Feb 17-23, 2021
Finances threaten local schools such as Lincoln’s. Can towns afford to lose them?; Is Elon Musk’s satellite-based internet service the answer for remote Vermonters?; Burlington grapples with pandemic-era graffiti
Cover Story
Finances Threaten Local Schools Such as Lincoln’s. Can Towns Afford to Lose Them?
Anna Smith grew up in Lincoln, in a house just a stone’s throw from the New Haven River and half a mile from the elementary school. Ever since she left, she’s been trying to figure out how to get back. For now, her job as an elementary school health teacher keeps her in another town…
Obituary: Charles Konrad Auer Jr., 1931‑2021
Beloved Burlingtonian spread joy to many at “Charlie’s Boathouse”
In memoriam: James Edward Little, 1952‑2021
The Zoom access information for the virtual service on Saturday, February 27, 2021, is available on the Corbin & Palmer Funeral Home website, corbinandpalmer.com/obituary/james-little. The information may also be found on the website of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, stpaulscathedralvt.org. Related Stories
Obituary: Leobardo Perez-Rivas, 1942‑2021
Vermont captured the heart of a devoted father and man of the world
Birth announcement: Alice Matilda Gaynor
Welcome, Baby Alice! Julianna, Joe and Mads Gaynor welcomed Alice Matilda to their family on snowy February 2, 2021. We love you so much already!
The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, February 18 to 24
1. So Emotional Though they were created by more than 40 different artists, the works in the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery exhibition “All the Feels” have at least one thing in common: They were inspired by the theme of “emotion.” “Whether [emotion is] in the creation process from the artist, in the content of the piece or in…
With ‘Press Pass,’ Rick Norcross Unveils a Treasure Trove of Rock Photography
In 1963, Rick Norcross left East Hardwick to get a college education in Florida and maybe, while he was at it, become America’s next great folk singer. He didn’t quite reach that lofty goal. But 57 years of touring and more than a dozen albums later, Norcross — with his band Rick & the All-Star…
Free Will Astrology (2/17/21)
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) ultimately became one of the 20th century’s most renowned composers. But his career had a rough start. Symphony No. 1, his first major work, was panned by critics, sending him into a four-year depression. Eventually he recovered. His next major composition, Piano Concerto No. 2, was well received.…
Luminous Crush, ‘Luminous Inc.’
(Self-released, digital) Claiming that your band plays “original bluegrass outlaw country post-punk psychedelic fusion indie dream pop searing rock metal” is a bold move. Pronouncing that your new album “is about the hottest shit you’ll hear from anywhere,” as Luminous Crush’s Ben Campbell said in a recent email, is another big swing. Though the Jamaica,…
Poetry review: ‘Red List Blue,’ Lizzy Fox
Lizzy Fox’s debut collection of poems, Red List Blue, opens by describing a woodstove that “curls its arms / around whatever creature sleeps / in the ashes.” The stove becomes a rich metaphor: at once a source of warmth and a potential danger, a steady appetite that demands to be fed and a place where…
John Townsend, ‘Bound to Be’
(Self-released, CD, digital) The death of a close friend inspired Burlington singer-songwriter John Townsend’s 2019 debut solo LP, Seattle Songs. “The songs here are remarkable,” wrote Justin Boland in a review for Seven Days, “located squarely in the raw space between grief and celebration.” On his latest album, Bound to Be, released at the end…
Scrag Mountain Musician Evan Premo Offers Series on “Deep Listening”
Most people spend their lives trying not to hear everything in the interest of listening attentively to one thing: a friend speaking, a bird singing outdoors, a piece of music performed live. But what if we trained ourselves to listen to every sound at once? That’s one objective of “deep listening,” a meditative process conceived…
In New Video Series, an Argentine-Born Vermonter Helps America Chart a New Course
Can short, aspirational videos alter the course of U.S. history? David Patrick Adams of Northfield believes they can, which is why he is inviting his fellow Americans to describe, in 30 seconds or less, the America they want. A daunting task? In the last few weeks, more than 100 people across the United States have…
WTF: How Do You Help a Rescued Hummingbird in Winter?
In mid-December, the nonprofit group Green Mountain Animal Defenders issued an urgent call to its supporters on Facebook seeking someone who could drive a rescued hummingbird, which was captured inside an apartment in Bennington, two hours north to a wildlife rehabilitation specialist in Addison. First, what was a hummingbird doing in Vermont in December, when…
Reunion Brings New Problems for an Immigrant Family in the Poignant ‘Farewell Amor’
Our streaming entertainment options are overwhelming — and not always easy to sort through. This month, Vermont International Film Foundation streams a program of films directed by African American women from February 19 through 28 as part of the Split/Screen series. I watched Farewell Amor, a 2020 Sundance Film Festival award winner from first-time feature…
Burlington Grapples With Pandemic-Era Graffiti
Last spring, when coronavirus lockdown restrictions were first lifted, Jamie Bedard painted a mural on an exterior brick wall of Asiana House, a restaurant on the corner of Pearl Street and South Winooski Avenue in Burlington. She rendered her landscape in gray and black, with a flowering pink tree on the side where she signed…
Norwich University’s President Decamps to COVID-19 Front Line — a Dorm Room
The esprit de corps at Norwich University was approaching crisis in late January. The country’s oldest private military college was in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak that had infected more than 80 of the roughly 1,800 cadets and civilian undergraduates on its Northfield campus. On January 25, Norwich president Mark Anarumo ordered all students…
An Essex Student Wants to Offset School’s Paper Usage by Planting 270 Trees
Spring may seem a long way off, but Iris Hsiang already has a plan for planting. The Essex High School junior is selling trees to offset the paper used by the school. For the 2018-19 academic year, that amounted to an estimated 2.7 million sheets, she said. “That’s just a crazy amount to be going…
Podcast Featuring Bill McKibben Is Too Political for Facebook’s Tastes
If I asked you to think of a Vermont resident who combines eloquent descriptions of impending catastrophe with a manner almost too mild for his subject matter, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a better answer than author and climate activist Bill McKibben. He’s one character in this story. The other is Karen Kevra,…
From the Publisher: Be Our Guest
Jonathan Mingle was supposed to be in Louisiana — not Lincoln, Vt. At the beginning of last year, he won a prestigious journalism fellowship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation to spend a year traveling, researching and writing about the natural gas industry. He’d already written a book, Fire and Ice, focused on the deleterious effects…
Sex Is My Life, and I’m Good at It. So Why Did My Guy Dump Me?
Dear Reverend, Sex is my life, and I’m good at it. So why did my guy dump me? Lonesome Lover (male, 23) Dear Lonesome Lover, I was going to lead with “I hate to break it to ya,” but I’m actually very happy to clue you in to this nugget of wisdom: Sex is not…
New Funding Sought for Liaisons Who Connect New American Families With Schools
There’s no concise job description for Noor Bulle’s work in Burlington schools. As one of the district’s 11 multilingual liaisons, Bulle is part of a team that helps families with limited English proficiency navigate the school system and engage in their children’s education. The 2008 Burlington High School graduate, who speaks both Somali and Maay…
Letters to the Editor (2/17/21)
On Fraud I have nothing to do with the Ethan Allen Institute, but Jack McMullen and Rob Roper are correct regarding Dave Gram’s Fair Game column of January 27 [Feedback: “All is Not Well,” February 3; “Column ‘Does a Disservice,'” February 10]. It is shoddy journalism to imply that a legitimate concern about the possibility…
Is Elon Musk’s Satellite-Based Internet Service the Answer for Remote Vermonters?
When Dennis Roland retired to the hills outside Waterbury in 2014, he knew part of the price of a slower pace of life would be slower internet service. He didn’t know it would practically cost him his sanity. As a chemist at a New Jersey pharmaceutical company, Roland had been used to collaborating with colleagues…
Bottom Line: Wise Rose Beauty’s Maggie Hazard Highlights Community
Starting a business during a pandemic is like standing naked in the street, exposed and vulnerable, for the world to judge, according to Maggie Hazard. In other words, it’s terrifying. But that’s what Hazard, a 35-year-old Burlington resident, did in August. She bought the former Salon Salon in Winooski, rechristened it Wise Rose Beauty and…
Artist Matt Neckers’ Cataclysmic View at Vermont Studio Center
It goes without saying that Johnson, Vt., bears no resemblance to New York City, and its Pearl Street most certainly is not Fifth Avenue. Yet those who pass by Vermont Studio Center after dark are currently privy to a window display rivaling those of any Big Apple department store. It’s a view of Matt Neckers’…
Burlington Beer Cross-Pollinates Beer and Food With New Menu
At Burlington Beer’s brewery and taproom, visitors can not only drink the beer, they can eat it, too. In mid-January, chef Matt Spaulding and baker Josh Lemieux launched a new taproom menu designed to complement and showcase the brewery’s expansive range of beer styles, from sours to stouts. The culinary team reduces beer to mix…
Vermont Vermouth Puts Local Spin on a Classic Cocktail Staple
Vermouth is one of the ingredients most commonly used in classic cocktails. It sweetens a Manhattan, balances the bitterness of a Negroni or a boulevardier, and amps up the flavor of a martini or a Gibson. As cocktail culture has flourished over the past decade and these timeless drinks have regained popularity, so have their…
ArtsRiot Owner to Add Distillery
Magic Hat Brewing cofounder Alan Newman has hired experienced Vermont distiller Joe Buswell to work full time on a new Burlington distillery that is currently under construction. Newman hopes to open it this summer at 400 Pine Street, adjacent to ArtsRiot, the restaurant, bar and event space that he bought in July 2020. A self-described…
Eat Local VT App Maps Out Farms and Food Producers
During the pandemic, Vermonters have been seeking out local food more than ever. To make it easier to find, the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN), an organization devoted to revitalizing local land and food systems, has launched Eat Local VT, a map-based app that connects users to 230 farmers and food producers from Shelburne to…
