May 16-22, 2018
Measuring the Backlash to Vermont’s Gun-Control Legislation; UVM Budgeting Leads to Losses in Humanities; Chef George Lambertson Fields Questions About Food and Baseball
Cover Story
Betrayed: Can Gun-Rights Activists ‘Take Back Vermont’?
Robby Mazza thought he could trust Phil Scott to protect his gun rights. So when Scott ran for governor in 2016, Mazza had his back. The Colchester man kept more than 150 yard signs at his home and distributed them at the Scott campaign’s request. He even tacked them onto his excavation company’s dump trucks.…
The Parmelee Post: Gov. Scott: Higher Wages a Slippery Slope to Being Able to Afford to Live in Vermont
Gov. Phil Scott issued a stern warning to lawmakers Wednesday that an increase to the state’s minimum wage could result in people being able to afford to live in Vermont. “I made a promise to Vermonters that I would focus obsessively on taxes like a deranged Grover Norquist fanboy while doing everything in my power…
Obituary: Arthur Shelmandine IV, 1953-2018
Arthur Ross Shelmandine IV: amazing stay-at-home dad, husband, grandfather, luggage designer, creative genius behind It’s Arthur’s Fault! sauces and marinades, and source of knowledge on countless topics. On May 14, he passed away surrounded by his loving family after 10 days in the ICU following a massive brain bleed caused by an arteriovenous malformation (AVM),…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: More on Expungements
We wrote last week about plans for expungement clinics in Chittenden and Windsor counties next month. Applicants can file to have their misdemeanor marijuana possession convictions in those counties wiped clean. Don’t worry, the events are still on. But we wanted to clarify a few details. For one, the clinics are free. Lawyers and law…
![Champlain Valley Dinner Train [SIV532]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/episode532-scaled.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Champlain Valley Dinner Train [SIV532]
5/12/18: All aboard for a 3 hour train trip from Union Station in Burlington to Middlebury and back. Eva rode the rails with other train enthusiasts and enjoyed a 3-course meal and cocktails in the Green Mountain Railroad’s classic dining cars. Passengers caught a stellar sunset over Lake Champlain and harkened back to the golden…
Page 32: Mini Reviews of Five New Vermont Books
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 colony of cottontails. So this monthly feature is our way of introducing you to a handful of books by Vermont authors. To do that, we contextualize each book…
Vermont Curators Group Envisions Statewide Project
When Andrea Rosen started her job as curator at the University of Vermont’s Fleming Museum of Art in July 2015, she noticed something right away. The Fleming and BCA Center — two major art venues in Burlington — had scheduled openings for the same evening. “I was struck by the fact that there wasn’t enough…
Author Kimberly Harrington Talks Parenting, Humor and Giving Advice
When Kimberly Harrington walks into Burlington’s Citizen Cider for a chat with Seven Days — sporting red lipstick, a stylish shag haircut and a gray motorcycle jacket draped over her shoulders — she looks more like the front woman of an indie band than the writer of essays about motherhood. Harrington is a rock star…
Got Chowder? Enter the Lake Champlain International Comp
Calling all chowder makers: Registration is open until May 20 for Lake Champlain International’s third annual Fish Chowder Championship. All fish must come from the Champlain Basin for chowder entered in this competition, which features two categories: home cooks and chefs. Prizes include $500 for first place and special recognition for cooks who make chowder…
Governor No: Legislature Compromises, Scott Stands Firm
As Vermont lawmakers moved toward adjournment last week, they were also moving in Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s direction. The legislature failed to pass several bills that Scott had threatened to veto. Others were stripped of provisions that Scott found unacceptable. Tax measures were shelved or slashed. But the governor was unmoved. He closed the session…
At Burlington Subaru, Car Sales Benefit the Food Shelf
On May 14, the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf received a check for almost $54,000 from Burlington Subaru. The contribution raises to about $234,000 the total that the car dealership on Shelburne Road has donated to the local food shelf over the past five years, said general sales manager Steve Kelson. The fundraising initiative is part…
Album Review: Xenia Dunford, ‘Flesh and Bone (& Everything Within) Side A’
(Self-released, digital download) Guts: Literally, we all have them. But whether someone figuratively has guts is not so universal. For example, it’s easy to be self-deprecating when you’re trying to make people laugh. But when you pair that with darkly intimate and candid expressions of your innermost thoughts and desires, well, that’s gutsy. Burlington singer-songwriter…
Scarlett Letters: My Boyfriend’s Porn Addiction Makes Me Feel Inferior
Dear Scarlett, My boyfriend and I have been dating for a few years. When we first met, he told me he had a porn addiction that he was actively working on quitting. I didn’t mind, but now it’s been four years and he still hasn’t stopped. I never minded my significant other watching porn before,…
Lykos Makes Menswear for a Rugged Lifestyle
The product launch party for Lykos Designs, a new Shelburne-based menswear brand, was no fashion industry gala. The event, held in early May at Outdoor Gear Exchange in Burlington, didn’t feature metrosexual runway models with steely stares and $1,000 haircuts. Modeling Lykos’ cargo pants was Matt Looft, who helped the company’s founders design them. His…
King Tuff Talks ASMR, Sleep Paralysis and the Elusive ‘Other’
Those who’ve followed Brattle-boro’s music scene over the past decade or so might remember some of King Tuff’s earlier incarnations and associations. Born Kyle Thomas, the artist played in the freak-folk collective Feathers, a metal outfit called Witch that featured Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis on drums, and the garage-pop band Happy Birthday. That last project’s…
Free Will Astrology (5/16/18)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A chemist named Marcellus Gilmore Edson got a patent on peanut butter in 1894. A businessperson named George Bayle started selling peanut butter as a snack in 1894. In 1901, a genius named Julia David Chandler published the first recipe for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In 1922, another pioneer…
Soundbites: Trucked Up
I got my first sunburn of the year last week. It was basically nothing — just a day or two of minor facial discomfort. An annual wake-up call, it reminded me to a) see if I even have sunscreen in my house; b) check the expiration date on said sunscreen; and c) generously apply that…
Album Review: John Smyth, ‘Hunger Mountain Clay’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) For years and years, John Smyth has haunted the margins of the local singer-songwriter scene, honing his craft at open mics and small, often out-of-the-way stages throughout central Vermont with workmanlike regularity. Until recently, that was the only way to hear him: to catch him at the Whammy Bar in Calais…
How Seven Under-the-Radar Proposals Fared in Vermont’s Legislative Session
Gun control, marijuana legalization and school spending got most of the attention during Vermont’s 2018 legislative session, but lawmakers did plenty of other work before they adjourned in the wee hours of Sunday morning. As the clock ticked toward midnight, bills volleyed between the two chambers at a dizzying speed. The legislature passed 136 measures…
Eat This Week, May 16 to 22, 2018: Make Way for Beer
The Vermont Brewers Association kicked off its inaugural Green Mountain Beer Week on Monday. On Wednesday, May 16, brewers and drinkers can don bowling shoes at Stowe Bowl to throw strikes, spares or gutter balls. Then on Thursday, May 17, hop on a tour — with sips from a cask of sour-cherry imperial stout — at…
Oh, the Humanities: UVM Budget Model Spurs a Fight for Survival
Grades are in for the University of Vermont provost David Rosowsky. On April 17, liberal arts faculty members voted to express “no confidence” in the university’s No. 2 official and chief budgeting officer. “I didn’t take it personally,” Rosowsky explained genially during an interview in his spacious, book-lined office. He carefully defended what set off…
Movie Review: Melissa McCarthy Fails to Be the ‘Life of the Party’ in Her Latest Comedy
As Melissa McCarthy’s latest laugh-delivery apparatus blurped, sputtered and otherwise malfunctioned, the words of another remarkable female artist wafted across my consciousness. In “Liability,” Lorde sings, “The truth is I am a toy that people enjoy / ‘Til all of the tricks don’t work anymore / And then they are bored of me.” If Life…
Letters to the Editor (5/16/18)
Why We Haven’t Moved to Vermont [Re “Coming and Going: Vermont Struggles to Grow Its Workforce,” February 8]: I have followed Gov. Phil Scott’s plans to get people to move to Vermont. We seemingly fit the desired profile as younger professionals. We drive an electric car and are very environmentally responsible. We love nature, local…
Last Rites? Burlington Catholics Regroup Ahead of Downtown Church Sale
Two dozen heads bowed in prayer at the Immaculate Conception Church in downtown Burlington last week. Overwhelmingly white-haired or balding, the small, dedicated group of elderly parishioners who attend the noontime mass may soon have to find another place to pray. Last week, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington announced that the Vatican had approved…
Movie Review: ‘Breaking In’ Isn’t Worth the Trouble in This Underwritten Thriller
Breaking In feels like an entire movie constructed around a couple of lines of dialogue that someone fervently hoped would become memes. The bare-bones plot concerns a mom of two, Shaun (Gabrielle Union), tasked with saving her kids from a quartet of home invaders. The lead baddie (Billy Burke) warns her to comply, purring, “You’re…
Hackie: His Own Wild People
For about five years in the early aughts — the first decade of the 21st century — I spent many hours every week roaming the buildings and grounds of Wake Robin, the retirement community in Shelburne. Dr. Leslie Falk, a regular taxi customer of mine, was a resident of Wake Robin; indeed, he was among…
ArtsRiot Chef George Lambertson Fields Questions About Food and Baseball
His first truck-stop gig of the season was a few hours away, and George Lambertson, in chef’s whites, was prepping for the event. In the alley behind ArtsRiot on Burlington’s Pine Street, under the noon sun, Lambertson painted a fresh black stripe across the midsection of his truck. That evening at the waterfront, where Lambertson’s…
Art Review: ‘Optimist Prime,’ New City Galerie
The saying “The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too” originates in a speech that labor union leader Rose Schneiderman gave at a 1912 textile strike. Plucked from history, the phrase invites broad reflection on the tangled ideas of beauty and resistance. For one thing, optimism — and insisting on pleasure —…
Drats — It’s Rats! Vermin Invasion Rattles Winooski Neighborhood
The demolition of a Winooski home has unleashed a torrent of rats on an unsuspecting neighborhood and sparked a heated discussion online about how to handle the infestation. It began March 31 when contractors razed a Lafountain Street residence, said Martha Chadwick, whose backyard is near the site. The next day, rats were everywhere, swarming…
Montréal’s Agrikol Sets a Haitian Mood for Food
Mardi Gras beads hang from chandeliers. Peach-colored walls are painted with palm fronds. The décor encourages visitors to Montréal’s Agrikol to feel that they’ve exited the city and landed in the Caribbean. An island environment is exactly what chef Paul Toussaint intends for his Haitian restaurant in the Gay Village neighborhood. “We want [customers] to…
Sweet Babu to Open Winooski Dessert Bar
The space at 25 Winooski Falls Way has been many things in the past five years: bake shop, pop-up restaurant incubator space and catering kitchen. Soon, the storefront will add “dessert bar” to its list of occupants. Starting June 1, Sweet Babu owner Shana Goldberger plans to open for evening sweets and drinks Thursday through…
