Olde Error

How in the world do you leave the Olde Northender out of your dive bar story [“We (Heart) Dives: An Uncomprehensive, Unscientific Guide to Some of Vermont’s Dankest, Dingiest, Most Beloved Bars,” September 30]? Without disparaging the Other Place, I believe I have the credentials to recognize greatness when it comes to dive bars, and the Olde Northender can hold its own with any dive bar. Additionally, it has a much better dive bar location than the OP. Is your bias showing that you could not have two from Burlington, even though the population would support two?

Team Effort

Thanks to Alice Dodge and Seven Days for the incredible cover story on Art at the Kent [“Art at a Crossroads: After 19 Years and 20 Shows, Art at the Kent in Calais Faces an Uncertain Future,” September 23]. As with any big event, ours is dependent on the dedicated help of countless neighbors, friends, family and board members to make the magic happen each year.

In addition to a huge group of wonderful volunteer docents, we especially want to give a shout-out to Neha Shukla, who organizes our events and celebrations; Roni Coleman, who deftly manages the chaos that is our shop and greeting area; and Mary Hanrahan, who tirelessly makes sure that Kent posters find a home in stores, libraries and galleries from Brattleboro to the Canadian border.

The number of individuals who buy, cook and serve food; play music; put up parking signs; move tables; share their expertise; and bring us a meal when we are about to fall over is too lengthy to detail. Suffice it to say that we are darned lucky to live where we do and to have the friends and colleagues that we have.

Pope Takes On AI

[Re Kids VT: “Machine Learning: How Are Vermont Educators Approaching AI? Cautiously,” August 18]: As schools debate whether and to what extent they should incorporate AI into their curricula and classrooms, they would do well to consider the findings of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology report that warns AI is causing “cognitive surrender.”

These and other concerns are raised by Pope Leo XIV in his first encyclical, “Magnificent Humanity: Safeguarding the Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.” The pope has made concern for human life and the ethical and moral implications of AI development the central question of debate.

Leo’s call is having a ripple effect around the world, adding a deeper dimension and a degree of legitimacy to the concerns about the power and reach of our technology. It remains relevant whether or not the tech industry is intentionally overstating the threat of AI.

A presentation by a panel of scholars and educators from Saint Michael’s College and the University of Vermont will explore the implications of the encyclical at the parish hall of St. Augustine Catholic Church in Montpelier on Friday, October 16, at 6:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

AI Is Our Future

[Re From the Deputy Publisher” “Only Human,” August 19]: As a young teen, I saw a movie in the late ’60s in which Russian and American nuclear weapons’ computers linked and gave humanity the ultimatum to disarm or go boom-boom. Hopefully, our computers are programmed to be as benevolent.

Also, I saw the famous “Daisy” commercial during the 1964 presidential election. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six…” the countdown droned. “He loves me; he loves me not…” said the little girl picking petals from the flower.

Yeah, maybe a tad too dystopian, but ’tis the world in which we exist.

Not So ‘Fun Stuff’

Reading “Fun Stuff” [September 9] did not make me smile but made me rather angry. It seems you are supporting hate and division to allow Keith Knight’s “The K Chronicles” to be printed in your paper. It supports division and gutter politics. It appeals to closed minds that feed on negativity.

This cartoon features Dolly Parton and President Donald Trump, two people who each love their country. Each has contributed their time, assets and talents to the citizens of their country, as they are able. The gutter language used demeans them! It appeals to closed minds that can’t think outside of a small box!

Please balance the scales in your views so we all can be included, open minds and educate each other.

Damaging Directive

[Re “Seeking Short-Timers: Vermont’s Education Secretary Is Telling School Boards to Hire Only Interim Superintendents as Potential Mergers Loom,” September 16]: Many thanks to Alison Novak for shining a bright spotlight on why Vermont needs a secretary of education who understands how the system works here. Whether Zoie Saunders’ directive falls under her purview is debatable.

Saunders’ Agency of Education colleague, Toren Ballard, makes a laughable attempt to justify the edict by pointing to a former Vermont education secretary directing a school district to hire an interim superintendent for one year following passage of Act 46. But the executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association clarified that it “was prompted by unique circumstances in that district, as opposed to Saunders’ ‘blanket approach’ now.”

Regardless of some possible interpretation of statutes that the secretary of education has such authority, the concept is ludicrous. It would discourage qualified educators from applying — and who could blame them?

Instead of constantly adding to the already considerable challenges faced by public school directors, our education secretary should be providing them support. Are private schools being told to only offer one-year contracts to headmasters? I’m guessing not. This is blatant favoritism, as has been displayed since Saunders took the helm.

Any school receiving tax dollars must accept and provide the same services to all students, in accordance with the common benefits clause of the Vermont Constitution, and leveling that playing field should be her first order of business, for the good of all students and taxpayers of Vermont.

Spanish Lesson

[Re “Poet in Lake Eden: A New Book Explores Spanish Poet Federico García Lorca’s Secret Relationship With a Hardwick Man Nearly a Century Ago,” September 23]: Federico García Lorca remains popular in Spain, a full 90 years after his assassination by Francisco Franco’s goons. Every bookstore I visited earlier this year, during my annual walk along one of the many Caminos de Santiago, carried his books.

Sadly, the younger generation in Spain, at least those I spoke with, showed little interest in the events leading up to Lorca’s assassination.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. To commemorate the event, I wore a ball cap with the phrase “¡No pasarán!” (“They shall not pass”), the rallying cry of Spanish Republicans (Republicans in 1936 Spain were the good guys) against Franco and his fascist rebels (the bad guys).

Not one person commented on my ball cap, young or old.

For those whose world history is rusty, the bad guys won the Spanish Civil War. Generalissimo Franco was Spain’s dictator from 1939 until his death in 1975. His death was a running gag on “Saturday Night Live” that fall: “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.”

Funny as that gag was, at least to me, our current leader and Franco sure seem to be cut from the same cloth. It took Spain 39 years to return to a democracy. And that was only through the death of its dictator.

Defensive Cycling

[Re “Teen Cyclist Was in a Crosswalk Marked by Flashing Lights When Fatally Struck by Vehicle,” August 27, online]: Bicycling has a cardinal rule: “If it’s bigger than you are, get out of the way” and its corollary: “Stay out of the way.”

A helmet will help you if you are involved in a collision — this is protection, not prevention. Prevention is a reflective jersey or vest, reflectors and lights, but above all it is a wary and defensive rider. You can see a lot of carelessness by cyclists, myself included.

Is it a crosswalk or a crossride? Why not cross as a pedestrian? Get off the bike, wait to see that traffic has stopped, make eye contact with the driver, smile and wave as you cross.

Either the driver or the rider could have averted this accident. If the driver’s preventive measures are inadequate, will yours be able to compensate?

My thoughts go out to both of the victims and their families.

‘Tactless’ Tariffs

[Re “Vermont Creemee Supply Disrupted by Immigration Enforcement,” September 8, online]:

First our creemees, now our cheese
Vermont’s economy is on its knees
We need to fix them, if you please
Those foolish national policies

Exorbitant tariffs and deportation
Will spell the ruin of our nation
As daily change the expectations
Our businesses are losing patience

Jasper Hill sends cheese artisanal
Full of flavor at a price that’s reasonable
Into competitive markets local and global
For them the tariffs spell lots of trouble

The finest Camembert this side of France
Cheese so tasty it’ll make you dance
They had the world cheese market in a trance
Till tariffs ruined their advance

To buy or sell the price is obscene
A cheese once ten dollars now costs fifteen
And it’s not just dairy but wood and machines
Vermont can’t compete on the global scene

A maple syrup tax of fifty percent
Doth in our exports put quite a dent
So many euros less are spent
On the liquid sugar that we have sent

“If these tariffs stay active, we’ll not have a business,”
So testified a worried Vermonter witness
To the world’s big markets we won’t have access
All because of these tariffs tactless.

Correction

A story in last week’s paper, “Cashing Out: A Burlington Police Lieutenant Resigned After a Series of Investigations, Including Into His Overtime Pay,” mischaracterized Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak’s approach to funding the Burlington Police Department. The department has seen some small funding reductions during her tenure.

This article appears in October 7 • 2026.