Nov 6-12, 2019
What’s Best for the Children of Vermonters With Opioid-Use Disorder?; Locals Train for a Regional Pole Dance Competition; A Longtime Musician Slows Down to Photograph Wildlife — and Wins Acclaim
Cover Story
What’s Best for the Children of Vermonters With Opioid-Use Disorder?
In April of last year, my sister Maddie was led from her cell at a New Hampshire jail to a telephone, where she called in to a hearing that was taking place in a Vermont family court. The matter before the court was not related to her incarceration, which was for failing to report to…
Obituary: Frederick N. Cook, 1929-2019
Former state rep founded central Vermont cancer support group
The Cannabis Catch-Up: The Trouble With Hemp
A recent kerfuffle involving a Vermont hemp farm and the New York Police Department laid bare the evolving understanding of cannabis laws. In case you haven’t heard, here’s what happened: On November 1, Fox Holler Farm in New Haven dropped off 106 pounds of its organically grown hemp at the FedEx in Williston. Included in…
Obituary: Douglas Hopps, 1959-2019
Former Addison County educator and volunteer was a mixtape master
Obituary: Jean Crossley Haigh, 1935-2019
Rutland-born educator became a trailblazer for the Northeast Kingdom Section of the Green Mountain Club
Ex-Prosecutor Preet Bharara Talks Trump, Impeachment Ahead of UVM Appearance
In March 2017, Preet Bharara received a simple request he felt he had to refuse: His boss, President Donald Trump, wanted to speak with him by phone. As a U.S. attorney, Bharara wasn’t supposed to communicate directly with the president. Such a conversation would be all the more inappropriate, Bharara reasoned, because he was the…
New Burlington Café the Boardroom Welcomes Board Gamers
A Burlington café that offers 525 board games to be played on-site will open this week near the Colchester Avenue bridge, according to owner Kerry Winger. The Boardroom at 3 Mill Street launches with a soft opening on Thursday, November 7, at 6 p.m. by reservation only. The café’s full opening will follow on Friday…
Burlington Film Series Celebrates a Designer Who Opposed ‘Planned Obsolescence’
One learns about German industrial designer Dieter Rams at one’s peril. First, I investigated the chairs and shelving system that he created for Vitsœ, whose website has an extremely tempting “Get a system like this” button. Next, I checked out the everyday products he made for Braun, each of which is better designed than the…
Musician Peter Riley Slows Down to Photograph Wildlife — and Wins Acclaim
It was a windy day at Red Rocks Park in South Burlington. Too windy, perhaps, according to nature photographer and musician Peter Riley, who knows such things. Gazing at a thicket of tree limbs whose rusty leaves danced in a gusting breeze just beyond the entrance of the woodsy park, he tempered my expectations. “I’m…
Free Will Astrology (11/6/19)
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Studies suggest that, on average, each of us has a social network of about 250 people, 120 of whom we regard as a closer group of friendly acquaintances. But most of us have no more than 20 folks we trust and only two or three whom we regard as confidants. I…
Soundbites: Brian McCarthy Unveils ‘After|Life’
Spaced Out Where did we come from? How did we get here? What is the nature of the universe? For Christ’s sake, is there someone out there pulling the strings, or is it all just random? Obviously, no one can definitively answer any of these questions. But that doesn’t stop philosophers, scientists and artists from…
Locals Train for a Regional Pole Dance Competition
Nobody seemed concerned that Vickie Wacek was hanging 15 feet in the air. Wacek dangled from the metal crossbeams affixed to the ceiling like a kid on the monkey bars at a playground, grinning and pointing her toes, while a few other women chatted and stretched below her. Then she slid down the way she…
Ron Funches Is the Most Positive Guy in Comedy
Ron Funches is one of the most positive people in comedy. His bits and jokes consistently punch up, deriving humor from relatable observations and anecdotes without tearing anyone down or crossing into a negative space. To be clear, his material isn’t squeaky clean. He can be as raunchy as the next comic. But any vulgarity…
Letters to the Editor (11/6/19)
Where There’s a Wind… [Re “Carbon Quandary,” October 9]: No one can deny that, whatever Vermont may or may not have, it has plenty of wind. So why isn’t wind a bigger part of our energy discussion? The two most common objections, I believe, are that wind farms — or even single windmills — will…
Band of the Land, ‘Deep Into the Trees’
(self-released, digital) It should come as no surprise that Band of the Land feel deeply connected to nature. The Burlington group revels in the splendor of its home state, threading field recordings of trickling streams, red-winged blackbird and mourning dove calls, and the sound of riverbed stones crunching underfoot into a debut full-length album, Deep…
Corporate Interests Donate Big Bucks to Leahy Scholarship Fund at UVM
As they announced a new scholarship honoring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and his wife, Marcelle, a parade of University of Vermont officials made sure to thank the corporations and foundations that had contributed to the $3.4 million fund. “We have very generous lead donors that have made this happen in honor of Sen. Leahy and…
Mark LeGrand, ‘This Dream I’m In’
(Laughing Eagle Music, CD, digital) Mark LeGrand has long been a voice for the voiceless in Vermont. Over the course of seven albums, the Montpelier songwriter has cast a keen and compassionate eye on humanity in all its faults and glories. LeGrand has made a career of probing the depths of the choices we make…
What Happened to the ‘Diving Bell’ in Burlington’s Union Station?
In “Big Yellow Taxi,” Joni Mitchell sings “Don’t it always seem to go / That you don’t know what you’ve got / Till it’s gone.” Well, sometimes when it’s gone, we aren’t even sure what it was to begin with. Such was the case for one Seven Days reader, who emailed us last week to…
In Wallingford, Pop Producer Jonnie Davis Goes From Hit Maker to Toy Maker
For most of his adult life, Jonnie “Most” Davis made a good living writing and recording hit tunes that can be heard on top-40 radio stations around the world. Today, the successful songwriter, producer, sound engineer and record company executive — who’s worked with big-name artists such as Pink, Marc Anthony, Outkast, Sean Combs, Usher…
How Do I Train Myself to Get My Transitioning Friend’s Pronouns Right?
Dear Reverend, My best friend, whom I’ve known since high school, is transitioning from male to female. I think that’s fantastic, but I keep making mistakes by using the wrong pronoun and calling her by her old name. She says it doesn’t bother her, but it bothers me. How do I train myself to get…
Astrocreepers Dream Up Recycled, Maximalist Fashion
As Megan Jensen opened the door to the turn-of-the-20th-century home she shares with her boyfriend, Aaron Giroux, multiple clues signaled their creative zeal. There was the run-down porch with a large sign advertising the couple’s alterations and mending business. There was Bulleit, a large, friendly mutt clad in a T-shirt that read “Bad Bitch” across…
‘Til Death? Burlington Man Finds Feds Are Relentless in Money Matters
Little can get in the way of the federal government and money it’s owed. Just ask Ed Latimer, a 67-year-old Burlington man who recently learned the Social Security Administration had overpaid him $6,974 over the last decade and planned to get its cash back by deducting $10 from his check — for each of the next 697…
Hire Anxiety: Layoffs Jolt Burlington-Area Tech Sector
When Miami-based e-commerce company Mi9 bought homegrown software firm MyWebGrocer in October 2018, Barry Clogan, the Winooski-based tech darling’s president of retail solutions, hailed the sale as a win for local employees. “It’s wonderful for MyWebGrocer. It’s very positive for the team here,” Clogan told Seven Days at the time. “It’s onwards and upwards.” He…
Bong Joon-Ho’s Acclaimed Satire ‘Parasite’ Has Nothing Much to Say
Somebody has to say it: The new film from gifted director Bong Joon-Ho (Okja) is neither his best nor the year’s. It’s fun and wonderful in many ways and cleverly conceived. It’s also self-indulgent, riddled with plot holes and thematically vapid. Movies aren’t required to make profound statements, of course. I point out that Parasite…
Work: Violin Maker Marcus Bretto
Name: Marcus Bretto Job: Violin maker Town: Burlington The violin as we know it today dates back to 16th-century northern Italy. The region spawned dynasties of violin makers, whose names are still synonymous with quality: Giuseppe Guarnari, Antonio Stradivari, the Amati family. Some of the oldest and most sought-after violins, housed in museums, were made…
The Secret Weapon of Absurdist Parable ‘The Lighthouse’ Is Its Humor
In 2016, I sang the praises of Sully Seagull, the real star of the shark-attack movie The Shallows. But that squawky avian actor looks like a hack beside the one-eyed gull who menaces Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) in the genially bizarre indie film The Lighthouse. Ephraim is doing a stint as an assistant “wickie” (lighthouse…
Art Review: ‘Rogue Cloth Work,’ Vermont Supreme Court Gallery
Janie Cohen has served so long at the helm of the Fleming Museum of Art in Burlington — as chief curator from 1991 to 2002 and as director since then — that her identity as an artist may still be news to many. She first showed her hand-stitched cloth work in a duo exhibition at…
The College Named After Samuel de Champlain Debates Whether to Keep His Statue
Samuel de Champlain survived more than 20 voyages on the rough seas between Europe and North America 400 years ago. He canoed to the Vermont lake that now bears his name and helped his Algonquin allies defeat their Iroquois enemies by shooting their stunned chiefs dead with the first gun they had ever seen. Now…
Doing Dinner With Award-Winning Cookbook Author Molly Stevens
During a recent cooking session arranged to highlight her brand-new cookbook, Molly Stevens did not cook from the book. Instead, she walked into Louissa Rozendaal’s small Burlington apartment kitchen and headed for the fridge. “My favorite kind of cooking is just opening up the fridge and seeing what we have,” Stevens said. “I love repurposing…
Seven Vermont Liquor Rules Designed to Save Us From Overindulgence
Say you’re a sociological researcher and need to observe drunken human behavior in the wild. The first place you might look is a bar. Ironically (and theoretically), that’s actually the last place you should look around here: In Vermont it’s against the rules to sell alcohol to anyone who is drunk, appears drunk or likely…
Kru Coffee Coming to Burlington’s Church Street
Church Street Marketplace will get a new coffee shop early next year when Kru Coffee launches a Burlington location at 2 Church Street, co-owner Kyle Brock said. The family-run business, based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., will occupy the first floor of the building at the corner of Church and Pearl streets. The café will serve…
Central Café Opens in Downtown St. Johnsbury
There’s a new place to grab a cup of coffee and hang out on St. Johnsbury’s rapidly revitalizing Railroad Street. Central Café, which held its grand opening on Wednesday, October 30, sits at 418 Railroad Street, just across the street from Kingdom Taproom and Table. The café’s owners, Jerome Balmes and Robert Larabee, saw a…
