Apr 13-19, 2022
WJOY Host Ginny McGehee Serves Up Timeless AM Radio on ‘The Breakfast Table’; As Students Shed Masks, Common Illnesses Resurge in Classrooms; Pearl Street Pizza Lights Up Barre With Wood-Fired and Grandma-Style Pies
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WJOY Host Ginny McGehee Serves Up Timeless AM Radio on ‘The Breakfast Table’
Ginny McGehee stood at her microphone in the tiny, cluttered studio at WJOY-AM and searched her computer screen for the next song to play for her Friday morning listeners. The time counter showed less than 10 seconds until the end of Gale Garnett’s 1964 hit “We’ll Sing in the Sunshine,” but McGehee looked unworried. A…
Clean: ‘A Reasonable Compromise’ (4/18/22)
Birds chirped outside my window as I stared at my computer screen. I was three years sober, and I was attempting to craft the opening paragraph of a challenging article that was due the next day. As I brainstormed potential ideas for the first sentence, my front door swung open. My girlfriend had arrived at…
Birthday Remembrance: Connie Marshall, 1948-2019
We all miss and love you so much, Connie. Happy birthday in heaven. Related Stories
Obituary: Paul Adams, 1942-2022
South Burlington resident was an accomplished creator and visionary
Obituary: Mary Louise Langdell, 1937-2022
Avid gardener loved traveling, sports and being with her family and friends
Obituary: Thomas Barefoot, 1946-2022
Entrepreneur and activist always sought to be of service to others
Life Stories: Oda Hubbard ‘Felt Strongly About Her History’
Thousands of daffodils will bloom next month at a highway visitor center in southern Vermont. The flowers are a living memorial to people who died on 9/11. When about 35 volunteers gathered at the Guilford Welcome Center for the planting in October 2001, the question arose: How do you plant 5,000 daffodil bulbs? Phyllis Austin…
Now Playing in Theaters: April 13-19
new in theaters FANTASTIC BEASTS: SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE: The Harry Potter prequel saga continues as Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) sends Newt (Eddie Redmayne) on a mission. With Ezra Miller and Mads Mikkelsen. David Yates directed. (142 min, PG-13. Bijou, Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Paramount, Playhouse, Roxy, Star, Welden) FATHER STU: Mark Wahlberg plays a hard-living…
Are There a Lot More Dicks on Television Lately?
Dear Reverend, Am I mistaken, or are there a lot more dicks on television lately? I’m not talking about the Republican senators questioning Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Supreme Court nomination hearings; I’m talking about actual human penises. It seems as though they’re popping up on just about every show I watch these days. What…
Book Review: ‘Sanctuary, Vermont,’ Laura Budofsky Wisniewski
Bob Brown walks 13 miles from Starksboro just to court Bea, a fiery resident of Sanctuary, Vt. “After I saw her beat the rugs in Spring / I’d toss my hat in first / before entering her kitchen,” he says. Good luck trying to find Sanctuary on a map: It exists solely in the poetic…
From the Publisher: Eva’s Eye
The current episode of “Stuck in Vermont” certainly lives up to its name. To land this week’s video story, Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger pulled on a pair of muck boots and sloshed into mud season, weaving together images of vehicles negotiating foot-deep ruts and the memories of an old-timer who’s lived through…
Letters to the Editor (4/13/22)
Not So Fast, Hinesburg [“Obstruction Zone,” April 6] is informative but not wholly correct. For example, Hinesburg has not grown in two decades. Your story suggests it’s growing fast and unable to keep up with the pressure. Nothing could be further from the truth. Developers sure want to build here, but the numbers don’t support…
As Students Shed Masks, Common Childhood Illnesses Resurge in Classrooms
In school nurses’ offices around Vermont, runny noses, strep throat and stomach ailments are resurging. After two years of keeping a laser-like focus on COVID-19, school nurses report a return of perennial childhood health ailments that were likely kept at bay by masks and other measures intended to prevent COVID-19 transmission. Those face coverings have…
Soundbites: No Fun Intended Launches; the Takács Quartet Bring Ravel to Middlebury
There was a time when signing to a record label was the be-all and end-all for musicians. Those monolithic corporations were a white whale for struggling artists: both the object of obsession and, simultaneously, revulsion. Everyone knew stories of record labels screwing over artists but also understood that there was no “making it” without those…
Belly Up, ‘Haven’
(Self-released, digital) In 2017, Burlington rock band Belly Up released Loss, an EP laden with desperation and defeat. The world has only gotten more dire in the five years since and shows no signs of reversing the trend. Yet the title of the group’s new LP, Haven, indicates some sense of respite. What makes its…
The Scale Closes Essex Junction Location and Opens Commissary Kitchen
Perry Farr, co-owner of the Scale poké bar with her husband, Neil Farr, announced on March 23 that they are closing their second location in Essex Junction. Their original Williston restaurant remains open daily, with expanded delivery service to South Burlington, Richmond, Essex, Essex Junction, and parts of Burlington and Colchester. In the Scale’s former…
Notice to Creditors: Estate of Karsten Schlenter
State of Vermont Superior Court Probate Division Chittenden Unit Docket No.: 22-PR-00155 In re ESTATE of Karsten Schlenter NOTICE TO CREDITORS To the creditors of: Karsten Schlenter, late of Essex, Vermont I have been appointed to administer this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing…
Jade Relics, ‘Mandarine’
(Self-released, digital, limited-edition cassette) Jade Relics is a new name on the Vermont scene, but the trio has deep roots. Stated briefly: Rico James cofounded Vermont’s most prolific hip-hop label, Equal Eyes Records, and has produced for a dizzying roster of artists, locally and abroad. Elder Orange is the production pseudonym of Matthew Scott, a…
Vermont Students and Their Robots Are Headed to Compete in Texas
Sometimes coming in second is just as good as first. That’s the lesson South Burlington High School’s eight-member robotics team, Batteries Not Included, learned during last month’s FIRST Tech Challenge state championships. The program enlists teams worldwide to build and program robots to complete a series of tasks. In this year’s challenge, “Freight Frenzy,” students…
A New Sculpture by Stowe Artist Christopher Curtis Goes the Distance
Stowe artist Christopher Curtis is best known for the hundreds of sculptures he’s carved from boulders for nearly half a century. Unearthed from Vermont fields, they’re impressive for heft alone. But what intrigues Curtis most, he says, are the myriad characteristics of stone created over unfathomable millions of years. In many of his works, the…
Whole-Botanical Perfume Business Ondine Blooms in Montpelier
Paul Boffa never expected his newest vocation to draw on his skills as a lifelong musician and homesteader. The guitarist, vocalist and composer has written about 100 folk-rock and children’s songs. On 33 acres just outside Montpelier, he grows vegetables and blueberries. In 2016, a fateful discovery in a New York City department store inspired…
Land of Milk v. Honey: Dairy Farmers Lobby Against Banning Pesticides That Kill Bees
Vermont’s bees are dying at unprecedented rates, and it’s not a whodunit: Study after study points to a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids as being at least partly responsible for the staggering rate of colony collapse in Vermont and around the world. And yet state lawmakers remain unwilling to address the No. 1 source…
Free Will Astrology (4/13/22)
ARIES (Mar. 21-Apr. 19): “I have lived my life according to this principle: If I’m afraid of it, then I must do it.” Aries author Erica Jong said that. Since I’m not an Aries myself, her aspiration is too strong for me to embrace. Sometimes I just don’t have the courage, willpower and boldness to…
Sensory Overload Is Only the Beginning in the Absurdist, Sweet, Thoughtful Indie ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’
I like to see weird shit on-screen. Risky blends of genres and tones. Head trips. So when I heard that the team behind Swiss Army Man had a new movie about a middle-aged Chinese American who learns she’s the only person who can save the multiverse, I left my couch. Written and directed by Dan…
Pearl Street Pizza Lights Up Barre With Wood-Fired and Grandma-Style Pies
Downtown Barre’s storefronts and stone sculptures always catch my eye on the way through town, whether I’m getting a glimpse of the old Coins & Hobbies shop promising rocketry and railroading or seeing the giant zipper as I zip by. But a new sign — and a prominent stone object — have made me stop…
Three Questions and a Move for Shy Guy Gelato Co-Owner Paul Sansone
On March 26, Shy Guy Gelato sold its final batches of gelato from its original storefront at the corner of St. Paul and Howard streets in Burlington. Die-hard fans jumped to preorder pints of honey-lavender, pistachio, peanut butter-milk chocolate chunk and s’more gelato, as well as dark chocolate and raspberry sorbet. They needed to stock…
A Trio of Food Entrepreneurs Make Good Neighbors in Burlington’s Old North End
Ameen Idris poked his head in the door of the newly relocated Mawuhi African Market at 336 North Winooski Avenue last Friday with a smile on his face. The young man had also recently moved — from Tennessee to Burlington — and was seeking familiar foods from his native Nigeria, he said. An internet search…
In Burlington, Pho Hong Owners to Expand Into Newly Purchased Space
Jade Le, daughter of Pho Hong co-owners Dao Le and Lan Hong, confirmed that her parents bought their restaurant space at 325 North Winooski Avenue in Burlington, along with the two next-door units, from Champlain Housing Trust in mid-March. The two neighboring locations, 321 and 323 North Winooski, were previously occupied by Winooski Laundry. The…
Flash Mob Dancers Bring Awareness to Parkinson’s
More than a dozen people took to Church Street in front of Burlington City Hall on Monday morning to perform a flash mob dance, some in chairs and some standing. They were students in Sara McMahon’s Movement for Parkinson’s class and their friends and families. Taiko drummers kept the beat, playing a composition called “Spare…
The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, April 13-19
Duke of Uke Friday 15 If you don’t think the ukulele has any place in bluegrass, rock or classical music, you haven’t heard Jake Shimabukuro play. The Japanese Hawaiian virtuoso, known for his unbelievably fleet-fingered fretwork and multi-genre mastery, stops by the Lebanon Opera House on his worldwide tour. Trompe L’oeil Ongoing Nothing is what…
Burlington’s Café Dim Sum to Expand Next Door and Add Shabu-Shabu
Ever since chef/co-owner Sam Lai and his wife, Li Lin, opened the tiny, 20-seat Café Dim Sum at 95 St. Paul Street in October 2021, they’ve been overwhelmed with demand for their traditional small-plates menu, which includes shu mai and chicken feet. A planned expansion into the space next door will help. After a two-month…
