Springfield Vt

It's Duff time in Springfield, Vt., which on Tuesday was proclaimed the official hometown of TV's favorite dysfunctional family, the Simpsons. The southeastern Vermont community beat 13 other Springfields for the honor, which includes hosting the premiere of "The Simpsons Movie" on July 26. The town of 9,300 was the smallest in population among the communities entered.

It's Duff time in Springfield, Vt., which on Tuesday was proclaimed the official hometown of TV's favorite dysfunctional family, the Simpsons. The southeastern Vermont community beat 13 other Springfields for the honor, which includes hosting the premiere of "The Simpsons Movie" on July 26. The town of 9,300 was the smallest in population among the communities entered.

Massachusetts, you're out. Ohio? Sorry, another loser. In the race for cultural mecca, the winner is: Oregon. That is, Oregon is the winner as far as "The Simpsons” are concerned, according to creator Matt Groening, who told Smithsonian magazine that the real-life home of his fictional characters is the Springfield in the Northwest. It was the first time that Groening had specified the place where almost anything can happen - and seemingly has in the show's 22 years on TV. Groening acknowledged that he has always avoided naming the state.

thetford, vt. -- This year, Carmen Tarleton wasn't there to help her two daughters shop for school clothes. Nor did she see them off on their first day of school. That late-summer ritual was left to close friends and relatives: Tarleton is fighting to recover from what one doctor calls "the most horrific injury a human being could suffer." Three months ago, Tarleton was burned over 80% of her body when she was doused with lye, allegedly by her estranged husband.

The Defense Department last week identified the following American military personnel killed in Iraq and a soldier who died at a U.S. hospital of his injuries in Afghanistan: Phillip E. Baucus, 28, of Wolf Creek, Mont.; corporal, Marine Corps. Baucus was among four Marines killed July 29 in Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad. He was assigned to the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Twentynine Palms, Calif. Anthony E.

Don't bother to look for clothespin in the Oxford English Dictionary because you won't find it. Clothespins, which these days probably appear as often in arts and crafts creations as on clotheslines, owe little to the English (who would call them clothespegs ) or to any other nation, for that matter. They developed in the United States sometime during the 1840s and by mid-century were well established.

The orange roof is long gone and the Simple Simon plaque is history. The famous 28 flavors of ice cream have dwindled to 16 varieties. But at least the Howard Johnson's name sits atop the building, which is a lot more than hundreds of onetime Howard Johnson's eateries can say. The venerable chain once had more than 800 restaurants from coast to coast, but these days you can count them on two hands.

The sun had set behind a 30-foot sandstone mountain when a short, stocky man with a Brooklyn accent addressed a crowd of about 75 people standing in a parking lot near the Hidden Valley picnic area at Joshua Tree National Park. Behind him, a cloudless, darkening sky stretched over a flat sea of sand, Joshua trees and rust-colored boulders.

This is a story about a family reunion in Quebec where 1,400 people showed up. What sort of family would have 1,400 people show up at a reunion? Mine. The kind of family that's not so much a family as a political machine. In 1986, some folks in Quebec, where the family hails from, organized a group called L'Association les Dionne D'Amerique Inc. I got a mailing from them a few years back and decided: At last, a special interest group I can support unreservedly. So please do not expect a fair-minded, objective account.