Nov 7-13, 2018
Stem Cell Therapy: Exploring the Science, and the Snake Oil; What Happens if Burlington’s CityPlace Project Fails?; Chatting Up Obama White House Chef and Food Policy Adviser Sam Kass
Cover Story
Exploring the Science, and the Snake Oil, Behind Regenerative Stem Cell Therapy
A dozen seniors ambled in to the Maple Room of the Holiday Inn in South Burlington, several of them supported by canes, walkers, scooters or spouses. A slide projected on a screen at the front of the room read, “Stop hurting and start living!” The attendees at the free seminar, held on a Friday afternoon…
The Parmelee Post: Burlington Developer Unveils Spacious New 10,000-Bedroom Apartment
New York City-based developer Don Sinex says construction is now complete on a sprawling new apartment in the heart of downtown Burlington. Sinex cut the ribbon Friday on his Holesome Living Community, a gaping 10,000-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment tucked between Cherry and Bank streets. “This amazing piece of real estate will not only help to ease…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: Weed Wins the Elections
Cannabis was on the ballot across the country Tuesday, and advocates must be happy with the results. The biggest win: Voters in Michigan legalized recreational cannabis. The law goes into effect as soon as election results are officially certified, which could be in early December, reports the Detroit Free Press. Commercial cannabis sales are still…
Birth Announcement: Parker Ann Loso
On November 4, 2018, at Porter Medical Center, Meghan Ann Muir and Edward P. Loso Jr. welcomed a girl, Parker Ann Loso.
In Suburban South Burlington, a Holdout Farmer Plans to Expand
When for-sale signs sprouted on the Auclair Farm in South Burlington last September, Corie Pierce knew that she had to act quickly. She hoped to acquire or conserve the rolling 375-acre property near her own organic beef operation, Bread & Butter Farm, which straddles the SoBu and Shelburne town line on Cheesefactory Road. It seemed…
Solar Panel From Jimmy Carter’s White House Winds Up in Hinesburg
A solar panel that president Jimmy Carter erected on the White House grounds in 1979 is now on display at the Hinesburg headquarters of NRG Systems. The Vermont company obtained the panel nearly a decade ago, but it was only this spring that NRG hung it on a wall in the building’s main meeting space.…
Hole in the Mall: It’s a ‘Precarious Moment’ for Burlington’s CityPlace Project
A series of construction deadlines for the downtown CityPlace Burlington project have come and gone without any real progress, and city officials appear to be losing patience with the developer. Don Sinex vowed two years ago that the 14-story mall redevelopment would be open and occupied by January 2019. Later he said that the foundation…
Worthy Burger Too Opens in Waitsfield
Two and a half weeks after Lawson’s Finest Liquids launched its new brewery in Waitsfield, another local favorite is coming to the Mad River Valley town. Worthy Burger Too will open Thursday, November 8, at 114 Mad River Green, co-owner Jason Merrill said. The restaurant will share a menu with the original Worthy Burger, which…
Album Review: Adventure Dog, ‘The Dog House’
(Self-released, digital) UK trip-hop legends Massive Attack recently announced that their 1998 masterpiece Mezzanine would soon be available as a can of spray paint. Seriously. Apparently, a crack team of Swiss scientists figured out how to translate the album’s digital bitstream into strands of DNA stored in something called TurboBeads. Nearly a million nano-copies of…
Play ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ Harks Back to a Fraught Campaign, in 1840
The midterms are barely behind us, but more politicking lies ahead — onstage. This Thursday, November 8, Plainfield Little Theatre premieres Smoke and Mirrors, penned by local playwright Tom Blachly, at the Plainfield Town Hall Opera House. The fact-based work depicts the 1840 presidential race between incumbent Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison. According…
Soundbites: Vinyl Me, Please Comes to Burlington and What’s Next for Madaila
Last Friday, we said goodbye to Burlington’s beloved psych-pop band Madaila. The show came only a few weeks after the group announced its indefinite separation/hiatus/hibernation via social media. The extended set was epic, and the neon-clad, sold-out crowd at South Burlington’s Higher Ground Ballroom partied hearty, despite the emotional undercurrent. Of course, life goes on.…
Eat This Week, November 7 to 13, 2018: Ancient Roots
Indigenous Vermonters take center stage during the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont’s eighth annual Agricultural Literacy Week. At the unofficial kickoff, Melody Brook will gather visitors at Highgate Library and Community Center for a potluck and Abenaki storytelling on Saturday, November 10. Stories from regional tribal leaders will continue at local libraries statewide through…
UVM Repurposes Former Taft School as Arts Center
Lots of elementary school kids eventually go to college. But it’s not every day that an elementary school itself does. In a manner of speaking, that’s what happened to the Elihu B. Taft School at the corner of Williams and Pearl streets in Burlington. It is now part of the University of Vermont. Early in…
Arc Iris’ Jocie Adams on Idols, Tension and New Album ‘Icon of Ego’
Arc Iris released their debut self-titled album in 2014. Full of acoustic instrumentation and pop-inflected, New England singer-songwriter vibes, the record showcases the band’s predilection for augmentation. On the one hand familiar, it largely upends existing notions of what contemporary folk music can be through off-kilter, surprising arrangements. But if you’ve seen the Providence, R.I.,…
Randolph’s Café Salud Has Closed Its Doors
The Storm Café in Middlebury recently announced on its Facebook page that it will close on Sunday, November 11, after nearly 13 years in business at 3 Mill Street. Café Salud VT, which opened in June at 22 Pleasant Street in Randolph, closed last month. In an October 12 Facebook post, owner Sarah Natvig, who…
The Whole Tooth? Vermont’s Head Warden Targeted for Covering His Tracks in Bear Case
When the chief law enforcement officer at the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department shot a bear on November 16, 2017, he didn’t submit one of the animal’s teeth as required by the regulations he is charged with upholding. Eleven months later, what started with a bear tooth has mushroomed into a much larger controversy within…
Album Review: Rob Voland, ‘Quality Loneliness’
(Self-released, digital) It’s 4 a.m. The lamp gives off a pale light that is obscured by a cloud of smoke hanging in the air. And Rob Voland is channeling some strange, weary magic through the speakers via his latest album, Quality Loneliness. He’s halfway through this collection of short stories, a compendium of quick hits…
Letters to the Editor (11/7/18)
Flying Blind? In the October 17 story “Taking Off,” Beta Technologies founder Kyle Clark asserts that electric planes will be cheaper to operate. The article continues: “As of last week, jet fuel was selling for $5.64 per gallon at BTV. ‘That 429 out there,’ Clark said, referring to a Bell helicopter in the hangar, ‘will…
Last Stand: Vermont School Districts Vow to Fight Forced Mergers
There were no fiery speeches or testy exchanges as Vermont’s State Board of Education discussed what to do about school districts that are fighting to remain independent. A small audience watched on October 29 as board members did their work in a dimly lit auditorium at Mill River Union High School in North Clarendon. The…
Cuts and Cocktails at the Barbershop in Burlington
As I leaned back in Mick O’Brien’s barber’s chair, I explained to the friendly 27-year-old what I wanted done to my hair: close on the sides and in the back, a little length on top — basically, a shorter variation on the same ‘do O’Brien himself sports, sans the burly barber’s bitchin’ beard. As I…
Scarlett Letters: My Boyfriend Stares at Other Women’s Bodies
Dear Scarlett, For about six months I’ve been dating a guy whom I find really attractive. We have awesome sex and a lot in common. There’s a problem, though. When we hang out in public — at a coffee shop or walking down the street — I catch him staring at other women’s bodies. Sometimes…
Work: Contra and Square Dance Caller Nils Fredland
Name: Nils Fredland Town: Hartland Job: Contra and square dance caller At first glance, a room full of contra dancers looks like mildly organized chaos. But look more closely, and patterns emerge: Four dancers with right hands touching create a spinning star. Long lines of dancers facing one another move together and apart like waves…
Art Review: ‘I AM: Contemporary Middle Eastern Women Artists and the Quest to Build Peace,’ Cathedral of St. Paul
It’s not often Vermonters get to view artwork by major contemporary women artists of the Middle East. A traveling exhibition of single works by 31 such artists, now on view at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Burlington, is an extraordinary opportunity to do just that. “I AM: Contemporary Middle Eastern Women Artists and…
Free Will Astrology (11/7/18)
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I am not currently a wanderer or voyager or entrepreneur or swashbuckler. But at other times in my life, I have had extensive experience with those roles. So I know secrets about how and why to be a wanderer and voyager and entrepreneur and swashbuckler. And it’s clear to me that…
Seven Questions for Former White House Chef and Policy Adviser Sam Kass
Sam Kass held a number of positions during the eight years he worked for the Obamas. The young chef started out as the family’s personal cook in Chicago during the first presidential campaign. After Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, Kass kept that job while also serving as the White House senior policy adviser…
Do the Signs Around CityPlace Construction Site Violate Billboard Law?
Fifty years after Vermont passed a law banning billboards, a stretch the length of a football field on Burlington’s Cherry Street is plastered with signs. Many of the 8-by-10-foot advertisements for CityPlace Burlington, a stalled downtown development project, tout activities planned for the site — which is still a hole in the ground. They’re among…
Actor, Teacher, Poet Liza Jessie Peterson Reflects on Rikers
In 1998, Liza Jessie Peterson took what was supposed to be a quick gig as a teaching artist at Island Academy, a high school for inmates on Rikers Island. That three-week stint at the New York City prison school turned into a three-month stay, then three years. Two decades later, Peterson has worked in various…
Movie Review: Paul Dano Makes an Impressive Directorial Debut With ‘Wildlife’
When you think of Paul Dano, you probably think of the quirky actor from movies like There Will Be Blood. When you think of Zoe Kazan, you likely think of her doe-eyed, slightly goofball turns in The Big Sick and other films. You probably find it befuddling to envision this off-screen couple’s private life (my…
Movie Review: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Offers a Shallow Look at a Fascinating Figure
When did show-biz biopics turn into Broadway musicals — of the broadest, corniest kind? While Bohemian Rhapsody has a better subject than last year’s The Greatest Showman — Queen front person Freddie Mercury — it doesn’t offer much more subtlety. Directed by Bryan Singer, the movie does excel as a showcase for Queen’s biggest hits…
Dartmouth Prof Colin Calloway Pens Book on First President and First Peoples
Though he grew up in the Old World, Colin G. Calloway has been fascinated by the New World since childhood. He’s been teaching American history since 1978, first in his native Britain, then in the U.S. Previous posts have included a public high school in Springfield, Vt., and the University of Wyoming, as well as…
Mr. Popularity: Scott Stands Alone on Bad Night for Republicans
Postelection hot take: Gov. Phil Scott is a popular guy. The first-term Republican won reelection with relative ease on what was otherwise a bleak night for the Vermont Republican Party. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) sailed to victory. In fact, the Associated Press called Sanders’ win at precisely 7 p.m.,…
New Slices in Burlington: Sampling Pizza 44 and Pizzeria Ida
In New York City, tourists often observe that there seems to be a pizzeria on every block. Locals will explain why this pizzeria is superior to that one — and why, if you want the best meatballs, you’ll have to hit up that other pizzeria two streets down. Unlike the Big Apple, Burlington is better…
Chef Aaron Martin to Reopen Plate in Stowe
In Stowe, Plate has closed. Long live Plate! Owners Jamie Persky and Mark Rosman closed their village restaurant at 91 Main Street on October 27. An October 17 Facebook post announcing the closure said new owners would be taking over soon but declined to name names. Over this past weekend, the new proprietors revealed themselves:…
