Tania Head had one of the most compelling survival tales after 9/11. Her detailed account of how she was critically injured in the South Tower and the death of her husband in the North Tower propelled her into the spotlight.
But her story wasn’t true.
New York Times bestselling author and Somerville resident Robin Gaby Fisher’s latest book “The Woman Who Wasn’t There” was published today and exposes Head’s lies and deceit.
Fisher, a Pultizer Prize winner and two-time Pulitzer feature writing finalist, has been working on the book for over a year. Read the rest of this entry »
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Mud season in Promfret, Vt.
They there are six seasons in Vermont. You have spring, summer, fall, then there is stick season after the leaves fall and before the snow arrives to start winter. After winter and before spring is mud season. That’s when the snow is melting and the frost is leaving the ground.
The dirt roads become an adventure. If you live on one, you have to make sure your fuel oil tank is filled while the road are still frozen because heavy trucks are not allowed on the road during mud season.
I was out this afternoon seeing what critters might be around. The roads weren’t too bad, they were soft and rutted. The roads maintained by the township are designated with a “TH” like TH27. “TH” stands for Township Highway, which is pretty funny since they are the some of the smallest roads you will ever drive.
I was on one in Promfret that was barely wide enough for two cars to pass. I went through several rutted areas and pulled up on a large mud pit. It was the width of the road and at least 50 yards long. The ruts looked to be axle deep, so I figured I better put the Jeep into 4-wheel-drive. As I headed into the mudpit a pickup truck approached from the other direction. He stopped at the end of the pit since I was sliding and slipping my way through the mud.
The Jeep handled the mud well, the wheels spun a bit but it didn’t take long to get through it. When I got to the other side, I noticed there were three people sitting in the pickup truck. They all were grinning and the driver had a huge smile. He gave me a thumbs up and headed into the mud. I’m guessing they were betting on whether I made it through the mud and the driver won.
Tags: detail, Vermont
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The support arches are still standing on the Taftsville Covered Bridge in Woodstock, Vt.
Last fall when Hurricane Irene made its way to Vermont, it did an amazing amount of damage. One of the victims was the Taftsville Covered Bridge in Woodstock. The bridge is two spans and 189 feet long and the Ottauquechee River came up to the deck during the flood and damaged the bridge and supports. The bridge was scheduled for repairs next year, so they decided to get to work on it early. The entire deck and cover has been removed on half of the bridge while the abutments and deck are repaired. Work will take about two years.
Tags: Covered bridge, river, Scenic, snow, Vermont, Woodstock
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An otter peeks through ice in Woodstock, Vt.
At first light I headed out to see how Vermont looked after five inches of snow fell overnight. The short answer: beautiful. As I was heading out of the village, I looked down at a small pond that had a few holes in the ice. I noticed something dark moving in one of the holes, so I pulled over. Another something was moving and my brain registered I was seeing a couple of otters playing in the water.
I hopped out of my Jeep with my telephoto lens and tripod. Even though I was 100 yards away and up a hill, the otters weren’t thrilled with my presence. They craned their necks to get a better view of me and then dropped back into the water. One would pop up out of another hole, take a quick look at me and go back under the ice. Even though I stayed right by the Jeep, I was in their comfort zone. I thought if I hung out for a while they would realize I wasn’t a threat. After 3o minutes and no sightings, and strong winds trying to blow me over, I headed off to enjoy the beauty of the day.
Trees on a hillside in Woodstock, Vt.
Wind blows snow around ice fishermen on Silver Lake in Barnard, Vt.
Tags: Animals, pond, Scenic, silhouette, snow, tree, Vermont, winter, Woodstock
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Snow falls on the Middle Bridge in Woodstock, Vt.
It has snowed a few times in Vermont this winter, just not when I’ve been here. This afternoon it started and I’m excited. I went to the covered bridge in the village at dusk and shot as the darkness set in and the snow fell. I wanted to get a shot of car headlights illuminating the inside of the bridge, so I stood in the cold snow. I started by doing wide angle shots and I didn’t like the way it looked, even when a car came through. So I backed off and got out the 70-200 and waited for another car to come through.
As I was standing in the snow with my umbrella protecting my camera, I thought I felt something hit my foot. I looked down and saw something in the snow about the size of a pen. I couldn’t think of anything that I had on me like that so I kicked it around a little and tried to figure out what it was. While messing around, I looked up and car was coming out of the bridge. Damn. After 45 minutes, I was rather cold and I’d only seen one car come through and I missed it.
I usually prefer “night” shots to be done just before it is truly dark outside, so there is still some light in the sky to give some separation between my subject and the background. In my earlier shots, I couldn’t give them enough exposure to see inside the bridge since no cars came through.
So there is always tomorrow night and hopefully there will be more snow.
Tags: Covered bridge, night, Scenic, snow, winter, Woodstock
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Two horses bask in the morning sun.
The fall foliage season is strange this year in Vermont. Some areas had two peaks of color, some none. I drove from Woodstock to Addison looking for color along the way. The leaves are down in Killington but just peaking in the Castleton area only 20 miles away, but a much lower elevation. But the weather wasn’t very good, lots of spots of rain.
Earlier in South Woodstock I came across this little barn with a couple of horses out front. I like the way the sun came across the horses and the barn. The satellite dish was an extra touch.
Tags: Animals, farm, horse, Scenic, sunset, Vermont, Woodstock
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Fog hangs in the hills before sunrise in Woodstock, Vt.
This weekend is usually peak season for fall foliage around the Woodstock, Vt. area but things are running behind schedule this year. Most trees are still green and some just lost their leaves without a colorful fight. At least the weather is great this weekend, last week it was nothing but steady rain. I wandered out before sunrise today and went past Billings Farm before heading along the Ottauquechee River and then through Hartland.
This time of year there usually is a ground fog before the sun comes up and burns it off, and as I headed past Billings, I saw a couple of horses in a field. It was well before sunrise, so the sky was pink as I jumped out of the Jeep and grabbed a camera and tripod. By the time I got set up, the pink was gone but the fog hung in the hills behind the horses.
Early morning in Hartland, Vt.
I went to a hill in Hartland I’ve been several times for sunrise. The vista extends well into New Hampshire and the fog comes off the Connecticut River and filters through the hills. Today I didn’t make my favorite image from that spot, but I like the backlit fog as the sun comes up.
Tags: clouds, Fog, leaves, Scenic, silhouette, sunrise, Vermont
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Fog engulfs at house at Billings Farm National Park in Woodstock, Vt.
The week before Columbus Day is usually a great time for fall foliage in Vermont. Not this year. I started in the central part of the state, where it is green, and drove north to within a few miles of the Canadian border, where it is green. Last year it was spectacular this weekend, especially in the Northeast Kingdom but 2011 is proving to be a late year.
Since there wasn’t the normal color, I had to aim for something different. This morning there was a nice bank of fog at sunrise in Woodstock, so I made a couple of nice pictures at Billings Farm, which in Vermont’s only National Park. I really liked the way the light and fog engulfed the house.
Tags: farm, Scenic, sunrise, tree, Vermont, Woodstock
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Flood waters from Tropical Storm Irene floated the Bowers covered bridge 100 yards down the Mill Brook in West Windsor, Vt. The bridge was heavily damaged but should be moved back to its original position. Photo by Loren Fisher (Loren Fisher)
I have been photographing the covered bridges of Vermont for the last five years and been to all of them, most several times. I hope to have a book out next year featuring all the bridges. One of my favorites is Bowers, a little 48-feet-long bridge over the Mill Brook in West Windsor. The bridge sits down in a ravine with a gravel road heading up hills on both sides. A house up the hill on the south side has a large yard that leads down to the brook and they always have chairs sitting down by the water. I always imagine ending a hard day sitting the chairs, listening to the brook and enjoying the bridge.
Tropical storm Irene dumped a ton of water in the region and the brook washed away the abutment to the bridge. The bridge fell into the swollen brook and floated a little over 100 yards downstream to where the brook made a turn. The bridge whacked several trees and lodged against several trees. When the brook went down, the bridge settled onto the bank, still intact.
There is a lot of damage to the upper portion of the bridge but the trusses look pretty solid. The upper part of the covered bridges were meant to be replaced, so that isn’t a big deal, but getting it back to the site will be a chore.
I’ve read stories about bridges being swept away in the old days and the townspeople went right out and floated it back to where it belongs. I would have loved to see that, I hope I can be there when they get the big machinery to pick up Bowers and put it back.
See more photos of the Bowers Covered bridge damaged by tropical storm Irene.
Bowers covered bridge 100 survived a trip down the Mill Brook in West Windsor, Vt. Photo by Loren Fisher
Tags: Covered bridge, Hurricane Irene, Vermont
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The Ottauquechee River can be seen through the damaged wall of the Ottauquechee Real Estate office in Quechee, Vt. The building was destroyed by flood waters from Tropical Storm Irene. Photo by Loren Fisher (Loren Fisher/LorenPhotos.com)
I went over to Quechee, Vt. to see the damage to the town and covered bridge. I had seen video of water coming into the end of the bridge and couldn’t imagine how that could happen since the bridge is at least 50 feet above the river bed, just downstream from a dam. The water came over the edge of the dam and along a concrete wall and walkway then washed out the abutment and end of the bridge. A real estate office at the end of the bridge was also demolished.
See more photos of the damage caused by tropical storm Irene.
The Ottauquechee covered bridge over Ottauquechee River in Quechee, Vt., was damaged by flood waters from Tropical Storm Irene. The Ottauquechee Real Estate office on the right was destroyed by the storm. Photo by Loren Fisher (Loren Fisher/LorenPhotos.com)
Tags: Hurricane Irene, Vermont, Water, Woodstock
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The White Cottage restaurant in Woodstock, VT, was destroyed by water from the Ottauquechee River after Tropical Storm Irene. (Loren Fisher, www.LorenPhotos.com)
The damage done by tropical storm Irene in Vermont is really hard to imagine. Nearly every road in the lower third of the state was damaged. Washouts were everywhere. A man replacing my water heater told me about watching two houses float down a stream that usually has less than a foot of water. The houses hit a bridge and were knocked into splinters. Woodstock was hit hard, some houses along the Ottauquechee River lost over 100 feet of yard before being swamped. Businesses along Route 4 in West Woodstock had the river running through them.
See more photos of tropical storm Irene damage.
Tags: Hurricane Irene, Vermont, Woodstock
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Water flowed off our property and washed out the street.
After making it through Hurricane Irene and getting back to the routine of work yesterday, we got a call that our house in Vermont had a small river running through the yard and the basement was full of water. I started the five-hour drive north and immediately had to make detours. I-287 in NJ was washed out and so were many other roads on the way. There was only one road open into Woodstock, Vt., Route 4 from the east. Later I learned that nearly every road in the southern half of the state had major damage.
On our property there is a small brook that runs into a drainage culvert and it was plugged. Massive amounts of water came over the top and washed out our driveway and filled the basement. The water was still flowing through the yard when I arrived Monday night and I was able to open another plugged drain and divert the water away from the house.
We were lucky that we only had a couple of trees come down and need to replace the water heater, service the furnance and rebuild the driveway.
Tags: Hurricane Irene, Vermont, Water, Woodstock
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Juan "JC" Correa of Somerville and his daughter Kaylin look at the flooding on Cliff St.
It was strange sitting around listening to the police scanner as Hurricane Irene roared through New Jersey. Most of the heavy wind and rain was overnight, and it didn’t keep me awake. In the morning I started monitoring and reporting on my Somerville NJ news site, SomervilleToday.com and then headed out to photograph the damage. Flood waters were at near record heights, so I headed to the normal flood areas and places that don’t normally flood.
There are lots more photos at SomervilleToday.com
The street sign for 5th St. barely sticks out of the water.
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Clouds hang over Quechee Gorge in Vermont.
Today was one of those rainy days that don’t make for great photos, unless you’re looking to make a rainy-day photo. I was going past Quechee Gorge and saw the clouds hanging over the gorge. Route 4, the main east-west highway in central Vermont, goes over the state’s deepest gorge so I parked the Jeep and walked out on the bridge. It is 165 feet down to the water from the bridge and not for people who get queasy from heights.
Tags: clouds, Fog, river, Scenic, Vermont, Water
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A beaver swims in a pond in Barnard, Vt.
I drove back past where I photographed the bull moose yesterday, just hoping he might still be hanging around. He wasn’t. So I went to a beaver pond near Barnard, Vt., about a mile away. I photographed some cedar wax wings flying around the trees. I hung out for about an hour and a half but there wasn’t much going on. On the road I saw a candy wrapper, so I walked over to pick it up. I looked at the pond and beaver was swimming toward me. I went back to the Jeep to get the camera, but I feared my movement might scare it. The beaver turned around and twacked the water with its tail. I thought I was done, but it kept swimming around. It came closer to me and didn’t mind my presence. As it was going back and forth another one appeared. They both swam around in front of me for a while but I was blocked from clear shots by branches and weeds. They would pop into the open and I got a few shots I like.
Tags: Animals, pond, reflection, Vermont, Water
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Loren Fisher has been a professional photographer for over 35 years. He has published books on Pope John Paul II and Branson, Missouri. He is completing his latest book on the 109 covered bridges of Vermont and is founder and editor of 
