, is now doing movie reviews? Yes, yes, 'tis true that she is my sister and fellow deadbeat but that doesn't biase me as such. I know good writing when I read it:

Those fine performances give real heft to a tragic event late in the story. Like the adult fairy tale Pan’s Labyrinth, Terabithia presents fantasy as a way of surviving realities that are hard for anyone — let alone children — to face. Unlike Pan, Terabithia is probably not too disturbing for most young viewers. The “tearjerker” part of the movie is presented with such low-key realism that it may even hit adults hardest, while kids struggle to absorb what’s going on. (The scene that drops like a bomb in the novel passes very quickly on-screen.) - Margot Harrison, Seven Days

Bitch Tits

Have you ever known a guy who shotgunned so hard trying to get shredded that he developed bitch tits? How many cups of coffee did the lot lizard’s john get with the help of blue steel? When a griefer frags your avatar at the spawn point, do you spam him with taunts? Did you leave a sitzmark on crud after the gaper blocked your way?

These quasi-English sentences may be Greek to you. But each makes sense to the members of a certain subculture: bodybuilders, prostitutes, online gamers and skiers, respectively, in the examples above. These and many more come from a handy lexicon called Talk the Talk: The Slang of 65 American Subcultures, published in September, by Burlington resident Luc Reid. If you’ve ever wanted to hang out with beekeepers, spelunkers, ex-cons, drug pushers or cat fanciers and feel like one of the gang, it’s a good start.
- Word Nerds, Margot Harrison

As if I needed more proof that my smarty pants sister (AKA Fuchsia Groan) can turn a beautiful phrase, here is a great review she wrote for her always scintillating 7 Days column, Underlines: The Word on Local Lit. Me thinks deadbeats need their own slang too: "Leave me alone, I am busy doing nothing." Proud to say she is my sister, bitch tits and all.