Remember this painting we saw at the Frick Collection two weeks ago?
Well, what a cool coincidence it was to see it featured at the start of Maira Kalman’s terrific blog entry from yesterday.
And her description of the voting at the Vermont Town Meeting she attended? That was spot on, too, particularly:
Motion to buy a new backhoe. A LOT of discussion.
Really. This is how Town Meeting works. There’s a list of 20 articles, mostly discussing ways the town should or should not spend money. The big items (“Shall the town raise $50,000,000,000,0000,000,000 to purchase a new county?”) are passed quickly and without a lot of discussion. And then there’s the backhoe discussion, which can go on for two hours.
Attending Town Meeting is often boring and bum-numbing, but it’s also a fascinating way to learn what your neighbors think. And the Girl Scouts are there selling cookies.
Grongar 
