Jan 22-28, 2020
Vermonters Respond to the Climate Crisis — With Grief and Action; Burlington Considers Allowing Noncitizens to Vote, Again; Mirabelles Is Moving, but Here Are More Breakfast Destinations in Downtown Burlington
Cover Story
Vermonters Respond to the Climate Crisis With Grief and Action
Last spring, 27-year-old Lauren Weston quit her job as a water resource engineer at Milone & MacBroom in Waterbury and moved to a yurt on a farm in Franklin County. Over the last decade, the path from the corporate world to the yurt has seen plenty of millennial foot traffic, but Weston’s reasons for abandoning…
The Parmelee Post: Millions of Individual Organ Donors Contribute to Sanders’ Senate Decoy
The presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says it has stitched together more than 1 million individual organ donations to create a life-sized Sanders replica. The Sanders Senate decoy will sit in the U.S. Senate chamber for the remainder of the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, allowing the real Sanders to remain focused on…
Obituary: Steve E. Wright IV, 1941-2020
Former Sterling College president and Fish & Wildlife commissioner dies of Parkinson’s
Obituary: Karen Franco Juknis, 1951-2020
Barre-born woman grew up to teach at her hometown middle school
Banned 1927 Mae West Play Gets a Reading at Vermont Pride Theater
When it debuted in Connecticut in January 1927, Mae West’s play The Drag lasted all of 10 performances before it was banned. The play’s subtitle, A Homosexual Comedy in Three Acts, explains why the prudish powers of the day deemed it too titillating for public eyes. But here’s the thing: That was probably only the…
Chaotic Family Flick ‘Dolittle’ Does Little to Entertain
Was the surreal cockroach chorus line in Cats the highlight of your holiday moviegoing? Are you unafraid of walking through the Uncanny Valley where disturbingly realistic CG critters reside? You’re in luck. The new family film Dolittle features a scene in which a dragonfly (voice of Jason Mantzoukas) negotiates a deal with a Sicilian-accented ant…
Hemp Processor Jack Nichol Is a Budding Entrepreneur
Name: Jack Nichol Job: Mobile mechanized hemp processor Town: St. Albans Jack Nichol had a long career helping others get high — airborne, that is — before he started Canna-Trim, a mechanized bud-trimming business that serves Vermont’s cannabis industry. The 37-year-old San Jose, Calif., native is a retired U.S. Marine who spent five years as…
Bear’s Tapestry, ‘Wind & Water’
(Self-released, digital) Wind & Water, the debut record from Bear’s Tapestry, is the latest offering in what has been a banner couple of years for Vermont’s indie-folk scene. A project of Burlington singer-songwriter Bear Borges, this is a gorgeous, lush EP. It’s played brilliantly and recorded adroitly with equal parts movement and theme. In fact,…
Art Review: ‘Love Letters,’ Helen Day Art Center
Last week, Stowe’s Helen Day Art Center opened “Love Letters,” a nine-artist exhibition that, despite what the title might suggest, isn’t at all about impending Valentine’s Day. The small show exemplifies the acutely intelligent curation that visitors have come to expect from Rachel Moore, who is also the art center’s executive director. Moore reimagines the…
Free Will Astrology (1/22/20)
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I’m a big fan of self-editing. For example, every horoscope I write evolves over the course of at least three drafts. For each book I’ve published, I have written but then thrown away hundreds of pages that I ultimately deemed weren’t good enough to be a part of the finished text.…
No Retreat? Brattleboro Mental Hospital’s Future Is Uncertain
On January 5, Agency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith issued a press release saying the Brattleboro Retreat’s CEO had threatened to close the psychiatric hospital unless it received a $2 million infusion in state aid. Instead of coughing up the money, Smith publicly chastised the hospital’s leader for asking the state for a life…
Vermont’s ‘Fishin’ Politician’ Faults the Ethics Panel That Let Him Off the Hook
The Vermont House of Representatives Ethics Panel had to wrestle with some unusual questions last year as it considered a wide-ranging complaint against Rep. Chris Bates (D-Bennington). Is it unethical for a Vermont lawmaker to have an outstanding felony arrest warrant from another state, or to misstate one’s criminal background during a radio call-in show?…
Burlington Considers Allowing Noncitizens to Vote — Again
Martin Baumann and his wife, Gabriele, moved to Burlington in 1998 and sent four children through the local school system. Gabriele volunteered as the Parent Teacher Organization’s fundraising chair, helping organize pancake breakfasts and silent auctions. But when it came time to consider the school budget, the Baumanns couldn’t cast a ballot. As German citizens,…
Art Therapist Emily Piccirillo Wants to Help You Deal With Loss
Emily Piccirillo keeps a six-inch stack of index cards, soft and fraying at the edges, bound with a length of red ribbon. Each card is marked with a name and a few notes and dates. Each represents a person Piccirillo knew who died during the 18 years she served the AIDS community as an art…
New Head Stretchers Society Challenges Us to Learn New Things
A lot is going on at Burlington’s Karma Bird House. The coworking space at 47 Maple Street is a maze of hallways and creaky wooden floors leading to shared spaces and the offices of therapists, acupuncturists, environmental nonprofits and marketing firms. It includes, as well, Kestrel Coffee Roasters and Iskra Print Collective. Now, building co-owners…
Where on the Connecticut River Is the Vermont-New Hampshire Border?
Online and mobile GPS mapping programs have improved considerably in recent years but are still a far cry from the gold standard of cartography. Ask Google Maps for driving directions from any U.S. city to Vermont without entering a specific address, and it’ll direct you to a forest clearing in Morristown owned by Kristine and…
Soundbites: Jade Marcotte and Kendall Farrell Present ‘Rude: A Comedy Show’
Why You Gotta Be So Rude? Anyone who’s been single in Vermont knows that the dating scene here can be rough. Like, really rough. Our isolated communities and slow trickle of newly arrived singles are probably what make it so tough for lonely hearts to connect in the Green Mountains. I have a little saying…
I’m Seeing My Son and Grandson Less, and It Hurts
Dear Reverend, A long time ago, I was forced to give up my son for adoption. After becoming an adult, he found me, and it was pure bliss for me. I could finally stop hating myself. For a while it was amazing; we spent a lot of time together. Then he got married, and I…
A2VT Make a Confident Return With New Album ‘Twenty Infinity’
In 2012, the City of Winooski got a new, unofficial motto: “Winooski, my town.” The simple catchphrase, meant as a symbol of pride as well as a statement of residence, came from a song of the same name by A2VT, a local global-pop band composed of three young African refugees. The song’s music video went…
‘Bombshell’ Drops None As It Tells the Story of Roger Ailes’ Downfall
I came this close to working for Roger Ailes, the mastermind behind Fox News and the #MeToo monster in Bombshell. I reviewed movies for an NBC affiliate and had acquired an agent to propagate my wit and wisdom beyond the tristate area. The guy happened to know Ailes. In the months leading up to Fox…
Letters to the Editor (1/22/20)
Wrong Crossword? I read most of Seven Days every week, but my favorite part is the crossword. We work on it together as a family. But the last two weeks have been reruns?! Not nearly as much fun. Is this a permanent thing, and we’ll never see another new riddle or bad pun? Or is…
PREECE, ‘Give Preece a Chance’
(Self-released, digital) PREECE are a pop-punk project carried almost entirely by multi-instrumental songwriter Sean Preece. The band’s latest release is an unlikely stylistic turn. Rather than another slab of anthemic angst, Give Preece a Chance consists of acoustic versions of songs from his strong 2018 debut, Bad Choices Make Good Stories. Now, if you’re thinking…
Those Mittens Bernie Sanders Wears Campaigning Are Made in Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is known for his frumpy and unkempt attire. His latest sartorial choice, mittens he wore during the Women’s March on Saturday in Portsmouth, N.H., certainly made an impression. The oversize mittens, called “oven mitts” by some, went viral online and soon had their own @BerniesMittens Twitter account. “Feeling the BERN not…
A Tased Man Claims Excessive Force by St. Albans Cops
One Thursday night last February, St. Albans police officers received a call that a man had broken the glass door of a downtown pub and left on a bicycle. Cpl. Mark Schwartz drove down Main Street to find him. He spotted a man on the sidewalk, stopped his cruiser and flicked on its blue lights.…
Burlington Breakfast Destinations That Can Power Your Day
With the closing of Mirabelles Café on January 25 before its move to the burbs — where the staff will no longer serve cooked breakfast — Burlington loses one of its longtime morning meal favorites. But not all is lost! Perhaps devotees of the Main Street institution need to be reminded about the other Queen…
Mirabelles Moves to the ’Burbs, Focuses on Bakery Biz
Almost 30 years ago, two friends who met at the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier opened a bakery and café on Main Street in Burlington. Alison Lane and Andrew Silva, then in their twenties, named their business Mirabelles. Tablecloths made by Lane’s mother covered a set of glass-topped tables. The deli case held imported…
Einstein’s Tap House to Open in Burlington
The oft-changing nightlife venue upstairs at 165 Church Street in Burlington is smartening up. When it opens in February, Einstein’s Tap House will work to “shake the reputation” of the space, owner Tom Massey told Seven Days. Food, ample seating and an emphasis on safety will characterize the bar in the former home of a…
New Owners Don the Aprons at Otter Creek Bakery
Sarah and Ben Wood, founders and longtime owners of Otter Creek Bakery in Middlebury, sold their business to a Nashville-based entrepreneur at the start of 2020. The new owner of the bakery and café at 14 College Street is Ned Horton, 59, a Vermont native and graduate of Middlebury Union High School. Horton, who owns…
