You can’t not see the planes. Beta Technologies’ two prized prototypes take up the center of its bustling headquarters inside a hangar at Burlington International Airport. Around the upper rim of the airy space, employee workstations overlook the lustrous white machines through long walls of glass. During a recent tour, a group of engineers studied…
Stowe woman who helped launch the Paris Review taught French to Vermonters of all ages
Rural mail carrier coached sports for Chelsea children and worked at the Tunbridge Fair
A Vermont Air National Guard major piloted 10 different aircraft in his lifetime
Ukrainian-born woman immigrated to U.S. after World War II and wholeheartedly embraced the Green Mountain State
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A fan once asked composer Johann Sebastian Bach about his creative process. He was so prolific! How did he dream up such a constant flow of new music? Bach told his admirer that the tunes came to him unbidden. When he woke up each morning, they were already announcing themselves in…
In the first week of June 2020, Marc Sherman wasn’t sure whether his business, Stowe Mercantile, would survive until the Fourth of July. The country store on Main Street in downtown Stowe, which sells mostly locally produced foods, candies, apparel, jewelry and souvenirs, was facing the worst crisis in its 32-year history. Revenues had plummeted…
Tim Mathewson has a life mantra. “Every time you ride a bike,” he said, “you feel better.” That might seem like something Mathewson, owner of Little City Cycles in Vergennes, would and should say, considering that his livelihood depends on selling bicycles. But it’s more than just talk. About five years ago, Mathewson and Tanya…
Pondering Pensions [Re Off Message: “Pension Task Force Bill Advances Despite Unions’ Objections,” April 14]: I hope the committee looks around to the benefits and reductions our neighboring states have done over the years. I know New York used to pay 100 percent of health insurance, but over the years it has been shared! In…
Shortly after Burlington High School closed last September because of high levels of airborne toxic chemicals in its tech center building, district Superintendent Tom Flanagan got what he thought was encouraging news. Further testing in the other five high school buildings found polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) levels between one and 300 nanograms per cubic meter, with…
Steven Wisbaum wasn’t always obsessed with electric lawn mowers. Since 1996, he’s been the founding owner of Charlotte-based Champlain Valley Compost, which provides compost products to home gardeners, farmers and landscape contractors. But around 2009, spurred by concerns about the climate crisis and needing to replace his cohousing community’s shared lawn mower, Wisbaum sought to…
Five new hires at Dirt Tech, a Colchester construction company, have filled out hiring paperwork in recent weeks, been given start dates, and left with company hard hats and safety vests. Three of them haven’t been seen at Dirt Tech since. “Two didn’t call us at all,” said manager Lauren Weir. “One said there was…
The Lake Champlain Transportation Company’s plan to sink one of its retired car ferries in Burlington Bay foundered this week in the face of rising opposition. Despite winning approval from state environmental regulators, the proposal to scuttle the 108-year-old Adirondack stirred up fears that the sunken vessel could further pollute the lake. The company and…
When the pandemic drove us indoors last year, many Vermonters turned to baking or movie bingeing. Mark Rosalbo turned to house paint. Lots of it. Suddenly working at home and sharing the broadband with his wife, Cindy, and four kids, the Randolph resident said his household was “insanely busy.” So he found himself puttering in…
In the epilogue of his latest book, Endpapers: A Family Story of Books, War, Escape and Home, Vermont author Alexander Wolff offers a provocative assessment of global affairs: “…for the moment, Germany is doing a better job of being American than America is.” Wolff, a Sports Illustrated writer for 36 years and the author or…
Seven Days writers can’t possibly read, much less review, all the books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, a blush of spring robins. So this monthly feature is our way of introducing you to a handful of books by Vermont authors. To do that, we contextualize each…
Six pandemic-endangered performance venues are the settings for “Empty Stages: Performances and Stories of Resilience,” a mini-documentary series created earlier this year by Vermont filmmaker Jay Craven. The riveting performers on those stages are the members of the Champlain Trio, a year-old Vermont chamber group. In one moment that occurs in the final episode, pianist…
Around these parts, the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival is known as the gateway to summer. Normally, the annual 10-day event reaches nearly every square inch of downtown, with scores of nightclubs, bars and restaurants hosting music under the BDJF banner, not to mention venues such as the Flynn, Flynn Space, Waterfront Park and Church Street…
(Keyed Records, vinyl, digital) From an obsidian void of silence, blips of light come to life. A sort of acid-trip take on tubular bells drifts out of the dark like an alarm clock going off in a dream, followed soon by the soft wash of synthesizers. I release a breath I didn’t realize I was…
(Self-released, digital) Some bands you hear about because they delight audiences. Some you hear about because they terrify the hell out of other musicians. For me, in the case of central Vermont’s Coquette, it was both. I’d heard about the young local rock trio’s dynamite live shows and supernatural talent for a full year before…
In February, a Seven Days reader asked us about yard signs that had popped up on lawns throughout Barre that read, “We own it!” The reader was aware that the signs were posted by members of the Granite City Grocery, a proposed food cooperative that’s been in the works for years. But her questions were,…
Our streaming entertainment options are overwhelming — and not always easy to sort through. Certain people have a bottomless appetite for haunted-house stories, and Netflix knows I’m one of them. But what really convinced me to watch the streaming service’s latest glossy gothic was that its opening credits feature a slideshow of Hudson River School…
I love to travel but really wish it didn’t involve hurtling through space in an aluminum tube. I will fly — reluctantly — with my face pressed up against the airplane window, monitoring weather, altitude, signs of mechanical failure and, of course, the geography below. This anxiety has worsened over time and proven immune to logic, Xanax…
When President Joe Biden’s administration announced last week that it would drop U.S. opposition to generic drug makers in developing countries getting recipes for COVID-19 vaccines, the change in policy resonated loudly in Vermont. It drew praise from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “Our vaccination efforts here at home will only be successful if vaccination efforts…
Dear Reverend, My neighbor has their lawn treated by one of those companies that sprays chemicals, and I hate it. After a treatment, there are small signs posted telling people to keep pets and children off the lawn. Why would anybody do that? I’ve never actually met them, and I don’t know how to get…
On a Monday afternoon in a back room of Zachary’s Pizza in South Burlington, Oscar Arencibia was making his grandmother’s recipe for flan. Plush animals (arcade prizes stacked on nearby shelves) and a reporter bore witness. Using a stand mixer, Arencibia combined eggs with three kinds of milk — evaporated, whole and sweetened condensed —…
‘Tis the season for ramps and fiddleheads. After the (hopefully) last snowstorm of the year in late April, both of those popular wild foods began popping up on restaurant menus, at farmers markets and on social media around Vermont. There’s growing concern, however, about the sustainability of gathering these green signs of spring. Ramps are…
Phinneus Sonin will soon open a café called Junks Tea House in his Junktiques Collective vintage store at 324 North Winooski Avenue in Burlington. The menu will include tea, espresso and chai; juices, smoothies and housemade, fruit-syrup-soaked shaved ice; and thin, freshly pressed waffles folded around savory or sweet fillings. All food and drink items…
Farm Fresh Saturday 15 If cooking became part of your routine during lockdown, perhaps you’re ready to up your culinary game by incorporating fresh, local ingredients. Browse the Burlington Farmers Market from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Saturday through October for seasonal produce from area growers. Vendors also offer flowers, artisan wares and prepared…
