"Mud Season: How One Woman's Dream of Moving to Vermont, Raising Children, Chickens, and Sheep & Running the Old Country Store Pretty Much Led to One Calamity after Another" (The Countryman Press), by Ellen Stimson

First, the good: Ellen Stimson is funny. Darned funny. And she knows how to spin a good, old-fashioned yarn. She's telling her story of moving from the urban Midwest to rural Vermont to live out her dream of buying an old house and running the quintessential country store — and it's amusing. She talks about the time she undressed in the wrong motel room, the time she called 911 because the two-lane highway was blocked by cattle, and the time she dumped a 2-gallon jug of red food coloring into a large pond to simulate a battle scene from "Treasure Island" and was yelled at by cops for starting an environmental disaster.

Stimson tells her tales with clear-eyed, self-deprecating humor, which makes "Mud Season" a breeze to read in a single sitting.

Despite the amusing anecdotes, Stimson's first foray into writing books — in a previous life, she sold books — is more than a bit flawed. To call it a memoir is a stretch. Her collection of 11 "chapters" reads more like a haphazard collection of essays that would have better served her experience. Stimson should have hired a good editor. That person could have insisted on solid transitions between chapters and removing much of the repetition.

But things really fall apart near the end. Stimson has complained for more than 200 pages about how much money she's spending and how the renovations to the house, the lack of sales at the store and everything else are bleeding her dry. She even flippantly considers bankruptcy after a good friend explains that she has a failed business and that's why bankruptcy exists — it's "part of the system," he says. In the eleventh hour, Stimson is bailed out by a buyer and she and her family of five take off on vacation. What? They rent a cabin and a pontoon boat. They swim in Canadian waters, then stuff themselves on hot dogs and s'mores.

To top it off, she concludes the book with a collection of recipes — seemingly from out of nowhere — as well as obituaries for her lost pets. These tacked-on sections are sweet but have no place in this so-called memoir.

 

mso-mW? ntp to;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; mso-line-height-alt:11.25pt;background:white'>The two escape just in time, saved by Jenny (Amy Poehler), a pretty young female turkey and the sassy daughter of the head of the local flock. The groundwork is thus laid for Reggie and Jenny's love story, with Jenny set up as a strong female character for the little ladies in the audience.

 

After presenting their best arguments to rile up the local flock and change the course of history, Reggie and Jake successfully destroy the colonists' weapons. During the battle that follows, we are taken on another journey through time, which results in a big cheer-raising climax.

The first feature film from Reel FX, "Free Birds" lacks the dazzling visuals of DreamWorks, Pixar or Walt Disney animated films, and the use of 3-D may have given the budget a boost but not the experience. Yet the turkeys in "Free Birds," with their immense eyes (especially those of the cuddly baby birds), varying body types and distinct mannerisms are impressive.

Co-written and directed by Jimmy Hayward, whose credits include "Horton Hears a Who!" and "Jonah Hex," ''Free Birds" is a solid premiere effort that shows Reel FX's potential to produce quality full-length animation. But the story-line, with its hypothetical constituents, seems a little desperate at times, even for a kiddie film.

Yet children will get a kick out of the slap-stick humor — the jubilant fast-talking daughter of the president is priceless — and adults should appreciate nods to films about time-travel from the 1980s, like "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "Back to the Future."

In the end, we are offered a junk food alternative to turkey that will leave most kids satisfied. But it's the film's central motifs that should stick to the ribs: Always believe in yourself and never give up. Oh, and girls rock!

 

f?t p ily:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#333333;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'>A trip that Kennedy made to Arlington National Cemetery on Veteran's Day, more than a week before his Dallas trip, prompted an unintentionally ironic comment.

 

"This is one of the really beautiful places on Earth," Kennedy said as he surveyed the scene. "I could stay here forever."