Not sure which Air B&Bs you're looking at, but one of them is probably my mom's! If you do end up going to hers, it's outrageously clean, lovely, and she's a great host. She always provides breakfast treats based on guest preferences and chocolate or some other goody.

Agreed, although its also worth pointing out that if it were on a weekend, then people who work weekends (retail, food service, etc), who also tend to be economically disadvantaged, still wouldn't be able to attend. I worked weekends for many years. My partner currently works evenings in a grocery store and wouldn't be able to go if it were held on Tuesday evening.

Of course, being a weekday isn't ideal for participation, but it is a state holiday, so schools and state offices are closed, which helps a bit.

Twitter was already a word before the site, it's a way to describe bird sounds.

Normally I'm good with town water, but yeah, Montpelier water is nasty. I once heard it described as tasting like "polliwog shit".

I've almost never been as good at taking care of my teeth as I could have been, I eat my fair share of sugar, and I once went over a decade without going to the dentist, and I have still never had a cavity. I'm sure good tooth genetics plays a large part, but I've also had town water almost my whole life and got plenty of fluoride as a kid.

Honestly, hiking and farmers markets are the only Vermont-y activities I do in the fall. Even sticking to that will give you a decent sense of what people do here.

Edit:

I do have one place you have to go, though! Yates Family Orchard in Hinesburg (?) sells something called the Dreemee, which is a maple cremee (what the rest of the country knows as soft-serve) on top of a super fresh cider donut. You can upgrade to the Supremee by adding apple pie filling and caramel sauce. It's mind-blowing.

Where do you currently live? Are you prepared for the realities of the state year-round, not just during ski season?

Also, housing will be your biggest obstacle. It was slim pickings before covid, now it's slim pickings and very expensive.

Awesome!!! Let's hope for a clear day.

It's funny you say that, because I spent over a decade in MA before moving back here, and they're waaay stricter than VT! I was blown away when I moved back at being able to buy beer and wine in grocery stores.

I grew up here, then moved away for college, then moved back for grad school.

I don't really have any book-related guilty pleasures, since I'm not super into any of the typical "guilty pleasure" genres (no shade if you are into them, they're just not for me). I definitely have TV guilty pleasures, though, namely cooking competitions.

Each book I finish is one line (or two if there's a really long title), so I usually go through a page to a page and a half a year.

Nope, just one line per entry. It's pretty minimal, just date finished, title, author, and genre.

I've been keeping track since October 2003! I do it old school and use the same Moleskine notebook I've had since 2005. I first got the idea from a family friend when I was a kid. She told me she'd been keeping track since she was a little girl, and I just thought it was so cool to have a record like that. Every time I finish a book, I look back through my notebook and see what I was reading on the same day in previous years. It also helps me read more because I get that extra satisfaction of making a new record.

I'm surprised Independent People by Halldor Laxness hasn't been mentioned yet! It's pretty grim, but excellent.

Damn right! Fuck the Yankees!!!

No, I think the flatlander thing is fucking stupid.

I never know what to say when people ask where I'm from. I was born in NH and lived there until I was 8, then spent ages 8-18 in VT, then moved to MA for college and spent over a decade there, then moved back to VT for grad school. I wasn't born here, but I do identify with it more than any other state.

It is a law, but they don't prosecute or really do anything as far as consequences go, so don't stress too much. I'll be honest, I haven't been doing it for a few reasons. I live in an apartment, don't have the ability to make a compost pile (not even a yard to speak of) and the landlord pays for the trash removal, so I can't add it as any extra service. I guess the alternative is drop it off somewhere, but I haven't looked into locations, and again, being super honest, I am a lazy ass who really doesn't want to make extra trips somewhere, espeically if I have to pay for dropoff. I also have a tiny kitchen, so even storing an additional bin for compost is kinda tricky! I feel like when they made this law, they didn't really think about apartment-dwellers.

Signature VT foods/drinks are anything with maple syrup (maple cremees, aka soft serve, are definitely our signature dessert), craft beer and hard cider, cheese, chocolate, poutine (which we get from Canada), the Vermonter sandwich (ingredients vary, but generally something like turkey, cheddar, and apple slices) and a lot of farm-to-table stuff. If you're ever visiting, go to Yates Family Orchard in Hinesburg and get the Supremee, which is a fresh cider donut with maple cremee and caramel-drizzled apple pie filling on top. It's out of this world!!!

We don't really have any "cities" by CA standards - our biggest city is Burlington with 40,000 people. Much of the state is very very rural. But we are within a few hours' drive of Montreal and Boston, which are both awesome. A little farther away are Quebec City and NYC. Since we don't have a coastline, Maine and Cape Cod are popular summer beach destinations.

Most people here love winter because of skiing and other winter sports. I'm more of a summer person and think summers here are great, albeit short.

Nature: lots! It's a great place for hiking, skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, swimming, hunting, fishing, boating and more, depending on the season. Lake Champlain forms a lot of the western border and is really pretty. Nice views are everywhere, we're definitely spoiled in that regard. Mountains are plentiful, although not nearly as high as they are in CA.

Also, a few people are definitely pranking you, especially regarding our supposedly weird obsession with potatoes? Yeah, not really a thing. A lot of what you're asking is just stuff you could easily Google, so I get why some might think your question silly, but I always enjoy sharing.

As others have said, as long as you're on paved roads, 95% of the time the roads will be perfectly clear, but if you do drive in the snow, go slow, leave plenty of room between you and the car in front of you, don't rapidly accelerate or decelerate, and don't change speeds when you're turning. You might feel a little slipping/skidding when you turn or brake, like the car is wiggling. If this happens, don't slam on the brakes; gradually slow until you feel in control.

I'm not BIPOC, so I can't speak to it on a personal level, but as someone who works in a school, the schools here do tend to care about racial equity and anti-racism: my district has been doing anti-racism trainings and has an anti-racism task force. The Burlington/Winooski area is by far the most racially diverse part of the state. Chances are if you stick to the more progressive areas, most people will be decent. If you go more rural/northern, racism might increase (I've heard not-so-great things about Enosburg). It's tough because the state is just so white that not a lot of people here have many interactions with the BIPOC population, so it's easier to Other them. I remember in high school being really intrigued by minority populations and really excited to see so many of them when I moved out of state for college. I very much grew up in a little Vermont bubble, and I'm certainly not alone.

Have you read other authors from that time period? Long descriptions were pretty typical, it's not just him. I've read enough books from that era that I'm used to it, and sometimes I feel that more modern stuff isn't descriptive enough.

I've visited multiple times and never had an issue. Maybe you were just being a dick.