Flick Chick
Marseilles has always been a notorious city. In recent times, right-wing politicians, upscale developers and struggling immigrants have been added to the French seaport’s traditional mix of seafarers, prostitutes, gangsters and black-market profiteers. It’s also Robert Guediguian’s birthplace and, in The Town Is Quiet, the writer-director examines the myriad sorrows beneath its sun-drenched Mediterranean façade.…
Vows That Wow: A sampling of altar-nate utterances for the modern bride and groom
You’ve agonized for months about venues, guest lists, bands, outfits, relatives and food. Now you’re going to exchange boiler plate “vows” that sound like something out of a Shakespeare play? Why not make your lines match your lifestyle, reflecting core beliefs about love, honor and the tolerance you’ll need to survive married life? Here are…
Tying the Knots: Designer Debbie LaFramboise takes the stress out of dressing brides
You’ve got to take off your shoes — and don on a pair of white satin gloves — to gain admission to Burlington’s Sewly Yours & Once Upon a Bride. Embroidered in eggplant-colored cursive, the warning sign at the entrance of the shop sits on an antique table among pots of purple and white flowers…
Bridesmaid Revisited: A sartorial survival story from one of the wedding party
If you want your bridesmaids to like you after the wedding, here are a few suggestions from someone who’s been there. • Give them specifications and let them choose their own dress. • Remember, not everyone looks good in an Empire waist or thinks peach is an appropriate color for a dress. • Better yet,…
A Match Made in Vegas: Vermont couples “do” it up with wacky weddings
It wasn’t just any Elvis impersonator that Bernadette and David Mills landed when they tied the knot in Las Vegas last year. He was the most sought-after Elvis impersonator in show biz. The Burlington couple had eschewed a traditional ceremony at home for an elopement to Sin City’s famed Little White Chapel, where the walls…
Bed Check: A reclining writer celebrates the ups and downs of getting horizontal
Every 16 hours or so, most humans simply wish to do one thing: drop. Down we inevitably go, spending our nights in that rasping, dreaming, snoring state of sheet-trapped flatulence and night sweats known as sleep. Ever adaptable, we can essentially drop anywhere — in a car alongside the freeway, on a small fragrant fluff…
True Confessions: The Seven Days Sex Survey results
Seven Days survey respondents are: gender 47% men 51.7% women 1.2% other age 16–75 years old 49% 22-35 years old 34% 36-55 years old sexual orientation 71% heterosexual 12.2% homosexual 16% bisexual status 15.7% single and miserable 21.7% single and content 23.3% going steady 32.7% partnered and content 6.6% partnered and miserable political affiliation 6.1%…
The Quiet Man
That was the name of the classic 1952 John Ford film shot in the west of Ireland, starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. It’s also a name that fits the current favorite horse in the 2002 Gubernatorial Stakes — Doug Racine. The three-term Democratic lieutenant governor has quietly been working for this moment for more…
Nose Job
Four police officers were surrounding a young man on the sidewalk by the courthouse as I took the corner recently onto lower Church Street. Since Im not above rubbernecking for a good street drama, I pulled into the convenient taxi stand at the side of Manhattan Pizza, cut the ignition and cracked my window. One…
Back Talk
Can a Single Pebble multiply? What sounds like a Zen koan is also a standard tenet of culinary capitalism. After four years going gangbusters next to a bowling alley on the Barre-Montpelier Road, the best Chinese restaurant in Vermont — make that New England — is duplicating itself in Burlington. “If we replicate what we…
