Jan 11-17, 2012
Taking on BTV’s Newest Direct Flight — to Toronto; Andy Bromage Takes Over “Fair Game;” Hitching the Length of Vermont; Hard Cider Is Back in Biz
Cover Story
Montpelier’s PoemCity Wants Your Words
April is the cruelest month, wrote T.S. Eliot in his famous 1922 poem “The Wasteland.” (Except he spelled it “cruellest” because, you know, he moved to England.) Is it a coincidence that in contemporary times April is also National Poetry Month stateside? In Montpelier, Vt., it’s the month in which passersby find poems by current…
Shumlin Halts Hiring of State “Spin Doctors”
When Gov. Peter Shumlin took office, he pledged to eliminate all the “communications” people from state agencies. He ended up hiring two press secretaries for his own office and gave new titles to some of the communications directors appointed by his predecessor. But the agencies have largely remained free of new flacks. So it was…
Temple Grandin to Speak at Vermont Grazing and Livestock Conference
There’s exciting news for the ag aficionados out there: Temple Grandin is coming to town. Well, she’s coming to Fairlee, Vt., which might be a bit of a hike for some. But the trip is worth taking: Grandin is a pioneering thinker in livestock handling, behavior and processing — in other words, the real deal (and…
Leahy Backs Down on Controversial Online Piracy Bill. Where Do Sanders and Welch Stand?
While most of Vermont was focused on Gov. Peter Shumlin’s budget address yesterday, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy was making national news on Vermont Public Radio’s “Vermont Edition.” And it had nothing to do with a cameo in the upcoming Batman movie. Leahy, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced on the show that he was…
Movies You Missed 21: Higher Ground
This week in movies you missed: Actress Vera Farmiga gets religion in her directorial debut, an irreverent movie that takes faith seriously. What You Missed Higher Ground is based on Carolyn Briggs’ 2002 memoir This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost, which details the author’s experiences as a young wife and mother…
Going Once, Going Twice! Mobile Slaughterhouse on the Auction Block
In the market for a slaughterhouse? You’re not alone: As of Thursday morning, the website Auctions International had logged 152 bids — and counting — for the state of Vermont’s mobile poultry-processing unit. Think “Pimp My Ride” gone poultry: Custom designed and built for the state, the 36-foot trailer comes with kill cones, an eviscerating…
7 Questions for … Survivor Sophie Clarke
Editor’s Note: Seven Days contributing writer Sarah Harris authored this post. Sophie Clarke is tough and smart. That’s what it took for the 22-year-old medical student and recent Middlebury College graduate from Willsboro, N.Y., to win “Survivor: South Pacific.” Sophie endured 39 days in grueling conditions and bested 16 other competitors to come away with…
Department of Public Safety Releases Results of First-Ever Survey of Vermont Medical Marijuana Patients
There’s tasty green bud in them thar hills, and the Green Mountains’ medical marijuana patients are smoking it by the ounce each month. Moreover, they’re using strains as diverse and colorfully named as a Benjamin Moore palette: White Widow, Strawberry Ice, Pink Fusion, Tangerine Dream, Grape Ape, Pineapple Express, Dutch Passion and Barney’s Farm Red…
Huntington, Vt.’s Roy Haynes featured on TLC’s “Extreme Cheapskates”
Clicking past the cable TV channel TLC is like trying to walk by a train wreck: It’s a gruesome disaster unfolding before your eyes but your morbid curiosity just won’t let you look away. Such was the case last night when some friends and I chanced upon TLC — which, I suspect, now stands…
Unscientific “Poll” Gives Wright Slight Lead in Burlington Mayor’s Race
From Haik Bedrosian’s blog Burlington Pol comes this totally unscientific — but still interesting — “straw poll” for the Burlington mayor’s race. The question was: Who is your choice for mayor? A total of 288 self-selected people have taken the poll so far. Here’s the break-down: Republican Kurt Wright: 43 percent (125 votes) Democrat Miro…
As Goes Japan…
Local author looks at responses to climate change — from the Pacific Rim to the Green Mountains
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Sanskrit word tapasya is translated as “heat,” but in the yogic tradition it means “essential energy.” It refers to the practice of managing your life force so that it can be directed to the highest possible purposes, thereby furthering your evolution as a spiritual being. Do you have any techniques…
News Quirks
Curses, Foiled Again After two men stole DVDs and computer games from a Target store in Madison, Wis., one of them accidentally pocket-dialed 911 with his cellphone. A dispatcher listened for 54 minutes as the men bragged about the heist, described their vehicle and discussed where to sell the goods. They agreed to try a…
![Onion River Cobbler [SIV252]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/episode252.webp?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1)
Onion River Cobbler [SIV252]
1/9/12: Eva visits Onion River Cobbler in Winooski Vermont where business is booming and owner Steven Hopkins, AKA “The Cobbler,” has been a fixture in town for 27 years. Music: Brothers McCann, Different Colors, “Shambles” Related Stories
Letters to the Editor
Hines Will Help Wright I just read the “Daily 7” e-newsletter re: Wanda Hines announcing her run for mayor [Blurt, “Wanda Hines Makes It Official: I Want to Be Mayor,” January 5]. While I have a world of respect for her contributions to the city of Burlington over the years, I feel Wanda’s decision to…
Crumbs
Leftover food news: El Cortijo opens; “Famous” Amos coming to Burlington; new restos in Stowe
State Police Seize Six Malnourished Horses From Jeffersonville Man
**Updated Below With New Photos of Seized Horses** State police and animal welfare agents seized six horses from a Jeffersonville man over the weekend. The action follows a December 14 story in Seven Days about the malnourished draft horses and the lack of good enforcement in large-animal cruelty cases in Vermont. Vermont State Police spokesperson Stephanie…
Fletcher Allen’s Family Medical Practices Adopt New Painkiller-Dispensing Procedure
Got pain? If so, you can’t just sit on the couch anymore and phone in your re-up for an extra 50 percocets or oxycontins, as if your doctor’s office were a pizza-delivery service. In an effort to crack down on Vermont’s rising tide of prescription drug abuse, Vermont Fletcher Allen’s Family Medicine Health Care Service, which employs…
Burlington Lawyer Fred Lane to U.S. Supreme Court: Let the Obscenities Fly!
In 1973, legendary comedian George Carlin waded nutsack-deep into legal hot water with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after a New York City public radio station, WBAI-FM, broadcast his now-infamous routine, “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” from his live stand-up comedy album, Occupation: Fool. For the young and/or uniformed, Carlin’s seven dirty…
Grazing at the Vermont Food Venture Center’s Grand Opening
On this gray day, there was one hopping place where you could lose yourself in a kaleidoscope of locally made morsels, from peach salsa, smoked trout and black currant simple syrup to gin, sweet potato dip, jalapeño chips and Bayley Hazen Blue cheese — and it wasn’t City Market. Friday marked the official ribbon cutting…
The Odum Statehouse Report: Coming Soon to a Paper Near You?
When Seven Days returned from its annual holiday break this week, we found a crapload of snail mail waiting for us. Within that pile was a curious pitch from the publisher of the Bridge, Montpelier’s weekly newspaper. “Dear Paula,” the letter began, referring to Seven Days coeditor and publisher Paula Routly. “Here is a proposal…
Movies You Missed 20: Puncture
This week in movies you missed: Captain America crusades for our nation’s health care workers and snorts lots of blow. What You Missed OK, it’s not Captain America, just Chris Evans, the actor who plays him. In this fact-based drama, which premiered in New York last fall, Evans plays Mike Weiss, a young Houston personal-injury…
Wanda Hines Makes It Official: I Want to Be Mayor
Longtime Burlington activist Wanda Hines made it official this morning: She’s running for mayor as an independent. The formal announcement will come at a press conference scheduled for 6 p.m. tomorrow, January 6, at North End Studios, but she confirmed her plans by phone with Seven Days this morning. “I’m jumping in,” she said. “I…
![The Renewal Chorus [251]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/episode251.webp?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1)
The Renewal Chorus [251]
1/2/12: The Renewal Chorus kicked off their 6th annual winter tour on a good note at the Church of Our Saviour in Killington on Monday night.
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “It is surely a great calamity for a human being to have no obsessions,” said poet Robert Bly. That’s why he decided to learn to love his obsessions. I urge you to keep his approach in mind throughout the coming months, Aries. You are likely to thrive to the degree that…
Do Vermonters Like Santorum?
When it comes to presidential politics, Vermont matters about as much as Idaho and only slightly more than Guam (whose citizens can send delegates to nominating conventions but can’t vote in elections). Which is to say, we’re basically ignored. Still, after last night’s first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses — and next Tuesday’s primary next door in New…
Burlington Rep. Rachel Weston to Step Down
State Rep. Rachel Weston (D-Burlington) is stepping down from her seat in the legislature to take a job overseas. Weston (pictured at right in a 2008 file photo) confirmed to Seven Days this afternoon she will resign her seat in the next week to take a job with the National Democratic Institute in Jordan. Weston…
Lowell Wind Opponents Decry USDA Forest Service Approval of Deerfield Wind Project
Just three days into 2012, Vermont’s critics of industrial wind power already have a new ridgeline in the sand to fight about: The USDA Forest Service just granted final approval to Iberdrola, Inc. to build more than a dozen, 393-foot wind turbines on two ridgelines in the Green Mountain National Forest in southern Vermont. The project,…
