May 15-21, 2024
How Warmer, Wetter, Wilder Weather Is Compelling Vermont Farmers to Adapt; Dems Add Intrigue to Governor’s Race; Role-Playing a New Trump Presidency; A Refresh at Starry Night Café; Chatting With Big Thief’s Buck Meek
Cover Story
Growing Pains: How Warmer, Wetter, Wilder Weather Is Compelling Vermont Farmers to Adapt
Help us pay for in-depth stories like this one by becoming a Seven Days Super Reader. Scott Farm in Dummerston is known for heirloom apples. In a good year, its apple harvest totals more than half a million pounds of varieties such as copper-skinned Ashmead’s kernel and a 16th-century French apple called Calville blanc d’hiver. Last year…
In Memoriam: Lolita Anger-Leggett, 1925-2024
A mass of Christian burial for Lolita Anger-Leggett, 98, who passed away peacefully on January 4, 2024, will be celebrated on Friday, May 24, 11 a.m., at Christ the King Church in Burlington. Burial will follow in St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in Winooski. Arrangements are in the care of LaVigne Funeral & Cremation Service.
Obituary: Samuel “Sam” James Hill, 1990-2024
Fiercely loyal and protective friend cared deeply for his born and chosen families
Obituary: Robert N. Essman, 1937-2024
Shelburne man was the former art director for Life, Business Week and People magazines
Obituary: Juliet Maria Weed, 1960-2024
Baker loved cooking shows and volunteered at a local food shelf
Plan to Sort Vermont’s Mail in Connecticut Is Suspended
The U.S. Postal Service has suspended its plan to relocate Vermont’s mail sorting to Connecticut — a move that many fear would only worsen delays in a troubled system. “I am encouraged USPS listened to the concerns we raised from our constituents, and finally paused these misguided facility reviews,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said in…
Obituary: Nadine Berrini, 1973-2024
Waterbury Center woman realized her dream of designing and building her home, then filling it with friends and family
Obituary: Sally Ginsberg Tannen, 1954-2024
Beloved teacher and parenting adviser was most devoted to her role as grandmother
Obituary: Paul R. Philbrook, 1931-2024
Norwich native dedicated his career to the State of Vermont
News Breaker to News Maker: Stewart Ledbetter to Run for Vermont Senate
Stewart Ledbetter, the former face of the public affairs TV show “Vermont This Week” for 16 years and a longtime fixture on NBC5 before he retired, is running for the Vermont Senate, hoping to represent the five-town Chittenden-Central district. Ledbetter, 62, a Winooski resident for the past 30 years, is running as a Democrat. He…
Now Playing in Theaters: May 15-21
new in theaters BACK TO BLACK: Marisa Abela plays Amy Winehouse in this biopic about the making of her best-selling album, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson. With Eddie Marsan and Jack O’Connell. (122 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Roxy, Savoy) IF: What happens to imaginary friends when their people grow up? A kid finds out in this…
Vermont Officials Recover an Antique Weather Vane Stolen From a Train Station in 1983
Vermont officials have recovered an antique weather vane stolen in the last century, solving a 41-year-old cold case. Modeled after the first steam locomotives, the five-foot-long copper piece was installed atop the White River Junction train station in 1910. It remained perched there until it was stolen in 1983 amid a rash of such thefts…
At the Phoenix Gallery, the Group Show “Flora” Is Like a Field of Wildflowers
The rhyming dyad “flower power” is a throwback to 1960s hippie culture and anti-war demonstrations. But the expression could just as easily refer to the awesomeness of nature’s florescence every single year. Another time-worn phrase — “hope springs eternal” — suggests that blossoms symbolize optimism against all odds. And who couldn’t use that right now?…
Elise Whittemore’s Monoprint ‘Quilts’ Explore Form, Pattern and Process
Last month, we all got a lesson in the power of negative space: that shift into the eclipse’s moment of totality, when the moon’s position moved just a little and everything was suddenly different, newly luminous, with the sun’s halo redefining the moon. “Black Quilts,” Elise Whittemore’s exhibition of monoprints at Soapbox Arts in Burlington,…
My Friend Always Wants to Borrow My Stuff
Dear Reverend, I have a friend who always wants to borrow something of mine: clothes, books, tools, games — you name it, he needs it. I am a very generous person and like helping out, but either he never returns my stuff or he returns it in worse condition. It’s really starting to get on…
Soundbites: Buck Meek Embraces the Love Song
There was a long, long pause over the phone as the conversation ground to a sudden halt. Ordinarily, such a stretch of silence would unnerve me or make me wonder if I’d asked an offending question. Fortunately, I’d read about the way Buck Meek is in interviews; the guitarist and songwriter is not one to…
On the Beat: Music Phone Booths in Rutland and the Final Ripton Community Coffee House Show
Remember phone booths? You know, those big glass things where Superman used to get naked all the time? (Side note: Where does Supes strip these days? Does he just swing through rest stop bathrooms? Department store fitting rooms?) Gen Zers have most likely never laid eyes on one, but Rutland’s Nick Grandchamp aims to fix…
Book Review: ‘The Cemetery of Untold Stories,’ Julia Alvarez
In Weybridge author Julia Alvarez’s abundantly populated new novel, an aging writer named Alma, who publishes under the nom de plume Scheherazade, decides to call it quits. She leaves Vermont and returns to her childhood home in the Dominican Republic, claiming a plot of derelict land she’s inherited but never seen. Her plan is to…
Award-Winning FaMa Quartet Reunites to Fête the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival
Every summer, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival gathers talented young violinists, violists and cellists from around the country on the Saint Michael’s College campus in Colchester for four intense weeks of instruction, training and performance. The students, who range from 13 to 30 years old, practice their instruments for hours every day and rehearse…
Termanology, ‘Time Is Currency’
(AfterLyfe Music, CD, digital) In a genre full of hard workers, Boston rapper Termanology has distinguished himself as one of the most prolific artists in the game. A lifelong genre purist who’s been hustling rhymes since high school, he celebrates his legacy on Time Is Currency, his latest, and 50th, album. That is not a…
Bristol Journalist Alex Belth Compiled an Anthology of Classic Celebrity Profiles From the 1960s and ’70s
In 1966, writer Doon Arbus got an assignment from the New York Herald Tribune to profile James Brown on the occasion of the singer’s first-ever show at Madison Square Garden. Long before most of white America had heard of the “Godfather of Soul,” Arbus, daughter of famed photographer Diane Arbus, spent hours with Brown at…
From the Publisher: Heavens Can’t Wait
I changed my vacation plans and flew from California to Vermont, with less than a day to spare, so I could catch the total solar eclipse on April 8. There was no way I was going to miss the experience. Conveniently, astronomers knew exactly when and where it was going to happen, weather permitting. That…
As School Budget Season Drags On, Residents Put Education Spending Under the Microscope
Last week, administrators in the Mount Abraham Unified School District invited Bristol parent Shawna Gabbeitt to their central office to look over financial documents. Gabbeitt, a bookkeeper, had filed an extensive request for public records about school spending after voters rejected the district’s budget on Town Meeting Day. She had become more concerned about the…
Free Will Astrology (5/15/24)
TAURUS (Apr. 20-May 20): Hypothetically, you could learn to give a stirring rendering of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 on a slide whistle. Or you could perform the “To be, or not to be” soliloquy from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet for an audience of pigeons that aren’t even paying attention. Theoretically, you could pour out…
A Pop Star Falls for Anne Hathaway in the Escapist but Uninspired Rom-Com ‘The Idea of You’
The pandemic changed the way people watch movies and the way critics write about them. Here at Seven Days, where we used to limit ourselves to reviewing films currently in local theaters, the choices have opened up to include new streaming fare. The explosion of options is a welcome change for the most part: Who…
A Local Veteran Discusses Lessons Learned From War-Gaming a Second Trump Presidency
It’s January 20, 2025, and Donald Trump is being sworn in for a second presidential term. In the weeks leading up to the inauguration, his rhetoric on border security has become increasingly inflammatory. Addressing a large rally, he has vowed to issue an executive order on his first day in office to “take back control…
Letters to the Editor (5/15/24)
Inflation Figures I found [“‘We’re Leaving’: Winooski’s Bargain Real Estate Attracted a Diverse Group of Residents for Years. Now They’re Being Squeezed Out,” May 8] to be well written and in-depth. However, the one thing you did not cover was the impact of inflation on this housing crisis. Although the housing crisis existed long before…
Grilling the Chef: Robert Smith III Leads a Fresh Chapter at Ferrisburgh’s Starry Night Café
Chef Robert Smith III Position: Executive chef Age: 31 Cuisine type: Italian-inflected California cuisine with fresh, seasonal ingredients Experience: On-the-job training in Vermont, from dishwashing at Kitchen Table Bistro to holding all stations at Texas Roadhouse to three years cooking at Guild Tavern. Moved to Los Angeles at 22 and spent four years at chef…
Leo & Co. to Open in Essex’s Former Sweet Clover Market
The team from Salt & Bubbles Wine Bar and Market is branching out, but not far. This summer, they’ll open Leo & Co. down the sidewalk at 21 Essex Way, the previous site of Sweet Clover Market in the Essex Experience. Owner Kayla Silver expects the casual counter-service café and market to start serving juices,…
New Chef and Menu at the Big Spruce in Richmond
After a brief expansion to breakfast and lunch, the Big Spruce in Richmond has returned to serving only dinner, with a fresh approach from newly hired executive chef Christian Kruse. As of the first week of May, the menu at the 3.5-year-old restaurant has completed its evolution from a Mexican roster of tacos and enchiladas…
The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, May 15-21
Take a Trance on Me Saturday 18 This year’s Bandwagon Summer Series, presented by Next Stage Arts, kicks off at the Putney Inn with an unbeatable double billing. Persian violinist and kamancheh (an Iranian bowed string instrument) player Mehrnam Rastegari (pictured) and Mediterranean psychedelic-surf trio Habbina Habbina transport audiences to the Middle East and beyond.…
Dean’s Potential Run for Governor Buoys Dems Eager for a Competitive Race
Excitement is building in Democratic circles over the prospect that former governor Howard Dean will give Gov. Phil Scott something he hasn’t had in a long time — a serious challenger. Dean confirmed late last month that he might run against Scott, who announced over the weekend he will, as expected, seek a fifth term.…
Obituary: Charles Yergeau, 1959-2024
Former Vermont man gave love, guidance and shelter to many
