The Money Issue April 2017 (Theme Issue)
A Retired Economist Talks Bonds, Stocks and Politics; At Cash or Trade, a Face-Value Community Thrives; Do You Know How Dirty Your Cash Is?
Memoriam: Gary Steller
June 24, 1946, to February 15, 2017 Join us to remember and celebrate the life of Gary Steller on Sunday, April 30, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Community College of Vermont in Winooski. Come when you can, and leave when you’d like. Bring a story or two to share and photos if you…
Memoriam: Matthew Young
1948-2017 Please join us for a community memorial service to honor Matt Young on Monday, May 1, 2017, 4 to 6 p.m. Everyone welcome. First Unitarian Universalist Society (top of Church Street), 152 Pearl St., Burlington. Hosted by the Howard Center. Related Stories
Obituary: Theresa (Trish) Ann Morin, 1937-2017
Theresa (Trish) Ann Morin, 79, a longtime resident of South Burlington, passed away peacefully Monday, April 3, 2017, surrounded by her loving family. One of seven children, Trish was born to Pearl and Smith Manning on August 5, 1937, in Middlebury. After graduating from the Burlington school system, she spent time working across several industries…
The Parmelee Post: Busking Orchestra Turns Routine Shopping Into Life-Affirming Experience
President Donald Trump’s recent budgetary proposal to completely eliminate all funding for the National Endowment for the Arts has led some local arts organizations to begin experimenting with new and exciting ways of balancing their budgets. For example, the Green Mountain Philharmonic Orchestra recently assembled on Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace to perform for shoppers —…
Obituary: Stephen Liam Murphy
Stephen Liam Murphy, 73, of Burlington VT died on Saturday, April 1 in Burlington after a short illness. Steve was born in La Jolla California, the son of Dr. Donal G. and Katherine Creamer Murphy. He was a 1962 graduate of Canterbury School in Milford CT and attended Wesleyan University and Art Center College in…
![Made in Vermont Marketplace [SIV485]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/episode485.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Made in Vermont Marketplace [SIV485]
4/2/17: The Fourth Annual Made in Vermont Marketplace was held at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction last weekend. The event is produced by Vermont Business Magazine and displays the diversity of our creative economy. About 125 makers and manufacturers shared their made in the Green Mountains wares with thousands of visitors. Eva met…
Economist John Hill Talks Bonds, Stocks and Bernie Sanders
In the 1969 movie The Magic Christian, otherwise sensible people are willing to wade into a vat of excrement to retrieve the money that wealthy Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) dumped there. Nearly 20 years later, in Wall Street, the unscrupulous corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) declares, “Greed is good.” Hundreds, if not thousands,…
Clever Girls’ Diane Jean Reilly Makes Bad Choices, Good Music
On a recent edition of “Exposure,” the long-running live show on the University of Vermont’s WRUV 90.1 FM, Clever Girls’ front woman Diane Jean Reilly casually fielded questions about her band. And her filter was off, as it usually is. While radio staff and other onlookers crowded into the tiny studio space, Reilly accidentally dropped…
Cash or Trade Reimagines the Secondary Ticket Market
Just how unscrupulous is the online secondary ticket market? If recent history is any indication, it’s reached biblical proportions. In 2015, Pope Francis visited New York City and held a procession through Central Park on his way to leading a mass at Madison Square Garden. Forty thousand free tickets were issued for the event. Ticket…
Vermont Lawyer Jean Murray Takes on the Debt-Collection Industry
Attorney Jean Murray drove more than three hours and had a few choice words for her car’s GPS before she arrived in Newfane last month to defend a client in a debt-collection case. But once she arrived in court, it was all over in a hot minute. The opposing counsel, attorney Michael Williams, had no…
How Dirty Is Money? Let Us Count the Ways
If cash is king, our ruler is easily corrupted. That’s not a commentary on the influence of money on American politics but a statement about the physical contamination of U.S. currency. Nearly all paper and coin money we handle each day harbors an assortment of microscopic nastiness. After reading this story, you’ll likely never again…
The Money Issue
It’s said that sex and money are the two most troublesome topics in relationships. But here at Seven Days, we found plenty to say — at least on the latter subject — in this annual issue. To be sure, money makes the world go round, and retired economist John Hill gives us a glimpse into…
Phoenix Books Launches Self-Publishing Biz
Last year, George Osol walked into Phoenix Books in Burlington with his new self-published book, Caveat, hoping the store would sell it. Longtime manager Tod Gross turned him away — kind of. Osol had released Caveat through CreateSpace, the self-publishing arm of Amazon. The online behemoth is a nemesis of independent bookstores, and Phoenix doesn’t…
Vermont DMV, State Police Play Nice With ICE
A tri-partisan group of lawmakers joined Gov. Phil Scott in his ceremonial Statehouse office last week to witness Vermont’s first act of resistance against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. With the stroke of a pen, Scott signed into law widely lauded legislation requiring gubernatorial approval of certain immigration-enforcement agreements between the federal government and state…
Free Will Astrology (4/5/17)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Be interested in first things, Aries. Cultivate your attraction to beginnings. Align yourself with uprisings and breakthroughs. Find out what’s about to hatch and lend your support. Give your generous attention to potent innocence and novel sources of light. Marvel at people who are rediscovering the sparks that animated them when…
House Discord: Speaker Finds Harmony Doesn’t Last
The House’s unanimous vote last week on the annual tax bill and its unanimous-but-for-one balloting on the budget bill tells you something about the chamber’s new speaker. So does the House’s action a few days later to ship the much-anticipated marijuana legalization bill off to a committee for further review. Unanimity on fiscal matters is…
So Many Questions — and Answers — About Anal
Dear Readers, Forget “springing forward” — it seems a number of readers are more interested in going back. I’ve been barraged with queries about backside lovin’ lately. Here are answers to all of your questions about anal sex. Yours, Athena Dear Athena, How do I get my girlfriend to try anal? Buggin’ for Her Behind…
Movie Review: ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Offers More Style Than Substance
Some of the most interesting stuff in Ghost in the Shell happens in the background. Director Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) and production designer Jan Roelfs (Gattaca) have created a fascinating future Tokyo that goes the LA of Blade Runner one better: Instead of enormous digital billboards, vast animated advertising holograms crowd the…
Global Roots Film Fest Goes Québécois
This weekend, Vermonters can travel to Canada without passports, lines or border crossings. The Global Roots Film Festival: Québec, presented by the Vermont International Film Foundation, features 11 films made by Québécois filmmakers about the lives, cultures and concerns of our neighbors to the north. The three-day festival runs Friday through Sunday, April 7 to…
Taxing Question: Why Are Lawmakers Saying ‘No’?
Late one evening last month, the Senate Finance Committee voted for a $2-per-night hotel room occupancy fee. The fee, expected to generate $7.2 million a year, would help build affordable housing and fight water pollution. Statehouse scuttlebutt spread the next day: Finally, the Democratic legislature had fired a shot across the bow. Lawmakers were going…
Milk Money Matches Local Investors and Vermont Businesses
Elias Gardner is a teacher at the New School in Montpelier. He lives in the Middlesex farmhouse where he grew up and rents out bedrooms to offset the cost of buying the house from his parents. Gardner, 29, has paid off his student debt at McGill University. He is starting to save for retirement. “I…
New ‘Epic Pass’ at Stowe Triggers Flurry of Ski Bargains
The sun shone on blinding white snow at Killington Resort last Thursday, a lovely day at the Vermont ski area. Then it became even more lovely, at least for those counting the cash tucked into their ski pants pockets: Killington officials announced that, for the first time in years, they would slash the price on…
Soundbites: Same Old Places and Familiar Faces
Vermont is a beautiful place. I mean, duh. Every 802-themed coffee-table book and postcard showcases the eye-popping wonders of foliage season, the serenity of Lake Champlain’s shores, the pristine streets and covered bridges of small towns, and Burlington’s Church Street. And why shouldn’t they? Isn’t that what life in the Green Mountains is all about?…
Japanese Bliss at Montréal’s Ichigo Ichie
Why did our server drop off a brown paper lunch bag on a plate? I wondered, as I sat in the dark back corner of Montréal’s Ichigo Ichie Pub Japonais with my sister. We were exhausted from three nights of dancing into the wee hours and in need of a comforting meal. As grease began…
Last Stop Sports Bar Opens in Winooski
It’s been a little over three months since anyone bought a drink at CK’s Sports Bar. But this Saturday, April 8, two of its former bartenders, Shayla Ruland and Shannon Garrett, will open Last Stop Sports Bar in CK’s space at 12 Malletts Bay Avenue in Winooski. To drink, they’ll offer seven draft beers — mostly…
Poet Vievee Francis Earns High Honors
Some books seem enormous because they have many pages. A book of poems may be slim in size and yet immense in other ways, for instance, in formal variation, thematic range and emotional power. Vievee Francis’ Forest Primeval: Poems is a book with mythic and historic scope, and its sonic landscape is often symphonic. This…
Lyric Lauds Working Women With ‘9 to 5’
Almost 20 years before the business-casual protagonists of Office Space destroyed a printer with baseball bats, there were the bad, bad ladies of 9 to 5. Their weapons of choice against their evil boss and bleak workplace oppression? Marijuana, rat poison and a handgun — not to mention kooky ideas such as equal pay for…
Letters to the Editor (4/5/17)
Falun Falsehoods Ken Picard’s March 22 piece “Shen Yun: Entertaining Family Fare, Political Propaganda — or Both?” does your readership a disservice while veering far from journalistic standards. The horrific abuses of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in China are not “alleged” or “accused,” as Picard writes, nor can they be brushed off by quoting…
Another, Pre-Security Skinny Pancake at BTV
As of the last week in March, the old Chubby Muffin kiosk at Burlington International Airport has been transformed into the Skinny Pancake. Which means you don’t have to pass through security to get your locavore crêpe fix. According to co-owner Benjy Adler, the new-and-improved kiosk maintains its previous espresso, beer and wine bar options.…
Talking Art With Photographer Matthew Peterson
Matthew Peterson’s first camera was the ubiquitous 35mm Canon AE-1. His mom gave it to him when he was 10 years old, and he’s been making photographs ever since. Now 26, Peterson works as a bartender at Hen of the Wood in Burlington. Most recently, his work has appeared in limited-edition handmade zines he distributed…
Choosing Burlington
“Mostly what he likes doing is taking things apart. And he has an uncanny ability to dismantle our household items. Not destructively, mind you, but methodically.” Jack Benson was telling me about Jess, his son, who was about to turn 2. In his voice, I could hear the pride of this relatively new dad. We…
American Muslims Grapple With Interest-Based Borrowing
When Samantha Lord-Konare converted to Islam six years ago, she found herself in a quandary. She had student and credit card loans, but her new religion prohibited riba, the Arabic word for usury. Lord-Konare, who grew up in Hinesburg and now lives in Essex Junction, vowed not to use her credit card unless she was…
Derek and the Demons, Out of the Woodwork
(What Doth Life, digital download) The ever-productive Derek and the Demons have returned with their new LP, Out of the Woodwork. For those keeping score, that’s four full-length records and two EPs released since forming in 2010. Few local acts can boast such an impressive and consistent output. Speaking of consistency, if you’re familiar with…
Scratch … and Sniff? Vermont Lottery’s Pet Project
Would you be more likely to buy a lottery ticket if it bore the picture of your pet or the pet of someone you knew? Now under way, Vermont Lottery’s “It’s a Dog’s Life and It’s a Cat’s World” photo contest seeks to designate local cover cats and cover dogs for a promotional run of…
Wren Kitz, untitled
(Como Tapes, cassette, digital download) The improbably named Wren Kitz has been a longtime collaborator in the Burlington music scene, both as a lead guitarist and songwriter. His highest-profile contributions have probably been with Paddy Reagan’s psych-pop outfit Paper Castles. But last year Kitz released a solo debut, For Evelyn, on Burlington-based Section Sign Records.…
3 Square Meals: A Family of Five Takes Hunger Free Vermont’s Food Challenge
I’m the chef and food program coordinator at the Burlington Children’s Space, a local school that serves 50 children ages 5 and under in Chittenden County. I also have three kids of my own to feed — including a teenage boy — so grocery shopping is pretty much always on my mind. When Kids VT…
Movie Review: ‘Toni Erdmann’ Triumphs as an Unclassifiable Comedy
Not often, but certainly as I write this, I wish we weren’t limited in the number of stars we can give a movie. If I could grant Maren Ade’s third feature the rating it deserves, its title would be followed not by five stars but by a constellation. The Academy blew it. Toni Erdmann is…
Taste Test: One Radish Eatery in Richmond
Before One Radish Eatery opened in Richmond last December, co-owner Jessica Bunce told Seven Days that the food would be “approachable, predictable and accessible.” Which is to say that your grandma, your vegan kid sister and your meat-and-potatoes husband could all find something to dig on there. As a writer who craves food as art…
Eat This Week, April 5 to 11, 2017: Brew Times Two
If your ideal Sunday Funday involves coffee, beer or both head to Northfield this weekend for a tasting extravaganza. Sample fresh presses from New Wave roasters including Brio Coffeeworks, Vivid Coffee, Abracadabra Coffee, First Branch Coffee and Northern Bayou Cold Brew, among many others. Once you’ve caught a good buzz, wind down with java-infused beers…
Feldman’s Bagels Gets a New Owner
A bagel-baking rookie has taken over a Burlington bagel shop from a longtime pro. Bob Leonard, a hockey dad from South Burlington, has purchased Feldman’s Bagels from Roy Feldman, who opened the Pine Street café with his daughter, Maddy Feldman, four years ago. Leonard, 63, is the owner of Green Mountain Avalanche, a hockey management…
Food Allergies? No Problem at Jules on the Green
On Monday, April 3, food industry veteran Silvio Mazzella opened Jules on the Green at 1 Commonwealth Avenue in Essex Junction. The concept: serving folks with food allergies and intolerances … and everybody else. The café has 56 seats in the dining room and another 75 on the patio, with a banquet room in the…
