Vermont’s rural character did not survive by accident. It survived in part because VT chose not to allow unchecked development. It’s why VT still looks different from more heavily sprawled states. But yeah, it also created a lot of the State’s current problems, too.
Farm Beef Stew Recipe: chicken stock, carrots, onions, celery, garlic clove, Joey Ramone, head of garlic, potatoes, tomato paste, dried herbs, random spices.
Vermont has about 220,000 head of cattle and 647,000 people. If the cows organized, every 3 Vermonters would have to wrestle one bovine to prevent an uprising. The cows have the weight advantage.
VT Act 181 discourse is weird. Farmers face real pressure: low margins, high land costs, labor gaps, distribution friction and market access. But it is inaccurate to treat every land-use review as an attack on farming. Farming and unrestricted development are not the same thing.
If I had a nickel for every time Franz Ferdinand was involved in the precursor events of a world war, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice
A town that closes its school has stopped believing in the future.
open.substack.com/pub/morgango...
You can have all the success in the world and still end up at eighty-something on a stage, haunted by ghosts of people you lost and things you didn’t say. There’s no version of this where you get away clean. You can’t achieve your way out of regret.
open.substack.com/pub/morgango...
Markwayne
Kristi Noem
Good cooking is mostly about water management: removing it when you want crispness, preserving it when you want tenderness. Most mistakes are just incorrect water levels.
This tweet is going to live rent free in my brain for the next month. The logic behind it makes complete sense, but at the same time it terrifies me. Like I don’t think I could actually do that with my cattle here in Vermont, but could I?
Than you!
Pigfoot? Is that you buddy?
Most of what we call “education” is just memory under pressure.
Yup! There are a bunch of international sellers
www.simonandschuster.com/books/Dirt-R...
We say we’re overwhelmed by the news, but what we’re often overwhelmed by is the performance layered on top of it…the commentary, the takes, the instant sorting into teams…eventually the original human cost is barely visible underneath.
It took me a long time to learn this: High heat doesn’t make you a better cook, control does. The pan that’s smoking aggressively is usually telling you that you’ve already lost it.
Have you read my new book yet? I tried to read it to Lil Barn Cat but she got squirmy.
Learn to argue with an idea they disagree with without melting down. It will make you a better human.
Town Meeting Day always reminds me that democracy isn’t abstract at this scale. It’s a room, a stack of paper, a microphone, and the quiet decision to show up.
Discipline isn’t freedom. It’s the scaffolding that makes freedom repeatable.
Happy Town Meeting Day to everyone heading out into the cold to do the quiet work of self-government. It’s not flashy, but it’s real.
Journals in Sweden
The guy at the store said he’s the only person he’s ever seen pull it off.
I will ignore two urgent emails to spend 45 minutes re-latching a gate until it closes with a satisfying click. This is not procrastination. This is a religion.
Comic Continued over on my Substack
morgangold.substack.com
If you keep adding infrastructure to reduce labor, why does the farm keep finding new ways to demand my full attention anyway?
If the pilot grabs the intercom mid-turbulence—masks dropping, people praying—while wearing a "HOOF ARTED?" t-shirt, you don't care about his fashion. You care that he thinks your life is a game he can exit the second it gets uncomfortable.
If markets can price in catastrophe within minutes, why do institutions claim they need months to recognize catastrophe in human terms?
My brain is stuck on that trucker hat the way a tongue keeps poking a toothache. It’s not about "decorum" or "suits." It’s about the terrifying realization that the person holding the matches is treating the fire like a brand moment.
open.substack.com/pub/morgango...
