Courier Journal - Spring 2024

It is amazing what a different city Burlington is when the warm weather comes. I attribute this to three factors:

• Once the colleges let out, about half the city's population leaves. So driving around the University and Champlain College is a lot easier. The busyness shifts to other parts of the city once they leave. This is a great relief for someone like me that always fears driving among the texting youth that seem oblivious of their surroundings. For about a week, moving vans clutter the streets. Then peace ensues, but other treachery awaits.
• Burlington is a beautiful city, vibrant and exciting. It sits on Lake Champlain with the Adirondacks to the west and the Greens to the east. Every weekend it seems we have a new festival.  Jazz Fest last weekend. Food fests, Reggae fests, Brewfests, etc. This means we have a ton of tourists, particularly from Boston, New York and Montreal. These aren't cities known for their good drivers. This brings a whole new dynamic to driving. 
• Because we are a cold weather climate, most of our road construction takes place in the few warm weather months. This makes Burlington a nightmare to drive in. It seems like there is construction every other street.  For these months, Vermont's state flag should be changed to have an orange cone on it.

I have always been frustrated with people. To put it bluntly I am not a "people person." Driving in the city during tourist season has not interacted positively with this part of my nature. Here is a short list of how people annoy me: 

• Don't park in loading zones. I've confronted several people parked in loading zones. The response I get is that "it is okay, I'm just going in the bank" etc. No, it is not okay. Loading zones are for commercial vehicles, loading and unloading. I don't think Vermonters know this. They think it is someplace to put your car if you have something quick to do.
• The stop line is where you stop at a stop light. At every light, there is a line on the ground that tells you where you are supposed to stop. Some of them are far back. An expert has studied this intersection and has determined where you should stop. If you stop after the stop line, there is a possibility that a bus may come along and not be able to turn because you are in the way. Just follow the rules and traffic will flow just fine.
• Red arrows mean you can't turn. I don't know why, but people just don't seem to know this. If a green arrow means you can turn, what do you think a red arrow means? 
• If you are going to hang out as a pedestrian and just look at your phone, don't do so at a crosswalk or an intersection. You may be oblivious to this but drivers think you are going to cross and react to you. Stand back and away from the curb.
• Try, if you are close, to use a crosswalk. Some cars actually do stop if you wait in the crosswalk. Chaos is good for no one. 

Traffic flowing helps everyone. 

We recently watched all three seasons on Ted Lasso. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. If you don't have Apple TV, sign up for a free trial, watch Ted Lasso and then unsubscribe. You'll get all three seasons in before the month is out, I promise. The reason I bring this up, the main character Ted has a philosophy that has stuck with me, that he got from my favorite poet Walt Whitman, "Be curious, not judgemental." I have been trying to get into this mind set when I drive and for the most part it has been working. 

So far I've had these experiences:

• I was at an intersection (North St. and Willard), the light turned green, I was about to go straight (east on North) when I noticed coming down Willard a bicyclist that I knew wasn't going to stop at the light. So I waited or I would have hit him. Not only did he blow off the light but he wasn't even looking at traffic; he was looking at his cell phone. Be curious, not judgemental. Must have been doing something very very important happening on that phone. This philosophy is challenging. 
• At the corner of Main and Winooski, a woman decided driving through the intersection out of her lane through a red light, all the while with her hand on the horn honking. About ten cars were at the intersection and we all stopped to let her go. They probably were as stunned as I was. Be curious: must have been a real emergency, perhaps she was going to hospital (which is in the other direction).
• While driving on College Street, heading toward Winooski and downtown, in front of the library, I had to stop for a group of homeless people (or is it houseless now?). About seven or eight of them were yelling at each other, I had no idea what was going on. I waited until most of them crossed but one woman remained in the street and decided to dance in front of my truck. I lightly beeped but she seemed oblivious. I drove around her by driving with one tire on the sidewalk. Luckily there were no other cars or pedestrians coming. The traffic behind did the same. If this were to happen again, I might get out of my truck with blinkers on and tried to escort her out of traffic. Be curious: I wonder what she was on.
• This philosophy is difficult at times, but it seems to be working. I was driving up College Street one day and I noticed a car driving erratically in my rearview mirror. He seemed to be yelling at me. He decided to pass me on a city street. I yelled, "What the hell?" or something a bit more vulgar. I noticed his Quebec plate and judgement ensued, but I stopped it with curiosity winning over. He pulled in front of me and stopped. He got out of the car and approached my truck. "Holy shit!" I unrolled the window. In a very polite French Canadienne accent, he said "Your back door is open." My freight was exposed. The guy that I was about to yell at just put a lot of energy into saving my butt. The weather stripping on my cargo door was preventing a good closure on the door. I had to do a quick repair. Ted Lasso and Walt Whitman rule. Merci beaucoup! 

The quote does sound Whitmanesque, but I didn't recognize it. I know my Walt. I was curious, of course. Snopes says it isn't Whitman, I have to believe this is true. To me, it just makes Ted Lasso a more realistic character. He is wrong on a little thing but overall, he is very much correct. 

Most of the Spring was spent delivering in Burlington and occasionally South Burlington. The only exception was the day of the total eclipse. Because of the chaos downtown, most businesses were closed so my boss didn't need me in Burlington. So he sent me up to the islands which is a really beautiful spot in Vermont. The most Northwestern part of Vermont are a group of islands in Lake Champlain that border Canada and New York state. It was a gorgeous day and I finished working in time to get back home to watch the eclipse with my family.

Game of Thrones: Book to Film (S1E1)

With the exception of Tolkien, I've never been a big fan of fantasy fiction. I've tried. I've read many others, but none of them have been very appealing. Even when one of my favorite writers delve into fantasy, like Ursula K. Leguin or Kazuo Ishiguro, I just can't get into it. Tolkien, on the other hand, is enthralling. I've read the The Hobbit several times and the complete Lord of the Rings trilogy twice. Everything about his writing is amazing, character development, dialogue, plot line, social relevance, world building. He's got it all.  I haven't liked another fantasy writer at all until now. 

In my pursuit to read every book on my shelves at home, I finally picked up Game of Thrones: Book One of a Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin and started it. I've seen the HBO series a few times so it is impossible to get the actors out of my head when I read of the characters. I decided not to try. My first impression is how incredibly close the series is to the book.  The big difference is the age of the characters. Let's started with my four favorite characters: Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow and Arya Stark.

Tyrion, the imp, portrayed by the amazing Peter Dinklage is 32 years old at the start of the series. He is only 24 in the book. This is a complete mystery to me why they changed this. Perhaps it is because they wanted Dinklage for the part and he doesn't look 24 at all. Changing the age of the younger characters makes a lot of sense, but this one does. He looks at least 40 in the show. 

Having children actors, in any series, is problematic for a lot of reasons so I can see why they changed their ages. Children grow, when a series is seven seasons long, this could cause problems with the storyline depending on how much time passes in the story line. The aging process of adult's isn't as obvious and easily changed with lighting and makeup. Also, due to the sexual nature of some of the scenes, HBO could get into some trouble with under age actor. Using older actors, not only makes sense, it prevents a lot of legal and ethical problems. 

The character, Daenerys Targaryen, is 13 years old at the beginning of the book when she weds Drogo, but in the series she is 16 (Season One, Episode One: S1E1). The actress that portrays her, Emilia Clarke, is 25 at the time. I never thought she looked that 16. Perhaps having the difficult life of a transient has made her look older beyond her years. 

Jon Snow, the bastard, and his half brother, Robb Stark, are both supposed to be 14 years old. In the series, they are supposed to be 17. The actor, Kit Harington, that portrays Snow is actually 25 in Season One but he could pass for 17. 

Robb Stark is also 17 at the start of the series as well. The actor Richard Madden is 25 as well.  I don't know how they get these actors to look so young, but seven years seems to be a typical difference for actors. I recently heard an interview with Ron Howard where he said that he had a hard time finding acting gig when he was a teenager because people in their twenties could play teenagers. So it seems this has been going for a while. 

The younger Stark children Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon are 11, 9, 7 and 3, respectively, in the beginning of the book. They are 13, 11, 10 and 6 in Season One of the series. We aren't ever told how old Rickon is in the series, until his death is season three. He is 11. He is the only Stark child that isn't a major character. 

Arya actually looks 11. The actress, Maisie Williams, is 14 in Season One. When the book was originally published in 1996, she wasn't even born. 

The only character that is younger in series than in the book that I could find is Theon Greyjoy. He's 18 in the book but 16 in the series. I found this in google not the book. He's a very minor character early on in the story. 

Other than ages of the characters, the only difference from the book I could find in S1E1 is in the very last scene when Bran gets thrown off the tower. He overhears a conversation about political intrigue while the queen and her twin brother are having sex (this book has everything.) In the series, he only hears, and then, witnesses the sex. He doesn't hear the conversation. I can't imagine why they changed this. Length, I am sure, is always a good enough reason for an 800 page novel adaption.

Time to rewatch Episode Two.