There is no clock in the milking parlor at Vorsteveld Farm. There are no windows, either, but a couple of hours into my first shift, I stopped wondering what was happening outside. The parlor is like a casino, a cocooned vault where the light is always fluorescent and the time is only now. There’s no…
Lobbyists from the fossil fuel, chemical and plastic industries have called on local lawmakers to prohibit planets that serve only a single purpose: supporting life as we know it. The testimony appeared to be an attempt to outmaneuver the Vermont Senate as it considers a ban on single-use plastic bags. “The time has come to…
Susan L. Green, age 76, passed away at her home in Burlington, Vt., on Friday, March 1. She was born in 1943 in Manhattan to Alfred and Esther (Kaplan) Zuckerman. She grew up in Valley Stream, Long Island, where she graduated from Valley Stream South High School. She attended Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt., and…
John Patrick Bowles (“Johnny Bowles”) moved on from this life on February 26, 2019. Although Burlington, Vt., was his longtime home, he was living outside of Portland, Ore., at the time of his passing. John was a true gentleman and was always there to celebrate life’s moments with his friends. He was well known for…
“You wake up in the morning with an emotional and physical bank account. Ask yourself, ‘How do I want to spend it?'” This is the wise advice of Marcia L. Mason, 86, who passed away peacefully Wednesday, March 6, 2019, having fully engaged with life — including dance, travel, education, groundbreaking social action, art and…
As the old chestnut goes, history repeats itself. Or, in the oft-misquoted words of Spanish American philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” But what about those who do remember? For one local songwriter, echoes of Vermont’s political past are reverberating in the present. In 2017, historical déjà…
Wither Free Press? [Re Fair Game, February 20]: In 1995 and 1996, I worked in the composing room at the Burlington Free Press. Back then, the paper’s print circulation was 58,000 daily and 72,000 on Sunday. Like many other local readers, I’ve watched it steadily wither away in the past decade, from 39,000 daily and…
Last week’s Burlington City Council elections produced an apparent political shift, as two young Progressives and a young Democrat were elected in place of older, more centrist politicians — and one of the Progressive winners took down a stalwart of her own party in council veteran Jane Knodell (P-Central District). The big questions: Does this…
Most Vermonters haven’t heard of Datastream Group, a Naples, Fla., company with 68 Facebook “likes” and a nondescript office on a street called Business Lane. But Datastream Group knows a lot about them. The company purchases detailed data on more than 250 million consumers, then splits it into targeted lists — of smokers, diabetics, pet…
A Middlebury bookstore has implemented a novel concept. In an effort to reduce waste, patrons at the Vermont Book Shop can now take — or leave — a reusable bag. The idea is modeled after the ubiquitous “take a penny, leave a penny” trays found at stores nationwide, said marketing manager Jenny Lyons, who initially…
Green Zone St. Patrick’s Day is a-coming, and that means Irish music is popping up all over this week — particularly on the day in question, Sunday, March 17. I think I’ve made my feelings about the holiday clear in the past. For me, St. Paddy’s is like being trapped in a kelly-green drunk tank…
Whenever I see footage of a rocket launch with a close-up of that sudden, thunderous inferno blasting from its base, I’m filled with wonder. I wonder what somebody could have said to talk a cameraman into getting that shot. Did they draw straws? Was it always the new guy? And this was pre-sunscreen, remember. The…
Got the munchies? Look local. In Burlington, Miss Weinerz baker Ren Weiner’s new Neighborhood Food Club seeks to offer a tasty, eco-friendly alternative to that bag of chips or box of Cheez-Its. Each week, Weiner will treat club subscribers to a box of handcrafted goodies made with 100 percent local ingredients. Weiner is best known…
It’s not often that you get to watch videos from inside the belly of a whale. For the Old Testament’s Jonah, the stomach of the “giant fish” who swallowed him was a safe haven of salvation and prayer. For Richmond-based artist Rebecca Weisman, a whale’s caverns, skin and viscera become the site of a prolonged…
Richmond’s friendly downtown pub celebrates math’s favorite irrational number with handmade pastries and world-famous beer. With Grassroots Distribution taking over the tap lines, visitors can sample hop-centered Hill Farmstead Brewery beers such has Double Galaxy and Amarillo IPA, along with named brews including Florence, Susan, Abner and Anna. Nibble on savory Québécois tourtière between heady…
Captain Marvel has been widely touted as the first female-fronted film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the movie is perhaps even rarer in the blockbuster realm for giving a strong supporting role to an older woman who’s nobody’s mom. Annette Bening plays the scientist mentor of the title character. Though she’s dead when the…
One night last July, Bogdan Andreescu lay awake in his bed in Winooski and planned a restaurant. He saw where the eight-burner stove and hood system should go. He envisioned a place for the refrigerator, the bar and the pasta boiler. Andreescu could see — and mentally recorded — where to put the gas lines,…
Steve Charest checked the rope securing him to a tree at the top of a 40-foot wall of ice in Smugglers’ Notch last December, then called down to his partner that he was ready to be lowered. An expert mountain guide with nearly two decades of experience, Charest had done the same thing hundreds of…
Three years ago, Steve Leach was looking for a way to supplement his family’s income and learn a new trade that he could eventually continue into retirement. So when the Swanton engineer, who works full time at Husky Injection Molding Systems in Milton, heard that University of Vermont researchers were trying to demonstrate the local…
Nothing compares to a snow day off from school: the anticipation the night before as the flakes start to fly; the excitement when the phone rings at 5:30 a.m. with the robocall announcement; the unmitigated joy of walking outside for a day of snowball fights, snow fort building or schussing down the slopes. And that’s…
From hardscrabble images of disappearing hill farmers to genteel portraits of Vermont’s Colonial Dames, from the rustic majesty of windswept ice shanties to the cheap thrills of semipro wrestling, Vermont Folklife Center is the keeper of Vermont’s storied past. Recently, the Middlebury museum received a pair of grants that will spur its mission to chronicle,…
Just above the tree line on Camel’s Hump last week, Curt McCormack considered turning back. The Burlington lawmaker had snowshoed up the mountain to within a couple hundred feet of the summit when a ferocious snow squall struck. He could barely move his fingers. His ruddy cheeks were so numb that he’d begun slurring his…
In late 2018, East Burke writer Hope A.C. Bentley started her own small publishing company: Golden Light Factory. She’s put out five books — four by her, one by Valerie Chase — under the tagline “Provocative Books for Clever Readers.” Ranging from picture books to novels for teens and tweens, they sport artfully hand-illustrated covers…
When soprano Helen Lyons decided to move back home to Vermont in June 2016, the state gained an internationally experienced singer. Lyons, a Williston native, studied voice at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. She pursued a career in New York City, at young artists’ programs…
(Self-released, CD, cassette, digital) Writing for British online music mag the Quietus, author Alex Ogg concluded that the term post-punk was a “hopelessly inadequate umbrella term.” He was reacting to author Simon Reynolds’ assessment of the genre in his 2005 tome Rip It Up and Start Again, a sort of post-punk Bible. Ogg is probably…
(Self-released, CD, digital) Thomas L. (“Larry”) Read’s chamber compositions on What Story? evoke a kaleidoscopic range of emotion from one moment to the next. Not that they flit about unaccountably. Instead, each piece leads the listener down a path whose every curve is unexpected. Read’s works typically end in a definitive final gesture, but he…
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 2014, NASA managed to place its MAVEN spacecraft into orbit around Mars. The cost of the mission was $671 million. Soon thereafter, the Indian government put its own vehicle, the Mangalyaan, into orbit around the Red Planet. It spent $74 million. As you plan your own big project, Pisces, I…
Jen Silverman’s two-character play The Roommate starts by mining the comedy in a pair of fiftysomething women of opposite temperaments sharing a house. Then it switches gears to turn them into renegades in a buddy escapade. Neither situation is fully realized; the play is at its best during the brief midpoint, when the women are…
Dear Scarlett, I’ve been working full time in a tire shop since high school and really like my job. About three or four months ago, a beautiful girl started working part time at our register, and I am really falling for her. I see her every day, and it’s building up. She flirts with me,…
Pasty, basic hummus is easy enough for anyone with a food processor to serve as a starter — or, worse, roll into a burrito — but distinguished hummus remains a rare find. And diners will find it at Little Morocco Café, which opened in December in Burlington’s Old North End, just down the street from…
When a Dutch expat takes over a deli, things go the way of the windmill. In Winooski, the Happy Belly Deli & Grill at 65 Winooski Falls Way will rechristen itself the Dutch Deli at the end of March. Don’t worry, regulars — the quick-service market will keep its menu of sandwiches and wraps, poutines…
