MiddBlog

What could better punctuate the monotony of a sticky summer afternoon than a beautiful drive and a free swim? It’s worth the short drive to Ferrisburgh to check out Button Bay, a Vermont State Park and camping grounds with access to Lake Champlain. Just up Route 7, take the left for Vergennes and follow signage to Button Bay. For $3.00 per person, a picnic area and swimming hole await you in the park.

But drive just a moment beyond the official park entrance for the college student special: swim off of the boat launch. You’ll see a rutted dirt road on your right, and if you take it you’ll find a gravel parking area. From there, it’s a short walk to the modest lake access, which consists of a few large sun-bathing rocks and a piece of bench-sized driftwood. The water is shallow and warm with a great view of the Adirondacks.

Swimming is pleasant if you can ignore the overabundance of Eurasian water milfoil, a rust-colored plant that began invading Lake Champlain in 1962, according to the Lake Champlain Land Trust.   Certain areas of the bay were so congested with seaweed-like milfoil that swimming and even walking were nearly impossible. Still, in the less-congested areas of the shallows, it was glorious simply to float serenely and gaze out at the mountains across the shore.

For more information, check out the VT state park website , or for directions click here.

Breadloaf is going strong this summer as evidenced by a video from a teacher to his students. Maybe this video also serves to demonstrate why we need a new Middlebury website…?

So this is how alumni party? And its in the Hepburn Zoo? Dang…reunion.

Any good language school video out there yet?

Earlier today I was reading this summer’s “The Best of New England,” by New England Travel to see what I would learn about the greater Massachusetts-Vermont area. This is what I learned:

In Vermont, “Every person is required to bathe at least once a week, Saturday night.”

Upstanding citizen that I am, I needed to verify this information because, well, I’ve definitely broken the law a couple of times. I mean, the bathing Saturday night part I’ve violated a few times, not the whole not bathing for a week thing.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a codified source. I did find this list of other Vermont laws though. Whistling under water? Really?

Also listed in the New England Travel Magazine that pertains to Middlebury are the Swift House Inn and Tully and Marie’s,

Former Midd President and head honcho of the org. Choose Responsibility, John McCardell has an article in this month’s issue of The Atlantic, the Big Ideas issue.

For the most part, he gives his standard stats on how binge drinking amongst 18-26 year olds has increased since the drinking age changed to 21 nationally. His big idea here, however, is none other than a sort of alcohol license, granted upon finishing high school and completing an alcohol education. He proposes:

“So what might states, freed from this federal penalty, do differently? They might license 18-year-olds—adults in the eyes of the law—to drink, provided they’ve completed high school, attended an alcohol-education course (that consists of more than temperance lectures and scare tactics), and kept a clean record.”

A license to drink that parallels my license to drive? Hmmm….interesting. I’m completely on board with Choose Responsibility, but something about this proposal just isn’t clicking for me. Is it really worth the extra paper work and red tape and the need to carry yet another ID with me everywhere? Although, since alcohol and driving are so frequently brought up in the same conversation, I suppose it makes sense to carry the connection just a little further.

Thoughts?

[via The Atlantic]

The Internet before the “the”. Weird

What will be next to gain a definite article? The Google? The Twitter? The Hulu?