Fixer-Upper Downs: The rough guide to renovating a really old house
There is a figment of the human imagination called home. For people like me — who hate Martha Stewart but can’t resist flipping through her magazine — the word conjures up romantic notions about leading a beautiful, if not perfect, life. It begins, of course, with having a beautiful house. The need to create a…
Priming the Pumpkin: Size matters to the Vermont Giant Vegetable Association
The “Peanuts” gang might have been more inclined to believe in “Great Pump-kin,” if Linus could have produced a picture of a thousand-pounder. While no Vermonter has yet grown one that big — that we know of — it appears to be just a matter of time before some dedicated horticulturalist weighs in. And chances…
A Room That Will Do: Hunting for a Burlington apartment that doesn’t suck
“Hi, you have reached the home of…” Shit. “…we can’t come to the phone right now, but if you leave a…” Just beep, dammit. “…we’ll be sure to get back to you.” BEEEEEEP! “Hi, my name is Robert Isenberg. I’m, uh, moving up to Burlington, and I need a place to, you know, live. And…
Artists-in-Residence: Pull-Out Section
Built into a rocky escarpment, John Anderson’s house looks like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sixty feet long and 16 feet wide, the building has a large, high-ceilinged kitchen at the front and a cozier, more intimate living room in the back. “When you are designing a building,” Anderson says, “it’s very important…
Herb Instinct: Annie McCleary communes with her crops
If Vermont’s hills are alive with the proverbial sound of music, in Lincoln it’s probably Annie McCleary singing or chanting to the wild flora around her bucolic home. The 54-year-old herbalist also chats with growing things. “It’s an exchange,” she explains matter-of-factly. “I get messages back.” McCleary will teach a number of classes in Addison…
Home Swedish Home: Finding the way in the Affordable Furnishing Mother Church
In the film Fight Club, Edward Norton’s insomniac character confesses to being “a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct.” He asks himself, “What kind of dining set defines me as a person?” Perish the thought that I be defined by some of the home furnishings I’ve owned over the years. If so, call me cheap,…
Head Tripping
Claire is a melancholic teen-ager stashed away in a remote psychiatric ward. Doctors try in vain to pry words out of her, but Claire spends her days trying to cheek her pills and casting stern looks at her captors. In The Big Random, a new black comedy written by Middlebury playwright Dana Yeaton and produced…
A Dairy Miracle!
They said it couldn’t be done. “They” being the leading lights of the Vermont Republican Party. Folks like Republican National Committeeman Skip Vallee and former state chairman Patrick Garahan. One year ago, they shouted from the rooftops that U.S. Jim Jeffords’ departure from the GOP would kill prospects for the reauthorization of the Northeast Dairy…
Heart of the Village
The woman who approached my taxi at the bus terminal was slim, with ruddy, wind-burned features and short, sandy-blonde hair. She was lugging a heavy backpack, and looked older than most people who dress in blue jeans and work boots. “Are you familiar with a bed-and-breakfast called The Heart of the Village Inn?” she asked…
Hanging It Up
Museum directors are a rare breed — in fact, a nationwide shortage has plagued cultural institutions from coast to coast. But at Burlington’s Fleming Museum, it’s been steady-as-she-goes for a dozen years under the competent steerage of Ann Porter. At the end of June, the 59-year-old redhead is retiring. Along with gardening at home in…
Slam Dunk
April was a worrisome month, with its earthquake and freakish temperatures. Some people are concerned that the climate in Vermont is changing. So isn’t it comforting to know that some things never do? Take, for instance, the academic poetry industry and its latest product: Contemporary Poetry of New England, a $40, 220-page anthology published last…
Flick Chick
It could be a movie: In lower Manhattan, we see the billowing smoke and dust of the World Trade Center collapse. The camera zooms in on a young man in a gas mask hurrying north. He schleps a mound of video editing equipment along chaotic city sidewalks, intent on reaching the relative sanctuary of Greenwich…
