Will Raap has questions. “I’m gonna sorta use the Socratic method,” he began, sitting in a conference room deep in a barn at Charlotte’s former Nordic Farm. “Oh, shit,” responded Shelburne-based investment adviser Frank Koster with a grin. “This is a failed dairy,” Raap said energetically, a shock of white hair flopping above pale blue-gray…
A Seattle judge has denied White River Junction-based publisher Chelsea Green’s request to compel Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to retract a letter that cited one of its books as a source of COVID-19 misinformation. In September, Warren called on Amazon executives to modify the site’s algorithms to limit the visibility of books that the senator…
A new research project from Ben & Jerry’s aims to cut dairy farm greenhouse gas emissions to half of the industry average by 2024. The Vermont-based ice cream maker is launching the project this year at 15 of the dairy farms that supply its milk. Seven are in Vermont, and eight are in the Netherlands.…
The rustling sounds of tree branches outside my window tickled my eardrums as I woke from a restful slumber. I was three years sober, and it was a beautiful, sunny spring day in southern Vermont. I walked toward the kitchen and saw my girlfriend drying off a massive salad bowl. She placed the bowl down…
Musician and librarian loved movies, games, driving and photography
Shelburne woman was the oldest person to have received admission to a Missouri law school, at age 60
Gov. Phil Scott on Friday vetoed H.715, a bill that was designed to reduce fossil fuel heating emissions through a “clean heat standard.” In his veto message, the governor repeated his concerns that the bill places too much of the responsibility for the standard in the hands of the Public Utilities Commission without proper oversight…
Well, that was quick. Less than 24 hours after Attorney General T.J. Donovan’s surprise announcement that he won’t seek reelection, the race to replace him is on: Rory Thibault, the state’s attorney in Washington County, says he is running as a Democrat for the statewide office. Thibault, 39, declared his candidacy at a press conference…
Mother of four was a tomboy, tree climber and reader who was truly a member of the Greatest Generation
Longtime North Avenue Co-op resident worked for the Vermont Army National Guard for 20 years
Burlington-born man left a mark on the world of someone well beyond his 27 years
The Smuggler’s Notch resort will soon offer free childcare and camp slots for its workers’ children in a bid to attract more job applicants. The resort’s childcare program has space for 70 children. But it has had to limit its enrollment to just 22 because the resort can’t find enough childcare workers, said Harley Johnson, director…
A joint funeral service for Ursula and John Langfeldt, who passed away on November 18 and December 3, 2021, respectively, will be held on Saturday, May 14, 11 a.m., at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Middlebury. Following the service, the family will be hosting an open reception for family, friends and community members who wish…
Megan Mayhew Bergman is more than one kind of writer. Author of three collections of short fiction, including the new How Strange a Season, she has also been a regular columnist for the British newspaper the Guardian, reporting on the climate emergency and our country’s fractious contemporary culture. Mayhew Bergman was born in South Carolina…
In the run-up to the 2020 election, staff writer Chelsea Edgar got what seemed like a simple assignment: Cover the protests in Johnson that had been happening weekly since Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Once she started reporting, Edgar realized the situation was more complicated, and more interesting, than it at first appeared.…
When she took the job as Vermont’s state librarian in February, Cathy Delneo pledged to serve a uniquely Vermont institution: the state’s far-flung network of 185 public libraries. It’s a new setting for her; she spent 15 years in the San Francisco Public Library system and oversaw 27 urban branches. But Delneo, a South Burlington…
Mistee Lemons faced an impossible choice during her recovery from opioid addiction. It was 2018, and Lemons had spent almost two years making a daily three-mile pilgrimage to a methadone clinic in South Burlington, catching buses when she had money, walking when she didn’t. After several years of living in tents and motels, Lemons had…
Are men in crisis? Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson think so. The former delivered a speech in the fall of 2021 about “the left’s attack on men in America”; the latter recently released a streaming special with the histrionic title “The End of Men.” Its trailer, which was ruthlessly mocked…
The pine-green tourist train slowed in Shelburne, pulled off the main line onto a siding and came to a stop with a gentle, squeaky jerk. Word quickly spread among the passengers — including 11 members of the Vermont House Transportation Committee — that the highlight of their unusual excursion was fast approaching from the south. The state…
Love and Support As the parent of a 29-year-old transgender woman, I wake each day with concern for her safety. The murder of Fern Feather [“‘A Star-Being’: Friends Mourn Fern Feather, a Transgender Woman Killed in Morristown,” April 15] has surfaced my fears, anxieties and anger. I call on the religious and political leaders who…
The log cabin in the Marlboro hills could have been a colonial-era home. A horse named Blue, pulling a wagon to the site, looked like a timeless creature. A pile of potatoes, centuries-old sustenance, sat on the dirt ready for planting at the homestead. But sandbags held the thatch on the cabin roof in place.…
While some recent art has reveled in an ex-pandemic ethos — there’s more to life than the misery of the last two years! — the current exhibit at Susan Calza Gallery in Montpelier is a deeply felt grappling with loss, pandemic-related and otherwise. “The Matter of Loss: Holding Spaces” combines works on paper by Daryl…
Seven Days writers can’t possibly read, much less review, all the books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, an army of spring peepers. So this monthly feature is our way of introducing you to a handful of books by Vermont authors. To do that, we contextualize each…
For some, “Weird Al” Yankovic is a silly novelty, a joke that’s gone on for four decades. Those people are dumb, and their opinions are wrong. Sorry, sorry. Let’s start over. Al wouldn’t want us getting nasty. Ahem. Not everyone understands the brilliance of “Weird Al.” Perhaps that’s because his fame is largely built on…
Most of us know American writer Jack London for his adventure classic The Call of the Wild or his harrowing short story “To Build a Fire.” His 1909 autobiographical novel Martin Eden is less likely to show up on high school reading lists. Yet, in a mysterious cultural convergence, two directors of different nationalities recently…
Every now and then, the music editor’s desk gets a little too cluttered with new submissions, and Chris starts acting irrationally and lashing out at houseplants. To alleviate such outbursts, he takes a deep dive and reviews six releases from local musicians — even though he writes for a paper called Seven Days and it…
TAURUS (Apr. 20-May 20): Rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z tells us, “Don’t ever go with the flow. Instead, be the flow.” Here’s what I think he means: If we go with the flow, we adjust and accommodate ourselves to a force that is not necessarily aligned with our personal inclinations and needs. To go with the…
new in theaters DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS: Benedict Cumberbatch returns as the magic-using Marvel hero, whose life gets a lot more complicated when he opens a doorway to alternate realities. Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Benedict Wong also star. Sam Raimi directed. (126 min, PG-13. Bijou, Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Paramount, Playhouse,…
Predators have two basic methods of attack: stalk and ambush. Some choose to trail their prey for miles until the time is right to strike. Others lie in wait until an unsuspecting victim happens by. Some species prefer one strategy; others use both, depending on the circumstances. In Chris Bohjalian’s latest novel, The Lioness, both…
Dear Reverend, I’ve never been particularly promiscuous, but in my twenties, I had a summer fling with a younger guy that ended when he moved away for college. Shortly after, I had a brief encounter with one of his friends. I wound up pregnant and didn’t know who the father was. I was incredibly ashamed…
On April 1, online content creator and self-described “unwoke cult leader” Karlyn Borysenko cracked open an Imperial Peanut Butter Stout and settled in for her Friday-night happy hour. In these weekly virtual gatherings, streamed on YouTube to nearly 14,000 subscribers, Borysenko shares recordings of equity-focused workshops and trainings, providing barbed play-by-play commentary. Borysenko, who lives…
Common Roots executive director Carol McQuillen strives to impart many lessons: Eat organic foods, increase everyone’s access to them and take good care of the soil. But the lesson on which intern Ziheng Wang is focusing at the moment is decidedly more basic. The 22-year-old University of Vermont senior slips a round pizza peel under…
Food waste and climate change are global problems that people worldwide are working to solve. On World Disco Soup Day, thousands of them add fun to the proverbial pot. Nick Gambill of Salvation Suppers has teamed up with Slow Food Vermont and Salvation Farms to host Vermont’s World Disco Soup Day this Saturday, May 7.…
When Bogdan Andreescu, owner of Jr’s Original in Winooski, opened Jr’s Williston in October 2021, he told Seven Days, “I’m just that crazy kind of guy who needs projects all the time.” Less than a year later, he’s working on another one: opening a sports bar beside his pizza-and-pasta spot by July 1. Though adjacent…
Jeannette Belanger had been traveling from Vermont into Canada to see family for more than 60 years when the pandemic shut things down. Blocked by rules that barred non-essential travel, Belanger, who was born in Québec but lives in the Vermont border town of Canaan, decided to wait it out. But even as the rules…
Last Dance Tuesday 10 Before his death in September, Vermont hip-hop artist and producer Johnny “JL” Morris composed the soundtrack for the short film “Fire & Ash.” Codirected by Andreas John and Hanna Satterlee, the film is a moving tribute to creation, transformation, and JL’s life and work. It premieres at Montpelier’s Savoy Theater, followed…
