Apr 17-23, 2013
From Peddling to Prosperity: How a Family of Lebanese Immigrants Built a Vermont Business Empire
Cover Story
From Peddling to Prosperity: How the Handy Clan Became a Vermont Business Empire
The bells of St. Mary’s tolled slowly as mourners poured down the steps of the red brick Catholic church on the hill above downtown St. Albans. Hundreds of people had traveled from around Vermont to say goodbye to Lawrence Handy, a prominent St. Albans businessman, civic leader, and political mover and shaker, who died April…
Seeking Teen Girls for Summer IT Institute
High school girls in grades 9 through 11, listen up: Organizers of the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont want you to attend their Information Technology Institute this summer. They’ve even got scholarship money to give you. Seriously, they really, really want you to apply. So much so that they’ve extended the application deadline until May 15 —…
The Patent Files: Mercedes Rincon
Vermont has one of the highest rates of patents per capita in the country. Every year, the state produces dozens of inventions and innovations that get certified by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The “Patent Files” is a new Tech Jam News series that profiles those inventors. Many of Vermont’s patent seekers work for…
News Quirks
Curses, Foiled Again Authorities charged Ruth C. Amen, 46, with embezzlement after she paid for a surprise birthday party for her boss. Amen had been the office manager at a real-estate company in Boca Grande, Fla., for more than 10 years, but her decision to foot the bill for the party aroused the suspicion of…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (Mar. 21-Apr. 19): The writer Oliver Burkeman has some advice that would be helpful for you Aries folks to hear right now: “When you assume your current preferences won’t alter, you’ll make bad decisions: embarking on a career or marriage, say, not with a view to its durability, but solely based on how it…
No Place Like Homei: Exceptional Asian Food Just Over the Québec Border
Gina Wou was 28 when she decided to attend the New England Culinary Institute. “That’s like being 28 and deciding to be a supermodel,” jokes the Montréal-born chef. Her gamble paid off in a rich and varied career. While at NECI, Wou saw a cookbook by Food Network host Ming Tsai at Burlington’s Crow Bookshop.…
Two Small Vermont Colleges Compete Nationally in a Solar-powered Architecture Face-off
Construction is under way at Middlebury College and Norwich University, where students are hammering their way closer to the dream of “net-zero” living. Their challenge? Design and build two 1000-square-foot homes that run entirely on the power of the sun. That’s a task handed down by the U.S. Department of Energy, the main backer of…
Eyewitness: Duncan Johnson Creates “Paintings” From Reclaimed Wood
In his West Hartford studio, Duncan Johnson has shelves stacked with painted wooden boards, reclaimed from area building projects and carefully organized by color. On any given day, he’ll pull out a bunch of them, in a variety of hues, and fan them out on his worktable. From there, said the 50-year-old artist during a…
Walk the Line: An Interview With Paul Hoffman of Greensky Bluegrass
Greensky Bluegrass, from Kalamazoo, Mich., embody a dichotomy in modern acoustic music. On paper, they are a bluegrass band, ace players wielding guitars, banjo, mandolin and Dobro. But as the pun in the band’s name suggests, that description only tells half the story. The scruffy quintet is equally comfortable playing traditional bluegrass as that genre’s…
Book Reviews: Heavenly Bodies by Cynthia Huntington, Sudden Eden by Verandah Porche
Heavenly Bodies is a recent collection of poems, and a 2012 National Book Award finalist, by Post Mills poet and Dartmouth College professor Cynthia Huntington. Much of it reckons with the repercussions and lingering effects of the upheavals of the 1960s. Huntington writes, “It is 1967 late in the empire of America / Years pass,…
Local Beers, Spirits, Wines and Ciders to Suit Spring, the Most Capricious Season
Spring is a time of uncertainty, at least when it comes to the weather. A glorious, sun-splashed day can be followed in less than 24 hours by sheets of rain, even sleet. Such is spring in the Green Mountains — and this year, its sunny side is elusive. What’s more certain is that Vermont’s brewers,…
Vermontivate Gamers Earn Points for the Planet
If children ages 3 to 7 years old in a Brattleboro daycare can change the way they dry their hands for the sake of the environment, so can you. According to Vermontivate, it’s as simple as watching a brief video on how to shake your hands 10 to 12 times after washing, then use just…
![Can/Am Con XI [307]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/episode307.webp?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1)
Can/Am Con XI [307]
4/13/13: The 11th Annual Can/Am Con (short for Canadian-American Contest) was held at Camels Hump Middle School in Richmond on Saturday – the first time it’s been held in Vermont. Model makers from across New England, NY and Canada competed for prizes and bragging rights. Music: Rick & The Ramblers Western Swing Band, What Goes…
Letters to the Editor
Senator is Sincere [Fair Game: “No Laughing Matter,” April 3] seemed to imply insincerity on my part for voting “no” on a floor amendment to the Senate campaign-finance reform bill. Far from it, my decision to vote no was based on concerns about the amendment’s implications. The proposed floor amendment erroneously invoked Citizens United as…
