Feb 12-18, 2014
Will Burlington Voters Approve a Last-Ditch Proposal for the Defunct Moran Plant?; Vermont’s Medical Examiner on What Kills Us; The Legacy of Bob Spear; Starbird Fish on Film ; Local Campaign Spending Soars
Cover Story
Will Burlington Voters Approve a Last-Ditch Plan for the Moran Plant?
You could argue it’s a rite of passage for Burlington mayors to hatch a plan to convert the defunct Moran power plant from the waterfront’s chief eyesore to its crown jewel — and then watch hopes collapse in the face of political challenges and financial realities. Miro Weinberger canned his predecessor’s plan upon assuming office…
Obituary: Richard Paul Pion
Richard Paul Pion, age 49 years, died unexpectedly Wednesday February 12, 2014 at his Bosworth Court Residence. “Take him in your arms Lord, Guide him through the storm, sit with him in sunshine, and let the wind be warm, play his favorite music, and when you see him smile, Tell him that we love him,…
Obituary: Howard Walter Brown
Howard Walter Brown, age 91, passed away on February 12, 2014, after a long period of declining health. Born in Sangerville, Maine on March 4, 1922, he graduated from Hartland Academy in 1940. He married Carolyn Haseltine in July, 1942, in Dexter, Maine, after which he joined the U.S. Army Air Force. Howard spent those…
Obituary: Charlotte Hoyt Ross
Charlotte Hoyt Ross of Shelburne, Vermont died peacefully on December 13, 2013 surrounded by her family at Fletcher Allen Hospital. Charlotte was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan December 23, 1925 to Charles (Chuck) B. Hoyt and Hazel Sells Hoyt. As a young girl Charlotte attended schools in Ann Arbor, MI and New Haven, CT where…
Obituary: Marguerite Therese Boulerice
Marguerite Therese Boulerice, age 80 years, died peacefully Tuesday evening February 11, 2014, at her County Road home in the arms of her loving husband Arthur. Born in Ste. Remi, Quebec Canada on November 11, 1933, she was the daughter of the late Antoine and Lucienne (DeRepentigny) Riendeau. She attended schools in Canada and also…
AO Glass Works Teams Up With Picture-Book Author to ‘Bottle’ Laughter
The saying “laughter is the best medicine” is so common that it sounds trite. But for Burlington artist Holly Jeffers, the truism inspired an imaginative leap: If you could bottle laughter and keep it around for a challenging day, what would the bottle look like? That’s what Jeffers found herself wondering five years ago, when…
Obituary: Carol A. Usher, 1940-2014, Colchester
Carol A. Usher, 73, a long-time resident of Colchester, Vermont, passed away Tuesday morning, February 11, surrounded by her loving family and friends. Carol was born December 21, 1940 in Milford, Massachusetts, the youngest daughter of Charles Shuber (Sciuba) and Adelina Pettinelli, whose ancestors hailed from the Abruzzo region of Italy. Carol received her BA…
Letters to the Editor
Idle Vice The City of Burlington has a sound policy on paper against vehicles left idling, which squanders fuel for no purpose and is an important contributor to our climate going sour [WTF: “Whatever happened to Burlington’s ban on excessive car idling?” January 29]. It is easy to pass an ordinance and then ignore it,…
![Art From the Heart [SIV342]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/stuck021214.webp?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1)
Art From the Heart [SIV342]
1/31/14: This year Art from the Heart, a program of Burlington City Arts, celebrates 20 years of connecting children with art supplies and volunteers at the Vermont Children’s Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care. Eva visits with some young artists who are busy making Valentine’s cards with extra special love and care. Music: Let’s Whisper,…
Lit of Love: Valentine’s Day Readings and Comedy; Salmona Miller Furlong to Read From New Book
How do you like your Valentine’s Day — “racy,” “raunchy” or “romantic”? At a February 14 reading called “My Erotic Valentine’s,” organized by the Renegade Writers’ Collective and held at Burlington’s ArtsRiot, the special day could be all three and more. The event pairs riffing from PoJazz with saucy comedy and readings of erotic poetry…
Quadrupling Down: Did Newsweek Get the Goods on Vermont Health Connect?
Were the state officials behind Vermont’s beleaguered health care overhaul a bunch of unsophisticated local yokels who were taken for a ride by an unscrupulous global contractor? That’s the portrait veteran reporter Lynnley Browning painted in a devastating, 3,400-word takedown published last Thursday in Newsweek, called “Doubling Down on Obamacare.” As state officials rushed to…
News Without Borders: Lyndon State Hosts Chinese Journalism Students
“What would happen in China if people were angry about wind turbines getting built near their property?” Tyler Dumont asked Zhu Xi as they drove through a winter landscape last week in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Dumont, an Emmy Award-winning student journalist at Lyndon State College, would soon be interviewing a Sheffield family protesting the noise…
Obituary: Stratton Harry Lines, 1929-2014, Williston
On Friday 14, Stratton Harry Lines died peacefully at his home in Williston. Born August 20, 1929, he was the third child of Harry and Jane Lines who had emigrated from Sparta, Greece at the turn of the century. He grew up in the Queen City, graduating from Burlington High School in 1947. He served…
My Girlfriend Has Slept With 40 Guys
Dear Athena, My girlfriend and I just moved in together and I have been really happy in this relationship. She is great and I really see a future for us, maybe even marriage. A week ago we were talking about our college days and she told me that while she was in school, she slept…
An All-Vermont Valentine’s Day Mixtape
From the dawn of the cassette player, the mixtape has been a go-to method for amorous advances. While the physical medium has changed over the years, from tapes to CDs to Spotify playlists and the like, few gestures are as sweet and time-tested as curating a playlist for your dear someone. Sure, flowers and chocolates…
Local Races Reveal the Escalating Cost of Campaigning in Chittenden County
It’s getting expensive to run for a city council seat in the Burlington area — and to wage campaigns in support of local ballot items. One candidate in a South Burlington council race has loaned himself $10,000 for the effort. In Burlington, the Democratic challenger and the Progressive incumbent in the Old North End’s Ward…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In her TED talk, science writer Mary Roach made it clear that human beings don’t need genital stimulation to experience orgasms. She spoke of a woman who routinely reaches ecstatic climax by having her eyebrows caressed, and another woman who reaches the big O simply by brushing her teeth. Then there’s…
News Quirks
Curses, Foiled Again British authorities said habitual burglar Daniel Severn, 27, got his foot caught while climbing through a bathroom window of a house in Howden and wound up hanging upside down over the toilet for an hour and a half. He was found by homeowner Richard Wilson, whose wife took a photograph of Severn…
Exploring Master Carver Bob Spear’s Avian Artwork at the Birds of Vermont Museum
The Birds of Vermont Museum in Huntington is a fascinating, if somewhat curious, place; tour guides often list it as a “hidden gem” or a “must-see.” Such descriptors do apply to this one-of-a-kind museum in an out-of-the-way location, but there’s another light in which to view it. Birds of Vermont is devoted to the works…
WTF: How Can You Tell When It’s Safe to Venture Onto Frozen Lakes?
By February, the boat ramp leading to inner Malletts Bay in Colchester becomes a veritable ice road. During frigid winters like this one, when overnight temperatures often hover around zero, the frozen lake bustles with activity. Ice shacks sprout like mushrooms and are soon followed by ATVs, snowmobiles, cars and pickup trucks. By law, the…
Thoughts on the New Signal Kitchen
Well, I was wrong. In last week’s column, I opined that it would take a minor miracle for the industrious lads at Signal Kitchen to complete their ambitious renovation project in time for last weekend’s grand reopening shows. This past Friday I found, to my delight and amazement, that not only did SK owners Alex…
Lake Champlain Is a Mess; Now Who’s Going to Clean It Up?
When Vermonters converged in Bridport last week to weigh in on a complicated water-quality bill moving through the Statehouse, Bridport beef farmer Phil Wagner reminded the lawmakers on hand that “everyone behind me is in favor of clean water.” “Everyone” in the room, or close to it, was a farmer. The majority was male —…
Work: The University of Vermont’s Hazardous Waste Technicians
Many windows and a friendly staff give the nondescript facility of University of Vermont Environmental Health and Safety a cheery feeling. You’d never guess the place often contains barrels of nasty toxic ooze. A branch of the Department of Risk Management & Safety, this is headquarters for the university’s fire marshal, environmental safety coordinators, occupational…
Garrett Linck, Abodes of Owls
(Self-released CD, digital download) In August 2013, Hinesburg-based indie rockers Wolcot released their farewell record, Coronado EP. That recording was a follow-up to the then-high schoolers’ 2011 self-titled debut, and realized much of that album’s budding promise. But, as it goes with so many young bands, Wolcot were seduced by the promise of greener musical…
Book Review: Buildings of Vermont, Glenn M. Andres and Curtis B. Johnson
If you’ve ever passed an eye-catching building while driving around Vermont and wondered about its history, you can now consult Buildings of Vermont. The authors of this invaluable resource, Glenn Andres and Curtis Johnson, spent the last 20 years researching the state’s built environment. From an original pool of more than 40,000 buildings listed in…
John Creech, Remember
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Before we discuss the merits of local songwriter John Creech’s latest solo record, Remember, let’s address an elephant in the room: It’s kinda old. As in, it came out in 2010. “So why review it now?” you might ask. It’s a fair question. For starters, when Creech wrote and recorded the…
Art Review: ‘John Bisbee: New Blooms,’ Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education
Maine sculptor John Bisbee calls his exhibit at the Pizzagalli Center “New Blooms,” a name that suggests, say, pretty floral watercolors. In fact, his medium could not be more different. His massive sculptures and installations are made from nails, thousands and thousands of them. Specifically, they are called Bright Common nails, or tie spikes, and…
The Monuments Men
The best-laid plans — you know what they say. Sometimes things just don’t work out. Sometimes the plans are evil plans. For instance, Hitler had Albert Speer design a vast complex called the Führermuseum to display treasures stolen from all over Europe in one great Nazi art shrine. The Führer intended to have it built…
A New Book Explores a Very Old Subject: Vermont’s Whale Fossil
Thousands of years ago, when the geological features of the Earth were much different than they are now, a small whale expired unceremoniously in the muck at the bottom of a northern sea. It was the kind of unremarkable death that has happened trillions of times in the history of the planet. And yet the…
The Lego Movie
These days, every big-budget movie seems to follow an identical template: Hero finds out he (or sometimes she) is Special. Hero acquires wacky buddies, crusty mentor and feisty love interest. Hero conquers self-doubts, defeats Bad Guy, saves the world. Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey” archetypes have a scholarly pedigree and a long and lucrative history in…
Parisii Quartet to Bring Final Concert in Beethoven Series to an Unconventional Venue
Burlington is about to be treated to the final Beethoven Cycle concert by the Paris-based Parisii Quartet. Beethoven wrote 16 string quartets, and Burlington-based musicians’ agency Melvin Kaplan has been presenting them over the past two years in six concerts featuring as many professional quartets. Parisii is performing quartets 2, 10 and 13. This concert…
Vermont’s Medical Examiner Knows What’s Killing Us
In Steven Shapiro’s world, The Wizard of Oz is the story of a teenage girl who comes to town, kills the first person she meets and then conspires with three strangers to kill again. “The first one I’d sign off as an accident, but the Wicked Witch of the West? It’s a homicide. Dumped a…
Vermonter Releases Definitive Butchering Book
The term “celebrity butcher” may sound like an oxymoron, but if there is one in Vermont, it’s Cole Ward. Three years ago, he and chef Courtney Contos released a DVD series called “The Gourmet Butcher.” Now Chelsea Green Publishing has put out Ward’s first book, The Gourmet Butcher’s Guide to Meat: How to Source It…
Grilling the Chef: Jean-Luc Matecat
It was September 2011 when I took a seat at the chef’s table at Amuse, the restaurant inside the Essex Resort & Spa. The long counter was mostly empty, and the chef de partie seemed relaxed as he set down each course: velvety, seared sweetbreads dusted with hazelnuts; peppery watercress soup; seared scallops over ratatouille.…
Pingala Café & Eatery Opens in the Chace Mill
Eggplant bacon, smoked-jackfruit sandwiches and gluten-free scones will show up in Burlington’s Chace Mill this Saturday when Pingala Café & Eatery opens. Owner Trevor Sullivan and chef Dave Unumb are putting their finishing touches on a vegan menu that features items such as marinated, maple-glazed tempeh patties and coffee smoothies in the morning, and veggie…
Owners of Istanbul Kebab House Purchase Tuckerbox and Begin Dinner Service
White River Junction’s Tuckerbox, at One South Main Street, has long been a buzzing hub of lattes and laptop-tapping creatives. This week, it will also become a brand-new dinner spot when the kitchen begins slinging kebabs, falafel and mezze after dark. Vural and Jackie Oktay, who opened Essex Junction’s Istanbul Kebab House in 2012, purchased…
Prestigious Cooking Events at NECI
It’s no secret that New England Culinary Institute executive chef Jean-Louis Gerin is a master of his craft. And he’s not the school’s only one. Andre Burnier, NECI chef-instructor since 1990, is about to become the fourth instructor inducted into the exclusive society of French-born Maîtres Cuisiniers de France. It’s a distinction for the school…
A New Film Features Vermont’s Salmon Catchers Starbird Fish
Vermont farmers and food producers have many ways to measure the success of a year. But Burlington’s Anthony Naples, aka “Captain Tony,” is probably alone in calling a season a triumph because “nobody died.” Fortunately, the captain and owner of Starbird Fish says he hasn’t lost a crew member yet. As an Alaskan salmon fisherman,…
