Woman on Top? Seven Days Selects Six Who Could Become Madame Mayor
Hip Vermont City on Lake Champlain with left-leaning political tradition ISO sharp, articulate, confident woman to lead and inspire municipal government of 39,000 in university town admired and imitated by civic leaders across the country. Political awareness, not correctness, desired. Must be able to explain socio-economic differences between Old and New North End; why the…
Mother’s Little Helper: In childbirth, doulas deliver peace of mind
Genevieve Bogdanowicz snoozes blissfully on a recent sunny afternoon, unaware of how she came into the world seven days earlier. Her mom, Joanne Beaubien of Burlington, decided to rely on the services of a doula: Sally MacFadyen eased the way before, during and after the February 13 birth of Beaubien’s daughter. “Doulas have existed since…
Grandmotherland: Tracing a heritage through the moves of a matriarch
We called our mother’s mother Big Grandma to distinguish her from our father’s mother, who stood less than five feet tall. But even without Little Grandma standing at her shoulder, Big Grandma was a commanding presence, articulate and opinionated. She enjoyed Canadian Club and opera, played a cut-throat game of Scrabble, and made a mean…
Pushing Buttons: A conservative klatch finds “True North” on the right end of the dial
Joyce in Winooski” is concerned about a supermarket employee somewhere who pummeled a customer trying to buy 13 items at a 12-items-or-less checkout line. Responding from just across town at the Champlain Mill studio of WKDR, Laurie Morrow tells the caller that the victim ought to file a civil suit. Kelsey Bush Nadeau, her “True…
The Last Taboo
One of the most ignored countries on Earth just enjoyed a historic Winter Olympics. It’s a country near and dear to Vermont, but also a world away. Like comedian Rodney Dangerfield would put it, “Canada can’t get no respect.” And even though the United States of America was its victim on the Salt Lake ice,…
Patriot Games
Greeting me at the top of a gray Sunday morning, on the front page of The New York Times, was the report that Mr. Osama bin Laden, the Evil One, may still be alive on the western edges of Afghan-istan. This news was offered with the customary, mile-long caveats The administration is not claiming…
Old Dog, New Trix
Rael One-Cloud doesn’t want you to know how old she is — “Eek! Can’t I just be twentysomething?” — and she pleads the Fifth when the conversation shifts to money. But she rants and raves about nearly everything else in her long-running Burlington-based zine, Alphabitch Afterbirth. Zines — derivative of “magazines” — are published by…
Flick Chick
The proliferation of film festivals, a phenomenon witnessed around the world during the last decade, has finally reached Vermont. Two new ventures are about to debut on the state’s cultural calendar, alongside existing annual cinematic extravaganzas in Burlington and Montpelier. In April, the Queen City’s free “Estrogen Fest” will focus on women’s issues. Two months…
