View from the Top
On the Cover • Autumn Botanist, Zak Pullen, mixed media, 2000
Esteemed Reader • Jason Stern on the elusive sense of being unencumbered.
Conversation • Clearwater Executive Director Andy Mele talks PCBs with Brian Mahoney.

Room for a View
Access to Grind
By Todd Paul. A report on the arcane ballot access system in New York State and how it is slowly changing.
Undue Influence: The Bi-Partisan Stranglehold on the Debates
By Josh Robinson. How the Democrats and the GOP have excluded third parties from presidential debates.
News & Views
GE: Bringing Good Things to Connecticut; Bove Draws Prison Term.

Features
BEST OF THE MID-HUDSON VALLEY

Backbone
NEW!! Tastings
Chef David Bruno of Cripple Creek shares his recipe for Blue cheese-encrusted Filet with lentil Ragout and Chanterelles.
Lucid Dreaming • Lead Pillows. Beth Wilson on Sigmund Freud and dancing about architecture.
Frankly Speaking • My Friend Rex. Frank Crocitto tells a non-shaggy dog story.
Ear Whacks • Reel Music II. Todd Paul’s continuing exploration into sonic celluloid.
Quarter to Three • To Build a Canoe. Sparrow’s New Proverbs and the Silence of the Lamps.
Poetica • Poems by Alicia Marie Howard, Robert Grawi, normal and Kathleen Thomas.
Planet Waves • Buy Me a River. Eric Francis on how GE bought the Hudson. Plus horoscopes.

Whole Living Guide
Ayurveda
By Frank Jude Boccio, MSC, D. Ay. The fundamentals of “the science of life.”
Putting Weight on Depression
Sandra Gardner talks with Smart Bells inventor Paul Widerman about why pharmaceutical giant Pfizer bought 2,000 Smart Bells.
Whole Living Directory
Products and services for a positive lifestyle.