Dec 3-9, 2014
Burlington Has Become a Mecca of Outdoor-Lifestyle Stores. Can They All Survive?; Vermonters Fear Ag Antibiotics; “Celsius” Heats Up Solstice; An Engineer Digs Into Burlington; Ethiopian Eats in Burlington
Cover Story
Burlington Is a Mecca of Outdoor Clothing Stores — Can They All Survive?
Great fanfare greeted the first L.L.Bean to arrive in Vermont, and a long line snaked out the door when it opened on Friday, November 7, in the Burlington Town Center. That same weekend, the Maine-based company attracted another crowd on the Church Street Marketplace. Promotional announcements blared from its giant Bootmobile — a vehicular version…
Obituary: Kathryn Morrill Kittell
Kathryn Morrill Kittell, age 79, died December 5, 2014 at her Lavoie Avenue residence with loving family at her side. Born in Saint Albans on June 20, 1935, she was the daughter of the late Albert and Dorothy (King) Morrill. She graduated from Swanton High School in 1952 and on October 11, 1958, was married…
Obituary: Karen Marie Coughlin
Karen Marie Coughlin, age 55 years, died unexpectedly Wednesday, December 3, 2014, at the University of Vermont Medical Center surrounded by her loved ones. Karen has been a resident of this community for the past seven years coming from Grand Junction, Colorado. At the time of her death she was working as a Human Resource…
Brett Aven Dieterle
On November 3, 2014, at The University of Vermont Medical Center, Dawn Olivia Dieterle and Brett Dieterle welcomed a son, Brett Aven Dieterle.
Horrible Bosses 2
In one of the funnier scenes in Horrible Bosses 2, the three put-upon employees from the first film (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day) compare themselves to the heroines of previous workplace comedy Nine to Five (1980). It’s obvious that Bateman’s Nick is uptight Jane Fonda, and Day’s Dale is earthy Dolly Parton (his…
Theater Review: Under Milk Wood, Parish Players
This year marks the 100th birthday of Dylan Thomas and the 60th anniversary of BBC Radio’s broadcast of Under Milk Wood. Considered the Welsh writer’s greatest work, the radio play was completed just before his death in November 1953; it was later adapted for the stage. (A film version, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor,…
Opinion: After Ferguson, a Consideration of ‘Race’
We are all Mike Brown! We are all Mike Brown! I shouted that slogan, along with protesters of all races, last week, after a grand jury declined to indict white cop Darren Wilson for killing the unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., this past summer. But am I Mike Brown? A white police…
How Can I Get My Boyfriend Back?
Dear Athena, I’m completely heartbroken. I was with this guy forever and I need him back. He was the first guy I dated after coming out of the closet. I can’t think of anything else but having him back. But I don’t know what to do. We broke up a few weeks ago, and I’m…
WTF: What’s With the Headless Woman Mural on Pine Street?
Burlington is home to myriad street murals: the A-Dog tribute in the alley adjacent to Nectar’s, the black-and-white portraits on the side of Merrill’s Roxy Cinemas, and the Buddha on a storage building facing Calahan Park, to name a few. Another curious mural appeared recently, this time on the south-facing wall of Tapna Yoga on…
Celsius: The Winter Burn Heats Up Solstice
For Vermonters who dread the months-long onslaught of snow, ice and perpetually runny noses, the winter solstice offers a beacon of hope. The shortest day of the year signals increasingly longer days to come and, eventually, more light and warmth. Chris and Kim Cleary aim to help us greet the winter season and beat back…
Letters to the Editor (12/3/14)
Doubling Down Fantastic news [Off Message: “Seven Days Hires Hallenbeck, Remsen,” November 26]. Two solid reporters join an organization that practices actual journalism. I’m sad to see the Burlington Free Press circling the drain but glad Seven Days is stepping up to the plate. David Diaz Shelburne Armed and Dangerous Although I knew that Vermont…
What We Wore: Vintage Ski Fashion on View in Stowe
Plaid wool body suits, furry boots, cropped lime-green-and-pink jackets — that’s not exactly what comes to mind when one thinks of “ski wear” these days. As this year’s winter season kicks off, the slopes of area resorts are dotted with athletes outfitted in high-tech, breathable fabrics (see this week’s cover story for samples). But visitors…
A Screenwriter-Turned-Playwright Tells Shakespeare’s Story Onstage
Everyone likes to be read to, right? Parents know this, and so do thespians. In the theater world, the staged reading is a popular way to present a new play. Readings have another huge advantage: They’re way cheaper than a full production. Plus, actors don’t have to memorize lines that might go changin’. With a…
Art Review: Peter Heller, BCA Center
“Real art has the capacity to make us nervous,” radical cultural critic Susan Sontag wrote in her influential 1966 essay “Against Interpretation.” She went on: “By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, comformable” (sic). Abstract painting, more than any…
Packed Prisons Retain Inmates Past Their Release Dates
Wendy Pelkey-Grant was going to be released from prison in October 2013, almost six years after she killed her abusive husband during a confrontation in their West Rutland home. Her grown daughter used her own savings to secure a two-bedroom apartment outside of the city, where they planned to live together. Pelkey-Grant, 49, looked forward…
![Cat Cafés in Montréal [SIV379]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/episode379-4-e1755131729452.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Cat Cafés in Montréal [SIV379]
11/22/14: Eva gets unstuck from Vermont and heads North to visit Montréal’s two purrfect cat cafes, Le Café des Chats and Café Chat L’Heureux. Both cafes opened this fall and are considered the first cat cafes in North America. Celebrity felines adopted from Montréal’s SPCA and other local shelters greet visitors at each spot. Eva…
Doom Service, I Want to Believe In…
(Get Stoked! Records, casette, digital download) As is the circle of life in the Burlington music scene, when one band breaks up, another rises to take its place. The new band often features basically the same dudes or dudettes from the old band, minus maybe that one guy nobody really liked all that much, but…
Adam Reczek, In the Night, for the Morning
(Self-released, vinyl, digital download) In my last review of an Adam Reczek record, his 2012 effort Buttoned From the Bottom Up, I confessed that I’d been rooting for the then-local songwriter to finally put it all together. Having reviewed each of his previous works, I’d had a front row seat to his maturation. Though he’s…
Soundbites: Billy Sharff’s Excellent New Album
It seems like it’s been ages since last we heard from Upper Valley Americana outfit Pariah Beat. In part that’s because, well, it has been ages. 2012, by my count. Though the band’s Facebook page has shown some sporadic signs of life recently, its website hasn’t been updated since that year. PB did release a…
Free Will Astrology (12/3/14)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The National Science Foundation estimates that we each think at least 12,000 thoughts per day. The vast majority of them, however, are reruns of impressions that have passed through our minds many times before. But I am pleased to report that in the coming weeks, you Aries folks are primed to…
An Interview With Dean Ween
As half of genre-busting duo Ween, Mickey Melchiondo (aka Dean Ween) made a living confounding the ears of listeners worldwide. Though their bizarro humor and top-notch chops carried over from album to album over nearly three decades, no two Ween albums truly sound alike. A not entirely amicable split in 2012 sent Melchiondo and Aaron…
Vermonters Rally Against Antiobiotic Overuse on Farms
Montpelier resident Elizabeth Parker has always been conscious about antibiotic use — and overuse. She raised four children and only doled out antibiotics once. “Antibiotics should be there in those extreme circumstances so they can help when help is needed,” said Parker. But when her partner fell seriously ill in 2009, antibiotics didn’t help; he’d…
An Engineer and ‘Map Geek’ Unearths Burlington’s Past
Hugo Martínez Cazón discovered a winding, ancient Vermont sewer. When he followed it, he uncovered nothing less than the American origins of two winter sports and the secret geography of the state’s largest city. But let’s back up a bit. An environmental cleanup engineer, Martínez Cazón, 57, found his true passion in old maps and…
News Quirks (12/3/14)
Freedom Follies Eight in 10 Americans believe the public should be concerned about the government’s monitoring phone calls and internet communications, according to a report by the Pew Research Center. More than 90 percent of those surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that they’ve lost control over how their personal data are collected and used by…
LocalStore: Common Deer
Tucked into the first floor of a stately brown house on Route 7 in Shelburne Village, the locally owned boutique Common Deer offers a bounty of little luxuries. The wooden shelves and tasteful antique display cases are artfully stocked with handmade jewelry, artisan-crafted cards and posters, backpacks, blankets, and other home goods. What do these…
Citizenfour
As we learn in the final installment of the post-9/11 trilogy from documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (The Oath), Big Brother is no longer content with watching. He now listens in on our phone calls, reads our email, looks over our shoulder as we surf the web and tracks our movements as we go about our…
Taste Test: The Bench
Not every restaurant in Stowe gives a damn about the townies. With out-of-state cash driving much of the local economy, many eateries cater to the tourist crowd, offering posh, pricey food that can tip toward overwrought. Others inhabit mountain-resort clichés that straddle Alpine chalet and old-school Vermont charm but do justice to neither. It’s a…
No. 48? Why Vermont Has Been Slow to Adopt Hospice Care
Ginny Fry, director of the Hospice and Palliative Care Council of Vermont, keeps “lots of colorful clay” in the backseat of her car. She gives clumps of it to relatives of hospice patients, who can use it make thumbprint impressions of their loved ones. “We bake the clay afterward and make sure everyone involved gets…
Queen City Brewery Releases Steinbier
Back in October, Burlington’s Queen City Brewery hosted its first-annual Steinbier day. German for “stone beer,” Steinbiers are brewed in a kettle heated with hot rocks, a practice that faded from prominence in the early 1900s. A few intrepid brewers have sporadically tried to revive the tradition, and Queen City brewer Paul Hale says he…
Carving Knives: Will Vulnerable Vermonters Survive Budget Cuts?
As grandma prepared the stuffing last Wednesday, Gov. Peter Shumlin’s administration was busy cooking up a heaping helping of bad fiscal news. The day before Thanksgiving, Commissioner of Finance and Management Jim Reardon announced that the administration would cut another $17 million from this year’s budget. The move came just three months after legislative leaders…
Smugglers’ Notch Brewfest; Journey Farmer Applications Due
On Saturday, Smugglers’ Notch Resort will kick off its annual brewfest in the Smugglers’ Notch Meeting House. The 2014 fest marks the event’s 20th anniversary and will take place over two weekends — one now, and one in March. It’s one of Vermont’s longest-running brew-hahas, founded in 1994, when the Green Mountains were home to…
Jon Kilik Talks Hunger Games and Foxcatcher
University of Vermont alumnus Jon Kilik ’78 is having a good month. He produced the film that is currently No. 1 at the box office (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1) and the film that Esquire recently characterized as “the Oscar movie to beat.” That’s Foxcatcher, which tells the fact-based story of the ill-fated partnership…
Ethiopian Food Is Hot in Burlington
“Injera is so funny,” says Alganesh Michael. “It has to be the right time, the right mix, the right temperature. When you make it, so many things have to go right.” She’s talking about the sourdough flatbread that serves as both a base and a utensil for most special Ethiopian meals. A layer goes under…
Hatchet Tap & Table Coming to Richmond
Some restaurateurs are satisfied to stand aside and wait while their new eateries are built. But Gabriel Firman is constructing Hatchet Tap & Table with his own two hands. That’s what happens when a restaurant-industry lifer turned construction manager goes back to the dining biz. After closing on the business on Monday, Firman set to…
