In a University of Vermont lab crammed with equipment, Rachael Floreani and Irfan Tahir are working to create the food that might someday feed a hungry world. The two mechanical engineers are growing meat from cells extracted painlessly from live animals. Once such cells multiply under tightly controlled conditions, they can be shaped into chicken…
How would you like texting to be your job? What if it meant you had to keep a legal pad full of synonyms for the male member by your side at all times? Such is the setup of Text Appeal, the debut romance novel from Vermont author Amber Roberts. Coder Lark finds herself in a…
Dear Reverend, My partner travels for work a lot, and we spend more time apart than I would like. I’ve heard about sex toys that can be controlled remotely and think that could be a fun way to keep our intimacy alive when we’re not together. I’m curious but a little leery about trying it…
Three college students hovered over a laptop, mumbling to each other, while their instructor dimmed the lights in an office at Champlain College’s Emergent Media Center. “Um, I think it’s all good now?” Ruby Singer said as she stepped back from the computer, narrowing her eyes in concentration. The Champlain College junior was flanked by…
LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22): I’m not enamored of Shakespeare’s work. Though I enjoy his creative use of language, his worldview isn’t appealing or interesting. The people in his stories don’t resonate with me, and their problems don’t feel realistic. If I want to commune with multifaceted characters dealing with fascinating dilemmas, I turn to French…
I’ll be honest: I don’t really get Taylor Swift. I mean, her songs are fine, but I don’t get her. So, rather than my irrelevant thoughts on her concert film and how it tore up the box office last weekend, I bring you a review of a streaming movie that everyone is describing as an…
Hold My Beer Six months ago, trans TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney was featured in a social promotion for Bud Light. The backlash was swift, contributing to a 10 percent decline of Anheuser-Busch revenues. It must have seemed like a great time for Citizen Cider to roll out an alternative light beer. It was more than…
new in theaters THE CANTERVILLE GHOST: An American family contends with a ghost in their new British country manor in this animated comedy with the voices of Toby Jones and Freddie Highmore. (89 min, PG. Star) KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: Martin Scorsese’s historical drama traces the 1920s FBI investigation of murders of Osage tribe…
For as long as he has owned the Randolph-based White River Valley Herald, editor and publisher Tim Calabro has had trouble getting reporters to cover local selectboard meetings. Usually held at night, they can be long and boring. Most of the paper’s paid correspondents and volunteers would rather write about something else. But public meeting…
In a lifetime of brunches, I have spent more time waiting than I have eating. Some of that is the nature of a weekend morning meal: Getting up early is hard, hangovers are hard, and there aren’t many places to go. Squeezing into a packed restaurant as more than a two-top is a headache, whether…
Anyone who’s visited the Burlington area since June has seen them: a fleet of seemingly free-range bright blue bikes. Frequently, they’re taken for a spin by ever-changing riders. The rest of the time, they’re abandoned on sidewalks and greenbelts or in parks. Some are covered with graffiti or missing seats. The two-wheelers are part of…
When City Limits Night Club closed in June, it left a late-night dive-bar hole in Vergennes. Later this month, Antidote and Hired Hand Brewing owners Eliza Benton-Huizenga and Ian Huizenga will fill that hole with Low Bar in their downstairs space at 35 Green Street. The “divey speakeasy” will serve “cool, fun cocktails and cheap…
Being in a band is weird. You get together with some other musicians and, based on a shared taste in music, form a collective. Maybe you’re pals, maybe you become pals, and just maybe you stay pals. But, with some very rare exceptions, such as the Rolling Stones (who clearly have made a pact with…
Benchmark Space Systems, a Burlington company that makes satellite propulsion equipment, had a rocket engine with a problem last winter. The coffee cup-size engine, which helps maneuver small satellites as they orbit in space, had been flagged in Benchmark’s testing, and the company’s engineers wanted to know what was wrong. The company usually sent parts…
After almost a decade as owners of Blackback Pub in Waterbury, married couple Lynn Mason and Dave Juenker have sold the bar and restaurant to its general manager, Ehren Hill, and chef, Cory Swafford. They declined to share the sale price. Mason and Juenker will continue to own the building at 1 Stowe Street, which…
The building at 400 Pine Street in Burlington that hosted the ArtsRiot restaurant and entertainment venue is for lease again. James Unsworth of the Howard Space Partnership, which owns the building, confirmed that the 6,800-square-foot space is available. ArtsRiot closed in fall 2022. Unsworth said he could not comment on the previous deal with PlantPub,…
After 60 years of writing and performing his own brand of country and folk music, Rick Norcross is winding down a glittering career. The singer-songwriter and onetime music photographer will release his final album, God Bless the Mighty Pickle, and celebrate it with a party on Sunday, October 22, in the Juniper Hall at Hotel…
(Self-released, digital) About a year ago, I happened to be deejaying on the same bill at a local show as singer-songwriter Remi Russin. The headliner was New York queer-rock duo Man on Man, and a member of the group noted Russin’s opening set, saying something to the effect of “You guys are lucky to have…
There’s a party going on in Montréal where celebrities, hipsters and regular folks are brushing elbows with stuffed dolls, giant babies and menacing sea creatures. No, it’s not a Halloween parade. It’s the inventive, surprising and revelatory world of artist Marisol (1930-2016), on view at the Museum of Fine Arts. “Marisol: A Retrospective,” featuring sculptures,…
(Self-released, CD, digital) Trying to pin down where in the hell Another Sexless Weekend are coming from can be exhausting work. The Burlington-based “band” (more on that later) doesn’t just blur the lines of genre, it all but ignores genre’s existence. On its latest LP, Ice Cream Window & the Dynamic Flavors, the group attempts…
Fifteen years ago, shortly after the launch of the iPhone, Seven Days helped plan the first Vermont Tech Jam. It was a response and solution to the state’s “brain drain” — the widely held concern that young people were leaving for better jobs. Then-governor Jim Douglas had convened a commission to address the problem. One…
Vermont will probably never rival Silicon Valley, Austin or Boston as a tech hub; its woodsy reputation is too deeply ingrained. But as a setting for tech startups, the Green Mountain State has a lot going for it — and easy access to outdoor recreation is one of them. The cofounder of IBM, Thomas Watson,…
At the Middlebury College Museum of Art, “The Light of the Levant: Early Photography and the Late Ottoman Empire” depicts a game-changing convergence of time, place and technology. A reverse deconstruction of the exhibition title points toward this cultural crossroads. The late period of the six-century-long Ottoman Empire was roughly 1789 to 1918. Photography began…
Burlington resident Samara Fantie, 30, grew up gaming. She’s partial to action-adventure games such as Doom and Metal Gear Solid. As the cofounder and chief creative officer of game studio Glossbird, however, her work revolves around a floppy-eared dog named Monroe and a sweatsuit-clad cat named Ollie — “fitbuddies” who lead players through a series…
Each day, artificial intelligence gets a little better at impersonating us. It can express fears and hopes, write a novel about cats in the style of David Foster Wallace, suggest recipes for dinner, offer advice on getting over a breakup, drive a car, or sell you a couch. It also has the capacity to spread…
Playwright Sylvia Khoury’s war story takes place in an apartment. It’s a place of hiding, not battle, but the merciless world outside controls everyone within. Selling Kabul is set in Afghanistan in 2021, as U.S. troops leave, abandoning the Afghans they employed. The Taliban have regained control, and anyone who assisted the Americans faces imprisonment…
Island Sound Thursday 19 & Friday 20 Internationally acclaimed Rapa Nui (Easter Island) concert pianist Mahani Teave makes two appearances at Middlebury College’s Mahaney Arts Center. The first, a Q&A and screening of the 2020 documentary short “Song of Rapa Nui,” documents Teave’s efforts to found a music school on her home island. On the…
Korean War veteran was an expert in aircraft applications and earned several patents
Lyndon’s 1989 Citizen-of-the-Year once had a private meeting with Albert Einstein
A celebration of life will be held on October 22, 2023, at the Silver Pavilion at the University of Vermont Alumni House, 61 Summit St., Burlington, VT. from 11a.m.-2 p.m. Ken’s obituary is posted on the VT Digger at vtdigger.org/2023/07/18/dr-kenneth-hood-ed-d/.
Former Vermont poet laureate Louise Glück, whose gift for suffusing the mundane with the sublime won her virtually every honor available to a writer in America, including the National Book Award for Poetry, the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature, has died at 80. Her publisher, Jonathan Galassi of Farrar, Straus and Giroux,…
Since its inception in 1985, Warren-based Phantom Theater has been a summer-only staple in the Mad River Valley, as fleeting and elusive as its name suggests. That’s about to change: The performing arts company will now host events throughout the year after finding a winter venue at Big Picture Theater & Café in Waitsfield. Known…
Former lifeguard and swimming coach was chosen to participate in the Disney College Program
Former state archivist will be remembered as a generous, intelligent and kind-hearted soul
A remembrance service for Donna Newhall Larrow, who died on October 1, 2023 will be held on Saturday, November 4, at 2:00pm at the Faith United Methodist Church, 899 Dorset St., So. Burlington, VT 05403. Arrangements are in care of Corbin & Palmer Funeral Home, Essex Junction.
A major bike accident inspired avid cyclist to become a blood donor throughout the rest of his life
Talented builder’s work ethic and integrity were impetus for the recently established Building Vermont Award at Mount Mansfield Union High School
