Published articles
"Well, I'll be damned.
Hey, Marge. Would you take a look at this article.
This Mullikin guy's either a genius or a nut job. Hey, wait a minute -- what's all this stuff about death and dying? That's just not right.
And what the heck's a pedorthist?"
Below (and continued on subsequent pages) is a partial list of newspaper and magazine articles published within the past few years. After reading the lead, and if you so choose, click on the link. This will direct you to the complete article in the publication in which it appeared originally.
Technology has replaced the book of yellowed clippings in one swift click of the mouse -- and in so doing killed the mucilage glue and oatmeal paper industries.
What next shall fall?
Author's Top 10
1) Rock on ...
You might be surprised what people want played at their funerals
That great journey into the afterlife might be made to the strains of Led Zeppelin’s 1971 hit “Stairway to Heaven” — or AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” — if a national trend continues.
Try this at a formal gathering, and hear the conversation die: Ask how many people have considered what type of music will be played for their own funeral or if they’ve prepared their own playlist. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060115/NEWS/60115001/1016/FEATURES07
2) You mean, like the song?
Some lyrically named Vermonters just can’t stanza it anymore
So, just what is it about Leila Cosgrove, 22, of Burlington, and Cecilia Talamantes, 40, of Medford, Mass., that would make a man get down, begging, on his knees?
First, follow the bouncing ball back to the year 1970 when Eric Clapton, masquerading as "Derek" of Derek and The Dominos, wailed: "Layla, you've got me on my knees. Layla, I'm begging darling, please," and Simon and Garfunkel harmonized: "Oh, Cecilia, I'm down on my knees; I'm begging you please to come home." (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060423/NEWS/604230325/1016/EDUCATION05
3) In my father’s slippered footsteps
Everybody works but father. He sits around all day. Feet in front of the fireplace, smokes his pipe of clay. Mother takes in washing. So does sister Ann. Everybody works at our house, but my old man.
Whenever I hear this silly old song sung by Groucho Marx I think of my father, Willard Everett Mullikin Jr., who was a ripe-and-retired 45-year-old when I was born. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/FEATURES/606180302/1002/FEATURES02
4) Not just another face in the crowd
Jason Sand?
The name may not be recognizable, yet, but there’s no mistaking him for anyone else.
He’s a piece of work — in progress — who leaves a lasting impression. A friendly, hard-working family guy with kind eyes and whose face is tattooed completely. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070226/NEWS02/702260354/1003/NEWS02
5) Spare the Rod Serling and spoil the child
Sometimes I like to fantasize that I’m on my deathbed, surrounded by keening family members. In the corner of the room lurks a shadowy figure in a sharkskin suit, cigarette in hand, speaking through clenched teeth into the big eye of a CBS-TV camera.
“”Witness a sorry little man during his final hours. Throughout his life he’s cowered at the site of mannequins, fortune-telling machines, ventriloquist dummies, talking dolls and pig-nosed people. Tonight, we hear the sad tale of this pitiful specimen of humankind, a lifelong victim of . . . ‘The Twilight Zone.’” Theme music. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070225/FEATURES/70223002/1002/FEATURES02
6) Hobnobbing with hobos
Whatever you do, don’t call them bums
The deep laugh lines in King Tuck’s leathery face remain long after he’s stopped laughing. Twenty-five years of riding the rails have left their mark.
”I left home at 15. We’s a poor family, I always felt I was always just another mouth to feed, you know. I just left home to take the burden off of my parents kind of,” says the 46-year-old Texan.
As he exhales a thick cloud of smoke from a hand-rolled Bugler cigarette, it’s sucked out the caboose’s open door, floats across the makeshift hobo jungle, and mixes in with the smoldering campfire. The fire was lit when the ‘bos arrived late on Thursday and kept burning until they broke camp on Monday.
The caboose is a permanent fixture at the Railroad Museum of Long Island. The hobos aren’t; they’re here just for the Sept. 27-30 hobo gathering. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071014/FEATURES05/710140312/1014/FEATURES05
8) Thinking outside the litter box
Vermont’s animal communicators are a different breed
Author Hugh Lofting was on to something back in 1922 when he wrote his second book in the series about the doctor who talked to the animals. He would doubtless find it fascinating that today, hundreds of people get paid to do just that.
They call themselves animal communicators, and Vermont has several who offer their services professionally. Nationally they number some 350, according to Penelope Smith, 60, of Prescott, Ariz., a driving force in the field since 1971. Of course, most pet owners (a word that animal communicators dislike) talk to their dogs or cats regularly, usually in silly baby talk. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070304/FEATURES07/703040339/1016/FEATURES07
9) Wiggle Room
Greensboro Bend’s Wacky Worm Sisters wax on the ins and outs of fertilizer
Packed in quart-sized Baggies, the stuff looks rich, crumbly and decidedly illegal. But the label states otherwise: It’s nutrient-rich humus, a.k.a. Premium Quality Worm Castings — the end product, literally, of thousands of red worms, also known as red wigglers, tiger worms, manure worms, stink worms, fish worms, dung worms, fecal worms and striped worms. (Click link below for complete story.) http://www.7dvt.com/2008/wiggle-room
10) Victrola’s Secret
A spin doctor keeps old music makers alive
St. Johnsbury’s Rod Lauman lives in a three-story, yellow 1883 house that’s furnished and decorated in a brooding Victorian style. One of his three cats, a white female, is named Victoria.
Within these walls Lauman operates Victrola Repair Service, where he services and sells Victrolas. Yup, those wind-up phonographs with the big horns that make a vocalist sound as though he’s holding his nose while he sings something that invariably comes out "voh-doh-doh-dee-oh-doh" at 78 rpm. (Click link below for complete story.)
http://www.7dvt.com/2007/victrolas-secret
The Ely (Nev.) Times
Any day fishing is good: $5,000 makes it better
The fish stories flew freely Saturday afternoon as did snow flurries at the 11th Annual Ely Rotary Club Ice Fishing Derby.Moapa's Pauline Drinnon, bundled head to toe against the cold, stood next to her augur hole and lied outright:
"I hooked one so big it wouldn't fit through the hole." (For the record the biggest fish of the day was a 12.5-inch lake trout. The smallest, a puny 7-incher. Each was worth $100, as was each of the tagged fish.)
St. Bartholomew was larger than life... still is
Thomas and Margaret Bath can thank a road trip through Reno for the larger-than-life bronze statue of St. Bartholomew that graces the garden at his namesake Ely church
The Baths were on vacation, Margaret says, when they came across a bronze statue of wild stallions by Auburn, Calif., sculptor Doug Van Howd. "We were oohing and awing over this sculpture," she says. (Click link below for complete story.)
Jesse Billaeur
Giving inspiration from the heart
Jesse Billauer is both flattered and puzzled.
“It’s amazing people still want to talk about my accident and what I do 13 years later. Even kids who are just surfing now know about me from a movie (there are two, actually) and are inspired. That’s huge.”
Billauer, a handsome man with piercing hazel eyes, speaks these words with a mixture of pride and humility from the Third Street Promenade apartment in Santa Monica he shares with his ’round-the-clock caregiver, Raul. He depends on Raul to lift him from bed to wheelchair and to assist him with bathing and bodily functions. (Click link below for complete story.)
http://www.sopdigitaledition.com/malibumag/
The Malibu Times
Michael Madsen's poetry softens tough-guy image
“American Badass,” Madsen's latest book, may give Mr. Blonde a run for his money
Actor and Malibu resident Michael Madsen laughed as he recalled reading an article about the death of tough-guy actor Richard Widmark.
Madsen, a self-described fellow tough-guy actor, was in Canada working on a film when he spotted the Widmark obit in the local paper.
Widmark, Madsen explained, was quoted in the article as saying that while he had made more than 60 films during his career, he was fearful he'd be remembered only as the giggling psychopath who pushed the old woman down the stairs in a wheelchair (in 1947's “Kiss of Death”). Widmark's fear was realized; the headline accompanying the piece read: “Giggling psychopath dead.” (Click link below for complete article.)
Malibu author Tim Gallwey's new book
helps stressed individuals stay balanced
Stressing over which stress-relief book to buy?
Sounds silly, but minor stress, such as fretting over which book to buy, has become part of daily living. We simply grin and bear it and move along.
Major stress? That's another matter. Malibu author W. Timothy Gallwey estimates that up to 75 percent of all visits to primary-care physicians are for stress-related complaints or disorders.
Simply stated: stress is making us sick, even killing us. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2009/09/30/malibu_life/art2.txt
Malibu's music corner: ‘Twilight & Blues'
In her latest CD, pianist Lisa Hilton establishes new standards in jazz
Amalgamating her concern for today's social issues with iconic songs from decades passed, pianist Lisa Hilton last month released her 11th jazz album, “Twilight & Blues” (Ruby Slippers Productions 1012). Alongside new songs penned by Hilton, the album also features her own versions of legendary tracks such as Marvin Gaye's, “What's Going On,” Joni Mitchell's “Woodstock” and Janis Joplin's “Kozmic Blues.”
And though it may have seemed strategically scheduled, Hilton insists the CD's release just in time for the 40th anniversary of Woodstock was pure coincidence. (Click link below for complete article.) http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2009/09/02/malibu_life/art2.txt
She's the surreal thing Malibu resident Tiffany Trenda is one of more than 40 artists whose work will be showcased this weekend at the first annual Malibu Contemporary Art Fair.
Look into video installation performance artist Tiffany Trenda's face, and you might see yourself peering back -- literally.
It's narcissism of sorts, with a wink, a nudge and a nod to technology. Rigged with cameras and video screens, Trenda creates odd -- sometimes eerie -- personalities and characters during her live performances that leave children entranced and some grownups more than just a little creeped out. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2009/08/26/malibu_life/art1.txt
A mountain lion's share of attention
Big cat population faring well in Santa Monica Mountains, but urbanization poses ongoing threat
It's been an ongoing game of cat and mouse between the area's mountain lion population and staffers at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area for the past seven years.
For the SMMNRA staff, capturing, collaring and monitoring these solitary animals is no easy task. (Click link below for complete article.) http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2009/08/19/news/news5.txt
National spearfishing championship lures hopeful anglers from across U.S.
The line of soggy burlap sacks snaked its way from shoreline to a makeshift weigh station late Thursday afternoon.
Tied and tagged, each bag contained a briny assortment of California sheepshead, opal-eye perch, rubber-lip perch, calico bass, sand bass and other fish that were either too slow or not paying close enough attention to the stealthy spearfishers who invaded the reefs at Leo Carrillo State Beach last week.
Each of the bagged fish bore a distinctive puncture wound, and if the spearfisher's aim was right on the mark, the wound was near the head. (Click link below for complete article.)
Vernal (Utah) Express
Dogged determination has boy in command
Darby and Jack stretch out on their bellies, their eyes glued to the dinner table.
Begging is a dog’s lot in life, but Darby, an Irish setter, and Jack, a miniature Yorkshire terrier, know better.
They have been trained to stay put, Jack by Necia Betts and Darby by Dylan, her 8-year-old son – the youngest student at K-9 College.
"She stays there the whole time until we release her," the Discovery Elementary School second-grader says from the kitchen table of his Vernal home.
Technically Darby is the family dog, one of five (three hounds are relegated to an outside pen) but, in Darby’s eyes, Dylan is her captain.
Once a week Dylan joins six other "captains" who bring their dogs to K-9 College at Western Park. Their goal: bringing order to canine chaos. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.vernal.com/pages/full_story?article-Dogged-determination-has-boy-in-command%20=&page_label=news_features&id=1993550-Dogged-determination-has-boy-in-command&widget=push&instance=lead_story_left_column&open=&
Eastwood film features Showalter’s showroom showstopper
Climb in the back seat, Mr. Eastwood.
This is Gary Showalter’s 15 minutes of fame. Well, more like 1 hour and 56 minutes of fame, complete with buttered popcorn.
The 1972 Gran Torino Showalter bought roughly a year and a half ago from a dealer north of Branson, Mo., is the namesake and "star" of the new Eastwood blockbuster, "Gran Torino."
How this particular car ended up in a major film is the stuff of Hollywood legend. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.vernal.com/pages/full_story?article-Eastwood-film-features-Showalter-s-showroom-showstopper%20=&page_label=results_content&id=1600503-Eastwood-film-features-Showalter-s-showroom-showstopper&widget=push&open=&
Businessman riding on crest of a wave
Walking, talking, waving – a human billboard in cowboy boots – George Burnett is all smiles as he flashes a thumbs up to a deafening diesel-horn blast from an eastbound semi.
Burnett is holding a sign that reads: "Honk! If You (Heart) Drilling"
In Vernal, it seems, everyone does. And honk, they do.
Burnett estimates that in the six weeks he’s been out hitting the pavement near the intersection of 500 East and Highway 40, in front of his recently opened Covers & Camo Custom Seat Cover Shop, he’s been honked at and waved at roughly 5,000 times.
http://www.vernal.com/pages/full_story?page_label=results_content&id=1253878-Businessman-riding-on-crest-of-a-wave&widget=push&article-Businessman-riding-on-crest-of-a-wave%20=&open=&
Gateway to the New Year
This is definitely not your regular Wednesday night crowd at Vernal’s Gateway Saloon.
Tonight is New Year’s Eve, and the door checkers and bartenders are working at breakneck speed as the minutes tick closer to midnight. The walls appear to bulge as 300-plus people squeeze into the Gateway.
"We usually have 40 people on Wednesday," shouts Jaime Slaugh, who’s been working as a door girl since August. Most of the regulars are here tonight, she says, plus some others — oil-field workers, cholos, cowboys, wannabe cowboys, single women, couples — straight and gay — and couples in the making. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.vernal.com/pages/full_story?page_label=results_content&id=1253378-Gateway-to-the-New-Year&widget=push&article-Gateway-to-the-New-Year%20=&open=&
Vernal couple yak it up
The seven bos grunniens penned in Randy and Lou-Ann Merrell’s backyard let out happy grunts and come running, en masse with nostrils twitching, as they catch wind of the treats. A bunch of big galoots bellying up to the bar for the free snacks at happy hour.
“They don’t like being separated,” says Lou-Ann as she hand feeds each member of this tightly knit herd. Family might be a better way to describe this yak herd, which is overseen by Balu, a testosterone-charged 5-year-old bull who keeps everyone – including the Merrells at times – in check.
http://www.vernal.com/pages/full_story?page_label=news_features&id=830489-Vernal-couple-yak-it-up&widget=push&article-Vernal-couple-yak-it-up%20=&instance=secondary_story_left_column&open=&
A sole proprietor
Meet Vernal’s premier pedorthist
We gangly bipeds rely on our feet to propel us, absorb the shocks as we roll merrily along, and keep us from falling flat on our Homo sapiens faces.
Shod in shoddy shoes, and pounding paved surfaces of civilized society, it’s no small wonder our feet are killing us.
Welcome to the world of Randal I. Merrell, world-class boot maker and pedorthist.
Podiatrist? No, that’s pedorthist.
Some clarification is in order.
"‘Ped’ is step. ‘Pod’ is foot," Merrell, 58, expl ains from Merrell Footlab located near the mouth of Dry Fork Canyon. ‘Ortho,’ he continues, "means straight, correct, pure – as in the Orthodox Church. ‘Ist’ is a suffix, meaning ‘one who is concerned with.’ So being a pedorthist, I am concerned with making steps pure, straight, correct, etc." (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.vernal.com/pages/full_story?page_label=news_features&id=693277-Meet-Vernal-s-premier-pedorthist&article-Meet-Vernal-s-premier-pedorthist%20=&widget=push&instance=lead_story_bullets_left_column&open=&
Frozen-turkey bowling
Poultry in motion
Part urban legend, part stock boy’s reprieve from the tedium of restocking shelves at 3 a.m., frozen turkey bowling, talons down, is the most creative, if not most bizarre, use of Meleagris gallopavo.
For the record: Bowling with a frozen turkey is not the same as getting a "turkey" in regular bowling.
That turkey, explains Dinah Bowl Manager Larie Dawn Oaks — L.D. to the Vernal bowling crowd — is league lingo for making three consecutive strikes. When that happens, a turkey, sometimes an animated turkey, appears or dances on the scoreboard.
But back to frozen turkey bowling. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://vernal.com/pages/full_story?article-poultry-in-motion-Turkey-bowling-%20=&page_label=news_features&id=723001-poultry-in-motion-Turkey-bowling-&widget=push&instance=secondary_story_left_column&open=&
Karate instructor earns his chops
With his bald pate, body locked perfectly still in lotus position, eyes closed to the hectic outside world, Tang Soo Do Master Instructor Steven Wallenda, a fourth-degree black belt, certainly looks the part.
But make no mistake; he has the chops to go with his newly minted title. He’s also a direct descendant of the world-famous Flying Wallendas, known internationally for their expertise in the art of flying trapeze. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.vernal.com/pages/full_story?page_label=results_content&id=294134-Karate-instructor-earns-his-chops&article-Karate-instructor-earns-his-chops%20=&widget=push&open=&
Way to go
Thomson-Blackburn Vernal Mortuary
Alone upstairs in the casket showroom is fascinating, more than a little creepy, but surprisingly peaceful.
Aligned head to toe are some 20 polished metal and varnished wooden caskets. With their white, padded liners, they look much like twin beds. Comfortable twin beds at that.
To lie down in one (keep the lid open, please), while still on this side of the grass, is tempting – just to see how it feels.
But the opportunity to "play dead" ends with the arrival of TyAnn Blackburn, 37, who, with husband, Mitch, 42, owns and operates Thomson-Blackburn Vernal Mortuary at 15 E 100 N, Vernal’s sole mortuary and funeral home. She is at ease in the casket room, pointing out their features as if she were describing mattresses, cars or appliances. She does so with a smile and unbridled enthusiasm. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.vernal.com/pages/full_story?hash=comments_333186&page_label=full_story&id=333186&article-Way-to-go-Thomson-Blackburn-Vernal-Mortuary%20=&widget=push&open=&#comments_333186
PM Magazine
Bill “Rusty” Fraser
City manager and musician is Montpelier's main attraction
"It's like a benevolent dictatorship," Montpelier City Manager Bill Fraser says with a wry grn from his office at Montlier's city hall. Fraser, 48, is referring to his lead role in Rusty Romance, the “roots ‘n’ roll” band he fronts under his alter ego, Rusty: cowboy-hatted, often hidden behind shades, and always closing the show with his upbeat song, “We Brought the Fun.”
The band functions somewhat like the city, Fraser says, in that it has “really great people” who bring in ideas and initiatives. “We sort them out. . . . I might try to say, ‘Well, here’s the general direction I’d like us to go in,’ and then everyone figures out, as a team, how we’re going to get there.”
Ah, spoken like a true diplomat.
Diplomacy, it seems, is city manager Fraser’s forte. (Click link below for complete story.)
http://icma.org/pm/9006/public/profile.cfm?author=&title=Profile