The Wellness Issue 2017
Pointers From a Plus-Size Yogi; Fit to Grow Old: Boot Camp for All Ages; A Vermont Salt Cave for the Cure; Hallelujah, Fat Is Fine Again!
Cover Story
The Seven Days Wellness Issue, 2017
This annual issue falls in January for one good reason: It’s January. The first month in a new year is all the incentive we need to at least vow to get fit, clean up our diets or … stop snoring? Yes, one writer takes on his sleep apnea by playing the didgeridoo. And by learning…
Obituary: Ellen Ann Smith Tyrrell, 1931-2017, Montpelier
Ellen Tyrrell, beloved wife of the late Vincent E. “Gene” Tyrrell for sixty two years, passed away peacefully, Wednesday, January 3rd, 2017 at UVM Medical Center in Burlington. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on November 3rd 1931 to Ralph P. and Anna (Franko) Smith, Ellen was raised in a progressive middle class household and graduated from…
Seven Days Promotes Dan Bolles, Welcomes New Music Editor Jordan Adams
Seven Days, Vermont’s free, independent weekly newspaper, has promoted its longtime music editor Dan Bolles to assistant arts editor. After 10 years as frontman of Seven Days’ popular music section, Bolles has passed the mic to his assistant, Jordan Adams. Bolles joined Seven Days as music editor in 2007. He is one of just four people to…
Obituary: Donald Rowe, 1940-2017
Donald Rowe died January 17th, 2017 in Vero Beach, Florida from a brain injury after a fall. Born in Yonkers, NY on July 31, 1940 to Harry and Agnes Rowe, he graduated from Gorton High School and Manhattan College, completing graduate studies at Columbia and NYU. He had a long, fulfilling teaching and directing career…
Obituary: Melissa A. Verge, 1980-2017
BURLINGTON – Melissa A. Verge, 36, of 60 Austin Drive in Burlington, passed away after a long fought battle of Cervical Cancer with her family by her side on January 19th, 2017 at McClure Miller VNA Respite House in Colchester. She was born in Burlington, VT on December 11th, 1980. The daughter of Rose Verge…
The Internet Branded Her a Racist. Does It Matter That She’s Bipolar?
It all started last week when Heather Wick logged onto her now-deleted Facebook page and wrote: “Do you think Trump will bring back slavery? I could use a maid.” Reaction was swift as the post went viral. The 44-year-old Burlington woman says she has been deluged with death threats, upward of 300 per hour. The…
The Parmelee Post: Work Begins to Reconstruct the Vermont Bubble
Construction crews began work Friday on one of the state’s most ambitious projects to date — reconstructing the Vermont bubble. For decades, the state of Vermont has enjoyed the protection of a massive bubble that has allowed its inhabitants to think for themselves while largely ignoring some of the more damaging thought patterns in the…
Vermont Pride Theater Looks Back on Politics of Exclusion
On January 28, Vermont Pride Theater at Chandler will present a script-in-hand staged reading of the award-winning play Perfect Arrangement by Topher Payne. Set in the 1950s, it tells the story of two closeted gay and lesbian couples who live out their lives masquerading as two straight couples. To the outside world, Bob and Millie…
Pickleball Is Holding Court in Vermont
On most winter weekday afternoons, the Robert Miller Community and Recreation Center in Burlington kind of sounds like a popcorn popper. Or, maybe more appropriately, like a bunch of people continuously opening fresh jars of vacuum-sealed pickles. The New North End municipal gym is cold-season home to devotees of pickleball, a once-obscure racquet sport that…
Painting a Presidential Protest
In the weeks preceding the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump, artists worldwide have generated imagery that represents their reactions to this reality. Some are positive, but most convey a range of negatives from ridicule to anger to fear. In the mostly blue state of Vermont, artists have contributed to this visual commentary in various ways,…
What’s With the Long-Empty Building at Rt. 7 and Ferry Road?
Prime commercial real estate in Chittenden County isn’t easy to come by, especially in high-visibility locations that don’t have much competition nearby. That’s why one Charlotte reader was scratching his head recently as to why the commercial property at the corner of Route 7 and Ferry Road in his town has sat vacant and largely…
Backs to the Wall: Vermont’s Sole Juvenile Lockup Is Hard Up for Cash
The state’s only locked facility for delinquent children and teens occupies a secluded clearing near the banks of the Winooski River. Down a steep road off Route 15 in Essex, the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center is out of sight and out of mind to most Vermonters — but a looming financial crisis threatens to change…
Immune-Boosting Fire Cider Packs Heat
Fire cider: Even the name suggests potent liquors that burn from tongue to tail, with or without setting one’s breath aflame à la medieval dragons. Actually, that description is not too far off. The immune-boosting cider-vinegar tonic packs heat from raw alliums, ginger, horseradish and chile peppers, and is sweetened with a touch of honey.…
Will Vermont Leaders Wage War Over Labor?
When Lindsay Kurrle, Vermont’s brand-new labor commissioner, took a seat in front of the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee last week, she and the panel’s 11 members were all smiles. “I look forward to working with you all,” said the cheery Montpelier native, four days into what she described as a “dream” job. Such…
Got Sleep Apnea? Try Playing a Didgeridoo
An estimated 5 to 20 percent of Americans suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, according to the Mayo Clinic. It’s a disorder in which breathing stops during sleep because of blockage in the airways. Many things can cause this blockage, and, if left untreated, sleep apnea can lead to more serious health problems including…
Clam, Sonnendruck
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Sometimes two things that seem like they shouldn’t go together actually go together exceptionally well. For instance, the two prominent concepts you’ll find on Clam’s album Sonnendruck, upbeat electro and a cappella choral singing, seem like they couldn’t be more of a mismatch. But the antiquity of Gregorian-style chanting juxtaposed with…
Village Embraces Rail in Bid to ‘Put the Junction Back in the Junction’
Every seat was occupied in the waiting room at the Essex Junction Amtrak station on the first Wednesday in January. Passengers going south to New York City and Washington, D.C., spilled onto the platform next to the tracks. The drab station was the center of activity as the shops and restaurants in the old commercial…
Eames Brothers Band, Now & Then
(Self-released, CD, digital download) For the past two decades, the Eames Brothers Band have served as Vermont’s foremost (only?) purveyors of “mountain blues.” Theirs is a hybrid sound, built equally on Delta clay and Green Mountain granite. As forged on the band’s 2005 debut, Open Road, and crystallized on subsequent releases, brothers Ralph and Seth…
Free Will Astrology (1/18/17)
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Some guy I don’t know keeps sending me emails about great job opportunities he thinks I’d like to apply for: a technical writer for a solar energy company, for example, and a social media intern for a business that offers travel programs. His messages are not spam. The gigs are legitimate.…
Stepping Stones Inn Opens for Brunch
In May 2016, Susan Hanus purchased Lyndonville’s Stepping Stones Inn. Formerly a small-business consultant and freelance news photographer for publications such as the New York Times and Newsweek, Hanus now runs a holistic-spa-meets-bed-and-breakfast there — the Stepping Stones Inn & Serenity Spa. And on January 15, after extensive renovations to the inn’s kitchen, she opened…
Another Holiday Passes, and No Proposal
Dear Athena, I know I’m not the only person who feels this way — in fact, some of my close friends do, too. Every holiday, I try desperately not to feel crushingly disappointed when there’s no engagement ring. My boyfriend and I are too poor to get married anytime soon. We have been together for…
Fresh Yogurt and More at the Rogers Farm Stand
Fans of Rogers Farmstead yogurt and other products can now buy them on the Berlin farm itself. But for raw milk, they’ll need to look elsewhere. In 2012, when Nathan and Jessie Rogers bought their 133-acre parcel, they were enticed by the quality of the pasture and its proximity to Montpelier. But they knew the…
Trying Yoga on for (Plus) Size
I’ve been obese my entire adult life, and a chunk of my teens, too (pun intended). But, unlike many women, I never really fixated on it. I’ve been in a few wedding parties, and I’ve gotten married myself. I once donned a bathing suit in front of 75 of my husband’s relatives at a family…
Misery Loves Co. Launches CSA-Style POM Club
Even before farm-to-table dining went mainstream, restaurateurs and other service-industry types were experimenting with ways to make the format perform financially. Solutions have ranged from commingled farm and restaurant business models to co-op restaurants. Last week, Winooski’s Misery Loves Co. launched a community-supported model with its Patron of Misery — POM, for short — membership…
The Founder
Ask anyone who started McDonald’s, and you’ll get the same answer: Ray Kroc. Ask anyone who started Apple, and you’ll hear it was Steve Jobs. In the case of the latter, we should know better. As several movies have made clear, Steve Wozniak dreamed up the company’s first computer and created it with his own…
Vermont PBS, Skinny Pancake Produce Food-System Series
More than two years ago, Vermont PBS partnered with Burlington-based crêperie the Skinny Pancake to produce a six-part docuseries exploring the current state and future of Vermont’s local food system. Now, after 24 months of research, filming and postproduction, “The Local Motive” will make its public debut later this week. Pulling information from more than…
A Fitness Boot Camp for the Ages
Ginger Lambert ran her first marathon at age 50 … in less than four hours. More than a decade later, you can find her at the Middlebury Parks and Recreation Department gym most Saturday mornings. There she teaches others — especially older women — to love fitness as much as she does. Lambert is the…
The Usual Suspects: Who Funded Scott’s Inaugural Gala?
“I’m not involved in politics. I’m not in the administration. I don’t have to talk to anyone. And I certainly don’t have to talk to you.” Those tender sentiments came last week from Dick Wobby, Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s best bud, political consigliere and inaugural gala cochair. And, yes, he was addressing Your Humble Correspondent.…
Caregiver Career Paths for New Americans
Urai Disjarern was a teacher in her native Thailand before she moved to Vermont in 2006. Today, the 40-year-old practices a new form of education. She’s a licensed nursing assistant who instructs aspiring health care workers at the office of the Association of Africans Living in Vermont in Burlington’s Old North End. The nonprofit has…
Jackie
For some of us, seeing Jackie the same week as the presidential inauguration could be a potently bittersweet experience. While director Pablo Larraín’s film doesn’t glorify the supposed Camelot years, it’s very clear on one thing: Jackie Kennedy (Natalie Portman) believed with every fiber of her being that keeping up appearances — grace, poise and…
A Montgomery Salt Cave Might Heal What Ails You
The first thing I noticed as I stepped through the gingerbready wooden door to Vermont Salt Cave Spa & Halotherapy Center in Montgomery Center was several inches of thick, white salt crystals crunching beneath my socks. With it came a cool mist of ultrafine salt that tickled my eyes and nose. It wasn’t an unpleasant…
90s Metal Band Rocketsled Reunite in Honor of 242 Main
When iconic Burlington venue 242 Main closed late last year, it was a huge blow. The area is still packed full of venues, of course, but 242 Main was something special. First and foremost, for more than 30 years it was a substance-free, youth-friendly safe space that focused on inclusion more than profit. And for…
Vermont Filmmaker, Composer to Create Film on Elder Care
While Jesse Kreitzer, 31, was a graduate student in film at the University of Iowa, he made a short film with sparse dialogue called “Black Canaries” (2016), about a coal miner in Iowa in 1907. Music composed by a student, Jose Parody, at the Berklee College of Music helped tell the story when the taciturn…
Letters to the Editor (1/18/17)
Vetting Refugees [Re “The Backstory: Story With the Longest Legs,” December 28]: At its last monthly meeting, the Vermont Will Miller Chapter 57 of Veterans for Peace voted to support the City of Rutland’s invitation to host 100 Middle Eastern war refugees. The national VFP statement on Syria says: “We oppose war. We are against…
Mid Century Radio Saves Popular Oldies Format
In the age of digital activism, the online petition reigns supreme. Got an axe to grind? Voice your displeasure with a petition on change.org or one of the scads of similar venues. While some may deride them as slacktivism, such petitions can at least play a role in raising awareness. And sometimes that’s enough to…
Soundbites: Breath Support
Greetings, friends! Before we get into the week’s music news, let’s take a collective deep breath. I think we’re all feeling a bit on edge this week and could benefit from centering ourselves before the inauguration. Ready? In through your nose, out through your mouth. And repeat. I’ll give you a second… OK, now keep…
Making a Case for Saturated Fats
The butter from Mountain Home Farm in Tunbridge changes from rich gold in the spring — when the tender young grasses and legumes are bursting with nutrients — to a paler but still vibrant yellow in the winter. Made from the cream of Guernsey cows that graze on those grasses, it’s gently heated to comply…
