The Animal Issue July 2015 (Theme Issue)
The Animal Issue: Spooked Dog Evades Capture; Snapping Wildlife, Thieves and… Bigfoot?; Horsepower to the Tree People; BEVs to the Rescue
Obituary: Dora Mills, Underhill, Vt
Dora R. (Dodie) Mills, 66, of Port Charlotte, Florida went home to be with her Lord on July 19,2015. Originally from Underhill, Vermont, she graduated from Essex High School in 1966 and then received her nursing degree from Fanny Allen School of Nursing. She worked at the Mary Fletcher and DeGosbrian hospitals and was most…
Obituary: Robert Bita Achinda, 1965-2015 Hinesburg, Vt
Robert died on July 28, 2015 at the age of 50 at the Vermont Respite House in Williston after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was born on June 15, 1965 in Lubondja/Fizi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The son of Feston and Suzanne Walingamina. Robert graduated high school in the Democratic Republic…
Fetching and Kvetching: A Dog Park Annoys Some of Its Neighbors
Labs, spaniels and mutts trotted about freely last Thursday evening at Burlington’s Starr Farm Dog Park as their owners chatted amiably and admired the sunset over Lake Champlain. The canine crowd was in dog heaven. But not everyone views this place as paradise. The off-leash dog park in the New North End, now 15 years…
The Animal Issue, 2015
Once a year we look forward to writing about our furry, fuzzy and feathered friends. Of course, some of them are not our friends, and not all the stories are heartwarming. Our relationship with animals is complicated. Some are beloved pets for whom we spare no expense; some we shoot for sport. Some we find…
Soundbites: So Many Shows, So Little Time
Taking a Knee If I’m ever officially made the Czar of Vermont Music, my first act will be to collect the local heads of rock-and-roll state and decree that they shall henceforth share a friggin’ Google calendar so that we can do a better job of spreading out killer shows and festivals. Cuz this week…
Dinos and Disasters: Fairbanks Museum Explores Extinction
For the first time in 20 years, the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium in St. Johnsbury is hosting a traveling exhibit. “Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas,” organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, aims to give viewers an idea of what living, breathing dinosaurs were like. Part of the Fairbanks’ yearlong…
Four’s a Crowd: Spoiler Alert in Vermont’s Gubernatorial Race
The last time the state faced an open gubernatorial race, in 2010, the Vermont Progressive Party made a promise: If the Democratic nominee pledged to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, fight for single-payer health care and oppose public sector job cuts, the Progs wouldn’t field an opponent. A state senator named Peter Shumlin…
Community Engagement Lab Connects Schools and Artists
What happens when schools and communities collaborate on art projects? Usually, it’s a one-off event: Artists, orchestras or other community arts groups visit the local school to introduce students to their specialty through a performance or workshop. Then they leave. That works to a point, according to Paul Gambill of Montpelier. But the former orchestra…
My Ex Screwed Me Over. Now He Wants Me Back
Dear Athena, My ex-boyfriend and baby daddy broke my heart so many times and even had a child with someone else while I was still in a relationship with him. I forgave him so many times, and I knew he did not deserve it. I finally decided to let go and move on because I…
Rob Mermin’s Career Outside the Box
Mimes have received a tough sentence in the court of public opinion. Though professional mimes study for years to hone their ancient and specialized craft, they’re often still the butt of jokes about locked boxes and stiff wind storms. The fact that they can’t (or don’t) speak up in their own defense doesn’t help their…
WTF: Why Are Game Cameras So Popular?
Lost in the hullabaloo during the recent manhunt for two escapees from the prison in Dannemora, N.Y., was this nugget: Police, desperate for leads, asked Adirondackers to check their game cameras to see if they had captured images of escapees David Sweat and Richard Matt. Earlier this year, U.S. Border Patrol agents in Vermont told…
Scientists Aim to Prevent Some Insects, Protect Others
The physical size of an organism can be inversely proportional to its impact on the world. Homo sapiens is an outlier; most of the creatures that create global events are microscopic: viruses, bacteria, fungi. Such infinitesimal life forms are, however, outside the scope of Seven Days’ annual Animal Issue. Insects are not. Though small, bugs…
News Quirks (7/29/15)
Problem Solved San Francisco-based Flight Car began offering travelers free parking at airports in San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington, plus a ride to the terminal and a car wash. In return, the owners agree to let FlightCar rent their cars to other drivers and receive a share of the rental fee. “Everyone…
At BEVS, Owners Spare No Expense to Save Their Pets
Gizmo’s eyes were whirling. The 2-year-old pug couldn’t focus on his mom, Wendy Beane, when she brought him to Burlington Emergency & Veterinary Specialists in Williston on a recent Monday at the recommendation of her regular veterinarian. About a month ago, that vet in Brandon treated Gizmo for an ear infection. But last week, Beane…
Ello, Goodbye? Some Startups Leave Vermont for More Populated Pastures
A Burlington entrepreneur created the ad-free social media site Ello that exploded in popularity last fall. Two Middlebury College grads designed IrisVR, virtual reality software geared toward engineers and architects. And a pair of Green Mountain College graduates opened Blu-Bin, one of the first commercial 3D printing shops. Officials have held up these companies as…
Breeding and BBQ at Cas-Cad-Nac Alpaca Farm
Two weeks before Ian Lutz and Jennifer Croft graduated from Woodstock Union High School, they did what many seniors do — they randomly hooked up. “It was just a fling,” Lutz recalls. But the relationship stuck. In college, Croft wrote her thesis abroad in Ecuador — where llamas and alpacas are common — and the couple…
A Former Ally Says Bernie Sanders Has Changed
Peter Diamondstone, the longtime standard-bearer of Vermont’s leftist Liberty Union Party, has always been forthcoming with reporters. But on a recent afternoon, he stumbled when confronted with an obvious inquiry: Has it been difficult for him to watch Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign catch fire? Diamondstone and Sanders were once political equals, close allies in a…
Cork Wine Bar & Market Expands to Stowe
Last week, Cork Wine Bar & Market owner Danielle Nichols began construction on a second location inside the former Blue Moon Café space in Stowe. The new business will be similar to Cork’s Waterbury outpost, with a retail shop up front and a bar in the back offering wines by the glass and light snacks.…
Free Will Astrology (7/29/15)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “I am very much in love with no one in particular,” says actor Ezra Miller. His statement would make sense coming out of your mouth right about now. So would this one: “I am very much in love with almost everyone I encounter.” Or this one: “I am very much in…
Theater Review: Stone, Lost Nation Theater
Lost Nation Theater has brought back Stone, Kim Bent’s original 2005 play chronicling the early days of the granite industry in Barre, for a run in the historic shed that’s now home to the Vermont Granite Museum. Performed by an ensemble of seven on a platform in the big timber-frame space, the show takes on…
Amy
You always hurt the one you love, the saying goes. But, as we observe with a mixture of dread and disgust in this transfixing documentary from Asif Kapadia (Senna), the inverse was true for Amy Winehouse. An appalling number of the people closest to her, who supposedly loved her, did damage to her. Unlike many…
Paper Towns
Paper Towns tells a smarter story than it initially seems to, but by the time viewers grasp the point, they may be too lulled by the film’s soundtrack of soulful indie tunes to care. Unlike last year’s surprise hit The Fault in Our Stars — also based on a best-selling John Green novel — Paper…
Work: Qi Veterinarian Nate Heilman
Name: Dr. Nate Heilman Town: South Burlington Job: Co-owner, Qi Veterinary Clinic In a quiet little building on Shelburne Road, Qi Veterinary Clinic is taking a different approach to animal care. Dr. Nate Heilman opened Qi with his wife, Therese Fafard, in September 2007, after noticing a need for holistic preventive health care for pets in the…
J.S. Wildhack, Punch Up!
(What Doth Life, digital download) J.S. Wildhack is the moniker of Davis McGraw, a Windsor guitarist who spent time in various bands, most notably rock outfits the Pilgrims and Derek and the Demons. These groups, part of the Upper Valley collective/sorta-label What Doth Life, dabbled in snarly punk, ’80s hard rock and ironic ’90s alt-rock.…
![Keeping Up With Olive [SIV407]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/episode407.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Keeping Up With Olive [SIV407]
7/23/15: From her tiny hooves to her glistening snout, Olive the mini-pig is a star. Eva visited with the Instagram celeb — she has over 24,000 followers — at her home in Winooski with her humans Sophia Shems and Sam Rabe. Sophia shares photos and videos of Olive snorting, begging, rambling and cuddling with Milo…
Raphael Groten, Journey Home
(Silent Wing Records, CD, digital download) Journey Home, the latest recording from Vermont’s Raphael Groten, brings the listener right back to the heyday of so-called New Age music. Composed of gently played solo-guitar compositions, the record evokes a time in the 1980s when record labels such as Windham Hill and Dancing Cat released — and…
Timber Harvesting With Horsepower
Carl Russell wraps one end of a steel chain around a felled tree, then backs his 3,200-pound “power unit” — aka Ted and Petey, his team of harnessed draft horses — into position in front of the log. With nothing more than subtle nudges on the reins and terse voice commands of “Gee!” (right) or…
Lydia Loveless on Country, Kesha and Jesus’ Wine Habit
Following her 2011 semi-breakout album, Indestructible Machine, Lydia Loveless was hailed as (yet another) country-music messiah, destined to save traditional twang from the nefarious auto-tuned clutches of pop-country acts like Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan. That’s some serious pressure to put on a then-21-year-old preacher’s daughter from Ohio. And while it was well-intentioned praise,…
Art Review: ‘Unbound Vol. V,’ ArtisTree Gallery
A year after moving into its new space in South Pomfret, ArtisTree Community Art Center & Gallery has mounted “Unbound Vol. V,” its most ambitious show to date. The annual exhibit “for art lovers and bibliophiles” is held in conjunction with Bookstock, an annual three-day event in Woodstock that celebrates writers and poets of northern…
Dog Gone? Along Route 100, Finding Murphy Has Become a Community Quest
On a June day in 2014, Kirstin Campbell’s car skidded off Mayo Farm Road in Stowe and slammed into a tree. Though she suffered a dislocated shoulder, Campbell managed to get out of the car and open a rear door to check on the family dog, Murphy. The Morrisville woman was relieved to discover the…
Letters to the Editor (7/29/15)
Barbs in the ‘Burbs [Re “Suburban Spat: Rivalries Flare Around South Burlington Ag Group,” July 22]: Rosanne Greco is not talking about “small things”; she is talking about saving our planet through individual initiative and action. Why must South Burlington City Councilor Chris Shaw try to discredit and belittle her rather than engage in a…
Vermont Tries to Prevent Roadkill on a Stretch of I-89
Last year, a reader wrote to ask Seven Days what was up with Vermont’s horrifyingly gross abundance of roadkill. In our Whiskey Tango Foxtrot column addressing the issue, Erik Filkorn, public outreach manager for the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans), acknowledged that the state has “nowhere to put” the carcasses of animals that meet their…
Obituary: Cricket LaStrada, Winooski, Vt
Cricket passed away July 18th after a struggle with a long illness. She was home with her family and went to the lord peacefully. Cricket’s joy was her family, Wife of 27 years Beth, 8 Children Daniel, Charlie, Michelle, Mahoganie, Star, Thunder, Anastazia, and Arianna. Cricket was passionate about her work, she had a Masters…
