Nov 4-10, 2015
A Transgender CEO Faces the Workplace; Are Doctors Declining in Vermont?; Sunflower Power: Non-GMO Oil in Addison
Cover Story
Becoming Christine: Transgender CEO Hallquist Prepares to Go to Work As a Woman
Dave Hallquist was dressed in a maroon button-down shirt and black trousers during a tour of the Vermont Electric Cooperative headquarters last month in Johnson. The former engineer wore comfortable shoes and a black leather men’s watch while showing off a state-of-the-art control room, noting how technology has helped to shorten the length of power…
Why Are We Critical of Hillary Clinton?
There is a moment in the pilot of CBS’ fantabulous new show “Supergirl” when our superhero cries. Zor-El has been sent to Earth from Krypton to look after her baby cousin Kal-El. But she’s waylaid in the galactic equivalent of Siberia, and by the time she touches down on our planet, little Kal needs no…
WTF: How Did Rock Point School Get Its Stained-Glass Windows?
Lone Rock Point, a mostly wooded peninsula jutting into Lake Champlain two miles north of downtown Burlington, remains unfamiliar to many locals despite its intriguing history. For starters, a couple of the city’s most stately 19th-century buildings stand there. One of them contains a group of stained-glass windows that even most visitors to Rock Point…
Art Review: ‘Naked Truth,’ Middlebury College Museum of Art
It is impossible to view the 50 works on paper in Middlebury College’s “Naked Truth: Approaches to the Body in Early Twentieth-Century German-Austrian Art” and not think of “Degenerate Art,” the notorious 1937 Munich exhibit devised by Hitler. Of the 15 artists represented in the Middlebury exhibit, eight were deemed creators of degenerate art by…
Chef Adam Raftery Opens Copper Grouse in Manchester
Northern Vermonters know Adam Raftery as the chef behind South Burlington’s Wooden Spoon Bistro and Burlington’s St. Paul Street Gastrogrub. He still owns those restaurants with sister Liza O’Brien, as well as food cart the Front Yard.* But Raftery hasn’t cooked at his eateries since the summer; he’s busy preparing for a new venture. In…
I’m a Christian Falling in Love With a Non-Believer
Dear Athena, I’m a really religious Christian, and I always thought I would be with another Christian when I fell in love. But now I am falling in love with someone who doesn’t believe in God at all. I don’t know what to do. I mean, I love her. I know I do. She might…
Crop Bistro Transitions to Idletyme Brewing Co.
When Michael’s on the Hill owners Laura and Michael Kloeti took over Stowe’s Crop Bistro & Brewery in May, Laura told Seven Days that changes would come slowly. After installing a new chef — Michael’s alum Jason Bissell — and a new menu, the owners took their time fine-tuning softer factors such as staffing, service style and…
Letters to the Editor (11/4/15)
Fighting F-35s [Re “Mitzvot Accomplished,” October 14]: Your article on Rabbi Chasan and his leadership of Ohavi Zedek Synagogue mentioned the 2013 open letter to U.S. senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, Congressman Peter Welch, and Gov. Peter Shumlin, in which Chasan and 15 other area clergy and religious leaders expressed concern over the proposed…
A Seven Days Editor Confesses his Oft-Taboo Passion
Originally published November 7, 2007 I must have been 8 or 9 years old when my father bought me my first Daisy BB gun. Just holding it made me feel trusted, and more grown-up. Initially, I’d come home from school and spend the evening after dinner in our cellar. Lying prone, plugging a cardboard box…
Beloved Auto Repairman Pat McCaffrey Passes the Wrench
When Pat McCaffrey was a boy growing up in South Burlington, he used to go with his father on Saturdays to the local gas stations, where the guys gathered to chew the fat. They would save the soda bottle caps for young Pat, who played with them like a cheap version of Legos. But mostly,…
New Pizzeria the Barnyard to Open in South Burlington
After lying fallow since Vermont SportsGrill abruptly closed this past August, the space at 1705 Williston Road will spring to life later this fall, when local restaurant impresarios Ann Michael and Peter, Paul and Sam Handy turn the place into a barnyard. Well, not literally. The restaurant will be called the Barnyard, and animals (many…
A First-Time Drug Offender Gets 10 Years. Is It Racism?
When Shamel Alexander was arrested in Bennington in 2013, he had almost a half ounce of heroin but no criminal record, gang ties or history of violent behavior. His Brooklyn family was supportive, and prison officials had deemed the 25-year-old African American man to be at low risk of reoffending. Had he been charged in…
Free Will Astrology (11/4/15)
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Is it possible to express a benevolent form of vanity? I say yes. In the coming weeks, your boasts may be quite lyrical and therapeutic. They may even uplift and motivate those who hear them. Acts of self-aggrandizement that would normally cast long shadows might instead produce generous results. That’s why…
Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project Traces American Music
The single most important and transformative figure in 20th-century American music is arguably not a musician at all. Sure, a case could be made for the likes of Bob Dylan, Hank Williams or James Brown. But without the work of the prodigious folklorist, ethnomusicologist and archivist Alan Lomax (1915-2002), we might never have known the…
Charlie Hunter’s Roots on the Rails
Charlie Hunter has a thing for trains. The Vermont painter — not to be confused with the famed jazz musician of the same name — curated a locomotive-centric art exhibit that recently opened at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center titled “Boxcars: Railroad Imagery in Contemporary Realism.” Train imagery has a way of showing up…
Knife Makers Nick Anger and Moriah Cowles Make the Cut
Art, nature and culinary passion unite in the work of artisanal knife makers Nick Anger and Moriah Cowles. Both forge carbon steel blades by hand, one at a time, and affix them to elegant wood handles. Anger (pronounced ahn-jay), of Anger Knives, works in a garage behind a Main Street art-supply store in downtown Johnson.…
Book Review: The Hummingbird by Stephen P. Kiernan
Stephen P. Kiernan’s new novel is fashioned of three distinct stories, like three circles in a Venn diagram with the narrator in the overlap. Deborah Birch is a hospice nurse caring vigilantly for a patient in the last stages of dying, a retired-in-disgrace history professor named Barclay Reed. Reed’s never-published final manuscript, which Deborah reads…
Disunion: Power Struggle at State Workers Union Threatens Boss’ Job
For months, the union representing state workers has been battling Gov. Peter Shumlin’s administration over a new two-year contract. Next winter, when legislators return to Montpelier — and face an eight-figure budget hole — they’ll surely consider cutting state jobs, as they did last session. So what’s the Vermont State Employees’ Association doing to protect its…
A Former Blue Man Takes New Role: College Professor
Actor, director, improv artist and cartoonist Isaac Littlejohn Eddy has put away his makeup and bald cap — at least for now. Originally from Randolph, the 36-year-old Renaissance man left Brooklyn to become a visiting professor at Johnson State College, where he teaches Acting I and a class on interpreting contemporary dramatic literature. Before JSC,…
Full Sun Company Serves Up Non-GMO Oil
Netaka White eyes a field of sun-withered sunflowers rustling in a stiff autumn wind. Even before a harvester mows down the seven-acre crop in Addison, he knows that the yield, which is destined for producing sunflower oil, will be underwhelming. The seeds were planted later than expected owing to a very wet spring, which was…
Photographer Peter Miller Becomes Airbnb Host
Photographer and writer Peter Miller has a unique press badge pinned to the hallway bulletin board in his 1850s former farmhouse in Waterbury — the town he prefers to call Colbyville. Handwritten in Sharpie on notepad paper, it reads, “Press: Peter Miller, Official Photographer, Woodchuck Times.” Beside the badge hangs a 2009 Bread and Puppet…
Doctor Yes: Vermont Improvises to Attract Physicians
Three days a week, Dr. Brent White mends hernias, removes gallbladders, slices out sections of bowel and excises skin lesions at Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center, a 35-bed facility on a hillside outside of Windsor. The 41-year-old general surgeon is an increasingly rare breed in medicine, one who eschewed a surgical subspecialty in favor…
Mystery Points, Mystery Points
(State & Main Records, cassette, digital download) Vermont, say hello to Mystery Points. Now, say goodbye to Mystery Points. The Montpelier band recently released its self-titled debut record on the capital city’s State & Main Records. But according to an email from bassist Jeff Thomson, they’ve just as recently broken up owing to some interpersonal…
Bernie Sanders Tries Out New Style in N.H.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was partway through his 45-minute stump speech in front of an overflow crowd at the Warner Town Hall in New Hampshire on Saturday when three kids in Halloween costumes came trooping in with their parents and slipped into seats that had hurriedly been vacated for them. A short time later, the…
Amelia Devoid, Wand
(Como Tapes, cassette) Como Tapes is a newly local microlabel that exclusively releases music on cassette tapes. The imprint is sort of a spiritual cousin to another local tape label, NNA Tapes, which similarly specializes in obscure and experimental music. Dating back to its 2014 origins in New Jersey, Como Tapes boasts a small but…
Burnt
The silver linings have been getting fewer and farther between for Bradley Cooper. At first glance, his career might appear to be in great shape. How many actors, after all, can claim Oscar nominations every year since 2012? Many felt he deserved to win last year for his powerful turn in American Sniper. I did.…
Smooth Sailing for Full Cleveland’s Yacht Rock Residency
Seated at the picnic tables outside Winooski’s Monkey House, three members of the Full Cleveland shivered a little as they gabbed over beers with Seven Days. It was warm enough in late October to sit outside, but just barely. The imminent winter doesn’t daunt these musicians, though. Their world is warmed by a gentle ocean…
Our Brand is Crisis
An optimist might go to Our Brand Is Crisis expecting a “Veep” or Primary Colors starring Sandra Bullock — a clever, pitch-dark adult comedy about the machinations of political spin doctors. That optimist would be disappointed to find a tepid movie, short on comedy of any kind, that isn’t sure whether it wants to be…
Soundbites: Radio Bean Turns 15
Full of Beans It’s kind of hard to believe, but Radio Bean turns 15 this weekend. That’s a significant milestone, especially for a joint that was perilously close to going under as recently as its 10th anniversary. So I’ve been thinking a lot about the Bean in recent days, about just how the hell 15…
NEK Teens Who Stutter Make Connections
Sam King felt paralyzed. His heart was pounding so hard, the junior at Lake Region Union High School in Barton thought he was going to pass out in his psychology class. Sam and two of his classmates had to put on a skit. He had practiced saying his lines during rehearsals: “I’m in class. I…
