Mar 11-18, 2015
Meet Seven Vermont Women in Diverse Careers Who Are Making History Now; The Nonstop Sen. Bill Doyle; Crusade for an Arts Commission; Butch + Babe’s Tantalizing Bites
Cover Story
Seven Vermont Women to Watch
In the early 1900s, women workers in the U.S. and Europe began organizing to demand better pay, access to education and voting rights. Their movement resulted in the creation of International Women’s Day, celebrated around the world on March 8. In 1987, the U.S. recognized the entire month of March as Women’s History Month. Over…
Obituary: Theresa Helen Leggett, 1927-2015, Winooski
Theresa Helen Leggett, 88, died March 13, 2015, at Green Mountain Nursing Home after a brief illness. She was born the daughter of Armand and Hazel (Kirby) Guilbault on March 3, 1927. She attended Nazareth School and Mount Saint Mary’s. She was married to Kenneth T. Leggett on September 4, 1948, and resided the majority…
Obituary: Peter Norman Dingman Watson, 1944-2015, Avon, N.Y.
Peter Norman Dingman Watson departed peacefully from this life in his beloved Vermont sugarwoods on March 6, 2015, at age 70. The son of artist Aldren A. Watson and writer Nancy Dingman, he was born in Paterson, NJ, on Sept. 7, 1944. Peter graduated from The Putney School and the University of Vermont. He and…
Obituary: Linda Anne Comeau, 1947-2015, Burlington
Linda (Lynn) Anne (Parrow) Comeau, 67, passed away on March 7, 2015 at the University of Vermont Medical Center, with her loving family by her side. Lynn was born December 30, 1947 in Winooski, daughter of Richard and Theresa (Desforge) Parrow. She graduated from Winooski High School in 1966. Lynn married the love of her…
Obituary: John “Jack” P. Flaherty, 1950-2015, North Hero
John “Jack” P. Flaherty passed away unexpectedly at the University of Vermont Medical Center March 10, 2015. Jack was born in Newport, VT on Oct. 14, 1950 to John J. and Bertha (Duclos) Flaherty. He was a graduate of Winooski High School, class of1968 and later graduated from Lyndon State College. Jack loved to travel…
Obituary: George E. Wilford, Sr., 1931-2015, Winooski
George E. “Sonny” “Willie” Wilford, Sr. passed away March 10, 2015. He was born March 7, 1931 in Williamstown, Vt to George and Ruth Wilford. He worked for many years as a carpenter, mason, plumber, factory worker and on the railroad. He was a former member of the Civil Air Patrol and was a member…
Obituary: Jane (Yandow) Rabidoux, 1928-2015, Burlington
Jane (Yandow) Rabidoux passed away Tuesday March 10, 2015 after a brief illness at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, VT. She was born August 11, 1928 to the late Athur and Josephine (Metivier) Yandow. Jane married Maurice Rabidoux on January 11, 1947 at St. Stephen Church in Winooski. She worked and retired…
Chappie
As a rule, I’m a fan of curiosities and one-of-a-kind films, even when their kind isn’t particularly good. And there’s an undeniable uniqueness to Chappie. If you’ve seen multiple trailers for writer-director Neill Blomkamp’s third feature, you may be wondering whether it’s a cutesy comic romp about a robot developing human feelings, à la Short…
Suicide Prevention Could Unite Both Sides of Gun Battle
The rancorous debate this winter over a bill to strengthen gun regulation in Vermont has overshadowed the quieter efforts of two lawmakers to target gun suicide. Reps. Teo Zagar (D-Barnard) and Anne Donahue (R-Northfield) argue that the gun-regulation bill has drawn crowds and created controversy but done nothing to address suicide, which accounts for 90…
My Boyfriend Spends More Time With His Parents Than Me
Dear Athena, My boyfriend and I live together. I love him, but he’s always spending time at his parents’ house. At first it was about not being able to practice his drums in our apartment because of neighbors. I found other cheap spaces to practice — I’m also a musician — but he hasn’t budged.…
Big Heavy World Director Challenges Burlington City Arts
In 2013, Burlington City Arts paid 174 artists more than a quarter million dollars for their creative efforts. That money, which came from a combination of public tax revenues and private philanthropy, covered such expenses as art sales, teachers’ salaries, payments to performers and stipends for exhibiting artists. Those artists who’ve benefitted from this and…
Sas Carey’s New Documentary Explores Mongolian Rites
Among the many unusual features of Sas Carey’s résumé is the small section about the languages she speaks: English, French, Swedish and “beginning Mongolian.” Sure enough, on a bookshelf in Carey’s Middlebury home sits a binder for a Mongolian-language audio course. That binder is in good company. Carey’s home is packed with artwork from and…
Clock’s Tickin’: Sanders Could Announce Presidential Plans in Weeks
When he began flirting with a presidential run early last year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) repeatedly said he would make up his mind after the 2014 midterm elections. After that deadline slipped, he told the Associated Press’ Dave Gram last December that he’d decide by March. As in: this month. Asked Monday at a National…
Free Will Astrology (3/11/15)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the old Superman comics, Mister Mxyztplk was a fiendish imp whose home was in the fifth dimension. He sometimes sneaked over into our world to bedevil the Man of Steel with pranks. There was one sure way he could be instantly banished back to his own realm for a long…
At UVM, Female Students Step Up to the Debate Plate
As the deputy prime minister delivered an impassioned oration, her colleagues found time to punctuate their furious note taking with periodic outbursts of “Hear, hear!” and to rap knuckles on their desks in a show of support. Across the room, members of the opposition, who took notes with even greater fervor (and in multicolored inks),…
Town Braintap: A Speaker Series for a Curious Community
It’s fitting that one of the most innovative speakers’ series around has the most unusual slogan you’ll ever hear: “Mind candy for the curious. More fun than paying bills or shoveling snow. Healthier than contemplating the Zombie Apocalypse.” Our state is famously home to a wealth of cultural programs, but central Vermont’s Town Braintap appears to be the…
Talking Art With Harlan Mack
If Harlan Mack’s art seems pretty, you’re not looking closely enough. The painter and sculptor’s intricate figures at his current Vermont Studio Center exhibit have gaping holes where their torsos should be, and they’re painted a garish hunter orange. The welded-steel works cast eerie shadows onto the white wall behind them, adding an element of…
News Quirks (3/11/15)
Curses, Foiled Again British police investigating the theft of tools and a shower stall from a home-remodeling project in Crawley arrested Ryan Marsh, 18, after he returned to the job site and tried to sell the items back to the contractor. (Britain’s Crawley News) Police looking for the man who beat up a woman in…
Theater Review: ‘The Office Plays,’ Moxie and Marabo Productions
Playwright Adam Bock’s two plays The Receptionist and The Thugs were first produced by Manhattan Theatre Club in 2007 and Soho Rep in 2006, respectively. Back then, “The Office” had just become a phenomenon on American television, and the film Office Space had been established as a cult favorite for nearly a decade. It might…
WTF: While We Were Driving, Part 2
For our last WTF of 2014 back in December, we noted that many of the questions we receive from readers have to do with roads, and we included a sampling of them that we hadn’t yet investigated. Turns out, peeps over at the Vermont Agency of Transportation had a good time addressing the questions —…
On Tap: Talking With Four Quarters Brewer Brian Eckert
Last week, Winooski’s Four Quarters Brewing looked like the workspace of a mad scientist. Towers of colorful buckets cluttered the floor while lab-style glassware and gleaming metal gear lined the walls. Brewer Brian Eckert stood near the kettle, surrounded by five members of the Sneakers Bistro staff, who were on hand to concoct a special…
Senior Senator: ‘You Can’t Say No to Bill Doyle’
Last week, Waterbury convened its 224th town meeting. Soon thereafter, Rep. Tom Stevens (D-Waterbury) took the mike. He told the crowd he’d just asked Sen. Bill Doyle how many of these things he’d attended over the years. “He said he hadn’t missed any,” Stevens informed the townspeople, some of whom laughed at the joke. Doyle,…
The Reservoir Debuts House-Brewed Beers
In 2011, the Alchemist Pub and Brewery closed its waterlogged doors after a brutal bashing from Tropical Storm Irene. That left Waterbury without a proper brewpub, but, soon after, the owners of the Reservoir Restaurant & Tap Room, Mark Frier and Chad Fry, purchased a one-barrel brewing system from 14th Star Brewing when that brewery…
The Leatherbound Books, Tender My Hopes
(Self-released, CD, digital download) I like it. A lot. I know, I know. I’m supposed to come up with a more sophisticated and nuanced way of describing my feelings about the Leatherbound Books’ debut EP, Tender My Hopes. I should find some clever, perhaps even provocative, journalistic vehicle for introducing the review, hopefully one I…
Prohibition-Themed Pop-Up Dinner in Montpelier, Stacks Closes
On March 20 at 5:30 p.m., a restaurant will pop up at Chef’s Table in Montpelier for one night only. The Prohibition-themed Amendment 18 is the final project for the New England Culinary Institute’s senior entrepreneurship class, says food-and-beverage management student Betty Flies. “We’re taking the mystery and high energy of a speakeasy and turning…
Guthrie Galileo, The Ifandbut
(In Space & Time, CD, digital download) Producer and performer Guthrie Galileo got his start at the University of Vermont, but his mix of ambient electro and alternative R&B is rooted in California cool. After releasing a spring 2014 EP, Sauce Vapor, Galileo, now based in San Francisco, is back with a 12-track LP, The…
Positive Pie Expands to Barre
Positive Pie has done it again. On February 25, owner Carlo Rovetto opened his fifth Vermont pizzeria, this time in downtown Barre. The chic, 5,000-square-foot restaurant accommodates 112 guests on the parlor level of the new Barre City Place building at 219 North Main Street. The menu offers a mix of Positive Pie standards — hand-tossed…
Four More Local Albums You (Probably) Haven’t Heard
So many records, so little time. Seven Days gets more album submissions than we know what to do with. And, given the ease of record making these days, it’s difficult to keep up. Still, we try to get to every local release that comes across the music desk, no matter how obscure or far out.…
Letters to the Editor (3/11/15)
Investigate Assaults Thank you for taking the time to address the important topic of sexual violence on college campuses in your recent article, “Manning Up” [February 25]. College rape culture is an issue that has been silenced for too long. However, prevention programs like the recent One In Four presentation at Saint Michael’s are only…
Leviathan
“Hard on the land wears the strong sea / and empty grows every bed.” It’s hard not to think of those lines from John Berryman’s “Dream Song 1” while watching the fourth feature directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev (Elena). Leviathan won the best screenplay prize at Cannes and, astoundingly, was selected as Russia’s official entry in…
Work: Kirsten Connor, Flourish Natural Body Care
Name: Kirsten Connor Town: Woodstock Job: Owner, Flourish Natural Body Care For Kirsten Connor, 2011 was the best and worst of times. For years, the founder and owner of Flourish Natural Body Care, maker of organic shampoos, conditioners and other body- and hair-care products, had struggled to get her wares into stores. The Woodstock-based business…
Soundbites: Waking Windows 5 Lineup Announced
Wakeup Call Last week, we got a glimpse of warmer days ahead in the form of some early announcements for the 2015 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. That smattering of leaked names helped take some of the chill off what has been a particularly frigid end to Fuck You, Vermont season, also known as winter. Well,…
Burlington’s Mayor Wants More Downtown Student Housing
Burlington’s so-called “student ghettos” have plagued the Queen City as long as it’s been a college town. Students drive up rents, making it harder for young families to find affordable housing, and their crowded “houses” can turn once-quiet neighborhoods into 24-hour party zones. Every city administration in recent memory has wrestled with this existential town/gown…
Obituary: Samuel Dinkins Jr., 1947-2014, Burlington, Vt.
Samuel Dinkins Jr., son of Mary Brisbane and the late Samuel Dinkins Sr. was born on June 26, 1947, in Harlem Hospital, New York, N.Y. He was reared in Brooklyn and Manhattan, N.Y. As a youngster he was a Scout member of cub pack and troop pack of St. Phillips Episcopal Church, of which he…
Taste Test: Butch & Babe’s
Remember the Asian fusion of the ’80s and ’90s? Of course you do. The often-wonky attempts at combining flavors live on in your Thai chicken pizza and Chinese chicken salad topped with fried noodles. Burlington’s new restaurant Butch + Babe’s opened with the concept of fusing owner Kortnee Bush’s Chicago roots with those of Thai-born…
Hen of the Wood’s Owners to Open Beer Bar in Stowe
The Vermont beer trail will gain an important new stop when the Alchemist Brewery makes its upcoming move to Stowe. But that brewery and tasting room won’t be the only new kid on the beer block. This coming summer, Eric Warnstedt and William McNeil of Hen of the Wood plan to open a still-unnamed beer…
