Jun 18-24, 2014
Vermont Senator Dick Sears Is the Man to Fix the Department for Children and Families; Oil Trains Along Lake Champlain; Bread & Puppet Ponders its Legacy; Taste Test: Pascolo Ristorante
Cover Story
From State Ward to the Statehouse: Meet Sen. Dick Sears
Route 2 runs directly from Montpelier to downtown St. Johnsbury, requiring little in the way of navigation as it passes through small towns and farms. Nonetheless, state Sen. Dick Sears fumbles with a GPS for several minutes before slipping his Ford Fusion into drive and starting the trip on a steamy June morning. Sears, who…
Obituary: Elizabeth V. Conte
Elizabeth V. Conte passed away Wednesday evening, June 18, 2014 at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington. Mrs. Conte was born in St. Albans, February 9, 1927 the only child of Frederick W. and Lucia May (Wilder) Van Allen. A 1944 graduate of Swanton High School, she went on to receive her Bachelor of Arts…
Obituary: Guy Mongeon, 1924-2014, Colchester
Guy Mongeon, 89, passed away peacefully June 19, 2014. He was born September 3, 1924 to August and Alice (Patenaude) Mongeon. He served in the Army Airforce during WWII and was a member of the VFW. Guy enjoyed reading, walking, gardening, and especially the senior trips to the casinos. He is survived by his beloved…
22 Jump Street
Got a minute for a metaphor? Just for fun, let’s think of movie comedy as a universe and consider the ways it’s expanded since 2007. Something really quite remarkable has happened in front of our eyes. That was the year of the Big Bang. Once synonymous with Hollywood humor, Jim Carrey’s star had gone white…
Opinion: Considering Baby Killings, and Justice
[Image-1] These last few months Vermonters have been anguished over the deaths of two of their youngest citizens — Dezirae Sheldon, just shy of her second birthday; and Peighton Geraw, barely older than 1. Dezirae’s stepfather, Dennis Duby, allegedly crushed her head until her skull gave way. Peighton’s mother, Nytosha LaForce, is accused of shaking…
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The key factor that lifts DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon series above other cute-animal kiddie animations is its reluctance to anthropomorphize. Sure, it’s fun when cartoon critters riff in the voices of baggy-pants comedians — and a staple of classic animation. But there’s also something uniquely appealing, especially to kids, about animals acting like…
Vermont Folklife Center and Brewer Link Past and Present
The Vikings fermented honey into mead. Ancient Babylonians and Egyptians were avid brewers of beer. The Incas turned maize and cassava into the powerful drink known as chicha. Apparently human beings everywhere have a strong desire to ferment and drink what’s around them. Vermonters are no exception. Old-timers long ago found a clever way to…
Book Review: Bittersweet
It’s easy for readers to empathize with a fictional character who wants to find love, solve a mystery or save the world. But a protagonist who yearns to be rich? That can be a harder sell. And yet, for all our egalitarian ideals, the lure of the monied lifestyle is a theme running through American…
Something With Strings, Unfurled
[Image-1] (Self-released, CD, digital download) Something With Strings have been pickin’ and grinnin’ around Burlington for the better part of the past five years. Trading in an agreeable and familiar hybrid of bluegrass, pop and jam rock, the quintet exists, stylistically speaking, somewhere in the space between Old Crow Medicine Show, String Cheese Incident and…
Healthy Debate: Shumlin’s Republican Foe Calls Himself “Agnostic” on Single-Payer
In a typical election year, the recent spate of setbacks at Vermont Health Connect might spell trouble for Gov. Peter Shumlin and his fellow Democrats, coming just five months before voters go to the polls. But this is no typical election year. As expected, last Thursday’s filing deadline passed without any top-tier Republicans jumping into…
Bob and the Trubadors, Child Inside Be Heard
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Is there anything more boring than someone telling you about their weird dreams? We all do it. But we all also know, deep down, that no one else really cares that you dreamt about battling giant lake monsters attacking Battery Park with Louis CK last night. Or maybe that’s just me.…
Queen City Brewers Cop Old-World Styles
Two weeks ago, Queen City Brewery (703B Pine Street, queencitybrewery.com) sprang to life in Burlington’s South End after a lengthy incubation period. Helmed by a group of longtime home-brewers-in-arms, the space represents the culmination of two years’ work, but the story goes back at least two decades. Co-owner Paul Hale says he’s been home brewing…
Restaurants Introduce Specialty Meat Nights
In February, we announced that chef Douglas Paine had commissioned a custom parrilla, or Argentine open-fire barbecue, built for asado nights at Hotel Vermont. Those special dinners will begin on Thursday, June 26, following this Thursday’s “An American Girl in Bordeaux,” a wine dinner hosted by winemaker Michele D’Aprix as part of the Burlington Wine…
Vermont’s Famous Fossils Get New Exhibit
Take a walk through Isle La Motte’s Goodsell Ridge Preserve, and you’ll have to make an effort to avoid treading on the fossilized remains of prehistoric creatures. It’s easy to spot the whorled forms of ancient gastropods (the ancestors of snails and slugs), and only slightly trickier to recognize the impressions of the antediluvian precursors…
Oil Trains Along Lake Champlain Are a Concern
The first railroads that snaked north into the Adirondacks carried iron and lumber. Later, they accommodated tourists. Today, the tracks that follow the western shore of Lake Champlain are ferrying something else: crude oil. Apparently a lot of it. Canadian Pacific, which owns the tracks, isn’t required to release traffic data to the public. But…
Hubbard at the Hop
A dancer may be considered “old” at 35, but a venerable company can live on and on. That’s the case with the Hubbard Street Dance Company, considered one of the top troupes in the country and known for the high technical caliber of its dancers, the talent of its choreographers and its extensive repertory. The…
An Interview with Vibraphonist Arthur Lipner
In the recently released documentary film Talking Sticks: A Musical Journey, world-renowned vibraphone and marimba player Arthur Lipner travels the globe, exploring the roots and evolution of melodic percussion instruments. His journey takes him to places such as Mexico, where he meets a man who builds marimbas from wood; and Brazil, where he speaks with…
Letters to the Editor (6/18/14)
$ame Old Health Care The Affordable Care Act and the state exchange were supposed to lower premiums, not raise them by 15 percent or more [Facing Facts: “Unhealthy Hikes,” June 4]. But now we see the true color of these insurance companies: green, the same as the lining of their pockets. Brian Garen Burlington Daysied…
Soundbites: NoHo Comes to BTV
It’s been refreshingly quiet on the music front over the last week or so. Following the jazz fest blitz and before we delve into the heart of the outdoor music festival season — also known as “summer” — it’s good to take a breather and recharge the ole batteries. And what better way to do…
Group Seeks Better Help for Former Offenders
An unusual thing happened last Thursday night inside a fortress-like church on Cherry Street in Burlington: A retired priest stood before an audience at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul and asked the head of a state agency, seated to her right, whether he was willing to make five improvements to how Vermont helps offenders…
Switchback Brewery Opens New Tasting Room
On Thursday morning, June 19, Burlington’s Switchback Brewing (160 Flynn Avenue, 651-4114) will open a new-and-improved tasting room to the public. The expanded room will be open every day but Sunday and pour the brewery’s flagship ale while rotating through seasonal selections on eight draft lines, according to co-owner Bill Cherry. This week, look for…
Champlain College President Recounts His Term
As president of Champlain College for the last nine years, David Finney has shepherded the small school through rapid growth and sweeping change. The school’s mascot is a beaver, and its 61-year-old prez has been appropriately busy. Applications tripled during his tenure. Faculty and staff increased from 200 to 350. The college raised $35 million…
Art Review: Bruce MacDonald, Havoc Gallery
Reproductions seldom do justice to original works of art. No matter how high its resolution, a photograph like that accompanying this review can’t capture the texture, the effects of lighting or, most importantly, the personality that an artist imparts to a painting or sculpture. These limitations are particularly pronounced in regard to the 26 highly…
WTF: Georgia’s Unfinished Castle?
Nestled in the hills of Georgia, Vt., along a rolling country road sits a mansion of medieval proportions. It requires no stretch of the imagination to call it a castle, albeit a modern one, with impressive views of Georgia Mountain’s wind turbines to the east. Longtime Franklin County residents say the unfinished edifice has been…
![Sodbusters Horseshoe Club Tournament [SIV357]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/episode357.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Sodbusters Horseshoe Club Tournament [SIV357]
6/15/14: The Sodbusters Horseshoe Club held their Father’s Day Tournament on Sunday in Bristol. Winners included three-time World Horseshoe Champion Brian Simmons and his protege, young Dayton Campbell from Ohio. The club is a family affair with many related members, some of whom will be competing at the World Horseshoe Tournament in July. Music: Colin…
Inaugural Herb Lockwood Prize Goes to Steve Small
On Tuesday, June 17, local officials, artists and media gathered at Burlington’s BCA Center to announce the winner of the first annual Herb Lockwood Prize in the Arts. At $10,000, it’s easily the biggest individual arts award in the state. Though the group gathered in a gallery — Burlington City Arts serves as the prize’s…
Bread and Puppet Looks to Its Legacy
Peter Schumann has a hole in his sweater. On a Sunday morning in May, the founder and artistic director of Bread and Puppet Theater ushers a visitor into a house on the Glover farm where his family and the theater have resided since 1974. Schumann’s face is bright and animated, framed by a mane of…
Short Takes on Film: “Queen Dad” on DVD
Here’s a post-Father’s Day conundrum: Can a homophobic Texas teen grow to love the gay drag-queen dad he just met? And one for all seasons: How would Burlington’s FlynnSpace look if it hosted a gay bar complete with go-go dancers? The first season of the Vermont-shot web series “Queen Dad” answers both those questions. The…
Free Will Astrology (6/18/14)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): If you were alive 150 years ago and needed to get a tooth extracted, you might have called on a barber or blacksmith or wigmaker to do the job. (Dentistry didn’t become a formal occupation until the latter part of the 19th century.) Today you wouldn’t dream of seeking anyone but…
I’m a Transgender Woman and Looking for Love, Now!
Dear Athena, I am a transgender woman in my late twenties who just came out last summer. Living as a man, I was so confused about who I was, and this translated to my sex life and other relationships, as well. I have been a closet bisexual ever since I developed sexually, but since starting…
News Quirks (6/18/14)
Curses, Foiled Again Andrew James Joffe, 24, called 911 to report that he was lost and being chased by wild hogs in Pasco County, Fla. Deputies who responded located Joffe and then discovered he had an open warrant for driving with a suspended license. While his backpack was being inventoried for safekeeping at the jail,…
Obituary: Betty Jeanne Michaels, 1922-2014
Betty Michaels, (born Meyers) the little energizer bunny, ran out of batteries, and left us early in the morning on June 17, 2014. Her uncooperative 91 year old heart finally overcame her amazing will to live. She was born in Covington, Kentucky, on October 29, 1922, where she spent her first five years. Her parents…
Vermont Cheesemakers Wait as Feds Consider Aging Regs
A post on Wisconsin’s Cheese Underground blog on Sunday, June 8, began with these alarming words: “A sense of disbelief and distress is quickly rippling through the U.S. artisan cheese community.” The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the post continued, had recently forbidden aging cheese on wooden boards — a rule that, if enacted, could…
Taste Test: Pascolo Ristorante
We’re all familiar with the pasta dish known as carbonara, but not necessarily with its inspiration, an Italian secret society called the Carbonari. Formed early in the 19th century, these “charcoal burners” are credited with a key role in unifying states on the Boot into what we now know as Italy. Carbonara, which first appeared…
