My first taste of journalism was a postcollege summer internship at Vermont Magazine, a bimonthly publication then based in a converted chicken barn just over the New York State border from my hometown of Arlington. That gig led to a very part-time role compiling the magazine's "Essential Events" calendar, for which I was tasked with sourcing a handful of unique goings-on around the state. The events should "reflect the flavor of Vermont," my editor instructed, "and if they are somewhat obscure, quaint and countrified, so much the better."