

Cover Story
How President Barbara Vacarr Plans to Save Goddard College
“Is that place still open?” That’s the question Barbara Vacarr found herself fielding about Goddard College two and a half years ago, shortly after she took up residence in Montpelier. The college that Vacarr had moved from Massachusetts to helm sat just 10 miles away in Plainfield, but Goddard’s storied reputation as a hippie haven…
A Puppygram Valentine from Seven Days
Mabel has had a busy day. She began her duties as a Puppygram pup at 8:30 a.m. this morning. By the end of the day, she and three other dogs will have visited 37 homes and businesses for a little Valentine’s Day love. Around 11:30 this morning, the 5-month-old mixed breed made her rounds to…
With the Wild Fern, Baker Heather Lynne Gives Stockbridge a Quirky Hub
Walking into the Wild Fern is a little like opening a diorama. From the outside, the place is nondescript and even slightly weather beaten. When you walk in, it’s a riot of psychedelic colors and smells of baking bread, a few loaves of which wait, bagged for sale, near the front door. Beyond are two…
Fondue Is Hot Again in the Green Mountains
In many Americans’ minds, fondue went the way of the swinger party in the late 1970s. In the bell-bottom era, a communal dipping pot may have seemed an apt metaphor for the spouse swapping to come. But fondue is no mere fad: In Switzerland, the custom of dunking stale bread in melted cheese and wine…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Afrikaner author Laurens van der Post told a story about a conversation between psychologist Carl Jung and Ochwiay Biano, a Pueblo Indian chief. Jung asked Biano to offer his views about white people. “White people must be crazy because they think with their heads,” said the chief, “and it is well-known…
News Quirks
Curses, Foiled Again While serving time in the Gwinnett County, Ga., jail for paying an undercover police officer $3000 to murder his neighbor and former business partner, Joseph Memar, 65, was caught again trying to have the man killed. Police Cpl. Jake Smith said Memar spread the word among inmates, met with a plainclothes officer…
Four More Local Albums You Probably Haven’t Heard
So many records, so little time. Seven Days gets more album submissions than we know what to do with. And, given the ease of record making these days, it’s difficult to keep up. Still, we try to get to every local release that comes across the music desk, no matter how obscure. To that end,…
Theater Review: Love, Loss and What I Wore by Girls Nite Out Productions
Why is it so hard to clean out our closets? Well, just about any article of clothing can carry a story, and preserving the tangible signs of a lifetime of emotional attachments may be the secret purpose of closets. It’s also the clever organizing principle of Love, Loss and What I Wore, currently staged by…
Burlington Music Superfan Tim Lewis Makes the Scene
Scan the room at most local rock shows, and you’ll observe various types of concertgoers. There are the average fans, generally attentive people who form the majority of most crowds and tend to clump together in a semicircle in front of the stage. There are the cool kids, typically identified by hipsterer-than-thou detachment as they…
Book Review: Blacksnake at the Family Reunion by David Huddle and Vermont Exit Ramps by Neil Shepard
The two most recent collections by Vermont poets David Huddle and Neil Shepard — Blacksnake at the Family Reunion and Vermont Exit Ramps, respectively — could hardly differ more in focus, yet something binds them together. One might say it’s their mutual desire to take the reader on a journey of sorts. Or maybe it’s…
Art Review: “Hey, They Can Really Draw a Line!” at ORCA Media
Vermonters seem to show artwork in just about every nook and cranny — even in the hallway and offices of a public access TV station. “Hey, They Can Really Draw a Line!” is the title of an exhibit currently at ORCA Media in Montpelier’s City Center. ORCA is a nonprofit television production facility that provides…
Jeffersonville’s Backcountry and Alpinist Magazines Share a Passion for Peaks
The Green Mountains surrounding the rural hamlet of Jeffersonville aren’t exactly a global destination for elite backcountry skiers. The tallest summit in the neighborhood — 4396-foot Mt. Mansfield — is a mere goose bump compared with the powder-lush playgrounds of Wyoming’s Grand Tetons or Mont Blanc in the Alps. But from Jeffersonville’s modest heights comes…
Letters to the Editor
Eva’s World Eva Sollberger’s Stuck in Vermont series has always held my interest, and the Robert Achinda story was very well done and presented [February 6]. I admire your journalistic spectrum; it gives a true worldview, and I say kudos to Sollberger and the freedom Seven Days gives her to showcase Vermont and its people…
Eva Sollberger [300]
Stuck in Vermont Turns 300! This is the 300th episode of Stuck in Vermont! Eva Sollberger started Stuck in Vermont six years ago as a way to tell the stories of Vermonters. Since then, she has created more than 30 hours of content with 2 million views. Her work has won state and regional awards. So…






