Shortly after I had open heart surgery in the fall of 2016, Donald Trump's election was the nightmarish present I received on my birthday. How could 63 million people be so wrong? During the campaign, I had re-read the Sinclair Lewis novel, It Can't Happen Here about a right-wing Presidential victory. Little did I expect that Lewis' book, written and set in Vermont in 1935, would be so prescient. 

As I recovered physically, I deteriorated mentally. What could I, a single voter, do?  I called Jeff Danziger, my cartoonist buddy. While we commiserated, he said,   "Why not write another book before dementia sets in?" There's a title I've always loved - The Full Vermonty!  We can just add the sub-title " Vermont in the Age of Trump?"  

        "Excellent! Let's go," I said. "Desperate times demand desperate measures."  For a month we scoured  the hills and hollows for ideas. We made a good start with some lists, quizzes, cartoons and a cover. But then it dawned on us that  the task  was too large and the enemy too fearsome to do it alone. We needed "back-up". 

That got us thinking of other wise, witty and like-minded friends who could join our posse of writers and artists. The list grew and in a month's time, our duet became a chorus of twenty-two, and in three months, the book was done!    Hallelujah!