The Winter Reading Issue • 2017
Winter Reading Issue: A Preview of Howard Frank Mosher’s Last Novel; the Word on Self-Publishing; Are You a ‘Pantser’ or a Plotter? (To Outline or Not to Outline?)
Cover Story
The Winter Reading Issue — 2017
When the weather turns cold, many Vermonters like to curl up by a woodstove with a good book. While we can’t tuck an entire volume into this issue, we do feature a short story and an essay by local writers. You’ll also find a taste of the forthcoming posthumous novel from beloved Northeast Kingdom author…
Movie Review: ‘The Disaster Artist’ Celebrates a Cinematic Train Wreck
Whether you call them outsider artists or weirdos, we’ve all known a few people like Tommy Wiseau, the enigmatic auteur behind 2003 cult classic The Room. His eccentricities, both artistic and personal, help explain why his indie drama was not just bad — like thousands of such films produced every year — but torturously, famously,…
Seriously: About Last Year
In the final episode of the year, Bryan offers his take on the biggest Vermont news stories of 2017 and sets it to music to make it all slightly more palatable. CREDITS Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography by: John Walters, Matthew Thorsen, Molly Walsh, Tim Newcomb, Terri Hallenbeck, City of Burlington, Sarah…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: Growers Show Off 100-Foot Joint
Here’s a gimmick that would make Cheech and Chong proud. A Massachusetts cannabis growers collective created a 100-foot-long joint for a convention December 16 in Worcester. It took more than two pounds to fill and proved quite the attraction at the Harvest Cup, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports. “When are you gonna light it…
![The Healing Power of Yoga [SIV515]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/episode515.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
The Healing Power of Yoga [SIV515]
12/13/17: Sangha Studio in Burlington is a nonprofit whose goal is to build an empowered community through the shared practice of yoga. Their classes are donation-based and they have 20+ yoga service programs for diverse groups such as children, veterans and seniors – both in the studio and out in the community. Their weekly Yoga…
Maplebrook Farm Moves Into Bigger Production Facility
Maplebrook Farm of North Bennington has built a state-of-the-art production facility that allows the company to churn out more fresh mozzarella; gooey, cream-filled burrata; and smoked feta. Workers began producing cheese in the new 50,000-square-foot facility on Water Street in September; in late November, the company relocated its business offices there. In the past, the…
Ask Athena: My Boyfriend Is Going to Meet My Ex-Fiancé
Dear Athena, My boyfriend is coming with me to my parents’ house for Hanukkah. He is going to meet my ex-fiancé (whom I know still has feelings for me; he told me last year), because his parents and my parents are old friends. It’s a long story. How do I not make this weird? I…
Sampling CBD-Enhanced Cuisine at Zenbarn
Call me old-fashioned, but I thought the point of hemp was to get high, if only in a last-ditch, ditch-weed kind of way. But I was set straight — and remained that way through five courses — at the recent Hemp + Hops Dinner at Zenbarn in Waterbury Center. Hemp may not blow your mind,…
Art Review: ‘Arts Connect at Catamount Arts: Third Annual Juried Exhibition’
With the third annual juried exhibition at Catamount Arts, juror John R. Stomberg had his work cut out for him. The St. Johnsbury arts center opened its exhibition call to any artist in the U.S., in any medium. Most of the 600 artists who responded live and work in New England, but the bar was…
What Does the Vermont Expression ‘Had the Radish’ Mean?
In keeping with this week’s Winter Reading Issue, WTF answers a native Vermonter’s burning lexicological question: “What does the expression ‘had the radish’ mean, and where did it come from?” OK, perhaps the question isn’t burning so much as smoldering. Still, where there’s smoke, there’s fire — or so might say Wolfgang Mieder, a University…
Eat This Week: December 20 to 26, 2017: Pre-Santa Supper
In November of this year, the Boston Globe named “Ten Restaurants to Try in New England This Winter.” One of them was the Lincoln Inn & Restaurant at the Covered Bridge in Woodstock. On Christmas Eve, the inn’s highly touted chef, Jevgenija Saromova — who worked at Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe before moving to Vermont…
Soundbites: ’Tis the Week Before New Year’s
‘Tis the week before New Year’s, and all through the town It seems there’s some super-cool stuff going down Many artists and bands are out singing ditties Making music ring out all over the city Some have Christmas-themed shows up their sleeve And others are prepping for old New Year’s Eve There’s rock and country,…
Mallsoleum? Vermont’s Largest Retail Complex Faces an Uncertain Future
Christopher McKinney dropped by the University Mall on a snowy December evening two weeks before Christmas, but he wasn’t there to shop. The University of Vermont senior wanted to say hello to a friend who works there, and he confessed that it was one of the few times he’d been inside the massive retail center…
Former Sudanese Journalist Discusses Free Press and Censorship
Sudanese journalist and novelist Ahmed M. Ahmed, 46, got his first taste of social activism when he was about 15. Incensed that his school wasn’t distributing enough bread, Ahmed and his classmates staged a protest. However, his teacher broke up the collective action within two hours, leaving Ahmed “very sad, very angry,” he recalled. Though…
Phillis Mosher Talks About Her Husband’s Final Novel
At Christmastime last year, George Witte received a manuscript at his publishing house in New York City. It was a collection of stories by Howard Frank Mosher, an Irasburg, Vt., author who created, over nearly half a century, a body of work centering on the place he named Kingdom County and the family he called…
Free Will Astrology (12/20/17)
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In 2018, one of your primary missions will be to practice what you preach, to walk your talk, to be ambitious and masterful in all the ways that a soulful human can and should be ambitious and masterful. Live up to your hype in the coming months, Capricorn! Do what you…
Album Review: GOOD WTHR, ‘Somewhere Shining’
(Posimentum, digital download) Although GOOD WTHR have adopted a new name, they’ve got deep roots in Vermont hip-hop. The local rap duo consists of Pro — best known for his work with Vermont legends the Aztext — and Kin, a prolific journeyman MC who founded UnKommon with the late Ryan Morin, aka DJ BP. BP…
Letters to the Editor (12/20/17)
No Place for Kids After reading Melissa Pasanen’s article [“Women With Knives,” December 13], I was disturbed by the injection of the writer’s opinion that it was a “hopeful sign” that a 4-year-old child was sitting on a blanket watching his mother slaughter animals. Pasanen’s reasons were that the child would see that his mother…
Opiate Crisis Fuels Rise in Heart Infections
The University of Vermont Medical Center is grappling with an increase in the number of patients who come to the emergency room with a rare and life-threatening heart infection. Doctors say the opiate crisis is to blame. In fiscal year 2013, the Burlington hospital treated nine people who contracted endocarditis after abusing drugs. In 2017,…
Album Review: Gang of Thieves, ‘Totem’
(Self-released, digital download) Gang of Thieves are something like the funk-rock equivalent of a vintage hot rod. Polished and powerful, the Burlington band has specialized in roaring, full-throttle grooves for close to a decade. And, like most hot rods, they’re a bit of a gaudy throwback, favoring the bouncy, manic sounds of 1990s-era ska, punk…
Hyperesthesia: A Short Story
Yuppies and neckers. Flatlanders and woodchucks. Like a number of my pals growing up, Sandy’s pedigree was mixed. His mom was born in Who-the-Hell-Cares-Where, Ohio, and came to Burlington to do research at the university — something technical, related to lungs. His dad was the seventh of seven raised on a dairy in Guilford, just a few miles from the…
Comedian Chris Fleming Brings “Showpig” to Vermont
Chris Fleming is all over the place, in all of the ways. The Massachusetts-born, Los Angeles-based standup comedian is known for his singular brand of spastic physical comedy and specific, hyperbolic social observations. Fleming made his debut on YouTube in 2012, fashioning himself into insane, aggro suburban housewife Gayle Waters-Waters. The first episode of “Gayle”…
Undercover Video Targets Transgender Vermonters
Marcus wasn’t expecting to go viral when he showed up to an October meeting on transgender health care at the Pride Center of Vermont. But in the months since, hundreds of thousands of viewers have seen his face — and those of a dozen other transgender Vermonters — in a searing video attack posted online by…
A New Book for ‘Pantsers’ on How to Write Without an Outline
Are you a plotter or a pantser? If you think this is a question about whether you leave the house properly attired, you probably haven’t ventured into a writing workshop or blog recently. In the parlance of many fiction writers, a “plotter” is someone who writes from an outline, while a “pantser” writes, well, from…
Essay: As the Father of Two Daughters, I’d Like to Say a Few Things
As the father of two daughters, I put my pants on one leg at a time, just like any other father of two daughters who’s been #blessed with two legs. Once they’re on, though, they stay on — unless, of course, I’m changing at the gym or going No. 2, in which case I check…
Movie Review: ‘Downsizing’ Has a Bigger Concept Than It Can Do Justice to
Alexander Payne is a member of a very small club (size puns, anyone?). He’s on the short list (for example) of American directors who’ve never made a bad film. He’s even made a great one, 2004’s Sideways, and two that approached greatness, The Descendants (2011) and Nebraska (2013). Downsizing almost falls into the latter category.…
The Local Scene on the Best Music of 2017
After a full year of highlighting the works of local musicians, club promoters, DJs and producers, we thought it would be enlightening to learn what some of those same people picked as their favorite albums of 2017 — for both local and nonlocal releases. So we asked them. We also asked them to tell us…
Elizabeth Bunsen’s Handmade Books Explore Color and Emotion
Not all books are for reading. Some, like Elizabeth Bunsen’s intricate art books, must be experienced visually. Each of her tomes — she’s made hundreds — is a highly personal exploration of interior emotional landscapes guided by needle, thread and color. Some she keeps for herself. Others she sells through her website and on Instagram. Bunsen…
Two Phils: Scott the Alarmist, Scott the Conciliator
At an early December press conference, Gov. Phil Scott hammered on a familiar theme: Education property taxes are out of control. He pointed to Vermont’s “lowest-in-the-nation” staff-to-student ratio of 4-to-1 and asserted that, if the ratio were increased to 5-to-1, the state would save $100 million. But when asked if he was calling for cutbacks,…
How to Pick the Right Self-Publishing Option
As any published writer can attest, nothing compares with the feeling of seeing one’s words in print for the first time. Whether it’s a memoir, first novel, how-to book or poetry anthology, it’s incredibly rewarding to hold a professionally bound volume of one’s own creation. For much of publishing history, professional gatekeepers reserved that experience…
A Crash Damages East Fairfield’s Historic Covered Bridge
Here’s a road hazard unique to Vermont. A delivery driver got his truck stuck while navigating his way through an East Fairfield covered bridge, according to Vermont State Police. Bridge Street near Route 36 was temporarily shut down last Thursday so Sticks & Stuff driver Michael Bevins could remove the 2007 Ford F-350, according to…
Rory Stamp Talks Science, Art and the Just-Right Cheese Board
During his childhood near Killington, Rory Stamp hated milk. “I grew up on nonfat skim milk, and I absolutely detested it,” he says. “It was this flavorless, lifeless substance that had no value.” And then, one day, he had a sip of raw milk from the von Trapp Farmstead, and everything changed. Stamp, who was…
Two Food Venues Coming to Brattleboro’s Latchis Building
Among Brattleboro’s landmarks is the Latchis Hotel and Theatre, a 1938 building at 50 Main Street that houses four theaters, including a 750-seat venue, plus the 30-room hotel. As of early next year, the building will also be home to two dining-and-drinking establishments, Latchis Pub and Latchis Underground. “It’s a cool location, and obviously the…
Two Brothers Opens Notte in Middlebury
Last winter, as they prepared for a renovation, the owners of Middlebury’s Two Brothers Tavern decided to build a temporary kitchen so they could keep serving food. “We didn’t want to lay off any of the staff,” said co-owner Holmes Jacobs. From that kitchen, they served thin-crust Neapolitan-style pizza and a handful of complementary dishes.…
