Vermont: It's Small

Like everywhere else, Vermont has its People of Note. Some of them are relatively Large (Michael J. Fox, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, David Mamet), some relatively small (James Kochalka, Fred Tuttle).

Frankly the relatively small are more valuable to me.

But the striking thing about Vermont is how SMALL it--the state, the culture--all is. Six degrees of separation is more like 2 degrees of separation here, especially when it comes to the Relatively Small. On recent flights to or from Burlington, I've struck up conversations with people who turned out to be friends of friends, and run into co-workers coming back from vacation, and seen minor celebrities, like Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home. The woman who ran Fergus' playgroup in Montpelier lived next door to William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman. Other friends are neighbors with Frank McCourt's daughter. Speaking of daughters, Alistair Cooke's daughter is a minister at the church down the road. My favorite breakfast place happens to be David Mamet's favorite local breakfast place (though I've never seen him there). My wife's veterinary clients include the writer Howard Norman and, um, Sandra Bullock's sister (She introduced her as "My sister Sandy" when they both came in to the clinic).

It all sounds rather silly when you write it down like this, but it really is amazing how everyone is connected up here. Here's another example:

While we were in Maine last weekend, Montpelier apparently had a kind of street party called "Army of Fun," as you can see in this little video. The video itself includes two adults that Fergus knows (the mysterious Ben T. Matchstick and cardboard-samurai Pete Talbot), a girl that Norah knows (Maggie), a guy I know (Brian Murphy) from the local Record Club, and the wife of a guy (Earl) who did some work on my house last year. You can smell the patchouli in the air, a bit, but it's all rather charming.