Sharon, thanks for the perspective from Montreal. The "informant" who mentioned English on the West Side was speaking not to Lauren but to the CBC. Since I couldn't figure out how to rewind their player, it's possible I misheard and inaccurately paraphrased him. He may have been complaining of finding English-only speakers such as shopkeepers. I lived on the West Side for a year in the 1990s and certainly never saw English-only signage. Then again, I wasn't looking for it. My overall impression of the broadcast was that Francophones view French signage and speakers in an American city as a pleasant courtesy or frill, not a necessity. Some like it; others don't; others don't care. As someone who tries to speak French on occasion, I appreciate that folks in Montreal, bilingual or not (and most I've encountered are), will generally allow you to practice your Francais if you so desire. In Paris, where they've had it up to here with tourists, not so much. In short, more bilingualism everywhere would be fun. And more poutine and St.-Ambroise.

Maybe we're all just preparing for post-peak oil times, when fashion will no longer be an issue. Or will it? Maybe clothes will become a true marker of social status again, like in the middle ages. Yes, it's a big bad chain, etc. etc., but amen to the H & M part.

I learned about the suicides of two college friends from my alumni magazine (one was a popular teacher here at Woodbury College at the time of his death). While I wasn't happy to get the news, I was glad the magazine made the cause of death clear instead of using a phrase like "died unexpectedly." For a friend, even one who's fallen out of touch, wondering what really happened can be painful. My gut feeling is that suicide has already been so thoroughly glamorized by TV, movies, novels and "high culture" like opera that destigmatizing it wouldn't have much effect. (A romanticized view of suicide has been with us since the ancient Greeks and Romans, despite Christianity's somewhat successful efforts to portray it as a sin.) But maybe research indicates otherwise.

I really enjoyed the Runaway Pond anniversary in Glover, a one-of-a-kind event if there ever was one. The combination of local history geeks and Bread & Puppet folks (who reenacted the pond's "escape" with puppets) was pure Vermont. Plus, just down the road at Red Sky Trading Co. I found amazing home-baked goods. Then there's Wilson Castle, which is a place I went for a story, not a public event, but it's one of the coolest, weirdest places I've ever been in Vermont. Maybe I am overfond of Victoriana, but I loved the colorful stenciled ceilings and clashing pieces of decor from all eras and all over the world. It is so far from anything you'd expect to find in the outskirts of Rutland, and I strongly recommend checking it out in the spring when they start giving tours again.

At Smuggs, if you don't have a friend to ride with, you're limited to awkward conversations with your chair-mate about why you're skiing alone. Or listening to your chair-mate bellow encouragement to his friends as they swish by on the slope below. Then again, sometimes you have the chair to yourself and can enjoy the view.

Thanks, Marissa! I've fixed the links. These airport houses sound pretty creepy. But nothing can beat the cellars of Wilson Castle...

I review movies that are currently in theaters. The paper has no reason to provide for my home entertainment needs. It's a question of priorities. If I had more time for TV, I might shell out for Tivo and a huge cable package, and I would see those great HBO shows right away instead of waiting for them to come out on DVD. But I don't. Funny, most Vermonters ask me to explain why I even have a television.

But Tivo isn't cheap. I wouldn't even have cable if my provider didn't bundle the basic package cheap with Internet service, which I need. I'd love to get a Netflix/Pandora-capable BluRay player, but I can't afford to set up WiFi, either ... well, you get the picture. I'm sure there are a lot of Vermonters with less disposable income to spend on entertainment than I have. Or who live where they can't get broadband service. And that's why video stores survive here. But also, more importantly, I like going to an actual place, seeing what other people are browsing, maybe checking out the cheesy covers of old VHS tapes from the '80s, maybe talking with the staff about what they've been watching. It's fun. I don't share the "Be Kind, Rewind" nostalgia for everything outdated, but I would miss public, nonvirtual places to talk about movies if they disappeared. Same goes for movie theaters. I like feeling the energy in the theater and observing how other people react.

Heh. Thanks for commenting, Anony Moose. Since all I know about business comes from movies like Wall St., I often forget that for a big company, bankruptcy can be a tactic rather than a last resort. Still, is it really in Blockbuster's interest to keep all those stores open? Seems like the number of video stores will keep shrinking nationwide, even if they don't go the way of the dinosaur (I hope). But back to the giant cellphone. I saw the movie last night, and there's a gag at the beginning (also in the trailer) where Michael Douglas leaves prison and gets his possessions back, among them that phone from 1987. ("One mobile phone," says the guard, smirking.) But ... we later learn that Gekko appealed his case and didn't enter prison till the early '90s, which certainly makes more sense than a 23-year sentence for insider trading. Wouldn't he have upgraded his phone by then? I didn't have a cellphone in '92, but I remember Mulder and Scully sporting Nokias that were nowhere near that big. What, you say I've overthought this?

Is there a rule about the placement of those adverbs, KT? I guess I'm not a very good grammar fascist. In cases like that, I just go with whatever sounds right. (But I like your version better, sound-wise.) I don't like "resto," but it saves us from saying "restaurant" and "eatery" 50 billion times. As for "'em," that's definitely a taste thing. I'm OK with it used sparingly. Like slang, it's an informal element used for informal writing. But it can sound forcedly casual. (Is forcedly a word? Spell check says NO. Oh, well.) But I hate, hate, hate "unique." I'm constantly reminding people that it means "one of a kind," not just "rare" or "special." With "ubiquitous," I'm slightly more forgiving. It doesn't literally have to be everywhere. But anything you call ubiquitous should feel, well, inescapable. Like media mentions of Twitter, say. I don't like to be the vocabulary police and declare certain words and phrases off limits. But when I see people leaning on the same ones over and over, they do start to bother me. So what I was really trying to say with this post wasn't "Avoid these words at all costs" but "When you reach for these words, think about why and consider alternatives, just to keep your writing fresh." Plus I just like to ponder how certain words become, er, ubiquitous, as William Safire does in his On Language column.