Feb 19-25, 2020
Public Libraries Adapt to the 21st Century … and Uphold Democracy; Development and Parking Issues Animate South Burlington Race; How Burlington’s Boil-Water Advisory Affected Local Restaurants
Cover Story
Public Libraries Adapt to the 21st Century … and Uphold Democracy
Outside, frigid temperatures had turned Burlington’s latest snowfall into crusty meringue and rocks of ice. Inside the more hospitable Fletcher Free Library on a weekday morning, it was business as usual. A dozen or so patrons staked out chairs or tables in the spacious atrium; others browsed the stacks, settled into private nooks or waited…
Obituary: Dr. Declan Connolly, 1965-2020
Accomplished athletic researcher made his mark at the University of Vermont and beyond
The Parmelee Post: Bloomberg Purchases Multimillion Dollar Addition to Sanders’ Summer Camp
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg spent upwards of $30 million to completely renovate and expand the North Hero “summer camp” of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.), his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. The formerly $600,000, four-bedroom lakeside home now boasts 23 bedrooms, 17 bathrooms and one of Bloomberg’s trademark minority surveillance chambers, the last of…
Autumn Tomlinson Talks Printmaking and Her Residency at SPA
Autumn Tomlinson and her four siblings grew up living in a school bus on 10 acres in rural Coquille, Ore. They were homeschooled by their parents, full-time potters Greg Tomlinson and Lynne Brown. Autumn enjoyed working in ceramics and clay, and she particularly liked carving designs into her pieces. In college, Tomlinson dabbled in many…
Quick Lit: ‘Starvation Shore’ by Laura Waterman
Nothing improves my attitude toward Vermont winters like a book about a doomed arctic expedition. Compared with the plight of starving people huddled in inadequate shelters at 50 below, scraping the ice off your windshield so you can go buy groceries seems positively decadent. With Starvation Shore, East Corinth’s Laura Waterman offers a harrowing vicarious…
Things Go ‘Downhill’ for a Vacationing Couple in a Darkly Comic Reinterpretation of a Swedish Hit
Isn’t the whole reason American filmmakers remake films from other parts of the world that they’re worth seeing and most Americans haven’t seen them? Bong Joon-ho suggested recently that moviegoers in this country would do well to be less deterred by the “one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles.” The popularity of his film Parasite notwithstanding, it’s safe…
Theater review: ‘As You Like It,’ Plainfield Little Theatre
While many of William Shakespeare’s most frequently produced plays are set in regal locales — the courts and corridors of power and intrigue — some of his most magical moments take place in the wild. Dark woods are where fairies and spirits romp in such plays as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest. In…
‘The Photograph’ Offers Old-School Romance Without Hollywood Hyperbole
If romantic comedies are having a moment right now, romantic dramas are largely a thing of the past, a subgenre woefully dominated by Nicholas Sparks adaptations. Yet there was a time when earnest adult romances were big business, with people flocking to watch, say, Bette Davis and Paul Henreid falling in glamorous love in Now,…
Theater review: ‘The Seagull,’ BarnArts
In Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, everyone is busy pursuing art, love and happiness, and then realizing that, for the most part, all three are out of reach. It’s a sad story about comical characters who don’t, or at least shouldn’t, take themselves too seriously. In the BarnArts production at the Grange Theatre in South Pomfret,…
‘They Say a Lady Was the Cause of It’ Explores Identity Through Dance and Music
At a recent rehearsal in Burlington for the new work They Say a Lady Was the Cause of It, 11 dancers sat at a long table facing the audience. The scene was reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” — but far less staid, as dancers gestured and moved with abandon. One stood on…
What’s the Story Behind Newscaster Céline McArthur’s Necklace?
This story must begin with a confession: We were skeptical at first. A reader suggested we look into the story behind Céline McArthur’s sun-shaped necklace, a signature piece of jewelry that glistens frequently around the neck of the WCAX-TV news anchor and investigative reporter. How much intrigue could there be in a single piece of…
Theater Preview: ‘The Sweet Science of Bruising,’ Dartmouth College
In 1722, Elizabeth Wilkinson, the first female pugilist to attain something like celebrity status, placed an ad in the London Journal to settle a beef: “I, Elizabeth Wilkinson, of Clerkenwell, having had some words with Hannah Hyfield, and requiring Satisfaction, do invite her to meet me on the Stage and Box me.” Wilkinson went on…
Soundbites: OpinioNation Puts a New Twist on Pub Trivia
Survey Says… As you may or may not know, this column is meant to cover any and all aspects of local music and nightlife. And one extremely popular slice of nightly entertainment hasn’t really gotten its due. I’m talking about trivia, which has become insanely popular and proliferated in the past several years. It turns…
Free Will Astrology (2/19/20)
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 1908, British playwright W. Somerset Maugham reached the height of success. Four of his plays were being performed concurrently in four different London theaters. If you were ever in your life going to achieve anything near this level of overflowing popularity or attention, I suspect it would be this year.…
The Geographical Inclinations of Vermont Singer-Songwriter Kyle Woolard
The rolling hills, wide pastures and winding dirt roads of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom make the tri-county area feel trapped in a time before smartphones, social media and 24-hour news coverage. It’s precisely this raw geographical splendor and off-the-grid vibe that led singer-songwriter Kyle Woolard to settle in Glover. “It’s ripped out of the pages of…
Should I Intervene With Negligent Dog Owners?
Dear Reverend, The other night I was walking my dog when I noticed another dog trailing behind us. She slowly approached and was very sweet and submissive. There were no owners in sight. An address was listed on the dog tag, so I brought her home a few streets over. When I knocked on the…
Don Rico, ‘Don Rico’s Next Album’
(Self-released, digital) Praise be to whatever deity you get down with, because there is still a college indie-rock scene! Constant change is the nature of the beast in a college town — bands appear in a bright flash before disappearing with a shrug. As such, maintaining any sort of scene continuity can be problematic. There’s…
Yung Breeze, ‘Sofia Grace’
(Street Religion, CD, digital) Yung Breeze is an MC and producer from Brattleboro with a hunger to match his growing rep. He is widely acclaimed, by both listeners and other artists, as one of the best rappers in Vermont. But those accolades mean very little to him: Breeze clearly intends his debut LP, Sofia Grace,…
Lawmakers Consider a Diminished Role for Act 250’s Regional Commissions
There’s a lot for advocates of both the environment and development to love in the package of proposed changes to Vermont’s landmark land use law, Act 250, now working its way through legislative committees. Environmental groups applaud new language meant to promote energy efficiency, protect unbroken tracts of forest, keep wildlife corridors intact and reduce…
Development, Parking Issues Animate South Burlington City Council Race
One of the fiercest city council fights in Chittenden County is being waged in a pair of South Burlington parking lots. In one lot: outspoken five-term incumbent and current vice chair Meaghan Emery, known for her willingness to tussle with airport officials and her counterparts in Burlington. In the other lot: Development Review Board chair…
Letters to the Editor (2/19/20)
‘Turn Off the Hyperbole’ It was disappointing to read Paul Heintz’s analysis of the primary results in the article “Berning It Up,” [February 12]. I generally appreciate Heintz’s reporting; however, his comment that the New Hampshire results were “enough to solidify [Bernie Sanders’] standing as the front-runner in a crowded and volatile race” sounds like…
To the Rescue? Burlington Wants Money for EMTs in Year of Big Tax Increases
Mary Mougey remembers one thing clearly about the day her husband had a heart attack: It took forever for the ambulance to arrive. Her family was attending a neighborhood gathering on Crescent Beach, a private stretch of lakefront in Burlington, on August 23, 2008, when David LaBracio collapsed after a dip in Lake Champlain. Mougey…
Capital Cuisine: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner in Montpelier
Over the past couple of weeks, I ate my way through Montpelier: breakfast, lunch and dinner at restaurants near the Vermont Statehouse. I also stopped at Rabble-Rouser for samples of free chocolate, drank a martini at Three Penny Taproom, my favorite bar, and watched lawmakers fail by one vote to override Gov. Phil Scott’s veto…
Review: How Is Burlington’s 25-Year-Old Trattoria Delia Holding Up?
If I were a server at Trattoria Delia, I would be able to recite the details of every item in the bountiful antipasto misto. Mastering that information is part of the rigorous staff training that includes multipage food, wine and service tests and has long made the Italian restaurant on St. Paul Street a standout…
