Aug 29 – Sep 4, 2018
Vermont Colleges Face Declining Enrollments; Burlington Beer Makers Add to Wastewater Woes; Adult English Language Learners Go Back to High School
Cover Story
Survival of the Smartest: Vermont’s Colleges Must Adapt as Pool of Potential Students Declines
A large marble statue of St. Joseph the Provider gazes serenely over the Rutland campus of the college bearing his name. Now more than ever, the shrinking school needs the saint to conjure a miracle. With only 128 undergraduates enrolled this fall, a nearly drained endowment, back-to-back operating deficits and its accreditation at risk, the…
Obituary: Barbara Lee Silver, 1936-2018
On Sunday, August 26, Barbara Lee Silver from the Bronx, N.Y.; Framingham, Mass.; and Stratton and Colchester, Vt., passed away from a sudden illness. Known to many as “Gibby” (the nickname given by her granddaughter), Barbara was one of a kind and leaves a big hole in all our hearts: husband, Lee, of 54 years;…
The Parmelee Post: Pence Flees Vermont After Chilling Encounter With Gender-Neutral Bathroom
Vice President Mike Pence’s Vermont vacation was cut short after a harrowing restroom mishap in his Lake Hortonia vacation rental. The future president demanded his family be immediately escorted back to Washington after he discovered that the bathrooms in the charming 1865 farmhouse were not clearly designated by gender. “The vice president is absolutely livid,…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: Vermont Dems Embrace the Weed
It was only a matter of time, right? For years, cannabis acceptance has been a matter of degrees. The Vermont Democratic Party has now gone whole hog. On Sunday, the party’s platform committee changed its official stance to read that marijuana “should be legal, taxed and regulated in the interests of consumer and public safety,…
Movie Review: Gay Teens Resist Conversion Therapy in the Moving ‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’
The year is 1993. The place is God’s Promise, a Christian rehabilitation camp in the middle of a wooded Montana nowhere. The central character, played by Chloë Grace Moretz, is a 12th grader whose guardian sent her off for conversion therapy after she got caught making out with a female classmate in the back seat…
Scarlett Letters: I’m Worried About Parenting Someone Else’s Kids
Dear Scarlett, I have been dating a wonderful woman for about six months. We have great chemistry, and I can feel it getting serious. Problem is, she has two young kids. Her ex is in the picture, but he’s with someone else. I’m not worried about him. I’m worried about parenting someone else’s kids. I…
Movie Review: Puppets Behave Badly, But Don’t Get Many Laughs, in ‘The Happytime Murders’
Yes, there’s puppet sex in this movie. Man, is there. If that prospect entices or repels you, I’ve already done my job. But if it’s laughs you’re after, know that the makers of The Happytime Murders didn’t do theirs. There’s nothing wrong with the concept of a very R-rated comedy about puppets behaving badly, and…
Can Republican Newbie Alex Farrell Win a Senate Seat in Chittenden County?
Alex Farrell moved easily through the beer-drinking, flip-flop-wearing crowd last Thursday in South Burlington. As people chatted or swayed to music at the SoBu Nite Out event in Veterans Memorial Park, Farrell, wearing creased dress pants and a sincere expression, pressed the flesh and struck up conversations with strangers. “Tall? Long arms?” he asked Darcy…
Album Review: The Thursday Torys, ‘Future Folks’
(Self-released, digital download) This review is a long time coming. Lyndon’s the Thursday Torys originally planned to unveil their debut album, Future Folks, in early 2018. But you know how these things go. Best-laid plans always get shit on by Murphy and his dumb law, try as we might to evade it. Whatever the holdup…
Brewing Trouble: Burlington Beer Makers Add to City’s Wastewater Woes
Golden liquid and barley swirled in a copper-colored vat at Switchback Brewing. But on this day in August, cofounder Bill Cherry had his eye on what wasn’t going to be made into beer. He peered out the window at an inconspicuous army-green tank behind the Burlington plant. It held not the local brew but a…
Some Adult English Language Learners Return to High School
When Usamah Abdulkhaleq, 28, stood onstage wearing his graduation gown and a gold honor cord to receive his diploma at Winooski High School in June, his eyes were only on his mother. “For four years, I suffered,” he recalled. “I was so proud that I made her happy.” When he was 16, Abdulkhaleq and his…
Art Review: ‘Locked Down! Keyed In! Locked Out’ Keyed Up!’ at Museum of Everyday Life
Visitors to this exhibition enter it by unlocking a door, behind which they discover three more locked doors. Aside from a faint sound of running water, nothing hints at what is behind them. A key hangs beside each, offering the curious a way in. The choice recalls the legends — and game shows — in…
In Montréal, Noren’s Japanese Street Food Is Crave-worthy
There are no tables at Noren, a Japanese cantina in Montréal’s Plateau neighborhood. There are no reservations, there is no way to order takeout and, on this particular Friday evening in August, there was no manager or boss in the petite restaurant. Four workers shared the tasks of seating customers at countertops, taking orders, pouring…
The ‘I’ Word: Why Welch, Leahy and Sanders Aren’t Ready to Impeach
For more than two and a half hours, progressive protesters harangued U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) in the Hartford High School gymnasium, imploring him to file articles of impeachment against the president of the United States. One by one, many in the crowd of 250 took a turn at the microphone, arguing in favor of…
Preoccupations’ Scott “Monty” Munro Gets Real About His Band’s Name Change
Here’s a quickie primer on Canadian post-punk band Preoccupations: They make raw and brooding new wave-inspired rock that seethes with dark energy. They also used to be called Viet Cong, a hastily chosen name that led to a year of trouble. In early 2015, internet-based calls to boycott the group led to several show cancellations.…
Chelsea Arts Collective Launches Barn Quilt Project
When the State of Vermont shuttered three Chelsea businesses for tax reasons in December 2016, the impact on the community was palpable. “Chelsea was hurting,” said artist and educator Carrie Caouette-DeLallo. “We lost three key businesses in town, and we didn’t have a gas station for over a year. [It] does something very interesting to…
Album Review: The High Breaks, ‘Stay Loose & Hang Tight With … the High Breaks’
(Self-released, CD, digital download, vinyl) Stay Loose & Hang Tight With … the High Breaks begins with an invitation: “Let’s all climb aboard … the surf train!” implores guitarist Matt Hagen, the High Breaks’ delightfully skewed creative mastermind, just as his trio drops in on a tight, classic curl of reverb-drenched surf-noir called “Surf Train.”…
A Matter of Degrees: UVM Nurses Bargain to Study in Vermont
When the University of Vermont Medical Center sends its nurses back to school for continuing education, they don’t have to go far. UVM’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences is right next door. Instead, 104 registered nurses at the hospital are enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program headquartered thousands of miles away — at the Salt…
Theater Review: ‘Constellations,’ Open Door Theater
The setting for a love story usually takes viewers somewhere special, preferably with a hint of what-the-hell possibility. In playwright Nick Payne’s Constellations, the setting is the universe — specifically, multiple universes that explode our lowly human sense of time. As it turns out, you can learn a lot about love by seeing two characters…
Soundbites: J Bengoy’s New Music Video and A Bike-In Film Fest in Waterbury
La-Z-Boys Where do you draw the line between contentment and apathy? Are they really that different? Yes, but it’s easy to confuse them when you’re buried in self-doubt. Anyone who’s struggled with depression can tell you that it’s often difficult to distinguish between the two. And, if you’re like me, you’ll probably drive yourself up…
Friend’s Nepali Restaurant Comes to Winooski; Mr. Shawarma Closes in Essex Junction
First-time restaurateurs Ram Kadariya and Santa Subba opened Friend’s Nepali Restaurant at 212 Main Street in Winooski in mid-August. The restaurant occupies the space where Pho’ Man once stood. Kadariya, 35, was previously a cook at Central Market Taste of Asia in Burlington. His interest in creating new dishes inspired him to open his own…
Malletts Bay Diner & Bakery Announces September Closure
On August 21, Malletts Bay Diner & Bakery announced on Facebook “with tears of heartbreak” that its last day of business will be September 2. The diner, which started as Pearl Street Diner in Burlington, moved to Colchester in June 2017. “We thought we would be here for a long, long time, but in the…
Alice & the Magician Solicits Artists for a Whimsical Mural
A wall in a Burlington back alley could be transformed from white cement block into a colorful mural under a plan conceived by Aaron and Sam Wisniewski and their team at Alice & the Magician. The brothers are founders and owners of the Burlington company that creates aromatics for cocktails. This fall, the business will…
Eat This Week, August 29 to September 4, 2018: Taste the Rainbow
What does a Green Zebra or Great White taste like? How about an Esterina or Wapsipinicon Peach? Find out in the tomato beds at Kelly Way Gardens, which supplies the Woodstock Inn & Resort’s larder with fresh produce all summer long, as well as with preserves through the cooler seasons. This year, gardeners seeded 58…
Letters to the Editor (8/29/18)
Fooled Again Your article titled “Burlington Cops Debunk Viral Video of Man ‘Shooting Up Heroin’,” [802Much: “Fake News Makes News,” August 22] actually made me more concerned about the police officers’ management of the man injecting himself on a downtown street corner. Had the police given it a bit more thought or a quick google…
In the Old North End, Arts Organizations Face a Move
From the sidewalk outside 294 North Winooski Avenue in Burlington, passersby can smell the sawdust from renovations for the forthcoming Little Morocco Café. It will be a radical transformation of the former headquarters of the Vermont Workers’ Center. The new restaurant, along with recently opened Knead Bakery on the Archibald Street side of the building,…
Trish Denton Cultivates Hybrid Storytelling With Parallel Narratives
Deep in a forest, a young boy uncovers a shiny, jagged hunk of obsidian. A newborn fawn watches curiously as the boy stuffs it into his backpack. The fawn asks him why he’s collecting such a sharp, heavy stone. The boy explains that gathering and carrying obsidian is a tradition among his people and quickly…
Free Will Astrology (8/29/18)
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran loved the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. “Without Bach, God would be a complete second-rate figure,” he testified, adding, “Bach’s music is the only argument proving the creation of the Universe cannot be regarded as a complete failure.” I invite you to emulate Cioran’s passionate clarity, Virgo.…
Birth Announcement: Oliver Leon Lafayette
On June 30, 2018, at Porter Medical Center, Edward Lafayette and Roberta Sinnock welcomed a son, Oliver Leon Lafayette.
Birth Announcement: Lucille Moon Bowdish
On August 15, 2018, at Porter Medical Center, Nicole (Morrison) and Jonathan Bowdish welcomed a girl, Lucille Moon Bowdish.
Healthy Food Options Multiply at Richmond Community Kitchen
A dozen cooking class participants were about to dive into their assigned recipes at Richmond Community Kitchen on August 23. As everyone gathered ingredients and picked up knives, the guest instructor — chef Cara Chigazola Tobin, co-owner of Honey Road restaurant in Burlington — circulated among the worktables, checking in and making suggestions. “Use the…
Juicebox to Open in the Berlin Mall
Nearly five years after Ian and Kara Bouchett opened their juice and smoothie bar in Burlington, the Shelburne couple is poised to launch a second location. Juicebox is expected to open at 282 Berlin Mall Road by the end of September, according to Ian Bouchett. The eatery will adjoin Planet Fitness — an excellent fit…
