Apr 28 – May 4, 2021
Trans Inmates Say They Face Mistreatment, Insults and Worse in Vermont’s Prisons; Essex Junction Plans to Break From the Town of Essex; New Vergennes Laundry Proprietor Builds on a Sweet Legacy
Cover Story
Vermont Has Endangered Transgender Prisoners. Change Is Coming — but Is It Enough?
For Jasmine Klein, life in Vermont’s prisons has been a punishment beyond her sentence. Last November, Klein, a transgender woman, was transferred to Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, the state’s only prison for women, from Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, a men’s prison in Mississippi, where Vermont sends some 170 members of its incarcerated population. In Tallahatchie,…
Obituary: Maurice Dickey Drysdale, 1944-2021
Editor/publisher emeritus led the White River Valley Herald for 44 years
Obituary: Andrea Lisle Miller, 1949-2021
Vermont woman dedicated herself to a life of nonprofit work and creativity
Obituary: Charlotte Ely MacLeay, 1949-2021
Former childbirth educator played a role in the births of hundred of central Vermont babies
Humane Society’s Rat Babies Steal Hearts Across the Web
It’s a tale as old as time: Polly shared a cage with Tony because their previous owner thought Polly was a boy. Eleven babies later, it became clear this was a mistake. Polly, a rat, gave birth earlier this month at the Humane Society of Chittenden County, where her unexpected journey to motherhood has made…
Is There a Market for Someone Who Doesn’t Want Sex?
Dear Reverend, I plan on divorcing my husband in two years when my youngest is 18. I haven’t had sex in more than 10 years and don’t know if I ever want to again. I miss intimacy — the hugging and knowing someone has your back — but I don’t miss the real physical stuff.…
After Failed Merger Votes, Essex Junction Plans to Break From the Town of Essex
They spent years trying to make it work. They even moved in together, so to speak, sharing staff and consolidating departments in hopes that it would confirm their compatibility. But some relationships aren’t meant to be, and after a messy, century-plus entanglement, the Town of Essex and the Village of Essex Junction are heading toward a…
Rites of Passage Can Be Deadly in the Creepy Danish TV Drama ‘Equinox’
Our streaming entertainment options are overwhelming — and not always easy to sort through. Recently, I was telling a friend about the interesting Danish high school graduation customs documented in 2021 Oscar winner Another Round. (Oral exams on philosophy! Very drunk kids in nautical-looking caps boarding a party bus, accompanied by their equally drunk teachers!)…
Bottom Line: Kaden Apparel Outfits Women for Mountain Biking as More and More Hit the Trail
Chelsea Camarata, the 33-year-old founder and owner of Kaden Apparel in Burlington, didn’t have much sewing experience before she launched her own women’s athletic company in 2017. As a high schooler in her hometown of Saugerties, N.Y., she’d taken a home economics class and made a teddy bear. She also attended a two-day fashion design…
WTF: What’s Happening to Founders Hall at Saint Michael’s College?
April marks the official start of crane season — not the spindly legged water birds but the long-necked construction equipment. Drivers passing Saint Michael’s College in Colchester may have noticed the flock that recently took up residence inside a chain-link fence that now surrounds Founders Hall, the brick behemoth at the corner of Route 15…
Letters to the Editor (4/28/21)
Take a Bow, Jordan It may not be possible to sufficiently praise Jordan Adams for his composition of [Soundbites: “The Seven Rules of Concert Etiquette,” April 7]. It’s a shame it took a pandemic to crystallize these fundamental precepts of good manners, empathy and common sense, but no matter: The piece deserves a permanent place…
Art Review: Tony Shull, Sequoia Salon
It’s a show nearly everyone in Burlington has seen, though not heard: “Phish Concert,” a mural on the North Street side of Nunyuns Bakery & Café, epitomizes a long, strange trip. Motley pilgrims walk, crawl or ride a chicken on a magenta-hued road toward a distant stage. One of the phans is a creature whose…
Book Review: ‘Hour of the Witch’ by Chris Bohjalian
In a March 2021 speech, Michigan Republican Party chair Ron Weiser flung a well-worn insult at Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel. He referred to the trio of powerful Democratic women as “those three witches” who should be “ready for the burning at the stake.” Centuries after…
Some Vermont Businesses Didn’t Need Pandemic Aid They Received, State Auditor Says
There are two kinds of money around the Vermont Statehouse: state and federal. State money is always in short supply. Do we spend it on the University of Vermont and the state colleges, raises for underpaid workers at our mental health agencies, or public assistance for people with disabilities? Do we set it aside for…
Vermont Songwriter Bow Thayer Grapples With Death and Change on ‘The Zen of Snug’
Gloomy weather is hardly abnormal for early spring in Vermont. But on a recent gray, rainy Monday, as fog moved around the hills like smoke, Bow Thayer was feeling the mud-season lethargy as he waited for the sun to emerge. “It’s so dull out there today,” Thayer said by phone as we both stared at…
Free Will Astrology (4/28/21)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In her poem “Mirror,” Taurus poet Halina Powiatowska wrote, “I am dazed by the beauty of my body.” I applaud her brazen admiration and love for her most valuable possession. I wish more of us could genuinely feel that same adoration for our own bodies. And in accordance with current astrological…
Book Review: ‘The Oriole & the Ovenbird’ by Angela Patten
Vermont poet Cora Brooks (1941-2018) would sometimes begin her public readings with a one-line poem: “Forgive these words they are not birds.” While ruing the meagerness of human artifice compared with nature’s wonders, in a quietly melodic way Brooks was also offering a bit of birdsong of her own — not only an apology but…
Black Fly, ‘Black Fly 01’
(Samedi Records, digital) Mood and aesthetics are especially important considerations for young new artists trying to find their audience. And since 21st-century singer-songwriters are expected to be sentient PR campaigns, catering to potential listeners with a never-ending torrent of content, the sights that accompany the sounds are a huge part of the package. I suppose…
GlobalFoundries Asks to Leave Green Mountain Power to Form Its Own Utility
GlobalFoundries, the Essex Junction-based semiconductor manufacturer, paid a whopping $36 million power bill last year. “We are an energy hog,” acknowledges Greg Rieder, a top manager at the former IBM chip fabrication facility, which has 2,189 workers and is the largest private employer in Vermont. The sprawling plant, located on a bend in the Winooski…
Idiolect, ‘Subterfuge’
(Equal Eyes Records, digital) The strength of a local music scene isn’t just about quality. Stylistic diversity is equally important. By that measure, Vermont is doing great. In the past year, we’ve seen the spaced-out future funk of Real Ova Deceit and the ambitious psychedelia of Northeast Kingdom rap crew Tiger Fire Company No. 1.…
From the Publisher: Team Spirit
Every year we ask our readers to pick the Daysies — the best of everything under the sun in Vermont, from murals to mountaintops, barbershops to beer. Nearly 25,000 souls participate in the process, which consists of two rounds of public voting and, on our end, deciphering and tallying. Our writers report the results in…
Obituary: Senan E. “Pepper” Sweeney, 1938-2021
Avid skier instructed at Smugglers’ Notch for more than three decades
Golden Rule Mead Stands Out With its Modern Versions of an Ancient Brew
Golden Rule Mead’s tasting room on Elm Street in Middlebury couldn’t be in a much better place. Addison County has long been the hive of beekeeping activity in Vermont. In their 2020 book The Land of Milk & Honey: A History of Beekeeping in Vermont, Bill Mares and Ross Conrad note that the state’s very…
New Vergennes Laundry Proprietor Nadia Dole Builds on a Sweet Legacy
In January, Nadia Dole relaunched Vergennes Laundry, the 10-year-old Main Street bakery and café she bought in the fall of 2020. She had deep-cleaned, repainted and installed new shelving. She had opened up the work space in front of the floor-to-ceiling wood-fired oven and added a 5-by-6-foot black walnut baking table on wheels. Dole had…
Longtime Stowe Restaurateur Jack Pickett Lands Big Fish
After more than 40 years in the Stowe dining scene, Jack Pickett has announced he will launch a new restaurant, Big Fish, in the Commodores Inn at 823 South Main Street. Pickett is currently doing a complete renovation and hopes to open in June, he said. The location was formerly the Lighthouse Bar & Grill.…
Service Industry Pros Move to Burlington to Open Bar Called Good Trouble
Update: Since this article was published, the owners decided to change the name of their new bar to the Wallflower Collective. Buying a bar during a global pandemic is a gamble. Buying a bar across the country? “Basically, we’re crazy,” Lauren McKenzie said. But that’s what McKenzie, 33, and her husband, Matt Simpson, 30, have…
The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, April 28 to May 4
Homecoming Concert Friday 30 After seven months abroad, Burlington singer-songwriter Francesca Blanchard is back in the Green Mountain State and ready to play. The indie-pop musician joins members of the Vermont Quarantine Collective on the University of Vermont Recital Hall stage for a livestreamed UVM Lane Series concert. Fans can expect songs from Blanchard’s 2020…
