Nov 4-10, 2020
The State Trusts That Travel Rules Can Keep COVID-19 Out. But Who’s Guarding the Gates?; New Developer Team Wants a Shot at Building CityPlace Burlington; Election Night 2020 Recap
Cover Story
Fort Vermont: The State Trusts Travel Rules to Keep COVID-19 Out. But Who’s Guarding the Gates?
A few weeks ago, as the surrounding forest turned golden, a man walked in the front door of the country inn Shari Brown has managed for decades. He was visiting from North Carolina and asked if she would rent him a room. He wasn’t wearing a mask. “I’m like, ‘No,'” Brown said, recalling her displeasure. Brown…
The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, November 5 to 11
1. Dueling Ideas Can craft, creativity and pattern coexist with high culture, mass production and chaos? Visual artist Alice Dodge explores the juxtaposition of these concepts in her solo show at Montpelier cooperative gallery the Front. “Wallflowers”opens with a limited occupancy in-person reception on Friday, November 6, and remains on view through November 29. Learn…
Vermont Kids Will Get Free Meals Through the School Year
Even after schools shuttered in March to avoid the coronavirus, free meals have been available for all students. That was scheduled to end in December. But thanks to additional federal funding and local advocacy, Vermont kids under age 18 will have access to free meals through June of next year. “We really believe that having…
From the Publisher: Better Read Than Dead
“Your premise is: Just because you’re a journalist, you can’t be killed. It’s all wrong.” That’s what Rodrigo Duterte told reporters at a 2016 press conference shortly after his election as president of the Republic of the Philippines. The democratic nation has become one of the most dangerous places in the world to cover the…
A New Developer Team Wants a Shot at Building CityPlace Burlington
As developer Don Sinex tells it, he got a gut feeling about a year ago that his business partner in the CityPlace Burlington project was getting cold feet. So, to hedge his bets, Sinex asked a trio of local businessmen in January about becoming his partners if the multinational company, Brookfield Asset Management, pulled out. Sure…
Amid the Pandemic, Lawmakers Debate a Return to Montpelier Next Year
Vermont voters just sent 180 lawmakers to work on their behalf in the General Assembly. How many of them step foot in the Statehouse is anyone’s guess. The stubborn spread of COVID-19 in the state, the vulnerability of many older lawmakers, and lawmakers’ ability to legislate from the comfort of their couches make a full…
Vermont Author Ann Dávila Cardinal’s ‘Category Five’ Is a Hurricane of Horror
In the fall of 2017, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, leaving devastation in its wake. At the time, Vermont writer Ann Dávila Cardinal, who has roots and family on the island, was in copyedits with her first solo novel, Five Midnights. “I wanted to go straight down,” she said in a phone interview, but her…
Letters to the Editor (11/4/20)
Not So Patient In “Resident Racist” [October 21], reporter Paul Heintz does well to gain the trust of sources working within Elderwood. These sources, identified as nurses of color, provide numerous examples of racist verbal and physical assaults by an elderly white resident of this nursing home. The management reportedly has done little to stop…
Radio Astrologer Tess Hadley Durand Guides Listeners on a Journey Through Metaphors
If you tune in to 105.9 FM The Radiator between approximately 8:15 and 8:21 on a Monday morning, you might catch a wisp of Tess Hadley Durand, the gossamer voice behind the astrology radio show “Happy Astro Pondering!” Durand’s style is more poetic than predictive; think “Eye on the Sky” but with Venus transits, internal…
Art Review: ‘Unprecedented?’ at BCA Center
The BCA Center’s absorbing group show “Unprecedented?” brings together work in a variety of mediums by nine artists, seven of whom are Vermonters. Using ceramic vessels, multipanel photographic works, a cartoonist’s print, a multimedia installation and two large-scale sculptures, the artists respond to the tangle of emotions inspired by current times. “Unprecedented?” replaces a different…
Retail Therapy: Stowe Kitchen Bath & Linens Goes All Out for the Indoors
Stowe Kitchen Bath & Linens is already decked out for the holidays. At the entrance to the Mountain Road store, a small Christmas tree holds skiing-Santa ornaments atop a miniature lodge. German-made wooden and glass-ball decorations cover a larger, upside-down tree suspended from the ceiling. A pine-scented candle diffuses a woodsy aroma from a display…
How a Self-Taught Microscope Expert Became the Go-To Guy for Scientists Worldwide
For more than 30 years, John Oren of Charlotte has sold high-end microscopes to some of the world’s most prestigious laboratories, hospitals, museums and research institutions. His client list includes France’s National Museum of Natural History, Germany’s Max Planck Institutes, Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, and the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. The precision optical instruments…
I Find It Annoying When a Guy Asks If He Can Kiss Me on a Date
Dear Reverend, I find it really annoying when I’m on a date with a guy and he asks if he can kiss me. Even if I want to, the question makes the moment awkward and turns me off. I feel like a first kiss should be more organic and intuitive, especially for these grown men.…
Free Will Astrology (11/4/20)
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “At every crossroad, be prepared to bump into wonder,” wrote Scorpio poet James Broughton. I believe that’s stirring advice for you to keep in mind during the coming weeks. Broughton’s words inspired me to come up with a corollary for you to heed, as well: “At every turning point, be ready…
‘The Oath’ Does Its Best to Wring Laughs From a Political Nightmare
Our streaming entertainment options are overwhelming — and not always easy to sort through. This week, I was as obsessed with the election as everybody else, so I decided to torture myself with a movie I’ve long been curious about, a black comedy that floats an unsettling political scenario. Written and directed by Ike Barinholtz…
Soundbites: November Is Local Music Month in Vermont
It feels so indescribably weird to be writing a column on a Monday that will be published on a Wednesday, with the biggest presidential election of my life sandwiched between them. I don’t really have anything else to say about that, but I need to acknowledge the incredible strangeness of the situation. No matter the…
Madaila, ‘Madaila’
(Self-released, digital) Earlier this year, Mark Daly relaunched his former band, Madaila, essentially as a solo project. Four new EPs were promised to follow, each titled for a cardinal direction said to be inspired by the sounds and feels of the region named. The middling West arrived in May, only weeks before George Floyd was…
The Gifts, ‘Silks’
(Self-released, digital) The Gifts is a moniker for the electronic experiments of Jeremy Mendicino, a Burlington resident who loves to tinker with strange gear. He’s been on the music scene, locally and beyond, for many years and is probably best known as part of the whip-smart pop-rock trio Pretty & Nice. His latest LP, Silks,…
Sipping Barside Again in Burlington, With More Rules and Less Company
The year 2020 has not been good for barflies. In fact, the leisurely activity of hanging out at a bar, the subject of this occasional series, was prohibited for six months in Vermont. Even after restaurants and bars gradually reopened to on-site customers at reduced capacity starting on May 22, bar seating was not permitted…
Feasting on Takeout From Stowe’s Umami With a Pro of Chinese Cuisine
On a Friday afternoon in late October, I emailed Steve Bogart: “Are you willing to risk a little rain on our food to meet at 5 Saturday for an Umami picnic in Stowe?” Bogart, now retired, was the founding chef-owner of A Single Pebble, a Chinese restaurant in Burlington that he started as a weekend…
Thorn + Roots Brings Healthy Fast Food to Church Street
The connection between Burlington and Saratoga Springs, N.Y., grew one business stronger in October with the opening of Thorn + Roots on the Church Street Marketplace. The juice bar’s sister restaurant, Urban Roots Kitchen, has operated in the upstate New York town for two years. “We had always been looking at Burlington,” Thorn + Roots…
