text:
Pre-operative endometrial thinning agents before endometrial destruction for heavy menstrual bleeding
Yu Hwee Tan, Anne Lethaby
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2013 November 15, (11): CD010241
BACKGROUND: Heavy menstrual bleeding is one of the most common reasons for referral of premenopausal women to a gynaecologist. Although medical therapy is generally first line, many women eventually will require further treatment. Endometrial ablation by hysteroscopic and more recent "second-generation" devices such as balloon, radiofrequency or microwave ablation offers a day-case surgical alternative to hysterectomy. Complete endometrial destruction is one of the main determinants of treatment success. Surgery is most effective if undertaken when endometrial thickness is less than four millimeters. One option is to perform the surgery in the immediate postmenstrual phase, which is not always practical. The other option is to use hormonal agents that induce endometrial thinning pre-operatively. The most commonly evaluated agents are goserelin (a gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogue, or GnRHa) and danazol. Other GnRH analogues and progestogens have also been studied, although fewer data are available. It has been suggested that these agents will reduce operating time, improve the intrauterine operating environment and reduce absorption of fluid used for intraoperative uterine cavity distension. They may also improve long-term outcomes, including menstrual loss and dysmenorrhoea.
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effectiveness and safety of pre-operative endometrial thinning agents (GnRH agonists, danazol, estrogen-progestins and progestogens) versus another agent or placebo when given before endometrial destruction in premenopausal women with heavy menstrual bleeding.
SEARCH METHODS: The following electronic databases were searched to April 2013 for published and unpublished randomised controlled trials that met the inclusion criteria: the Menstrual Disorders and Subfertility Group (MDSG) Specialised Register of controlled trials, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO.Other electronic sources of trials included trial registers for ongoing and registered trials; citation indexes; conference abstracts in the Web of Knowledge; the LILACS database for trials from the Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking world; PubMed; and the OpenSIGLE database and Google for grey literature.All searches were performed in consultation with the MDSG Trials Search Co-ordinator.
SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were included if they compared the effects of these agents with one other, or with placebo or no treatment, on relevant intraoperative and postoperative treatment outcomes. Selection of trials was carried out independently by two review authors.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently assessed studies for risk of bias and extracted data on surgical outcomes, effectiveness outcomes, proportion of women requiring further surgical therapy during follow-up, endometrial outcome measures, acceptability of use outcomes and quality of life. Data were analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. Dichotomous data were combined for meta-analysis with RevMan software using the Mantel-Haenszel method to estimate pooled risk ratios (RRs). Continuous data were combined for meta-analysis with RevMan software using an inverse variance method to estimate the pooled mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence interval (CI). The overall quality of evidence for the main findings was assessed with the use of GRADE working group methods.
MAIN RESULTS: Twenty studies with 1969 women were included in this review. These studies compared GnRHa, danazol and progestogens versus placebo or no treatment; GnRHa versus danazol, progestogens, GnRH antagonists or dilatation & curettage; and danazol versus progestogens. Four studies performed more than one comparison.When compared with no treatment, GnRHa used before hysteroscopic resection were associated with a higher rate of postoperative amenorrhoea at 12 months (RR 1.6, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.0, 7 RCTs, 605 women, moderate heterogeneity; I(2) = 40%) and at 24 months (RR 1.62, 95% CI 1.04 to 2.52, 2 RCTs, 357 women, no heterogeneity; I(2) = 0%), a slightly shorter duration of surgery (-3.5 minutes, 95% CI -4.7 to -2.3, 5 RCTs, 156 women, substantial heterogeneity; I(2) = 72%) and greater ease of surgery (RR 0.32, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.46, 2 RCTs, 415 women, low heterogeneity; I(2) = 4%). Postoperative dysmenorrhoea was reduced (RR 0.59, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.87, 2 RCTs, 133 women, no heterogeneity; I(2) = 0%). The use of GnRHa had no effect on intraoperative complication rates (RR 1.47, 95% CI 0.35 to 6.06, 5 RCTs, 592 women, no heterogeneity; I(2) = 0%), and participant satisfaction with this surgery was high irrespective of the use of pre-operative endometrial thinning agents (RR 0.99, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.05, 6 RCTs, 599 women, low heterogeneity; I(2) = 11%). GnRHa produced more consistent endometrial atrophy than was produced by danazol (RR 1.84, 95% CI 1.23 to 2.75, 2 RCTs, 142 women, no heterogeneity; I(2) = 0%). For other intraoperative and postoperative outcomes, any differences were minimal, and no benefits of GnRHa pretreatment were noted in studies in which women underwent second-generation ablation techniques. Both GnRHa and danazol produced side effects in a significant proportion of women, although few studies reported these in detail. Few randomised data were available to allow assessment of the effectiveness of progestogens as endometrial thinning agents. When reported, the long-term effects of endometrial thinning agents on benefits such as postoperative amenorrhoea were reduced with time.The main study weaknesses were that most participants received no follow-up beyond 24 months and that the studies used a small sample size. Heterogeneity for outcomes reported ranged from none to substantial. More than half the trials had no blinding of participants or outcome assessment. Most of the trials were determined to have uncertain selection and reporting bias, as they did not report allocation concealment and evidence of selective reporting was noted. The quality of reporting of adverse events was generally poor, but, when described in the studies, they included menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, vaginal dryness, hirsutism, decreased libido and voice changes, as well as other side effects such as headache and weight gain.
AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Low-quality evidence suggests that endometrial thinning with GnRHa and danazol before hysteroscopic surgery improves operating conditions and short-term postoperative outcomes. GnRHa produced slightly more consistent endometrial thinning than was produced by danazol, although both achieved satisfactory results. The effect of these agents on longer-term postoperative outcomes was reduced with time. No benefits of GnRHa pretreatment were apparent with second-generation ablation techniques. Also, side effects were more common when these agents were used.
Pre-operative endometrial thinning agents before endometrial destruction for heavy menstrual bleeding. M C Sowter, A Lethaby, A A Singla Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2002, (3): CD001124
Pre-operative endometrial thinning agents before hysteroscopic surgery for heavy menstrual bleeding. M C Sowter, A A Singla, A Lethaby Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2000, (2): CD001124
Endometrial resection and ablation techniques for heavy menstrual bleeding. Anne Lethaby, Josien Penninx, Martha Hickey, Ray Garry, Jane Marjoribanks Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2013, (8): CD001501
Endometrial resection and ablation versus hysterectomy for heavy menstrual bleeding. Rosalie J Fergusson, Anne Lethaby, Sasha Shepperd, Cindy Farquhar Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2013, (11): CD000329
Progesterone or progestogen-releasing intrauterine systems for heavy menstrual bleeding. Anne Lethaby, Munawar Hussain, Josephine R Rishworth, Margaret C Rees Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2015 April 30, (4): CD002126
Endometrial resection / ablation techniques for heavy menstrual bleeding. Anne Lethaby, Martha Hickey, Ray Garry, Josien Penninx Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, (4): CD001501
Danazol for heavy menstrual bleeding. H Beaumont, C Augood, K Duckitt, A Lethaby Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007, (3): CD001017
Progesterone or progestogen-releasing intrauterine systems for heavy menstrual bleeding. A E Lethaby, I Cooke, M Rees Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2005 October 19, (4): CD002126
Endometrial destruction techniques for heavy menstrual bleeding. A Lethaby, M Hickey, R Garry Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2005, (4): CD001501


The National Air and Space Museum's Wall of Honor is a permanent memorial at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA recognizing those with a passion for flight. Your name, or the name of someone you wish to recognize, will be seen by millions of visitors, along with other icons of flight such as the Wright brothers, Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, and Jim Lovell.
Wall honorees will receive a personalized Wall of Honor Certificate and commemorative photo, suitable for framing. In addition, you will have the opportunity to submit a profile about your honoree on our website so that their passion for aviation can inspire others.
Most importantly, when you make a donation to the Wall of Honor, you will be helping to preserve the world's largest and most historic collection of air and space artifacts.


Finally Rebekah Brooks has been arrested by police investigating allegations of phone hacking by the News of the World and allegations that police officers were bribed to leak sensitive information The Metropolitan police said a 43-year-old woman was arrested at noon on Sunday, by appointment at a London police station.
Brooks, 43, resigned on Friday as News International's chief executive. She is a former News of the World editor and was close to Rupert Murdoch and the prime minister David Cameron.
Brooks was due to give evidence before MPs on the home affairs select committee on Tuesday.
An arrest by appointment on a Sunday by police is unusual.
In a statement the Met said: "The MPS has this afternoon, Sunday 17 July, arrested a female in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking.
"At approximately 12:00 a 43-year-old woman was arrested by appointment at a London police station by officers from Operation Weeting [phone hacking investigation] together with officers from Operation Elveden [bribing of police officers investigation]. She is currently in custody.
"She was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of corruption allegations contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906.
"The Operation Weeting team is conducting the new investigation into phone hacking.
"Operation Elveden is the investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police. This investigation is being supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
"It would be inappropriate to discuss any further details regarding these cases at this time."


Here is to the day of love! It's only fitting that I talk about one of my most personal and passionate moments in artistic journey thus far on a day dedicated to love and intimacy; both of the mental and physical kind. Creating a connection and removing any sense of question or judgement toward one another. A moment shared without any words spoken, but instead felt through the gateways of the eyes to your bodies nervous system. Just like watching fireflies dancing in the night sky; this is what being "bare" means to me. Bringing the very feeling to life from my paint strokes; creating a piece full of intimacy, life and truth between two partners coming together as one. Creating a moment that is both timeless and rare with emotion. My goal is to have the viewer take in every corner of my painting. Feeling the power of love and intimacy jumping off the wood surface with my use of vibrate blues, yellows, whites and green oil paint; writing a visual dialogue while asking yourself.
Do you remember a time when you were completely vulnerable? Being able to relinquish all that holds you back and makes you question your own intentions. Do you remember that feeling of complete openness… complete bare in your emotions and character?
Often times the journey to this moment comes with many highs and lows within ourselves and our partners; but it is well worth it. Sharing compassion with passion, all previous notions of needing to hide behind our feelings is left at the waist side. Working together as one both figures bring their unique identities to the forefront. I want the viewer to see their individualities and demeanor as an independent factor in this love story. Taking time to take in each figures own character as their bodies speak in their own love language.
From the touch of her hand against his chest to the gentle and yet strong pulling of her body closer to his; the moment is pure and untainted. In just a small wrinkle in time all 5 senses are being used; linking together like DNA strands in the human body. Slight goosebumps running down their bodies as their stair grows deeper. The space between them lessens and the love grows more passionate. It is at this very moment I intend for the viewer to connect with the figures standing before them. The vibration of color and emotion filling the space between audience and painting from surface to eyesight. My intentions become clear and my presentation starts to take on another form. Almost alien like traveling beyond the stars; my depiction in visual form of becoming "Bare".
My gift to the world, is a moment to share my interpretation of both innocents and maturity coming together as one. I give a piece of myself, exposing my own thoughts and becoming bare with life and love. We often try and hide behind our feelings, especially when in intimate settings but I wanted to expose that layer and bring it to the surface. Sharing an intimate image of two figures so engulfed in the moment they share with each other they see no other. Both are able to take each other for who they are as they stand in complete silence baring their own truths. Love comes in many forms, it is in this form I have chosen to share the essence of the beginning and end of time as it stands still. Capturing what love means to me; with a clarity, peace and harmony.


text:
No Grounds For Pity was a compilation album of early demo material (including a 1986 demo of the same name) by the New York hardcore band, Sheer Terror. The tracks were recorded between 1985 and 1988 and released in Europe on Blackout Records in 1996 – a year after the band made their first major label release, Love Songs For the Unloved, on MCA Records.

The album demonstrates the heavy metal influenced hardcore punk style of the band and the production is suitably raw – nearly every track initiates with a brief blast of feedback leading to heavily distorted guitar riffs.

Track listing
All songs written by Sheer Terror
1985 demo
1. "Obsoletion"			– 2:04
2. "Smile For a Price"		– 2:53
3. "Howard Unruh"		– 2:29
4. "Not Giving Up"		– 3:02
5. "Burning Time"		– 3:51
6. "Owe You Nothing"		– 2:31
7. "Into My Life"		– 4:31
8. "Fashion Fighter"		– 2:37
9. "Ready to Halt"		– 2:15
No Grounds For Pity demo
10. "Owe You Nothing"		– 2:30
11. "Burning Time"		– 3:46
12. "Into My Life"		– 4:32
13. "Not Giving Up"		– 2:50
14. "Only 13"			– 2:01
15. "Obsoletion"		– 1:57
16. "Howard Unruh"		– 2:19
17. "Rome Song"  		– 1:45
Fall From Grace demo
18. "Ashes, Ashes"		– 2:29
19. "Walls"			– 2:33
20. "Ready to Halt"		– 2:20
21. "Only 13"			– 2:02
22. "Into My Life"		– 4:28
23. "Burning Time"		– 3:43
Live 1986
24. "Smile For a Price"		– 3:02
25. "Everything and Nothing"	– 1:51
1988 demo
26. "Twisting and Turning"	– 2:48

Credits
 Paul Bearer – vocals, all tracks
 Alan Blake – guitar, all tracks
 Baron "Barry" Misuraca – bass, tracks 1 – 17
 Mark Neuman – bass, tracks 18 – 26
 Sam "Reid" Lohman – drums, tracks 1 – 17
 Jason Martin – drums, tracks 18 – 26
 Recorded between 1985 – 1988 in New York City, USA
 Produced by Sheer Terror

Miscellanea
 The back cover contains a misprint in that it lists a 27th track, another version of "Burning Time" which does not actually appear on the album
 Howard Unruh is a World War II veteran who embarked on a killing spree in 1949

External links
Sheer Terror official website
Thorp Records band page
Blackout Records band page
JTTP Records band page

1996 compilation albums
Demo albums
Sheer Terror albums

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


DEI has launched the next generation of heat protection performance! Using a combination of advanced textiles, DEI developed a flexible heat shield solution that looks great and outperforms other conventional heat shields available today. This enhanced performance starts by joining two durable materials together forming a dual-layer design. The outer layer is made from heat-treated glass fiber that is bonded with molten aluminum and then formed into a tight weave for durability and strength.
The inside material is made of a specially treated, high temperature resistant fabric (89% silica) designed to withstand some serious exhaust heat. The outer edge is finished off with a surge stitch for durability. All hardware is stainless steel. The result is a product with very good thermal performance up to 1350°F, with an eye catching rich black finish.
This proprietary textile technology combined with DEI's unique shield standoff bracket design provides the maximum potential for cooling and heat dissipation. In addition to external applications protecting legs and boots, Flexible Pipe Shields can also be used as a barrier between the exhaust and plastic bodywork, suspension components, or electrical harnesses. They will fit many applications and because the shield remains flexible, it will fit most pipe diameters.


Now that the beds are laid out and filled with dirt, it's time to lay out the grids for Square Foot Gardening. A 4 x 4 bed will have 16 grids.
Initially I had planned to use some wood slats to lay out my grid. Those would have been attached with screws to the top of the wood, and actually become a permanent, but removable part of the garden box. But because I used the 2" x 8" wood instead of the 2" x 6", the soil in my box fell just slightly under from reaching the top.
I decided to pull out some old window blinds that were stored in the corner of the closet gathering dust and use the slats from those to mark my grids instead. That way I could just lay them out inside the box and not have to worry with building up the soil to the top of the box. Mel's book on Square Foot Gardening which is the model I'm following, swears that we only really need 6 inches of soil to grow anything and my soil in the 8 inch high boxes is just at about 7 inches. The book shows how to build a grid using wood slats that is easily removable and can be folded and stored over the winter and reused next year.
Now one thing that I did learn was that the method suggested in the book for making the boxes that involved staggering the way the corners are aligned, also cut into the internal size of the box slightly - meaning that basically I lost about an inch. Just shift the ruler slightly over and lay your grid a foot apart from each other.
Since these blinds were smaller than 4 feet across and not quite long enough to reach across the box, I just laid one slat on top of another.
Since this time of year that we're prepping our gardens is generally pretty windy, I just used some long nails to help with securing the blinds down into the dirt, until I get some plants in there and they grow!
... and I used the existing shade holes to secure the slats into the dirt a bit.
Add another set of slats at the 2 foot mark.
And at the 3 foot mark.
And continue until the full grid has been laid out.
Wala! You now have your first square foot garden laid out and ready to plant!!
What an amzaing bed... LOl that sound bad I meant flower bed :). I so would love to do that in the back yard, hubby has been fighting me on it. I would love to have fresh veggies instead of running to the store ;).
Thank you so much for stopping by I really appreciate you entering my contest.
WOW HOW AWSOME IS THAT! GOOD LUCK WITH THE PLANTS!
I'm loving this idea of raised garden beds. Thanks!
What a great idea! I've been thinking of getting some of the Earth Boxes. (I think that's what they're called?) You have a fabulous blog!
Thanks everybody! I have really enjoyed venturing into this way of gardening and blogging about it. Hopefully it will inspire someone else. I have had such problems with disease and bugs the past 2 years so I'm hoping this way will work much better. I got most of the 2 boxes planted today and will finish the bigger one tomorrow (hopefully) so wish me luck!!
Thanks for all the detail on the how-to's. I'll need them when I get around to putting mine together. Hopefully that will be the first of April. I love how you give such good instructions with your blogs.
Hey Shaylynn! I just got my plants and seeds finished up today so I'll be posting that segment probably later today. My hope in doing this is that it helps other folks who are lookin' to do something like this. I REALLY love these raised box gardens and can't believe that I didn't just do them before. I "sort of" did one before but it was nothing like these and I was using my own soil and amending it. This soil is fantastic! Now, keep your fingers crossed that I can defeat the bugs and blight and actually have a good crop this year!!
Love the idea of using old blinds.I have plenty and did not know what to do with them. My raised bed is not looking so good. After reading/viewing your post,I am ready to clean it up and get started. thanks.
Hi Auntie E! I am so happy that this has inspired you!!! The blinds worked out perfect and I truly love this square foot gardening grid - I really think it makes a difference in the overall feel of the garden. I wish you a fantastic harvest!!!


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You're busy and you want to get stuff done. In fact, you want to change the world. Good for you. Yes, it's time for that next great idea, but the trouble is you keep getting distracted, right? It's a common entrepreneurial problem. Nailing the perfect working environment to keep you focused on the job in hand is key to being productive, so here WIRED has selected the ideal kit for any innovator's everyday workstation. That's about as much help as we can give you, sadly. Whether that forthcoming big idea falls into the category of the next Tetra Pak or Sugru is entirely up to you.
To increase concentration, these wireless Bowers & Wilkins PX headphones are the first pair of noise-cancelling headphones from the respected audio brand – and they perform brilliantly. Soaring soundscapes coupled with noise-cancelling nirvana courtesy of B&W's own algorithm. The over-ear headphones use a 40mm full-range driver, which is based on technology developed for B&W's high-end P9 Signature headphones. They also have, joy of joys, a USB-C connector. The UI is clever, too. Leave the PXs on your desk for a couple of minutes and they power down to a "low-power state". Put them back on and the headphones start playing again without you having to do anything. Similarly, lift one of the earpads pauses the music. All this helps the PXs deliver a 22-hour battery life.
Samsung replaced its an exceptional Note8 phablet with the S9+, with its 6.2-inch Quad HD AMOLED screen compared to the Note8's 6.3 inches. The stereo speakers tuned by AKG are a nod to the sound quality produced by the phone, as is the Dolby Atmos surround sound support. Furthermore, the S9+ retains the popular 3.5mm headphone jack, but where the major improvements have been done are on the cameras with a dual-lens setup on the back and the ability to shoot 4K at 60 frames per second, 1080p at 240 frames per second and 960 frames per second "Super Slo-Motion" video at 720p. Keep it topped up wirelessly – and stylishly – with Grovemade's new Wireless Charging Pad. Made from cork and stainless steel, it supports Qi charging (so works with the new iPhones, too).
These days, even your lamp can be smart. The Mi has four lighting profiles to suit your needs: Focus mode, Read mode, Computer mode and Child mode. You can set the temperature and brightness of the lamp via the accompanying app, and the light passes through a filter and a light-dimming chip to produce constant current to the LEDs, so flickering (which can cause eye fatigue) is significantly reduced. Desk plants have been shown to boost productivity, but the need to tend to them can be an unnecessary distraction. The smart choice, then, would be to select plants that don't need any attention whatsoever. These air plants (including Tillandsia ionantha rubra and Tillandsia juncea) take most of their moisture requirements from the air, leaving you free from regular humdrum hydration obligations.
Not every missive can be dashed off on an email. There are occasions – such as signing a contract – that deserve a written response. Kaweco has been manufacturing pens and pencils in Germany since 1883. In 1911, it created the Sport line of convenient, shorter hexagonal pens, and they rightly became a classic. The 40g Steel Sport fountain pen is casual and compact enough to be taken anywhere, yet sturdy and commanding enough to authorise the weightiest of legal documents. Of course, if you haven't got 20:20 vision, it's usually good practice to see what your signing. KITE makes stylish but business-like frames that are designed in London, handmade in Italy and then fitted with ZEISS prescription lenses.


text:
Live Culture
History Words
Vermont Historical Society Talks Freaks, Radicals and Hippies
by Kevin J. Kelley
Courtesy of Goddard College Archives
Goddard College students, 1971
Experiences and legacies of 1970s Vermonters were fondly — and sometimes movingly — examined at a Vermont Historical Society event on Saturday, September 10, called "Freaks, Radicals & Hippies: Counterculture in 1970s Vermont Symposium."
The daylong event at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, which featured keynote speaker Edward Berkowitz, a cultural history scholar, bore some resemblance to an educational program at a senior center. But the topics weren't the least bit bland. Most of the 125 attendees seated at round tables in the college's Alumni Hall were old enough to recall the riotous 1968 Democratic Party convention in Chicago, the 1969 Woodstock musical festival, the 1970 killings of antiwar demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio and other tumultuous events of the era recounted by some of the speakers.
Kevin J. Kelley
Audience at VHS symposium
Communes formed in Vermont as part of a nationwide back-to-the-land movement were the focus of many of the presentations. Participants withdrew from their memory banks examples of the joys and hardships of trying to work unforgiving land while striving to live in accordance with ideals that had led them to abandon their parents' suburbia, or hippie enclaves in Boston, New York and other Northeast cities.
"We had no phone, no electricity, no running water," remembered Mary Mathias, a retired social worker who lived in the '70s on the Frog Run Farm commune in East Charleston. "We thought having a flush toilet was anti-environmental. Why use precious clean water to get rid of wastes?"
Frog Run communards also eschewed chainsaws and other gas-powered equipment, instead using cross-cut saws to fell trees for firewood, and driving draft horses to plow and harvest crops. "We were rejecting civilization as it was," Mathias explained. "We were going to start everything again."
Courtesy of Loraine Janowsky/Public Affairs
Mullein Hill commune, West Glover 1971
Holly Scott, a historian who has studied the back-to-the-land movement, is the author of a recent book titled Younger Than That Now: The Politics of Age in the 1960s. As a session chair, she told the audience that many hippies and radicals were motivated "to make a new America in Vermont."
VHS curator Jackie Calder offered a similar assessment while presenting a slide show that included photos of hairy young women and men at snowbound homesteads or in sunny pastures. "They were trying to create the world they wanted to have," she said.
The colorful and often unkempt newcomers evoked suspicion and fears, as well as hospitality and helpfulness, from their deeply rooted rural neighbors, speakers noted.
"Many Vermonters feared the influence these people would have on their children," Calder said. "And they were right." Some of the back-to-the-landers "were integrating into communities and becoming very successful community activists. They did influence government. What people feared would happen, actually did happen."
Back-to-the-landers were instrumental, symposium speakers agreed, in gradually transforming Vermont into what is arguably the most progressive state in the country. Their values often found fertile ground in a state with a strong tradition of tolerance and good-neighborliness.
Members of the Total Loss Farm commune in Guilford received warm welcomes from long-settled southern Vermonters, said Peter Gould, whose 1971 novel, Burnt Toast, is based on his life there. "We moved to that farm at just the right time," he remarked. "The local farmers' children were all leaving the land." The old-timers were pleased to be able to pass on skills to neophyte farmers who were also enthusiastic learners, Gould said.
More thespian and activist than farmer, though, Gould has performed internationally as one half of the politically minded duo Gould & Stearns. A longtime writer and teacher, he works with young students in Brattleboro, and is the founder of the children's theater camp Get Thee to a Funnery in the Northeast Kingdom.
One audience member asked the panel that included historian Scott why the United States of 2016 is facing many of the same problems that the avowed revolutionaries of the 1970s had set out to solve. Was the revolution a failure?
Scott, who teaches at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia, acknowledged that the full hippie and New Left agenda had not been implemented. But she pointed to successes that were achieved by many movements of the era, including those focused on feminism and gay rights. "Maybe there really was a revolution," Scott suggested.
Bill Lippert and Michele Clark on a panel
But it came slowly for gay men in Vermont, State Rep. Bill Lippert (D-Chittenden 4-2) pointed out in what was the day's most absorbing address.
He had moved to Vermont in 1972 as an antiwar and social-justice activist, recently graduated from Earlham College in Indiana. That was a full three years after the uprising outside the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village that marked the start of the militant gay-rights movement. But Lippert, who identified as gay, said he was nonplussed to find no trace of a gay male community in Vermont.
Earlier in the proceedings, Calder had noted the presence in Vermont of at least two communes composed of radical lesbians, who, she said, had spearheaded the gay-rights movement in the state. "But we're not finding any gay men's communes," she added. "That wasn't seen as safe at the time."
Indeed, overt hostility was common, Lippert remembered. Far from hosting gay student groups, the University of Vermont in the early 1970s was "still doing aversive treatment on gay men," he said.
Only one bar in Burlington, the High Hat Lounge in the Main Street space subsequently occupied by Nectar's, was known as a place gay men were allowed to frequent, Lippert recalled. But the High Hat had "unwritten rules" that included a ban on same-sex dancing, he noted.
"One night we said, 'This is ridiculous,' and started dancing together. The bartender cut us off from drinks. And soon the Burlington police came. We were thrown out and told we would be arrested for trespassing if we went back in," Lippert said.
James Collins & Susanna Bowman/VHS archive
French Hill Commune, St. Albans
"It was a pivotal moment for me," the 66-year-old legislator continued. "I made a decision to do everything I could in my lifetime to end homophobia — and to survive professionally."
Lippert, who has represented Hinesburg in the Statehouse since 1994, may not have entirely accomplished that former objective, but he has clearly succeeded in his latter quest.
As testimonials at the symposium made clear, the spirit of the '70s lives on in the deeds as well as in the memories of some of the Vermonters who devoted their lives to ending war and all forms of injustice.
"It's been 38 years since I left that farm," Gould said in reference to the Guilford commune where he lived from 1969 to 1978. "Not a single day goes by that I don't think of some aspect of that experience. It was just so rich."
The symposium was based in part on the results of a two-year survey undertaken by VSH. An exhibition, "Freaks, Radicals & Hippies: Counterculture in 1970s Vermont" opens Saturday, September 24, at the Vermont History Center in Barre. Visit the VHS website for more information about that and additional programming on the topic.
Letters to the Editor (9/21/16)
by Seven Days Readers September 21, 2016
Historical Society Explores Impact of Back-to-the-Landers on Vermont
by Kevin J. Kelley August 31, 2016
Vermont Historical Society
Video: Westford Wildlife Walk With Mike Frisbie
Vermont's COVID-19 Infections Reach New Highs in Recent Days
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott Calls for Trump to 'Resign or Be Removed From Office'
Video: Vermonters Say Goodbye to 2020
Vermont House Expects to Meet Remotely Until at Least March
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