Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2015
How Vermont’s Game Wardens Police the Wild; The Quaids Find Refuge in Lincoln; Cookbooks From Dead Celebs
Cover Story
Rules of the Game: Vermont Wardens Police the Wilderness
Before dawn last Saturday, two Vermont game wardens navigated a Boston Whaler down the inky black Otter Creek and onto Lake Champlain, stopping briefly to watch the sun rise. Using binoculars, they turned their attention to a hemlock-shrouded wooden structure in the water that had a boat moored under it. “I hate to wreck a…
Obituary: Ginni Reeves, Burlington, VT
Ginni (Virginia) Reeves died at Vermont Respite House in Burlington, VT after defying cancer for 7 years. She was 73. Ginni grew up in Blue Bell, PA, graduated from Westtown in 1960, and earned her Occupational Therapy degree from Tufts in 1965. She enjoyed a 40 year career as an OT making contributions to her…
Off Trail: Helen W. Buckner Nature Preserve
Before I even set foot in the vast, rugged Helen W. Buckner Nature Preserve in West Haven, the act of traveling there provided a humbling lesson. Tucked into a jagged cartographical outcropping in west-central Vermont, the enormous preserve is bounded by insurmountable geological features that force visiting Vermonters to cross into New York State before…
Steve Jobs
On October 11, 2011, I received an email from Simon & Schuster asking whether I might be interested in having an author named Walter Isaacson speak at the Burlington Book Festival (of which I’m the director). He’d written a book titled Steve Jobs, “based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years,…
Books: ‘Intimate Grandeur,’ a Chronicle of Vermont’s Statehouse
The Vermont Statehouse stands as “a repository for and expression of our history as a state and a people,” observes former Vermont Life editor Tom Slayton in a foreword to a new book on the building’s past and present. Author Nancy Price Graff’s account shows that Vermonters can take pride not only in the statehouse’s…
The Look of Silence
An optometrist fits an elderly man for glasses. Their seemingly idle conversation turns to the mass killing that occurred in their village nearly 50 years ago. The older man readily admits that he personally rounded up and murdered dozens. The optometrist says, “My brother was one of them.” It may sound like a Kafka parable,…
Recipes From Dead Celebs’ Cookbooks
My fascination with novelty cookbooks began early. I can clearly recall a beautiful summer day at the pool when 4-year-old Alice was too busy reading DC Super Heroes Super Healthy Cookbook to have any interest in swimming. The 1981 book was my introduction to the reality that recipes endorsed by celebrities (real or fictional) aren’t…
Producers Es-K and Loupo Lead the Local Beat Making Scene
As Burlington’s hip-hop scene continues to grow, both in numbers and in depth of talent, the city has more aspiring producers than ever. While rappers usually claim the spotlight, the people who craft the beats behind the scenes — producers — are just as integral to the genre’s relevance in Vermont. On Thursday, October 29,…
Grilling the Chef: Guild Tavern’s Phillip Clayton
Chef: Phillip Clayton Age: 34 Restaurant: Guild Tavern (executive chef; also chef-partner at the Farmhouse Group) Location: South Burlington restaurant age: three years Cuisine type: farm-to-table Training: bachelor’s in hospitality and restaurant management and associate’s degree in culinary arts, New England Culinary Institute Select experience: line cook, Savoy Restaurant and Martini Bar, Asheville, N.C. (2004);…
Free Will Astrology (10/28/2015)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): On a January morning in 1943, the town of Spearfish, S.D., experienced very weird weather. At 7:30 a.m. the temperature was minus 4ºF. In the next two minutes, due to an unusual type of wind sweeping down over nearby Lookout Mountain, thermometers shot up 49 degrees. Over the next hour and a half,…
Letters to the Editor (10/28/15)
Chasing Chasan Great story of a man who transcended his congregation to impact not only the Jewish community but the entire spiritual community of Vermont [“Mitzvot Accomplished,” October 14]. One issue left untouched is his replacement. Who will take over from Rabbi Chasan? R. Guttman Montréal, Québec Editor’s note: Chasan’s replacement is Rabbi Amy Small…
![VTIFF Turns 30 [SIV418]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/episode418-2.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
VTIFF Turns 30 [SIV418]
10/23/15: The Vermont International Film Festival celebrates its 30 year anniversary with a jam-packed week and a half of films and special events. The festival runs through November 1st and is based at the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in Burlington with additional screening locations around town. Eva talked to filmgoers at the Opening…
Vermont Cemetery Stewards Are Headstone Heroes
One early October morning, Jim Woodman strapped a yellow harness around a leaning headstone in Richmond’s Old Village Cemetery. The harness was clipped to a pulley system set up nearby, and as Woodman casually tugged on a chain, the marble slab levitated. Twenty minutes later, the stone was back on the ground and upright. Normally…
Linda Bassick & Friends, Friday Morning Sing-Along
(Self released, CD, digital download) Linda Bassick’s weekly Friday Morning Sing-Along at Burlington’s Radio Bean attracts legions of local kids — and their parents — with the singsong strains of children’s music classics such as “Puff the Magic Dragon,” “The Green Grass Grew All Around” and “Move Over for Marty.” Each of these beloved tunes…
Theater Review: The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Middlebury Actors Workshop
To create a flawed character, a playwright has to build someone whose limitations are severe enough to be worth investigating but not so loathsome that the audience lacks sympathy. Paul Zindel threads this needle in his 1964 quasi-autobiographical portrait of his own mother in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. The Middlebury Actors…
The Would I’s, Sayay
(Self released, CD, digital download) On their Facebook page, Vergennes-based rockers the Would I’s bill themselves as blending “the mojo of the ’60s, the tight jeans of the ’70s, the big hair of the ’80s and the whatever from the ’90s.” And judging from their recently released debut album, Sayay, that description is just about…
Pot — or Not? Vermont’s Looming Fight Over Marijuana Legalization
Debby Haskins paced back and forth at the front of a sparsely filled hotel ballroom Monday in Montpelier, inveighing against the dangers of marijuana. “We’re talking about commercializing and legalizing another drug that is psychologically and physically addictive, and the question is: Why?” the semi-retired substance abuse counselor asked her audience of two dozen. As…
Outcomes: Pee Tests Meet a Social Mission at Burlington Labs
The UPS delivery was causing a bit of a stir in the cramped drug-testing laboratory in downtown Burlington. Workers in white coats clustered around the packages, removed sealed plastic bags from cardboard shipping boxes and sorted them into blue buckets. Six hundred specimen cups — capped plastic shot glasses of urine — arrive most weekdays…
Cover Costume Party
The issue of Seven Days that’s on newsstands October 31 typically references Halloween on the cover. In presidential election years, the cover also alludes to Election Day, which falls on the first Tuesday of November. We’ve done joint Halloween/election covers three times over the past 12 years — in 2004 (John Kerry and George W.…
Fallen Star: Randy Quaid Seeks Refuge in Small-Town Vermont
Randy Quaid was sitting in a Vermont prison cell on October 14, watching a WCAX-TV broadcast. The fire chief in tiny Lincoln was telling the news anchor about the difficulty of recruiting volunteer firefighters, who are required to undergo 200 hours of training, to be on call 24-7 and to participate in events such as…
Art Review: ‘Fractured / works on Paper,’ Helen Day Art Center
When light hits the eye, the cornea refracts it. The iris regulates the size of the pupil, and the lens focuses the light further. Photoreceptor cells in the retina convert the light into electric signals, which are transmitted to the brain through the optic nerve, a bundle of approximately one million fibers. Most of the…
Burlington School Officials Avoid Deficit but Keep Mum on Details
It’s not a TV spot that will likely be long remembered. Still, Burlington’s new superintendent of schools, Yaw Obeng, exudes warmth as he invites the public to take part in the budget process for the next year. “This is your opportunity to contribute your thoughts and ideas. Help us make it better,” Obeng says in…
I Broke My Boyfriend’s Penis! What Should I Do?
Dear Athena, A few months ago, I started sleeping with this guy, and things were really good. He’s hot and fun, and I like him a lot. A few weekends ago, we were getting busy and really wild, and I basically broke his penis. He was in so much pain, and it was terrible and…
Dick and Dottie
Traveling north on Route 7, we passed a barn with its side emblazoned with a huge American flag. An adjacent structure displayed an only slightly smaller Sanders-for-president sign. This patriotic farmer is feeling the Bern, I thought to myself. “What do Vermonters think about Sanders’ presidential bid?” asked my customer in the back. His name…
A Burlington Collection of Rare Books Is Museum Bound
With the press of a button, Kathleen Roberts raised the blinds, and sunlight illuminated a room filled with books in her Burlington home. As she could certainly tell you, home libraries have been around for centuries. But this day was special: It was the first time Roberts’ personal collection had been shown in its entirety,…
Nest House Hunt: An Older House With Character for the Newlyweds
Nest House Hunt follows first-time home buyers on the search for their dream homes. In August, Jessica Hendry Nelson and Nicholas Adams got married. With the wedding came the desire to settle down in a home of their own. The 31-year-old couple — Jessica a writer and the author of If Only People Could Follow…
Analysis: Is Sanders Sexist, as Clinton Claims?
In Hillary Clinton’s world, it’s apparently never too early to accuse your opponent of sexism. At the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner Saturday in Des Moines, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) drew headlines for “attacking” Clinton as a flip-flopper, saying — not so subtly — that he would “govern based on principle, not poll numbers.” But…
Short Book Reviews: Work, Maps, Horror and More
Seven Days’ writers can’t possibly read, much less review, the boatload of books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, a flock of trained parrots. So this monthly feature is our way of introducing you to seven recent books by Vermont authors. To do that, we’ll contextualize each…
Soundbites: Halloween Rocking
It’s a Scream Season’s bleedings, boils and ghouls! It’s Halloween week, which longtime readers know is this columnist’s favorite holiday. Burlington does a lot of things well: craft beer, locavore food, music, insufferable pretentiousness about beer, etc. But you could make a strong argument that Burlington, and specifically the music scene, does Halloween as well…
Kathy Griffin Talks Comedy, Politics and Anderson Cooper
I had a bunch of questions ready for my recent interview with Kathy Griffin. Preparing to speak with the Grammy- and Emmy-winning comedian, actress, author and talk-show host, I researched the ins and outs of her career. I dug into her early days with the Groundlings improv theater in Los Angeles, her career-breaking stint on…
Salt and Phoenix Close; Cork Wine Bar and Mo-Vegas Fill Station Open
Former Seven Days food editor Suzanne Podhaizer is closing her Montpelier restaurant, Salt, just weeks short of its fifth anniversary. The final dinner will be served on November 14. Podhaizer says the last two weeks of Friday and Saturday dinners at the tiny Barre Street restaurant will offer a bittersweet take on its longtime biweekly…
Commodities Brings a Market to Winooski
Winooski may be known as Burlington’s Brooklyn, but it’s also a confirmed food desert. Both those reasons drew Michael Hughes to choose the city as the home of his third Commodities Natural Market. The new store will open this summer in a 3,300-square-foot space in Keen’s Crossing. “There’s nothing there. That was really the main…
