Nov 24-30, 2021
A New Food Waste Disposal Method Raises Fears That Microplastics Will Taint Fields; Relaxing Vermont’s PCB Guidance for Schools Angers Burlington Parents; ‘Winter Lights’ at Shelburne Museum Is a Holiday Spectacle
Cover Story
Market to Farm: A New Food Waste Disposal Method Raises Fears That Microplastics Will Taint Fields
Hundreds of pints of spoiled Ben & Jerry’s ice cream awaited their fate in a Williston warehouse this month. Unfit for sale, the sweet rejects from the company’s factories would be scooped up by a worker driving a payloader and tipped with a crash into a filthy metal hopper. Augers would funnel the mess to…
Obituary: Gary Roitman, 1945-2021
Montréal-born businessman was a one-of-a-kind listener known for his dry wit and heartfelt advice
Obituary: Ursula Carney Langfeldt, 1947-2021
Elementary school nurse improved the lives of countless children and raised her own in a household full of love and laughter
Clean: ‘Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired’ (11/29/21)
Floorboards creaked underneath my feet as I stumbled toward my kitchen in a groggy daze. I was three years sober, and I had recently returned from a trip to the West Coast. I had stayed up all night before my early morning cross-country flight, and the turbulence and noise had made it impossible for me…
Obituary: Robert Hudson, 1943-2021
Financial planner and Air Force veteran enjoyed retirement at his lakefront home in the Northeast Kingdom
Art Review: Bradley Borthwick’s Mixed-Media Installation Presents Relics — or Portents — of Rise and Decline
Bradley Borthwick’s exhibition “Objects of Empire” conveys much more than first meets the eye. In the second-floor gallery of Burlington’s BCA Center, warm spotlights focus on two rather austere installations. The lighting is otherwise dim, lending the smallish room a secret-chamber sense of intimacy. To the left, an amphora nearly four feet long emerges half-carved…
Burlington’s Slow Process Reimagines Menswear
It started with a button-down shirt. Sam Zollman, a freshly minted Tufts University graduate from Brandon, didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. He saw himself as some kind of artist, but he hadn’t chosen a medium. He’d always liked fashion as a means of expression, so he decided to learn to…
Free Will Astrology (11/24/21)
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Poet Renée Ashley describes what she’s attracted to: “I’m drawn to what flutters nebulously at the edges, at the corner of my eye — just outside my certain sight. I want to share in what I am routinely denied or only suspect exists. I long for a glimpse of what is…
Private Auction Of Storage Unit Contents
Sarah Ellwood, last known address of 36 Charity Street Burlington, VT 05408 has a past due balance of $1,405.00 owed to Champlain Valley Self Storage, LLC since 4/19/21. To cover this debt, per lease dated 7/15/20 the contents of unit #995 will be sold at private auction on, or after November 28, 2021. Auction pre-registration…
Parents Who Wanted Burlington High School Open Feel Vindicated by New PCB Guidance
After Burlington High School closed in September 2020 because PCB contamination was detected inside, some concerned parents banded together to create a group called Open BHS. The members — a University of Vermont professor, a data scientist and a financial adviser among them — lobbied the school district and state officials to reopen the campus.…
Milton Residents Help Feed Their Neighbors for the Holiday
The halls of the Milton Family Community Center were filled last week with bags packed with ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner: cranberry sauce, stuffing, potatoes, biscuit mix, gravy and vegetables. The nonprofit center, which houses childcare programs and a food shelf, provides Thanksgiving dinner to local families each year. Food is donated by neighbors, students, the…
From the Publisher: Thanks for Everything
It’s unsettling to be on the hook for half a million dollars. I can say as much after Seven Days received two federal Paycheck Protection Program loans for that amount since the start of the pandemic. Adding to the anxiety: No one at our bank, which distributed the funds for the U.S. Small Business Administration,…
Letters to the Editor (11/24/21)
Ski Season Not So ‘Dismal’ I was surprised by the headline “After a Dismal 2020-21 Season, Ski Areas Report Strong Early Sales” [November 10]. Based on my 20 years of experience with the Vermont ski industry, “dismal” is not a word I would use to describe last season. If Vermont skier days were down by…
Shutdown of Several Vermont Sober Houses Leaves Residents in the Lurch
For residents trying to stay sober at Phoenix House, a family of group homes in Vermont, the arrival of Thanksgiving this year brings little respite. Two days afterward, many will be homeless. On November 4, the 14 or so male residents at the Elmwood Avenue location in Burlington gathered for a meeting, where on-site staff…
Emily Mortimer’s ‘The Pursuit of Love’ Brings Irreverent New Life to a Classic
To get in the seasonal spirit, I watched a series about a dysfunctional family of British aristocrats who know how to throw a holiday party — if you’re up for hunting, awkward dancing and wearing paper crowns to dinner. No, not the royals, but the Radletts of Alconleigh, the fictional focus of Nancy Mitford’s 1945…
Showtimes: November 24-30
new in theaters BELFAST: Kenneth Branagh wrote and directed this semi-autobiographical film about coming of age in the turbulent Northern Ireland of the 1960s. With Jude Hill, Caitriona Balfe and Judi Dench. (98 min, PG-13. Essex, Roxy, Savoy) ENCANTO: A young girl living in a charmed Colombian enclave sets out to discover her own magical…
In Disconnecting From Facebook, Vermont’s Retreat Farm Hopes to Inspire Others
When the tiny Retreat Farm nonprofit announced last month that it would stop posting updates on Facebook and Instagram, the news set off some soul-searching among its Vermont peers. The organization, a community and educational center on a 650-acre farm in Brattleboro, said Facebook’s damaging effect on community conversations and public events runs counter to…
My Family Goes Big at the Holidays, but I’m Broke
Dear Reverend, This year has been tough for me financially. My family tends to go a little overboard with holiday gifts, but I really can’t swing much this time around. How can I bow out without seeming like a Scrooge? Frosty Wallet (male, 31) Dear Frosty Wallet, Lots of people are in the same sleigh…
WTF: How Does the DMV Decide If a Vanity Plate Is Too Rude for the Road?
Vermont may be famous for two of its sweetest products — maple syrup and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream — but Vermonters can also be quite salty. In the state archives, no document is likely to be more infused with sex, drugs, violence, racism and vulgarity than the Department of Motor Vehicles’ master list of…
Soundbites: Alex Toth Talks Death, New Father Figuer Single
It’s been a long, winding trip since the days of gigging across Burlington for Alex Toth. The University of Vermont grad went from playing funk in John Brown’s Body and jazz with the Lazybirds to forming art-pop act Rubblebucket and later collaborating with artists such as Kimbra and Cuddle Magic. Though Toth and his Rubblebucket…
Poverty Line, ‘Post Soviet Aggression (HT059)’
(Histamine Tapes, cassette, digital) I was about 15 seconds into listening to experimental artist Poverty Line’s latest release when I remembered how Manuel Noriega was captured in 1990. Anybody else recall that? It was weird. The Panamanian military leader had taken refuge from invading American forces at the Apostolic Nunciature to the United States, a…
Eric Bushey, ‘Been There a Long, Long Time’
(self-released, CD, digital) Death, God and home. It’s hard to find three stronger themes in folk music, and Eric Bushey leans into each of them on his debut album, Been There a Long, Long Time. The 11 tracks of fiddle- and banjo-heavy bluegrass and country stompers find Bushey contemplating the meaning of loss and acceptance…
Ones to Watch: The Stars of Kids VT’s Spectacular Spectacular 2021 on WCAX
The kids and teens in Kids VT’s 2021 Spectacular Spectacular talent show have big dreams. Some of the young performers in the production put on by Seven Days’ parenting publication told us that, in 10 years, they see themselves training for the Olympics, starring in a Broadway show or playing music in front of large…
Friendly Skies: A Chance Encounter With Afghan Refugees Arriving in Vermont
James Buck has a knack for being in the right place at the right time — an important trait for a freelance photojournalist. Last Thursday, Buck, a frequent Seven Days contributor, was at it again, this time as he returned home from a Florida vacation. As he boarded a flight to BTV in Charlotte, N.C.,…
‘Winter Lights’ at Shelburne Museum Is a Holiday Spectacle
At 220 feet long, the Ticonderoga is the Shelburne Museum’s central feature. Afloat on Lake Champlain for the first half of the 20th century, the imposing steamboat was moved to its current, landlocked home in 1955. Since then, it’s lived out its days in a grassy gully. But now, as part of the museum’s holiday…
Book Review: ‘I Am Not Who You Think I Am,’ Eric Rickstad
When Wayland Maynard is 8 years old, he comes home from school early with a stomachache and finds his dad sitting in the bedroom with a shotgun, his back to his son. One terrifying blast later, Wayland is fatherless. The only clue to his father’s state of mind is a note the boy finds on…
Time-Saving Small Pleasures to Help You Hack Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving dinner is by far my favorite meal to cook. Putting aside the colonialist myths attached to the holiday (or tackling them head-on in heated conversations with family members, depending on how much wine I’ve had), I look forward to the combo of turkey, root vegetables, cranberries and stuffing all year. I approach the challenge…
Burlington Beer Opens Taproom-Restaurant in Its Namesake City
Everything about Burlington Beer’s new South End taproom and restaurant is big. The massive, historic, 14,000-square-foot space has thick brick walls, high ceilings and huge windows. It seats around 235 people and boasts a spacious main dining room anchored by a 46-foot bar with a row of 48 taps. Through an opening in the wall…
Novelist Thomas Christopher Greene Plans Restaurant for Landmark Montpelier Building
Hugo’s Bar & Grill will open at 118 Main Street in Montpelier in early 2022, Thomas Christopher Greene announced on social media on November 16. The author of six novels, Greene was founding president of Vermont College of Fine Arts, an office from which he stepped down after 13 years in July 2020. In a…
El Gato Cantina Pops Up for the Holidays in University Mall
El Gato Cantina will operate a pop-up in the food court of the University Mall in South Burlington for the holiday shopping season, said Tree Bertram, owner of the Mexican restaurant, which has branches in Burlington and Essex Junction. From Black Friday through the end of December, the satellite location will serve an abbreviated and…
Après Cocktail and Wine Lounge Opens Inside Mirror Mirror in Stowe
Stowe’s newest après-ski spot isn’t on the slopes; it’s tucked inside a beauty store, spa and salon. Après, a cocktail and wine lounge, opened on November 4 inside the new Stowe location of Mirror Mirror at 2038 Mountain Road. “The idea is to really tie this whole space together,” Après owner Christopher Leighton said. “You…
The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, November 23 to 30
Gobble All the Way Thursday 25 On Thanksgiving Day, runners and walkers pop the bird in the oven and head on over to the Zack’s Place Turkey Trot, a morning 5K beginning and ending at Woodstock Elementary School. Registration fees benefit Zack’s Place, a community center for folks with special needs and their neighbors, and…
