While writing an essay on Thoreau and a sense of place in contemporary Vermont literature, I’ve reread Donald Hall’s “Why I Hate Vermont.”  Having spent a chunk of my childhood in Hall’s New Hampshire, I can only laugh at this essay.  It’s wickedly funny (and his claim about the trout is actually true).

In Vermont deer are required to have shots.  In Vermont people keep flocks of spayed sheep to decorate their lawns.  In Vermont when inchling trout are released into streams, a state law requires that they be preboned and stuffed with wild rice delicately flavored with garlic and thyme…. In Vermont, in 1999, the license plate slogan was Eat Three Nutritious Meals a Day.  In legislative committee this slogan edged out Experience Mozart.

– Donald Hall

The more serious side of Vermont…..