Jan 15-21, 2020
Wellness Issue: Creating Olfactory Virtual Reality for Health Care; Old-School Figure Skating Can Put Your Stress on Ice; Pictal Health Helps Design Better Treatment Plans; The Yerbary Updates a Traditional Remedy: Fire Cider
Obituary: Karen Gibson Stokdyk, 1951-2020
Burlington resident worked at Gardener’s Supply and valued lifelong friendships
Obituary: Scott Campitelli, 1959-2020
Vermont PBS staffer loved Mister Rogers, community, connection and canines
Birth Announcement: Hazel Evans Thomsen
On January 14, 2020, at Porter Medical Center, Haley Thomsen and Austin Haynes welcomed a girl, Hazel Evans Thomsen.
Obituary: Gladys Zelman, 1943-2020
One of Vermont’s first hospice nurses spent a lifetime serving others
Why Do I Pee During Masturbation?
Dear Reverend, Why do I keep peeing during masturbation if I went pee beforehand? Moist Muff (female, 18) Dear Moist Muff, Although I’m almost certain what you’re describing is female ejaculation, I do wish I could ask you some questions. Is it a lot of fluid? A little? Does it only happen when you have…
Sam Mendes’ ‘1917’ Sends Viewers to War in a Technical Tour de Force
Sam Mendes isn’t one to get in a rut. Some directors pursue success through association with a popular genre, character or franchise. The British-born auteur’s filmography, however, could hardly be more all over the map. In 20 years, he’s made unflinching studies of suburban life (American Beauty [1999] and Revolutionary Road [2008]), a couple of…
OVR Technology Is Creating Olfactory Virtual Reality for Health Care, Education and Training
My first experience with olfactory virtual reality was truly trippy. Wearing a VR headset and holding a controller in each hand, I stood in a 3D room at OVR Technology in Burlington, gazing at a virtual table holding plates of tomato slices, garlic bulbs and basil leaves. As instructed by Jesse Stein, vice president of…
Letters to the Editor (1/15/20)
Cow Cruelty I was disappointed that the “Emoji That” [January 8] about the “spilled” cows didn’t state the number that were fine, injured, euthanized or anything about their condition. They are a major contributor to Vermont’s economy. Unfeeling! Allen Banbury Marshfield Whither Fair Game? It’s great to see John Walters has a new gig analyzing…
Civil Rights Drama ‘Just Mercy’ Manages to Transcend Formula
This has been a good year for “moments of Zen” in movies. In A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Fred Rogers asks a reporter to take a moment to think about everyone who “raised him up with love.” The two men go silent, everyday sounds retreat, and an interview in a busy restaurant somehow becomes…
Hungry for More Than Knowledge: UVM Students Combat Food Insecurity on Campus
Sarah Horrigan is accustomed to eating on the cheap. One morning last week in her Buell Street apartment kitchen in Burlington, she cracked two eggs — fresh and free from her parents’ North Hero farm — into a pan sizzling with green peppers and onions. As her store-brand English muffin browned in the toaster oven,…
The Women of Black Sabbitch Discuss Why They Don’t Feel Like a Tribute Group
For the past several years, nostalgia has driven the entertainment industry. Reboots, spin-offs, reimaginings, remakes, sequels and prequels have dominated movie theater marquees and streaming services alike. While products have ranged from excellent to downright awful, pining for yesteryear hasn’t yet subsided. The same phenomenon hit the live music scene, as well. Though cover bands…
The Seven Days Wellness Issue, 2020
It’s two weeks into 2020, so we’ve gotta ask: How are those New Year’s resolutions to get in shape shaping up? Are you hitting the gym daily, cutting carbs, and enjoying the mental and physical clarity of Dry January? Or did you go to the gym once, get discouraged, and seek refuge in a bowl…
Progressives Jolt Vermont’s Top 2020 Campaigns
Plans by two top Vermont Progressive Party-affiliated politicians to run for governor and lieutenant governor this year have made party supporters giddy at the prospect of Progs reaching a new pinnacle of influence in Vermont. Two-term Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman of Hinesburg (P/D) announced Monday that he will challenge Republican Gov. Phil Scott. Senate President…
Hackie: Clubbing With Giants
Sitting beside me in my taxi, my customer, Linda Avena, appeared serene as she gazed out at the passing landscape of snow-covered homes, barns and fields. It was a crisp and sunny afternoon in the newly minted year and decade. Optimism is a hard quality to summon these days, but the sheer natural beauty of…
Gallery Profile: Soapbox Arts in Burlington
Patricia Trafton graduated from Burlington High School in 2010 and headed to New York University, intending to study journalism or English. A first-semester art history course upended her plan. The class combined all her interests, Trafton said, and she realized that art was what she wanted to pursue. What she didn’t know was that one…
How Old-School Figure Skating Can Put Your Stress on Ice
Skating a figure eight is a little like ballroom dancing without a partner. The pattern is simplicity itself, but it doesn’t work without a rigid torso, ritual and rhythm. Start on the right outside edge of your blade, right arm forward, and make a circle bisected by the center line, changing arms halfway through. Repeat…
Soundbites: Pons, boys cruise and Don Rico Go to the Circus
Pink Elephants During a recent phone call with Jack Parker of local bands Pons and boys cruise, neither of us could remember if we’d ever been to a real circus. I’ve seen artsy-fartsy, new-age circuses such as Cirque Éloize and Cirque du Soleil, and I grew up watching minor celebrities perform underwhelming stunts on “Circus…
VSO Executive Director Ben Cadwallader Takes New Job in LA
Just a little more than four years after Ben Cadwallader became the energetic new executive director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, he’s moving to California to take up the same position with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Cadwallader, 35, brought new audiences to the VSO through innovative programming in unexpected venues — particularly the Jukebox…
As New Americans Leave Vermont, State Seeks Ways to Be More Hospitable
In 2009, Yam Mishra left a Bhutanese refugee camp and landed in Arizona. Eighteen months later, he and his family moved to Vermont to be with his in-laws. He put down roots, working as a program manager at the Burlington nonprofit Howard Center and buying a home with help from the Champlain Housing Trust. But…
A Cult Awareness Educator Helps Survivors by Sharing Her Own Cautionary Tale
It’s been eight years since Margaret Pitkin’s world crumbled, but she’s finally comfortable admitting to herself and others that she once belonged to a cult. The 37-year-old Albany, Vt., native was introduced to Anusara Yoga in 2001 at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., after a friend talked her into enrolling in a class. Pitkin wasn’t…
The Röse Parade, ‘Hyena Dream Machine’
(Marlvina Records, digital) Chuck Brewer is far too humble. The singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer unassumingly submitted the audaciously titled Hyena Dream Machine, his debut album as the Röse Parade, in the email equivalent of a plain white envelope. If only the contents matched the packaging, I might have understood why he downplayed his masterful creation.…
Cartoon News: Rachel Lindsay Returns; Ryan Riddle Joins In
Fans of Seven Days’ Fun Stuff pages — aka the cartoons — probably noticed the return of Rachel Lindsay last week. The Burlington cartoonist, who won acclaim for her 2019 book Rx: A Graphic Memoir, temporarily ceased publication of her weekly strip “Rachel Lives Here Now.” But Lindsay says she missed it and the connection…
Transitory Symphony, ‘Chasing Summer’
(Self-released, digital) There was a period of time in which almost every woman in my life, from lovers to friends to family, were all sending me Rainer Maria Rilke quotes. Whether in letters or social media comments — even spelled out in frosting on a cake — the women whose orbits I’d cross all agreed…
Multimedia Performance ‘The Just and the Blind’ Addresses Incarceration
In The Just and the Blind, musician Daniel Bernard Roumain, spoken-word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph and dancer Drew Dollaz pose profound and nuanced questions about race, freedom and justice in America. Rather than offer explicit solutions, the fusion of music, poetry, sound, film and dance that the New York Times called “a raw cry from…
Women Behind the Sports Bra to Be Inducted Into Inventors Hall of Fame
Three women who created the sports bra in Burlington will soon be enshrined in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Hinda Miller, Lisa Lindahl and Polly Smith are part of the 2020 class, along with the brains behind laser dermatology, synthetic lubricants and ibuprofen, among others. The hall will honor the inductees in May at…
No Escape: Furloughed Inmates Get Jailed Again and Again
Eleven days after Jennifer Caplin walked out of the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, she was transported by ambulance to the University of Vermont Medical Center with a life-threatening blood infection. The 40-year-old Montpelier native had been part of a small wave of inmates released from the women’s prison last month in the aftermath of a…
#VTArts251 Project Turns Up Art Everywhere
Last year the Vermont Arts Council fostered a statewide project called #VTArts251. The name recalls the 251 Club of Vermont, whose members aim to visit all 251 towns in the state. The arts council’s goal was to receive photos from artists of every stripe in every Vermont town, who were invited to submit images of…
Book Review: ‘Repeopling Vermont: The Paradox of Development in the Twentieth Century’ by Paul M. Searls
By some measures, the major problem Vermont faces today is one of population. The numbers are flat or slightly shrinking, particularly in rural areas, and Vermonters have the third-oldest median age in the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In a recent attempt to ameliorate the situation, the state created a grant program to…
Can We Design Our Way to Better Health? Some Vermonters Think So
Dave Justice was 40 when he realized he was probably dying. He’d been sick for as long as he could remember. Every time he ate, his stomach would be hit with a pain that felt like barbed wire, so incapacitating that he had to lie down and wait for it to pass. He was tested…
Free Will Astrology (1/15/20)
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “I love to be surprised by something I have never thought of,” declares Capricorn actor Ralph Fiennes. According to my analysis of the astrological aspects, you’ll be wise to make that one of your top mottoes in 2020. Why? First, life is likely to bring to your attention a steady stream…
The Yerbary Has a Modern Take on an Old Home Remedy
Herbal remedies are the stuff of grandmothers and pyramid schemes, right? If you buy into their concoction, they tell you — the grandmothers sometimes more forcefully than the pyramid schemes — just a little every day will cure whatever ails you. Michaela Grubbs, CEO and founder of Charlotte-based company the Yerbary Master Tonic, doesn’t fit…
Revolution Kitchen Highlights the Humble Cauliflower
In the years since my parents died, I’m left with questions I wish I’d asked them. Today, for example, I have one for my father that I failed to pose in the half century I might have: Why is cauliflower your favorite food? My father had a command of language and was a thoughtful observer…
Chubby Muffin to Close Next Month, Become Co-op Space
The Chubby Muffin, at 88 Oak Street in Burlington, will close on February 29, according to co-owner Benjy Adler. The restaurant and its on-site commissary kitchen, which both opened in fall 2010, are part of the Skinny Pancake restaurant group. The neighborhood café near Roosevelt Park serves sweet and savory muffins, panini, burgers, and summer…
Owners Close Mama’s Hand Made Italian, Focus on Downtown Grocery in Ludlow
Ski-season dining options look a little different near Okemo Mountain Resort this winter. Ludlow’s Mama’s Hand Made Italian closed its doors in late October after two years of serving handcrafted pastas and Italian classics. Owners Abby and Rogan Lechthaler have decided to focus exclusively on Downtown Grocery, the area’s first farm-to-table fine-dining restaurant, which the…
Vietnamese Resto Saigon Kitchen Opens in ONE
Burlington’s Old North End has a new Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon Kitchen. Located at 112 North Street, the restaurant opened on December 31. “So far, it’s been very busy,” owner Anthony Tran told Seven Days. Tran has worked at his father’s Thai Phat market on North Street for 15 years. “Customers at the market would ask…
Bakery La Brioche Moves In With NECI on Main
This week, the New England Culinary Institute moves its bakery and café, La Brioche, from its longtime location at 89 Main Street in Montpelier across the street to 118 Main. A daytime business, La Brioche will share space with NECI’s dinner restaurant, NECI on Main. “It will work beautifully,” NECI president Milan Milasinovic said of…
