If there is one thing I learned in Vermont is that hippies still know how to make Puppets like No One Else on Planet Earth. Before leaving Vermont last week, we were able to catch one of the last summer shows of Bread and Puppet in Glover, Vermont. True to the style of the Carnivalesque, they had one festive part of the show held in an open field and the other, somber, held among the rows of tall trees in the forest. Larger than life puppets are just one of those things that I think always draws your full awe-like attention from deep within, awakening the spirit of laughter and wonder that is always part of us, yet sadly dulls and dampens for too many of us as we age. You need puppet and hippies to get that fire going and I recommend a side trip to Vermont just to check it out, even if it means an insanely long drive, like you know 17 hours on no sleep.

Here are some more pictures from my trip which was truly a ++++ in so many ways. I am now back out the door tomorrow to attend the 4S Science Studies Conference in France. I have yet to attend a European academic conference so I am sort of intrigued to see if there is anything different about it. I managed to get on two panels though I hear that is illegal. I sort of wish now they had kicked me off of one because I still need to finish one presentation so… I mean, the paper is written because I wrote it last month with Rexter and I really like the paper a ton. But I am not sure how to convey a 40 page paper in 20 minutes. Anyway, that is the headache for tomorrow.

So, I yet again I will be an absent blogger most likely although I did hear there is wireless in the place where I am staying which is a real plus since I have a feeling I will be glued to the computer during the RNC convention to keep with the protest action. I was really torn about whether to go to the conference or the protests and I am not sure I really made the right choice. In the end, it was a matter of finances. The trip to Paris was free, and I am so broke right now that well, yea, we won’t even go there

Anyway, I imagine like the great puppets of Vermont, which have also graced so many protests in recent years, the RNC protest will be joyful, tense, beautiful, solemn….