Ruff Neighborhood: Barking, parking and other tails from the Starr Farm Dog Park
Mark Barlow and his family have to speak in code unless they’re actually planning to take Oscar out for unbridled adventure at that very moment. “We say ‘D.P.,’” explains the resident of Burlington’s New North End. “If we say ‘dog park,’ he gets attentive and goes to the door. I’m not sure what we’ll do…
Pour Substitute: Local sugarers concerned about price and purity organize against a not-so-sweet deal
The families flocking to Palmer’s Sugarhouse on spring weekends are assured of getting the real thing: 100 percent pure Vermont maple syrup. The sugarbush that rolls across the hills above Steve Palmer’s shop in Shelburne has been a source of the state’s signature product for the past 135 years. But thousands of other Vermonters and…
The Names of the Game
So many celebrities, so little time! My mind is simply reeling this week from all the news that’s fit to print. Never mind the intifada (which our president has called the "infitada"): No sooner was the ink dry on my last column than black America, in the form of Denzel Washington, Halle Berry and Sidney…
Farms for Arms
Paybacks are a bitch. Just ask Senator Patrick Leahy, who appears to be taking it on the chin from the Bush administration for what it believes to be the Vermont Democrat’s role in blocking and rejecting its judicial nominations. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leahy has become a lightning rod for the right…
Flick Chick
Adolescents are often dazed and confused, but 17-year-old Matthew Lazarus has a vision sharp enough to slice bread. The Essex Junction resident’s brash brio is evident when he speculates on the instant success that awaits him as a filmmaker. “I know that Suburbia Burning will make it,” says writer-director-producer Lazarus, referring to the debut feature…
The Great Escape: A new play by Dana Yeaton makes a scene with a troubled teen
When Stephen Paul Johnson showed up at a New York City audition last January to try out for the part of Roland in The Big Random, a “young girl” was holding the elevator door for him. “She turned and looked at me in a penetrating way,” he says. “I had a hunch she had already…
In the Groove: “High Societies”: Psychedelic posters at the Hood
It’s an old American story: A few hundred people gather around a handful of charismatic leaders to participate in rites they believe will open their minds, hearts and souls to a harmonious way of life, transcending the crass values around them. If enough of their neighbors join them, they believe, the nation and perhaps the…
Interesting Conflicts
A resolution to name the Burlington Boathouse after Sanders fails to gain city council support. Instead it gets kicked to a committee for further study.
