Jun 19-25, 2019
Inventor/Entrepreneur Matt Benedetto Is an Unreal Genius; Green Mountain Transit Rolls Out New Routes and Apps; Post-Madaila, Mark Daly Talks Fatherhood and a New Album
Cover Story
The Unreal Genius of Entrepreneur and Inventor Matt Benedetto
And now, a late-night TV commercial for a product that doesn’t (quite) exist. We open on a well-dressed couple enjoying a candlelit dinner at a fancy restaurant. As the camera closes in, we see them gaze tenderly into each other’s eyes. NARRATOR Does your loved one constantly ruin romantic dinners by chewing with their mouth…
Obituary: Furman ‘Chip’ Crawford Horton III, 1957-2019
On June 23, 2019, Furman “Chip” Crawford Horton III passed away suddenly. Chip was born on January 19, 1957, to Helen (Muth) and Furman Crawford Horton Jr. in Fredericksburg, Va., and grew up in Dix Hills, Long Island, N.Y. He attended Farmingdale Community College, where he received his associate’s degree in horticulture, and earned his…
Obituary: Susan Brody Hasazi
Susan Brody Hasazi, 72, of South Burlington and Duxbury, Vt., passed away on May 14, 2019. A memorial service to honor and remember Susan will be held June 30 at 3 p.m. at the First Unitarian Universalist Society on Pearl Street in Burlington.
When David Got Dengue: A Mother and Son, Far From Home, Contend With a Deadly Illness
In June 2018, days after my son David finished 8th grade in the United Arab Emirates, we flew to rainy Sri Lanka for a break from our parched existence in the Arabian desert. I was working as chief of staff for Ajman University, my second stint in the country’s higher education system. Both David and…
Hot Lunch: Student-Run Restaurant Wows Diners in St. Johnsbury
The hottest lunch spot in St. Johnsbury is a high school classroom. Before you think chips and Snapple, cramped student desks and an adolescent atmosphere, picture this: spiced sea scallops crowned with orange-olive salad, chicken and shellfish paella made with saffron rice and chorizo, and portabella cannelloni drizzled with ricotta-basil cream sauce. Think fresh flowers,…
WTF: Can Vermont’s Justices of the Peace Serve as Judges?
For two decades, Jay Furr of Richmond worked a tech job that kept him on the road as many as 40 weeks per year. He was eager to do volunteer work, such as serving on the Richmond Selectboard, but his busy travel schedule made it virtually impossible. “I’m a Vermonter, and Vermont is all about…
Musician/DJ Robert Resnik Receives 2019 Herb Lockwood Prize
Robert Resnik might be best known as the host of “All the Traditions,” the freeform Vermont Public Radio show devoted to local and regional music — folk and traditional especially — that he’s helmed for 23 years. A respected critic and scholar, Resnik has also reviewed music for numerous publications, including Seven Days. In 2013,…
Movie Review: Local Director Jay Craven Takes on Science Fiction With the Ambitious ‘Wetware’
I wish I could give five stars to Jay Craven’s Wetware just for being a major step outside the director’s wheelhouse and one of the most ambitious locally made films I’ve seen. Working from a 2002 science-fiction novel by former Vermonter Craig Nova, the Barnet-based filmmaker brings us a story far removed from the Howard…
Correct Change? Green Mountain Transit Rolls Out New Routes, Apps
I stood waiting for the bus on Monday at the corner of Hickok and Elm streets in Winooski like a kid on the first day of school: a backpack slung over my shoulder, a shiny red apple in one hand, full of nervous anticipation. It was my first time riding a Green Mountain Transit bus,…
One Fish, Two Dozen Fish (and a Turtle) Rescued From Burlington Fountain
The concerned citizen on the phone described a scenario JoAnn Nichols had never encountered. A couple dozen goldfish — and a turtle — were swimming in the fountain in Burlington’s City Hall Park. Could Nichols, a wildlife removal expert, fish them out? The fountain hadn’t been in use because the city is preparing to begin…
Book Review: Pandemic and Politics in ‘The Rationing,’ by Charles Wheelan
In 2014, former British prime minister David Cameron commissioned a study on the social and economic impact of the rise of antimicrobial-resistant infections — also known, somewhat zombie-apocalyptically, as “superbugs.” The final report predicted that if resistance rates continued to increase, up to 300 million people worldwide could die prematurely by 2050. That word “superbug”…
As Act 46 Deadline Looms, Districts Rush to Finish Their Math Homework
On July 1, the Huntington School Board will effectively cease to exist. Unless a court intervenes, the five-member board overseeing Brewster-Pierce Memorial School will lose its authority over how the school’s 136 K-4 students are educated and its $2.1 million annual budget is spent. Instead, that responsibility will shift to the 15-member board of the…
Letters to the Editor (6/19/19)
Just Say Yes On June 11, the city hosted the Burlington Housing Summit. Over the course of two meetings and dozens of small group conversations, the city got to hear from more than 200 Burlingtonians about our community’s housing challenges and opportunities and how to reform our housing policy to create more homes in Burlington.…
Word on the Street Project to Set Poetry in Concrete
In a few years’ time, stanzas of poetry will dot the town of Middlebury like X’s marking hidden gems on a treasure map. By the end of next year alone, five original poems will be engraved into the town’s sidewalks, fusing literary history with the creative energy that buzzes there today. The poems are part…
Volunteers Fear Respite House Is Trading Hominess for Solvency
Volunteers organized to create the McClure Miller Respite House back in 1991. Thousands of terminally ill people have since lived their final days in the homelike setting of a hospice that has become a beloved Chittenden County institution. Although the 21-bed nonprofit in Colchester still benefits from plenty of free labor, it’s no longer a…
Art Review: Sam Talbot-Kelly, Axel’s Gallery & Frame Shop
Sam Talbot-Kelly is a mixed-media artist with a special interest in costume and fashion. Her work has appeared locally in Strut, the fashion show of Burlington’s South End Art Hop; in pop-ups at the Salaam clothing store in Montpelier; at the Kent Museum in Calais; and at the Brick Box Gallery Installation Window in Rutland,…
End of an Era: St. Johnsbury’s Video King to Close Its Doors
Dawn Leroux wants me to stop swearing in her store. We’re standing at the counter of Video King, the last video rental store in St. Johnsbury, when I unwittingly utter the banned word: “Netflix.” No, she doesn’t have a subscription, so don’t ask. While we’re at it, she doesn’t much care for “Redbox,” either. Leroux…
Free Will Astrology (6/19/19)
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the next four weeks, you’re not likely to win the biggest prize or tame the fiercest monster or wield the greatest power. However, you could very well earn a second- or third-best honor. I won’t be surprised if you claim a decent prize or outsmart a somewhat menacing dragon or…
Jack Fairweather Writes Story of Unsung Hero at Auschwitz
On September 19, 1940, Witold Pilecki awoke near dawn, just before German soldiers and plainclothes police pounded on his door to arrest him. Pilecki, a member of the Polish underground fighting the Nazi occupation, made no attempt to hide or flee. He knew already that the soldiers were coming and where they were taking him.…
I’ve Got a Weird Penis That Curves to the Left
Dear Reverend, I’ve got a weird penis. When I get a hard-on, it curves to the left a bit. I’ve had sex with a few women, and nobody has ever mentioned it, but it’s a little embarrassing. Is this normal? Left-Leaning (male, 24) Dear Left-Leaning, I had a run-in with a curvy penis some years…
Soundbites: Revelry Theater Relaunches as Nonprofit
Revelry’s Reverie In a recent phone conversation with Seven Days, Revelry Theater founder Anthony Apodaca said that one of the most frequent things he hears about his petite performance space is that people don’t know it exists. Though located in Burlington’s bustling South End Arts District, the venue has flown somewhat under the radar since…
Post-Madaila, Mark Daly Takes Stock of His Life on a New Solo Album
“I’ve always put family and relationships first,” singer-songwriter Mark Daly muses on a warm Sunday afternoon. “That’s the most important thing to me.” The tall, bearded artist sits comfortably in a lounge chair on his deck, his bleached-blond hair glistening in the sunlight. He and his family recently traded the convenience of Burlington for the…
Eat This Week, June 19 to 25, 2019: Wine on the Waterfront
Burlington Wine & Food celebrates 10 years in town with a lineup of events highlighted by a food and drink extravaganza on Saturday, June 22, at Waterfront Park in Burlington. More than 300 wines will be available at two Grand Tasting events, along with menu samples from 14 restaurants and food and spirits made by…
Pro, ‘After Dinner Before Dawn’
(Equal Eyes Records, digital, vinyl) Pro is a Burlington MC who made his name with the Aztext, one of the most successful hip-hop groups in Vermont history. Pro, alongside DJ Big Kat and fellow rapper Learic, sets a high standard and took savvy advantage of the internet explosion in the mid-2000s and early 2010s, gaining…
Django Soulo, ‘Alone Together’
(self-released, CD, digital, vinyl) Have you ever been at a party — maybe sitting by the fire in early fall, sipping a cold one and not having a single deep thought in your head — when someone suddenly appeared next to you? They had a guitar, or maybe a ukulele, long hair, a long beard,…
Work: Travel Adviser Robin Bentley
Name: Robin Bentley Town: Middlebury Job: Travel adviser and Middlebury branch manager, Milne Travel Robin Bentley has the kind of voice you want on the other end of the phone in a travel emergency. Both soothing and bubbling with enthusiasm, hers is the voice of someone who has coached scores of clients through travel highs…
Vermont Democrats Begin to Explore 2020 Bids for Governor
Last week, Gov. Phil Scott dismissed a question about running for reelection in 2020. “It was just five or six months ago that I was sworn into office,” Scott said. “Any decision will come after the legislative session. It’s just way too early.” Early or not, potential challengers are already sniffing around. Two Vermonters are…
Movie Review: Jim Jarmusch’s Zombie Movie ‘The Dead Don’t Die’ Has Brains to Spare
Jim Jarmusch has been making films exactly as long as I’ve been reviewing them. I’ve reviewed a fair share of his, Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Dead Man (1995), Broken Flowers (2005) and the masterful Paterson (2016) among them. He’s one of the world’s most distinctive, intelligent and original cinematic voices. Though he would doubtless disagree.…
At SHIFT Festival in Hanover, Filmmakers Present a ‘Portal to the Sky’
Throughout history, humans have gazed up at the night sky and pondered their place in the cosmos. But only since the moon was first photographed in 1840 have scientists been able to use such technology to advance their understanding of the universe. The study of heavenly bodies has inspired not only knowledge but also art.…
Birth: Adalyn Grayce Portzer
On June 18, 2019, at Porter Medical Center, Alison Lussier and Matthew Portzer welcomed a girl, Adalyn Grayce Portzer.
Daytripping to Frelighsburg, Québec, for Eats, Art and History
As my friend Marcella and I drove up Route 108 toward Frelighsburg, Québec, less than three miles north of the Vermont border, we considered the flow of people and goods that has legally and otherwise traversed this bucolic border for centuries. Best known, perhaps, is the liquor smuggled into Vermont in the 1920s. But North…
Grilling the Chef: Adam Woogmaster Talks Tacos and Food Trucks
Chef Adam Woogmaster Position: Chief cook and bottle washer, Chez Mami Catering food truck Location: Route 2 in Marshfield, in front of Onion River Campground through November Age: 54 Truck age: Starting its third summer. Parked seasonally at Black Bear Biodiesel in Plainfield in 2017 and at Dog Mountain in St. Johnsbury over summer weekends…
Vergennes Farmers Market Returns to Downtown Green
This market season, as the Burlington Farmers Market relocated from City Hall Park to a parking lot on Pine Street, the Vergennes Farmers Market made a move in the opposite direction. The Vergennes market decamped from the outskirts of town back to its longtime location on the city green. For two seasons, the Vergennes Farmers…
Chef Contos Closes Shelburne Shop, Focuses on Wellness
Courtney Contos closed her culinary classroom and store, Chef Contos, on June 10 after more than six years on Falls Road in Shelburne. “I have outgrown the space and I want to reach more people, because now my interest is functional medicine and wellness,” she told Seven Days. “I went on my own health journey…
