Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2020
Molly Gray and Scott Milne Compete for the Lieutenant Governor’s Perch; Readers Respond to “Battery Power”; Get Ready for Election Season With the Seven Days Voters’ Guide
Cover Story
Soapbox Derby: Molly Gray and Scott Milne Compete for the Lieutenant Governor’s Perch
Robin Sumner arrived 10 minutes early, set up her lawn chair and waited for Molly Gray to speak. The 59-year-old drug and alcohol counselor had heard about the Richmond community forum through Gray’s campaign newsletter, which she signed up for while researching candidates. But unlike some of the 25 people fanned out around the stage…
Obituary: Margaret Taliaferro, 1926-2020
Advocate for environmental and social causes wanted to leave the world a better place
Gate Check: Can Rapid COVID-19 Tests at BTV Ease Fear of Flying?
Airline travelers will soon be able to undergo rapid coronavirus tests upon arrival at the Burlington International Airport. A new agreement will allow a local company to offer COVID-19 tests to paying customers on airport property. Anyone will be able to access the service, but it’s geared toward travelers, who will be able to get…
Screenwriter and Musician John Fusco Leads 2020 Vermont Arts Awards Winners
In the late 1980s, everyone said John Fusco was crazy. His screenplay for Crossroads, a modest 1986 hit and eventual cult classic starring a fresh-off-The Karate Kid Ralph Macchio as a blues guitar prodigy, had made him a hot commodity in Hollywood. But, just as quickly as the young screenwriter’s star had risen, he soured…
‘The Devil All the Time’ Is a Blood-Soaked Epic
Our streaming entertainment options are overwhelming — and not always easy to sort through. This week: I’ve been seeing so much excited Twittering about Robert Pattinson that I broke down and watched him in this new Netflix release directed by Antonio Campos (Afterschool, Christine) and based on Donald Ray Pollock’s southern gothic novel. Turns out…
Letters to the Editor (9/30/20)
Editor’s Note Last week’s cover story, “Battery Power,” about Burlington’s ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, got a strong reaction — especially from those directly involved. The day after it was published, organizers of the monthlong occupation of Battery Park directed allies to round up copies of Seven Days from around town and bring them to…
Soundbites: Get to Know Facebook Group DIY Burlington
I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned DIY Burlington in this column before, though I could be wrong. Perhaps I’ve made a passing reference to the Facebook group in some capacity or other. But I’ve never put a fine point on it, so here goes. If you’re looking to get involved with local music in pretty…
Osage Orange, ‘Snake Skin Chants’
(self-released, digital) “Limitations often produce the best results because imagination and determination can surpass any shortfall and determine the way forward — always.” Those were the words director Ridley Scott used in 2019 to praise the North Bergen High School drama club’s scrappy yet effective stage production of his breakthrough film, Alien. In other words, give…
Waterbury Literacy Nonprofit Distributes 40,000 Kids’ Books During Pandemic
Anyone with kids knows how difficult WFH life can be during a pandemic. But a local nonprofit has tried to make things a bit easier for families. Since March, the Waterbury Center-based Children’s Literacy Foundation has given away nearly 40,000 books to kids across Vermont and New Hampshire. The gesture is all the more important…
Book Review: ‘Meme’ by Aaron Starmer
Some suspense novels are whodunits. Aaron Starmer’s new young-adult thriller, Meme, is a will-they-get-away-with-it. The novel opens with a confession of sorts: “We buried Cole Weston last night, on the hundred acres behind Meeka’s house.” What follows is a murder scene that would be bleak and unsparing even for adult fiction, narrated in fragments by…
Benny Yurco, ‘You Are My Dreams’
(PIAPTK Recordings/Little Jamaica Recordings, digital, limited-edition vinyl) The curse of being a great sideman is forever being best known for your main gig. Then again, there are worse problems to have, especially when your “main gig” is backing up Grace Potter. Benny Yurco, formerly of the Nocturnals and currently a member of Potter’s solo band,…
Vermonting: Strolls, Paintings and Peaches in Shelburne and Charlotte
The carousel isn’t running at Shelburne Museum. The tool barn is locked up, and the Ticonderoga, bedecked with flags, is off-limits. The Mary Cassatt pastel of museum founder Electra Havemeyer Webb, which depicts her as a young girl sitting in her mother’s lap, is not on view. Hello, Vermonting Even as Vermont gradually opens up…
Burlington’s Hula Weathers the Pandemic but Faces One Final Permit Challenge
The shores of Lake Champlain may be 5,000 miles and a world away from the Hawaii surf, but Russ Scully envisions his Hula office complex in Burlington as an equally enviable destination for tech-minded companies. A surfer-turned-entrepreneur, Scully has transformed the former Blodgett Oven factory on Lakeside Avenue into a nascent innovation hub for software…
Free Will Astrology (9/30/20)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In her high school yearbook, Libra-born Sigourney Weaver arranged to have this caption beneath her official photo: “Please, God, please, don’t let me be normal!” Since then, she has had a long and acclaimed career as an actor in movies. ScreenPrism.com calls her a pioneer of female action heroes. Among her…
I’m Uncomfortable With My Partner’s Rape Fantasy
Dear Reverend, The woman I’m currently dating wants me to help fulfill her rape fantasy. I’m all for getting a little wild, but I’m a gentle guy and I’m not comfortable with the idea of acting out sexual violence. I’m also a lot bigger than she is, and I’m worried I might accidentally hurt her.…
Why Is UVM’s Water Tower Under Wraps? Plus, Fast-Talking Radio Ads
If you’ve been on or near the University of Vermont campus recently, you’ve probably noticed the large drapery covering the hilltop water tower. What’s the reason for this condom-like sheath, and what hazards or annoyances is it protecting us from? According to Robert Goulding, spokesperson for Burlington’s Department of Public Works, the prophylactic measures are…
Artist Emily Anderson Offers Her Bluebird Fairies in an App
For years, Emily Anderson has been a regular at the South End Art Hop with a table full of fairies. More specifically, Bluebird Fairies — a series of informal drawings of fairies with quirky, encouraging phrases written in their speech bubbles, available as prints or a deck of cards. “Fairy that lifts you up off…
Bottom Line: How COVID-19 Complicated the Sale of Scampy’s Country Store & Deli
Scampy’s Country Store & Deli in West Charleston has been an integral part of Rhonda Percy’s life since long before she and her husband, Michael, bought the business. Percy held her wedding and baby showers in the white clapboard building, which was once the local grange hall. Her daughter, Kelsie Fletcher, started working there when…
Town Hall Theater Brings New Traffic to Middlebury With Bridges 20/20
“Bring home a bridge!” urges a label on an architectural creation installed on the grass in Middlebury Riverfront Park. Called “Back to the Future Bridge,” the beautifully crafted work resembles a small covered bridge with an interior built-in bench. It could be yours if you had, say, a brook in your yard and were willing…
Seven Questions for Jonathan Safran Foer in Advance of UVM Talk on Diet and the Climate Crisis
Among the illustrative stories in Jonathan Safran Foer’s book We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast is one about his grandmother, a Polish Jew who fled her village in 1942 as the Nazis pushed east. “Asked why she left,” Foer writes, “she would say, ‘I felt I had to do something.'” At…
Reaping its Second Harvest, Champlain Valley Hops Gives Brewers Fresh Ideas
At Foam Brewers in Burlington, drinkers ask one question so frequently that the staff has turned it into a running joke: “Is that the hops?” The inquiry typically comes between sips of IPA as customers observe the end of the brewing process in the taproom’s seven-barrel brewhouse. The brewers patiently explain that what they’re actually…
New Vergennes Laundry Owner Will Bring Back Original Touches
The new owner of Vergennes Laundry is a longtime fan. The first time Nadia Dole considered buying the café and wood-fired bakery at 247 Main Street in Vergennes was three years ago, the first time it went on the market. A photographer, writer and business owner, Dole fell in love with Vergennes Laundry as she…
