Dec 30, 2020 – Jan 5, 2021
Backstories: Reporters Share the Stories Behind the Stories; Remembering Vermonters Who Died in 2020; Second Helpings: Looking Back on a Salty Year in Food (With a Touch of Sweet); The Best Vermont Albums of 2020
The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, January 14 to 20
1. Music of the World Members of the Northern Harmony World Harmony Ensemble have gone to great lengths to be able to perform together amid the coronavirus pandemic. The 10 young singers have been tested for COVID-19 and are quarantined in Marshfield leading up to their concert at the Chandler Center for the Arts in…
Obituary: Dr. Mark David Lichtenstein, 1951‑2021
2012 Vermont Family Physician of the Year served residents of the Northeast Kingdom for 35 years
Obituary: Brenna Reynolds, 1973-2021
Woman of many skills and interests earned a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College
The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, January 7 to 13
1. Playing Outside Mirna Valerio’s Instagram pics make one thing clear: This woman loves the outdoors. The Montpelier-based athlete and writer is pictured jogging on a snowy trail, fatbiking in the woods and soaking up sunshine in a field. Valerio, the subject of an August 2020 cover story in Seven Days, has achieved national recognition…
Obituary: Jeff Boomhower, 1958‑2020
Outdoorsman spent every ounce of energy enjoying our beautiful planet
Obituary: Gordon Gebauer Sr., 1923‑2020
Navy veteran met his wife of 67 years after the war
Obituary: Frances Sherer Caldwell, 1942‑2020
Musician and piano teacher was an artist at heart who loved being a “Nana”
Obituary: Arthur G. LaCharite, 1925‑2020
Vermont native loved life and enjoyed many outdoor activities
Obituary: Elizabeth Cilley, 1929‑2020
Essex Junction woman enjoyed a long, rewarding teaching career and community connections
Obituary: Tabitha Elizabeth Sweeney, 1994-2020
Vibrant young woman had a laugh that will never be forgotten
Backstory: Bumpiest Ride
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. When lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Molly Gray accepted my request to ride along with her on the campaign trail over the summer, I did not expect…
Backstory: A Best Inside Source
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. I had just eaten my weight in chicken fajitas and was looking forward to a Saturday night with Netflix, hoping to find a selection to…
Backstory: Best Example of Art Imitating Life
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. I needed a thermometer. I was feeling kinda flush — or I thought I was … maybe. And was that a tickle in my throat?…
Backstory: Most Random News Alert
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. A car raced up Burlington’s Main Street toward the University of Vermont, the driver excitedly beeping his horn. Passengers waved and whooped from the windows;…
Highlights From a Most Unusual Year in Film
Most years, it’s tough to wrap up the year in film for Seven Days because so many award-worthy movies don’t reach Vermont until well into January. In 2020, however, release dates were weird all over. For purposes of Oscar eligibility, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has stretched its official “year” through the…
Backstory: Strongest Reaction to a Shot in the Arm
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. Reporters weren’t allowed into the University of Vermont Medical Center to watch Vermont’s first COVID-19 vaccination, but the hospital livestreamed the event. So I stood…
Recapping the Year’s Best Local Music
Though the pandemic has disrupted the live music sector in ways we don’t yet fully understand, it hasn’t prevented bands and artists from making and releasing new albums. Seven Days hasn’t stopped reviewing local records, either. We’ve featured more than 100 this year. Some were made before COVID-19 upended the industry, while others were put…
From the Publisher: Ad Value
The journalism we produce at Seven Days wins awards. In 2020, we earned a number of them, including a national Edward R. Murrow prize for Investigative Reporting, an Innovation Award from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, and a commendation from the New England Newspaper & Press Association naming us a New England Newspaper of the…
Why Is It Such a Big Deal If I Leave My Socks On During Sex?
Dear Reverend, My girlfriend gets angry at me for keeping my socks on when we have sex. I don’t do it on purpose. I guess I just forget to take them off because they’re comfortable. And I hate having cold feet. Why is it such a big deal, anyway? Sock-critiques (male, 24) Dear Sock-critiques, Ah,…
Backstory: Longest Quarantine
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. When I walked out of my Waterbury home on the morning of March 25 to cover a story at the Statehouse, I thought I’d be…
Free Will Astrology (12/30/20)
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The mathematically oriented website WaitButWhy.com says that the odds of winning a mega lottery can be compared to this scenario: You know that a certain hedgehog will sneeze just one time in the next six years, and you place a big bet that this sneeze will take place at exactly the…
Backstory: Hardest-to-Get Interview
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. I’d never interviewed someone who couldn’t speak, but that was the challenge before me when I wrote about a household of six people who had…
Looking Back on Stories That Defined 2020 in the Arts
Two words that got used a lot in 2020 are “resilience” and “pivot.” The former is always a good thing; the latter we’d be happy to dump in the vocabulary dustbin. Pivoting was what everyone on the planet was forced to do this year when the coronavirus arrived — most definitely including the creative sector.…
Life Stories: Remembering Vermonters Who Died in 2020
Living through 2020 has meant facing reminders of death on a daily basis. As of mid-December, more than 1.6 million people had died of COVID-19 worldwide, including more than 300,000 Americans. The numbers are less dramatic in Vermont — 107 deaths as of December 22— but the impact has nonetheless been profound: That’s more than…
Seven Days Writers Reveal What it Took to Report on a Most Unusual, Isolating, Historic Year
The year started typically enough for Seven Days writers. One reporter gave advice to a Wyoming woman who suspected a cop there had created a fake social media account, because we’ve apparently become reputed experts on that. Another learned about an Auschwitz survivor and member of the Polish resistance who shared his family name —…
Backstory: Best-Timed Eavesdropping
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. I had misgivings about covering the “excessive quarantine” protest in Montpelier in April, not least because I figured many participants wouldn’t be wearing masks. It…
Letters to the Editor (12/30/20)
Wonders of Westford Thanks so much for spotlighting Bree Drapa and the Westford Public Library [“Bright Lights,” December 16]. You captured her, the library, the town office and the town green perfectly. She is a rock star, but here’s the thing: So many people in Westford are rock stars. There’s the guy who grooms the…
Backstory: Most Ethical Interaction
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. A basic principle of journalism ethics requires that reporters don’t accept gifts from sources, nor do we perform favors for them. The mere appearance of…
Backstory: Story With the Longest Legs
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. I wrote a couple of stories last year about police using fake social media accounts to engage citizens — anonymously. After the practice brought down two…
Backstory: Best Reason to Go the Extra Mile
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. By the middle of April 2020, nursing homes’ special vulnerability to the coronavirus was apparent. The numbers out of Birchwood Terrace Rehab and Healthcare were…
Backstory: Strongest Fanboy Impulses
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. It’s a good thing I mostly cover hard news. Unlike Seven Days’ valiant arts and culture writers, I rarely find myself interviewing celebrities or artists…
Backstory: Eeriest Connection
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. I’m a descendant of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Poland, with distant relatives who died in the Nazi extermination camps. I’ve written several stories related to…
Backstory: Fieriest Backlash
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. I’m a photojournalist. My job is to get up close, often dangerously so, to be a witness to history. If you hate my work and…
Backstory: Most Justifiable Parking Violation
This “backstory” is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2020. I hurried out of Gov. Phil Scott’s March 13 press conference with many questions, but none so pressing as: Where the hell am I going…
Second Helpings: Looking Back on a Salty Year (With a Touch of Sweet)
The year 2020 has been a roller-coaster ride for restaurants and other food businesses. In mid-March, the State of Vermont ordered restaurants and bars to close to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The rules were relaxed in late May, and restaurants reopened with restrictions in place. Current regulations limit restaurant diners to one household…
