Chris Bohjalian's Blog, page 45

The Masterpiece in the Leaf Pile

I'm a big fan of crafts that begin with dead leaves, especially if the leaves come from my yard. (Special note to the Lincoln Community School and Martha Stewart: My leaves are your leaves. Take whatever you want.) It's amazing what some artists can do with a dead leaf, an iron and a little wax paper, particularly if the artists are 5 years old and there's a grown-up present to make sure the kids don't iron their hands. The effect is, I'm pretty sure, what Henri Matisse was always trying to a...

Take charge -- when the patient can't

Last week I mentioned in this space that my father had been in a hospital's intensive care unit in August, while I was being kicked out of the fitness center at his country club when I went to see him. He lives in South Florida. Since then, many of you have asked how he is doing, and some have wanted to know if I expect to do jail time for trying to work out at the gym without a membership.

The answer to the second question is simple: You don't do the crime if you can't do the time. There...

Busted by the Fitness Police

The other day I was busted by the geriatric fitness police. It was my own fault and I pled guilty. I was visiting my father in South Florida and I was released on my own recognizance -- which is no small accomplishment in my father's community, since so many of his neighbors are elderly and aren't completely sure who they are.

As frequent readers know, I love visiting my dad and hanging out with his friends. Granted, it means watching television with the volume set at jet engine and beginning...

Shelf life. . .and death.

Last month, Alison Morris, a blogger for Publisher's Weekly's "Shelftalker" and a senior editor at Scholastic Book Clubs, wrote a terrific essay about woodworkers who build bookcases that can double as coffins.

I came across Morris's essay because friends sent it to me. Yup, friends. Plural. They insist this was a coincidence. They insist they were not in cahoots. Moreover, they both claim that they were not making a comment on either my age or the state of the paper book.

The irony, of...

A toast to the fairest of them all

Saturday was Day One of northwestern Vermont's annual celebration of Famous Pork Boners, Bloomin' Onions and the opportunity to view a pumpkin the size of a Volkswagen -- aka, the 2010 Champlain Valley Fair.

I love the fair because it's the only time of the year when I can use the expression "Famous Pork Boner" and not worry that I have offended someone. After all, a Famous Pork Boner is nothing more than a two-ounce piece of pork shank that is deep-fried and covered in barbecue sauce. It's...

Rocket Man Meets the Magic School Bus

Speaking as a parent, I am really glad that someone finally attached an engine from a Phantom fighter jet to a big yellow school bus. It's about time we had a bus that could reach 371 miles per hour.

The visionary behind the jet-powered school bus is a former snowmobile dealer and motorcycle and snowmobile racer from Big Bend, Wis., with a great sense of humor. His name is Paul Stender. Now Stender owns Indy Boys Inc. in Indianapolis, a small group of guys who live to attach jet engines to...

Top Guns Choose Their Big Cheese

While the world was focused on the World Cup and national soccer supremacy this summer, the most intense competition of any sort may actually have been occurring off the coast of Washington state at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. It was there in July where cheeses from Vermont and Wisconsin went head-to-head in a "cheese-off," with the winners getting bragging rights and the losers getting angioplasties.

I am honestly not sure why so many Americans watched the World Cup, which was only...

Finding the Mountain of Youth

Earlier this summer I had one of those moments that was both humbling and reassuring. I was in Italy and I was biking alone up the sort of Tuscan hill that is perfect if it's the 14th century and you want to put a fortified stone village on top, but demands sequoia trees for thighs if it's the 21st century and you want to climb it on a bicycle.

Now, of course, all those fortified stone villages are filled with cheese shops, wine stores, and -- in the case of San Gimignano -- torture museums...

No draggin' in that boat

Given the role that well-aged cheddar has long played in the history of competitive sculling, it was inevitable that eventually Cabot Cheese would enter a couple of boats in next Sunday's annual Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival at Waterfront Park in Burlington. And given my belief that there is no food that cannot be improved with cheese (and some foods, such as broccoli, need all the cheese they can get), it was only a matter of time before I grabbed a paddle and climbed aboard one of...

The Body Electric Come to Bristol

The Terasem Movement Foundation, Inc. is housed in a regal Victorian on the northwestern corner of the town green in Bristol. You can stand on the front porch and gaze at the gazebo where the Addison County village has Wednesday night band concerts in the summer.

The last time I had been inside the building, it was a private home belonging to friends, and the walls of the stairway to the second floor was a homemade collage of antique wallpaper images.

Now the house has a vastly more futuristic...