The water superintendent who cut the fluoride levels in Richmond’s drinking water has resigned in protest of the town’s Water and Sewer Commission vote to restore the levels to state standards. Kendall Chamberlin, who has worked for Richmond for 37 years, tendered his resignation on Monday in a letter to town manager Josh Arneson. He…
Seasoned bicyclist found peace in attending Mass
Painter and natural athlete had a tireless work ethic and fighting spirit
Accomplished nurse, avid bingo player will be remembered for her generosity and kindness
Former owner of Montpelier’s Thrush Tavern had extensive career in food service industry
Navy veteran and engineer was a Renaissance man who loved long-distance cycling, crossword puzzles and Vermont
Bret McKenzie knows how to tell a joke. Half of New Zealand musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords and an Oscar winner for his song “Man or Muppet” in the 2011 film The Muppets, McKenzie has built a career on mixing humor with his prodigious musical talents. So, it was something of a surprise…
Two Progressive Burlington city councilors have resigned in the last few weeks, leaving the party shorthanded until at least March 2023. The rapid downsizing comes just seven months after the Progs pulled out enough victories on Town Meeting Day to keep six seats on the 12-person council. And it raises questions of whether the party…
Several years ago, Jess Kirby noticed that a number of her clients at Burlington’s Safe Recovery were suddenly acting differently. They worried that they were being watched and that people were conspiring against them. “People I’ve known for years, out of the blue, experiencing paranoia,” Kirby said. “Saying things like, ‘I don’t know who to…
Seven Days’ music desk has snapped in half from the collective weight of new albums submitted for review by Vermont musicians. Somewhere beneath the broken wood and piles of records, music editor Chris Farnsworth is doing his best to catalog all the new sounds out of the Green Mountains. Here are six records he rescued…
Netflix’s new Marilyn Monroe movie has provoked strong reactions. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times expressed relief that Monroe herself didn’t have to sit through Blonde, “the latest necrophiliac entertainment to exploit her.” Camilla Long of Air Mail called it “a shocking, ugly, traitorous movie — nearly three hours of shrieking abuse.” Directed by…
A new novel due out in December puts U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at the center of a “cozy” murder mystery. The novel, Feel the Bern: A Bernie Sanders Mystery, falls into the same subgenre as works by Agatha Christie, according to Kentucky-based author Andrew Shaffer. It takes place in fictional Eagle Creek during leaf-peeping…
Last Tuesday, Seven Days reported the sad news that Burlington’s Penny Cluse Café would close permanently at the end of 2022, after 25 years of perfect pancakes and huevos rancheros. Food editor Melissa Pasanen got the scoop, and we published it online. That generated some internal debate about whether we should push the story out…
At first glance, the squiggles printed on bolts of blue, green, yellow and black fabric look like abstract patterns. But if you’re a frequent hiker of Vermont’s tallest peaks, you might recognize that the wavy white lines mimic the topographic maps of Camel’s Hump, Mount Mansfield and Mount Ellen. These newly printed cotton-twill fabrics are…
Nonfiction comics burst with energy and insight. But rather than chronicle the fantastical exploits of superheroes and mutants, as more famous works by the likes of Marvel and DC do, nonfiction comics work on a more human scale. They break down complicated scientific processes and question societal views. They inform, observe and inspire empathy. From…
On a recent Saturday afternoon near Brattleboro, Joe Wiah went to a party. Among the guests were several Afghan families who moved to town in January as refugees. Wiah, 49, is the director of ECDC-VT, a branch of the Ethiopian Community Development Council, one of the refugee resettlement agencies working with the U.S. government to…
Looking at art can be transporting; images may take you to another place or time, or show you other ways of seeing and communicating — perhaps beyond known languages and cultural referents. Two major exhibitions at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., achieve all of the above: “Maḏayin: Eight Decades…
Clark Russell was a student at the University of Vermont when he formed a punk rock band called No Fun with guitarist and fellow student Bill Mullins. “I got myself a microphone and decided I wanted to be a singer,” Russell, now 61, recalled. No Fun practiced in the trash room at dormitory Christie Hall,…
A retrospective exhibition of works by the late Montpelier artist Ray Brown requires a lot of space. Accordingly, his paintings, drawings and prints now fill the walls on two floors of Studio Place Arts in Barre, as well as nearby auxiliary sites at Morse Block Deli & Taps and AR Market. Brown was beloved in…
Like a pyramid of glasses filling up with Champagne, Stephen Sondheim’s songs overflow with wordplay. Now at Lost Nation Theater, the musical revue Side by Side by Sondheim bubbles over with a cascade of more than two dozen of his songs. And that’s not counting a dizzying finale medley stuffed with phrases from about 30…
Rainey, the main character of Burlington-based Benjamin Roesch’s debut YA novel Blowin’ My Mind Like a Summer Breeze, is a musician by design rather than by choice. She has spent years playing in the band as her once-famous R&B musician parents tour well past their glory days of the ’70s in a run-down RV. The…
The phrase “college admissions” has become politically charged. Add “scandal” to an internet search, and scores of stories pop up about celebrities and other wealthy, influential people buying their children slots at selective institutions. And then there’s the situation at Harvard University, which is currently facing a lawsuit that alleges the Ivy League school discriminates…
Dear Reverend, I’ve been with my boyfriend for about a year and a half. I recently found out that he has dated three other women with the same first name as me. Aside from that just seeming a little strange, now when he calls out my name during sex, I wonder if he’s thinking about…
LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22): When he was young, Libran poet W. S. Merwin had a teacher who advised him, “Don’t lose your arrogance yet. You can do that when you’re older. Lose it too soon, and you may merely replace it with vanity.” I think that counsel is wise for you to meditate on right…
When Republican Gerald Malloy entered the race to succeed U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in March, few Vermonters had heard of the recent transplant, let alone had any sense of his hard-right politics. The Republican establishment was already backing Christina Nolan, a moderate former U.S. attorney with name recognition and positions that seemed to line…
Seven Days ‘Stands Out’ I am the grandmother of the victim in [“Trust Fail: After Discovering Unsettling Details of Naomi Wood’s Death, Her Family Channels Grief Into Action,” September 7]. What we thought was a tragic but simple death in May 2020 turned into just a lot of complexities and legal controversies. I wondered how…
On October 4, when Charles Reeves and Holly Cluse announced the upcoming closure of Penny Cluse Café, their beloved downtown Burlington breakfast and lunch spot, Reeves told Seven Days, “I always thought there would be a time in my life where I’d step away from it, have a regular life for a while.” Working in…
For the last six months, Clara Walsh has been busy brewing up the revival of Vermont’s chapter of the Pink Boots Society, an international organization that supports women and nonbinary folks in the alcoholic beverage industry. Now, she also spends her days clad in rain boots, brewing beer. Walsh, 32, worked at Montpelier’s Three Penny…
A beloved space in St. Albans is heating up once again. Shawn Careau will open Off the Rails at One Federal on Thursday, October 27. Off the Rails is the first solo restaurant for chef-owner Careau, 34, who has been in the industry since he was 14. “It’s wood-fired European fusion,” Careau said. “I’m taking a…
Two Sons Bakehouse and the nonprofit Jenna’s Promise have partnered to open a café at 38 Main Street in Johnson by the end of October. The business will employ women in recovery from substance-use disorder, some of whom will live in the nonprofit’s sober housing facility above the café. Open daily from 7:30 a.m. to…
Hard Times Ongoing Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury presents Ann Young’s “In a Dangerous Time,” a collection of paintings that depict nature in the abstract or people around the world living through difficulties. Included in the exhibit are three commissioned paintings of the Sahrawi activist Sultana Khaya, whose home in Western Sahara is colonized by…
