Yeah.... I'm not a fan of that list. I'm not sure who was on the board that approved it- I might try to find out, just so I can send them a nice bronx cheer. Too many people in this state try to make a statement in everything. *mutters* It makes sense for the stereotypical Vermonter who has a wood stove and a gas or oil cook stove and oven, but that stereotype is NOT the majority. Most Vermonters live in apartments or fairly modern homes without survivability features, in one of a couple of population clusters.

My roommate and I would probably be OK- she's a little flakey and is prone to losing things like her keys, but she solo'ed the top half of the AT and still has most of her gear. The only saving grace half of my neighbors would have is that they are refugees, and I have no doubt that most of them have a stock against hard times. I LIKE that half, they got out of Somalia, Sudan, Bosnia, Iraq, Burma, all kinds of unhealthy places and are pretty good people for the most part. It is is the other half that I'm worried about.

And there is a reason I put the word "newspaper" in quotes when discussing Seven Days- they are erratic. Mostly the focus on arts and culture and the oh so in section of the population. Oh well, they are publishing my letter, and last week they had a nice article on cold rooms and root cellars, so maybe, just maybe, they are starting to take seriously. A few months back they had a BIG section on state plans for an epidemic. So someone in their editorial staff takes it seriously, and they might be the best investigative reporting in this state, but that is a pretty scary statement.

sounds like an editorial staff composed of graduates of middlebury, bennington and goddard who never quite made it off campus. I got ito a discussion with such in my undergraduate years. they were planning to start a co-op, and wanted some advice from a farm-kid about what sort of livestock to raise for food. I suggested worms and goldfish, based on the old man's observation that, in order to raise pigs (or chickens, or cattle, or sheep) you got to be smarter than pigs. These folks seemed intellectually inferior to warm-blooded critters.

I just ruined a keyboard

Mike, you left out UVM, Champlain, and St Mikes, but yeah, pretty much.

But some of them are undoubtedly smarter than a goldfish.

> 4.4 pounds of corn meal

Well, no. It's 4.4 lbs of corn flour, _plus_ 5 lbs of corn meal, in addition to 5 lbs each of white flour, wheat flour, rice and pasta. shrug - I'd still like to hang around a family of four as they live off that list for two weeks after it's been stored a year. I'm sure it's doable, but seriously -- living in a stressful bugging-in situation for two weeks on that bill of fare would add immeasurably to _my_ discomfort. Two weeks in the house as you avoid contact with the outside world.

Oh, well.

Anybody have any guesses why it's kilos of wheat flour and pounds of everything else?

Guys from middlebury used to drive onto the rr tracks, deflate their tires slightly, and motor on down to Champlain on autopilot. at that time, middlebury men had sat scores that averaged about 100 points lower than those of the co-eds, and they pretty much didn't date locally. At st mikes, a priest ventured into the quad between 4 dorms and attempted to silence a stereo war-he disappeared beneath a pile of thrown beer cans that was 1.5 priests high at its center. I retain a certain amount of respect for those institutions, tho omitting UVM was a clear errror on my part, and i thank you for the correction.

*LAUGHS*

Mike, you grew up around here, didn't you.

So what are you doing in Chicago?

Got older there, anyway. growing up was optional, and I opted out. Lived in the adirondacks, mostly, but spent 4 glorious years at middlebury,studying philosophy. was unemployable when i got out, so i went to nursing school...time passes...dw got a job offer just north of chicago, and i was a trailing spouse. I miss vermont a lot, raven, but every time I visit, seems like all the people I talk to are from manhattan-kinda like florida.

You just need to get out of Burlington and the colleges- still plenty of us woodchucks around.

I lived in Ft. Sheridan for a couple of years in the late 60's. What a beautiful place!