Halley Mastro slid a petri dish of liquid speckled with floating debris under a microscope. After adjusting the focus, she let a journalist visiting her University of Vermont geology lab take a peek. Even a nonscientist could recognize the magnified specks as pieces of plants. “That spiky thing and that black thing next to it…
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. —Robert Frost
The resident and non-resident owners, lienholders, mortgagees and all persons interested in the purchase of land in the Town of Bolton, County of Chittenden and State of Vermont, are hereby notified that the taxes assessed by such Town for the 2022-2023 and prior fiscal years remain, either in whole or in part, unpaid on the…
Some of us tend to develop a preternatural affinity for broadcast journalists. After all, they spend time with us in our living rooms, the car, sometimes even the shower. NPR “Weekend Edition Sunday” host Ayesha Rascoe has that effect. Not only is she the friend who shows up in your kitchen, she’s the friend who…
LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22): Libran philosopher and writer Michel Foucault aspired to open up his readers’ minds with novel ideas. He said his task was to make windows where there had been walls. I’d like to borrow his approach for your use in the coming weeks. It might be the most fun to demolish the…
John Killacky’s 14-minute video “Flux” (2022) offers a good introduction to the Fluxus art movement of the 1960s and ’70s. In it, the artist performs a number of unrelated actions in silence while seated at a desk. He lights a match and watches it burn. He brushes a broken violin with his hand. He opens…
Impressionist art reached the U.S. in the last quarter of the 19th century largely because of two women: painter Mary Cassatt and her friend Louisine Waldron Elder Havemeyer, 11 years her junior. The two Americans met in Paris in 1873 when Louisine was 17; Cassatt soon encouraged the teenager to buy a pastel by Edgar…
In 2018, Sam Bellavance decided to take a chance on cannabis. That year, Congress legalized commercial production of hemp, and Bellavance saw an opportunity to diversify his family’s dairy farm. Bellavance started growing hemp — cannabis without the elevated levels of the psychoactive substance THC that produces a high — on 10 acres in Alburgh.…
‘Disastrous Literacy Results’ Alison Novak’s [“Reading Reckoning,” October 4] shines a bright and long-overdue light on the disastrous literacy results Vermont and the U.S. have accepted for decades. The horrid truth is that Vermont and the entire country have failed the majority of students since the 1970s. While the economic and social cost of this…
Documentarians Ned Castle and Matt Day didn’t want their film about three Special Olympics triathletes to be overly sentimental or, as Castle put it, “inspiration porn.” In some ways, the film All You Hear Is Noise — screening at Vermont International Film Festival on October 22 and 24 — is a story of triumph: Three…
As Vermont looks for a new leader at the Agency of Education, some critics are charging that the search has been rushed and halfhearted — in stark contrast to the considerable investment of time and money some Vermont school districts have made to find new local leaders in recent years. After education secretary Dan French…
The anointed were folks said to have so-called “second sight,” an ability to reach beyond the grave and summon the spirits of the departed. In the second half of the 19th century, no practitioners of the spiritualism movement were better known than Chittenden’s Eddy brothers, William and Horatio. The reputation of these rare mediums conferred…
Tucked beside the West Newbury post office is an inconspicuous shed with sliding glass doors. Inside, the wooden walls are plastered with posters, public notices, and lost-and-found notes. Free books line one wall, and surplus veggies crowd another. Residents pass in and out throughout the week, dropping off goods and claiming others. The tiny wooden…
In 2008, Tessa and Torrey Valyou were dating when they started New Duds, their screen-printing and sewing business, in Colchester. Tessa made bags, often using recycled materials, and Torrey screen printed clothing featuring his unique drawings. Since then, the couple has married, had two children, moved their business three times and expanded to a staff…
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been hearing excited reports about a new horror movie streaming on Hulu and directed by Brian Duffield, who made his debut with the underrated dark comedy Spontaneous. No One Will Save You is a tense home invasion and alien invasion flick in one, but its most striking feature is…
Jennifer Bouffard has lived on South Henry Court, a quaint South Burlington cul-de-sac near the airport, her entire life. She met her future husband, Joe, in the neighborhood when they were just teenagers in the 1980s. When they got married, they bought a house across the street from her childhood home. The couple love where…
new in theaters TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR: Fans who didn’t score tickets can catch this cinematic version of the pop star’s concert, filmed at three August shows and directed by Sam Wrench. (168 min, NR. Fri-Sun only: Bijou, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Palace, Paramount, Roxy, Savoy, Star, Stowe, Sunset) currently playing BARBIE ★★★★ Margot Robbie…
Dear Reverend, In the nine-plus years I’ve known my now-brother-in-law, he has never once spoken to me without me speaking to him first, though he’s far from shy. Not even a “congrats” on the day I married his brother. When I do (begrudgingly) initiate the conversation to be polite, he is sarcastic and rude, but…
Look, I love to shout out DIY artists. There’s something impressive and romantic about bands who haul themselves across state lines in vans that probably wouldn’t pass inspection. It’s a rite of passage that the vast majority of musicians never really progress past, the whole bleeding-for-your-art thing. To be clear, though, my admiration isn’t envy.…
It took some arm-twisting to convince Montpelier postal carrier Craig Montgomery to let a video journalist document his last day delivering mail in Montpelier. After 31 years on the job, he knew it would be emotional — even though he was pleased to be passing the mailbag to his son, Angus. That Craig’s father and…
Halloween gets all the October heat, but my favorite day of the month is fast approaching: the Burlington Record Fair! Held once again at Nectar’s in downtown Burlington on Sunday, October 22, the record fair boasts more than 20 different vendors selling vinyl goodness while local DJs spin throughout the event. If (like a dummy)…
Joanna Alpizar glided across the floor of Talent Skatepark in Burlington wearing lavender roller skates, a Yoshi-themed sundress (from Super Mario World), red lipstick, kneepads, wrist guards and the mandatory helmet. Later that night, she switched to her high-heeled rainbow skates “just to keep it interesting,” she said. For their weekly skate outing, Alpizar and…
Mark LeGrand and Sarah Munro, Angel With a Broken Wing (Self-released, CD, digital) Singer-songwriter Mark LeGrand and vocalist Sarah Munro make a formidable team. The Montpelier-based married couple craft pristine-sounding country music centered on LeGrand’s songwriting and Munro’s voice. They kick off their latest release, Angel With a Broken Wing, with the title track, a…
For much of human history, wine has had a place on the dinner table. At Jessica Wagener’s house in Burlington’s New North End, the wine on the table just happens to be still fermenting away in three-gallon plastic buckets. Beer brewing and annual autumn cider presses have dominated the home booze production scene for years,…
A chocolate shop next door to an elementary school is the stuff of childhood dreams. For years, kids at Champlain Elementary School on Pine Street in Burlington have bounded across the parking lot to Lake Champlain Chocolates for a truffle or an ice cream cone — a predictable phenomenon that staffers call “the after-school rush.”…
The Winooski circle is getting a new wine shop. When Standing Stone Wines opens at 33 Main Street in mid-November, it will specialize in $10 to $20 bottles, owner Lil Sickles said. In 2024, Sickles hopes to add a bar and small kitchen to offer tasting flights, snacks and classes. “For a lot of people,…
Registered nurse loved camping in national parks, traveling, quilting and her home in Ludlow
Winooski woman dedicated her time, energy and talents to nurturing countless children
Teacher dedicated her life to sharing her loves of education, art and nature
Lifelong artist made objects of beauty and collected friends, hobbies and adventures
Sister Act Friday 13 Audiences see double at the latest UVM Lane Series installment: a performance by twin pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton at the University of Vermont Recital Hall in Burlington. The stupendous sisters stun audiences with a program of classical duets for two pianos and for four hands on one piano. The Secret…
U.S. Navy and Army National Guard veteran brought belly laughs and the best hugs to every family gathering
Vermonter worked in the UVM athletics office, made a world-class pot roast, and was always supportive and good-humored
U.S. Air Force veteran flew with Vermont Air National Guard
Ken Cadow of Norwich, a Vermont principal and first-time novelist, is a finalist for the prestigious National Book Award for young people’s literature, the National Book Foundation announced on Tuesday. Cadow’s young adult novel, Gather, is a first-person account of Ian, a teenager in rural Vermont who struggles to hold on to his family’s home…
