Aug 3-9, 2011
Sci-Fi Surgery for a Breathtaking Disease?; Local Hops Entice Beer Makers; A Senior Pole-Vaults Into the Record Books; Digging in Dumpsters for Dinner
What Should Replace Borders on Church Street?
Recently, during my three-hour lunch break, I popped into Borders on Church Street. Beckoned by the chintzy “Going Out of Business” liquidation signs hung in all the windows, and the promise of a good deal or two, I figured I’d see what was going on in the now-bankrupt behemoth bookseller. The answer, it turns out,…
Party on at ECHO
Vermont photographer Natalie Stultz sent in this photo, captured last Friday evening from a lakeside picnic near the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center in Burlington. A good time is had by all at the annual Daysies party — a celebration of readers’ picks awards — but no one parties heartier than the Sisters LeMay!…
Got Gas? If it’s in a Propane Tank, You May Not Have as Much as You Thought
Sorry this news arrives too late for National Barbecue Month (May), National Great Outdoors Month (June) or National Hot Dog Month (July), but it’s just in time for National Picnic Month (August): Apparently, that rotten-egg smell isn’t the only manufactured stink arising from your gas grill. You know that 20-pound propane tank that dangles beneath your barbecue grill like…
Bin Laden Raid Narrative Confirms VT Peace Activists’ Suspicions
A pair of Burlington peace activists angered many Vermonters, including some Blurt readers, when they called a news conference in May to denounce the killing of Osama bin Laden as a “murder” carried out by the United States. American commanders acted unlawfully by apparently making no attempt to take the unarmed bin Laden alive, charged…
Farmhouse Buys Ground Round
Nope, this isn’t another one of the (802) jokes. The team behind the Farmhouse Tap & Grill and American Flatbread — Burlington Hearth has leased 1633 Williston Road, the 6400-square-foot space long occupied by Ground Round. “We’ve been eyeing that space and area for a long time now,” says co-owner Jed Davis in an email.…
The Google Is Coming! The Google Is Coming!
As Congress and state attorneys general intensify their scrutiny of Google’s business practices — as well as how it collects and stores users’ private information — the Internet giant is coming to Vermont to offer … free website design, web hosting and discounted advertising. Really? Vermont? Why not California? Or, Virginia or Massachusetts — three…
Burlington City Council Proposal to Make BTV a Québec Colony
From the “Is This Really Necessary?” and the “This Makes Us Look Desperate” desks: On Aug. 8, Burlington City Council will consider a proposal sponsored by councilors Norm Blais and Paul Decelles that would, in effect, make the city a colony of our neighbor to the north, Québec. Or, I should say, nos voisins du…
Burlington Inks Deal with State Prison Officials to Hire Ex-Con Work Crews
After nearly nine months of haggling, the city of Burlington and Vermont’s Department of Corrections are set to sign off on a contract to re-hire ex-prisoners to help maintain the city’s parks, cemeteries and buildings. The city Board of Finance gave the Parks and Recreation Department the go-ahead Monday night to spend up to $60,000…
Water Ways
Art Review: “Masters of Vermont: The Watercolorists,” Bryan Memorial Gallery
WTF Was With All That (802) Crap On Facebook?
One of Stephen King’s greatest skills as a horror writer is how he uses the misinformation spun in small town rumor mills as a character itself to expose the vulnerability of his subjects’ fragile collective subconscious. Then he turns that vulnerability against them, and against us as readers. The scariest things in his books aren’t…
![Green Mountain Draft Horse Field Day [233]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/episode233.webp?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1)
Green Mountain Draft Horse Field Day [233]
7/30/11: The Green Mountain Draft Horse Association presented Draft Horse Field Day at Shelburne Farms on Saturday. Horses, oxen and mules were in attendance for reaping, threshing, and plowing demonstrations. Visitors hitched rides on wagons to experience Shelburne Farms as it was meant to be seen, from a horse’s perspective. Music: Kevin MacLeod, “Sheep May…
News Quirks
Curses, Foiled Again Responding to reports of a man and a woman slashing tires at an apartment complex, Atlanta police arrested the woman, but the man escaped. A few minutes later, he returned to the scene and approached television news reporter Amanda Cook during her on-air report, claiming to be a witness to the crime.…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Symbolically speaking, there is a Holy Grail hidden close to you, and you know it, but you haven’t been able to find it. The Grail is a golden chalice filled with medicine that could open what needs opening in you. Luckily, you will soon come into possession (symbolically speaking) of a…
WTF: Why does Buddha gaze upon Pine Street traffic?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: We just had to ask…
Resurrecting Hops
Vermont brewers watch and wait as local growers try to create an industry
Nature Calling
Book reviews: Listed: Dispatches From America’s Endangered Species Act; Shadows on the Gulf: A Journey Through Our Last Great Wetland
Letters to the Editor
snowflake: A Poem for Bentley Davis Seifer My 6:15 bus to Middlebury became inconsequential the corner of Locust & Hayward told me so a tree giving hope amidst pain cornered me a paper flake of cuts made me float and reflect upon one I did not know I know him now Shimmer young boy Shimmer…
Feds Require Insurance Plans to Cover Women’s Preventative Health
Amid the landslide of dismal news coming out of Washington, D.C., this week about congressional efforts to raise the debt ceiling, here’s some good news to report that might get buried in the mix: On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new guidelines to ensure that women have access to vital…
Welch Claims He Would Have Voted Yes If He’d Been Deciding Vote
Vermont liberals cheered when Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) voted against the deal crafted in Washington that raised the government’s debt ceiling in exchange for trillions in dollars in future budget cuts. “I voted against it because it is not a balanced plan with shared sacrifice,” Welch said in a written…
How to Become an Internet Video Superstar
Just between us, I’m not really sure why some videos go viral and others remain buried in the gray muck of internet oblivion. According to one scientist, popular videos provoke emotion. Well, duh. Wikipedia says: A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social…
Not Your Granny’s Bath Salts
Drug users across the country are going crazy — literally — over bath salts, and Vermont druggies could soon join the trend. No, today’s stoners aren’t desperately seeking a high from Calgon: “Bath salts” is the street name for mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, a powdery substance said to have effects similar to cocaine or methamphetamines, only…
