

Cover Story
Untangling the Complexities of Vermont’s New Health Insurance Exchange
The second floor of Winooski’s Vermont Student Assistance Corporation building was buzzing with activity on the first Thursday in September. In the sprawling, 1980s-style cubicle farm, about 75 employees of the Department of Vermont Health Access (DVHA) and an equal number of private contractors were racing against a major deadline. The state’s new health care…
Obituary: Anna D. Leroux
Anna D. Leroux, age 83 years, died early Friday morning September 20, 2013, at the St. Albans Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center with her loving son Chris by her side. Born in Enosburgh on November 28, 1929, she was the daughter of the late William and Eunice (Elwood) Rushlow. She attended Enosburgh High School. For more…
Obituary: Marilyn Sturgeon Barney
Marilyn Sturgeon Barney, age 66 years, died peacefully Wednesday evening September 18, 2013, in the Northwestern Medical Center with loving family at her side. Born in St. Albans on October 7, 1946, she was the daughter of the late Robert E. and Elizabeth (Revoir) Sturgeon. She was a graduate of Bellows Free Academy-St. Albans and…
News Quirks
Curses, Foiled Again While neighboring groups of campers at Scotland’s Loch Earn argued, Barry McCutcheon, 25, who was camping between them, asked them to calm down, prosecutor John Malpass told a Perth court, “and that wasn’t received kindly.” Then someone in one group yelled, “Bring the hatchets.” McCutcheon fled but was stabbed in the back…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “If Taylor Swift is going to have six breakups a year,” observed comedian Bill Maher, “she needs to write a new song entitled ‘Maybe It’s Me.’” He was referring to Swift’s habit of using her romantic misadventures to stimulate her lyric-writing creativity. With that as your prompt, Aries, I’ll ask you…
The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Comes to Burlington
Are you a fan of the New Yorker cartoon-caption contest in the back of the magazine? Do you think yours are funnier than the ones the editors choose? Then get yourself to the Burlington Book Festival this Friday night, ’cause Phoenix Books is hosting a live contest featuring three single-panel cartoons by Harry Bliss. The…
Taste Test: Ramen
I have eaten enough ethnic food to know that getting caught up in the idea of “authenticity” is a trap. Is there only one true hamburger or apple pie? Of course not, and their variety is often what brings us back for more. As co-owner Chris Russo pointed out when he first spoke to Seven…
Rubblebucket’s Kalmia Traver Talks About Her Band’s New EP and Her Battle With Cancer
There is a surprising moment roughly midway through Save Charlie, the new EP by Brooklyn-based Vermont expats Rubblebucket. It starts innocently enough, with a bright whistling intro that feels faintly, and strangely, recognizable. That cheery, arpeggiated melody is looped and then joined by a conflux of gritty bass and electro-treated drums, a beat-centric sound that…
Adam Reczek, The Lost & Found EP
(Self-released, digital download) The five songs that make up Adam Reczek’s latest release, The Lost & Found EP, serve as something of a history lesson — an extremely personal history lesson. The handful of songs contained here, two of them instrumentals, were all penned by Reczek between the ages of 15 and 18, a span…
The 9th Annual Burlington Book Festival Takes Comics Seriously
Pictures in the realm of print? Some stuffy literati may look askance at the new legitimacy of comics, but at the ninth annual Burlington Book Festival, which begins this Friday, September 20, it’s cause for celebration. The BBF has teamed up with White River Junction’s Center for Cartoon Studies to bring us “The Novel Graphic,”…
The Beautiful Game at BHS [323]
9/12/13: The Varsity Boys’ Soccer Team at Burlington High School is perhaps one of the most diverse in the state, with players sharing a love of the beautiful game. Eva meets the team at practice and watches them play a close game against their rivals, Essex High School. Music: Barbacoa, “Captain 20,” “Delerium Tremelo”
Art Review: Chepe Cuadra at WalkOver Gallery
Can paintings qualify as portraits when they don’t depict a subject’s face? They can, and do, in Chepe Cuadra’s show at Bristol’s WalkOver Gallery titled “Back Portraits/In Search of an Identity.” In a dozen or so large-format oils, the Nicaraguan Vermonter manages to convey something about the personalities, emotions and life circumstances of individuals seen…
Chefs Pull Out All the Stops to Win Mac-and-Cheese Challenge
Oh, macaroni and cheese, how many ways can we make thee? On the lawn of Harpoon Brewery in Windsor last Saturday, 19 chefs counted the ways. They wielded the classic elbows, plus penne, ziti, even gemelli. Béchamel, roux or Alfredo sauce served as binder — as well as cheeses ranging from cheddar, WindsorDale and Gruyère…
Theater Review: The Puppet Shoppe
Watching the premiere of Chris Caswell’s new play The Puppet Shoppe is like solving a puzzle. There are moments of great mental stimulation, maybe a little frustration and finally a sense of immersion in another world. Caswell uses quirky storytelling via live (human) action and puppetry to tell the bleak tale of a world ruled…
Letters to the Editor
Moran Fix Thanks to Megan James for her great article on how the Moran Building inspires [“Beautiful Ruin,” September 11]. One point in response: I was quoted as saying that “to take [the building] down is arguably more expensive” than saving it. To clarify, it is my understanding that Burlington taxpayers would foot the bill…
Obituary: Bette L. Moffett,
1924-2013, Brandon Bette L. Moffett passed on September 11, 2013, at her home in Brandon. She loved Brandon and was eternally grateful for the love and support she received from her community. Born Bette Lou Little on May 27, 1924, in Kingsley, Iowa, she was the daughter of Jack and Lula (Miller) Little. Bette grew…






