“Man of a million stories” knew how to enjoy the simple things in life
Landscaper and nature lover was fearless in the face of obstacles
South Burlington woman “went to her heavenly home”
Colorful flower bushes rustled in the spring breeze as I walked past a babbling stream. I was three years sober, and I was enjoying a long, adventurous hike. It had been several months since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the restrictions had started to loosen in rural Vermont. The reopening of local shops…
Jeffersonville woman’s spirit lives on in her beautiful grandchildren
In loving memory of Alexa Rose Cioffi 11/21/1985-04/09/2016 You are always and forever in our hearts. Allourhearts.com/alexa-rose-cioffi
Bill Calfee had no work experience in the tech sector when he dreamed up Myti. Founded in 2020, the e-commerce platform will soon enable online shoppers to buy from retailers in their own communities and get their products delivered in two days or less. Consumers will have no membership dues, while local retailers — or…
This week I chose between two forms of escapism. On TV, there was the Academy Awards ceremony with its usual wan witticisms and long-winded tributes to purported classics. Was it worth watching just for the possibility of a celebrity faux pas? No, I decided, so I switched to Hulu to watch a piece of heirloom…
There sure is a lot of talk about cryptocurrency these days, and NFTs and the like. I couldn’t get through 10 minutes of the Super Bowl without some Hollywood actor making fun of me for being a wuss because I wasn’t putting all my money into “crypto.” That sounds a little too much like a…
I recently found a note I had written to an old friend. It was stuffed into the recesses of a coat pocket and forgotten for two years. As I stood in front of my washing machine, holding the laundered and fresh-smelling letter, I experienced something odd. I read the note twice and couldn’t help but…
Sometimes an art show just doesn’t grab you; one quick glance, and you walk on by. Other times, the work reaches out and gently but firmly pulls you in. Athena Petra Tasiopoulos’ mixed-media collages are in the latter camp. Her exhibition “Inner Spaces,” on view at Soapbox Arts in Burlington, is filled with abstract compositions…
(Cold Cowboy Songs, digital, vinyl) Picture a quintessential Vermont home, maybe an old farmhouse in the mountains. The interior is quirky and cozy, adorned with homemade pottery, dried flowers and a woodstove. Furniture sourced from Front Porch Forum postings sits under exposed beams. The smell of bread baking comes from the kitchen, and a dog…
Dear Reverend, I connected with someone on Facebook Dating recently. After only talking for an hour or so, he started coming on really strong. It got to the point where I had to tell him to stop. I let him know I wasn’t interested in pursuing anything romantic, and he said, “Well, how about we…
(Navona Records, CD, digital) South Burlington pianist Elaine Greenfield, a specialist in French composers of the late 19th to early 20th centuries, has a long-standing interest in period instruments. How else can you know how those composers intended their music to sound, if not by playing it on the very instruments they did? Greenfield has…
You probably don’t want to hear this, but it’s important: When you retire, your grandkids won’t have time for you. That hard truth comes courtesy of Bruce Hiland, 81, and Ted Kaufman, 83, coauthors of Retiring? Your Next Chapter Is About Much More Than Money. In a recent interview with Seven Days, the two experts…
new in theaters CODA: A hearing Child of Deaf Adults (Emilia Jones) must decide whether to follow her passion or stay and help keep her family’s business alive in this year’s Academy Award winner for Best Picture. With Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur. Sian Heder directed. (111 min, PG-13. Roxy) DEAR MR. BRODY: What happens…
Mike Pieciak has been such a prominent part of Vermont’s pandemic response that it would be easy to forget he has a day job. Beyond his regular COVID-19 data presentations — a central feature of Gov. Phil Scott’s televised pandemic press briefings — Pieciak also runs the state’s sprawling Department of Financial Regulation. The department…
ARIES (Mar. 21-Apr. 19): In 1904, it wasn’t illegal to use performance-enhancing drugs during Olympic competitions. Runner Thomas Hicks took advantage of this in the marathon race. The poison strychnine, which in small doses serves as a stimulant, was one of his boosters. Another was brandy. By the time he approached the finish line, he…
When Natalie Miller and Nathan Hartswick sought a loan to open a comedy club in Burlington, the reaction they got was no joke. “We went to a bunch of different banks and credit unions, and no one thought it was a feasible business idea,” Miller said. The husband-and-wife comedy impresarios were industry veterans after eight…
What do John Brumsted, Rita Markley and Jeanne Collins have in common — other than very long job titles at the University of Vermont Health Network, Committee on Temporary Shelter and Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union, respectively? The same thing that ties former Vermont medical examiner Steven Shapiro, Main Street Landing “redeveloper” Melinda Moulton, TV meteorologists…
Bad for Burlington Thanks for “House Impossible” [March 9], featuring what happened at 117 Lakeview Terrace, a house that went on the market and was bid up and bought by a group of investors. I dispute what Sean Hurley, an investor speaking on behalf of the group, said. In answer to my rhetorical question in…
For most people, money is always a top-of-mind matter. Finances are especially consuming at the moment, given rising housing costs, stagnant wages and ballooning inflation. Who hasn’t winced filling up their gas tank lately? This state of affairs created an interesting challenge for curating the annual Money & Retirement Issue: With so many money-related stories…
Fully costumed in school uniforms of short pants, knee socks, pleated skirts, ties and blazers, the young cast of Lyric Theatre’s Matilda the Musical buzzed around the community theater group’s offices in South Burlington. Gathering for a Monday night rehearsal a couple of weeks ahead of the play’s April 7 opening at the Flynn Main…
Claire Black, 36, has never owned a couch. Instead, two grand pianos fill the living room of her South Burlington apartment — a Kawai and a Steinway Model L. The room serves as Black’s studio, where the pianist, who earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees at the Cleveland Institute of Music, gives lessons to 29…
During the pandemic lockdown, when his cobbler shop was closed, John Welsh carried a cruller and a cup of coffee to the storefront he rents in Williston and showed up for work anyway. There were no shoes to repair, but he kept himself busy at Town Cobbler. Welsh used needle, thread, powder dye and rawhide…
A spooky mist surrounds the stories in The Thin Place, an engrossing new play by Lucas Hnath that uses the supernatural as a setting. The Vermont Stage production proves theater’s power to pull viewers to the edge of their seats. It’s not so much a ghost story as an experience of the ghost story’s essence…
Accomplished teacher-scholar had an infectious enthusiasm for literature, food, music and family
“Never underestimate a letter in the mail,” Diane St. Clair said. “Handwritten!” Twenty-two years ago, St. Clair, 65, launched Animal Farm butter from her small Orwell farm with a handwritten letter to chef Thomas Keller. His prestigious restaurants include the French Laundry in Napa Valley and Per Se in Manhattan. St. Clair sought feedback on…
Prohibition Pig played a prominent role in my drinking education: The Waterbury brewpub and barbecue spot was where I first tried fernet. It was 2013 or thereabouts, and Fernet-Branca had its own tap next to the beer. I sat at the bar, gazing at its shelves full of booze and hoping I was cool enough…
I’m not a regular seitan eater. But when I walked into Simple Roots Brewing around 5:30 p.m. on March 17, it seemed like I had been missing out on Burlington’s latest craze. Local seitan biz the New Deal was hosting a pop-up, and the place was packed. Eventually, I realized everyone in the New North…
This spring, an old loading dock will transform into Essex Junction’s newest ice cream destination. Heather’s Sweet Treats aims to open on April 23 at 34 Park Street. The shop will serve ice cream scoops, soft serve, sundaes and shakes from a walk-up window on a newly installed deck next to Essex Barber Shop. Owners…
The theme song for the 2022 Miss Vermont USA and Miss Vermont Teen USA pageants could be the Eurythmics’ “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves.” Kelsey and Kenzie Golonka of Montpelier were crowned Miss Vermont USA and Miss Vermont Teen USA, respectively, on Sunday at Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe. It marks the…
Two Tone Wednesday 6 The admission is free and the music is mind-blowing when Alash play at the Lebanon Opera House. Hailing from the tiny Central Asian Tuva Republic, the trio combines the region’s traditional, improbable throat singing (xöömei) — a method of singing two notes at the same time — with modern inflections such…
When the Me2/Burlington orchestra posted a job opening online last week seeking a part-time conductor, executive director Caroline Whiddon got a surprise: Two of the first four applicants are from Russia. “I mean, literally, we’re talking about conducting a small orchestra in little Burlington, Vermont, one night a week,” she said. “We posted the salary…
As more than 70 Vermonters gathered in Burlington Thursday evening for the opening reception of a new traveling exhibit that examines the causes and consequences of the Holocaust, the exhibit’s message felt less like a history lesson on the defining genocide of the 20th century than a call to action to stop the next one…
Kestrel Coffee Roasters is inching its way downtown. The South Burlington-based biz opened its third location today at 77 Pine Street in Burlington — just two blocks from the Church Street Marketplace. The new café is less than half a mile from Kestrel’s second location, in the Karma Bird House at 47 Maple Street. In…
