Winter Reading Issue 2013
Fiction by Vermont Author Michael Freed-Thall; Brattleboro Hospital Helps LGBT Patients; Jessamyn West Advocates for Access; Taste Test: Café Shelburne
Cover Story
Work: Nate Plasha, Home Builder and Restorer
The bumper sticker on Nate Plasha’s pickup truck — “Listen to Shostakovich” — suggests he has interests apart from his work as a home builder and restorer. Sure enough, Plasha, 36, is “a big lifelong reader” with an English lit degree from Penn State. He plays “atmospheric black metal” guitar in addition to being a…
Obituary: Winifred Babbie Favero
Winifred Babbie Favero, age 100 years, died early Wednesday morning December 18, 2013, in the Northwestern Medical Center surrounded by her loving family. Winifred was born October 23, 1913, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the daughter of the late Frederick and Lena (St. Johns) Babbie. She attended the former St. Anne’s Academy in Swanton, Vermont. On…
![House-Mouse Designs [SIV334]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/episode334-4-e1755138904696.webp?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1)
House-Mouse Designs [SIV334]
12/14/13: It all started with a pet mouse named Tiny in 1980. Tiny inspired artist Ellen Jareckie and marketing partner Barry Percy to start House-Mouse Designs when they were UVM students. Over the past 33 years, their business has thrived and Ellen’s fanciful mice designs are instantly recognizable whether seen on greeting cards, calendars, mouse…
Seven Days Holiday Gift Guide Part 4: Nest
Attention, shoppers: You have just one more week to wrap up the holiday gift thing. For the last three weeks we’ve been trying to help, sharing our own wish lists for inspiration, but if you have lingering consumer conundrums, here’s our last shot. This time our theme is Nest — stuff for the home or…
Jessamyn West Documents Vermont Public Libraries
“I love love love the Roxbury Library!” declares Jessamyn West, who might be the librarian laureate of Vermont, if there were such a thing. The one-story building housing the Roxbury Free Library is indeed charming. It’s tiny and staffed by a welcoming librarian, and its bathroom (built only a few years ago, when indoor plumbing…
Finding One’s Inner Poet at a “You Be the Keats” Workshop
“Flour sack half-empty, and the cask is nearly dry.” That’s the first line of the first poem I’ve written since 10th-grade English class. I’ve titled it “Dawson City, 1899,” because, for some reason, I’ve lately been interested in the history of the Klondike gold rush. The rhythm appeals to me, but I’m not sure I…
News Quirks
Curses, Foiled Again Police investigating 15 home burglaries in and around Lakewood, Colo., identified Brandon Campbell, 27, as their suspect because he was wearing a GPS ankle monitor that placed him at the crime scenes. “I would say it’s a prosecutor’s dream to have GPS,” Arapahoe County Deputy Prosecutor Chelsea Koch said. “That’s an excellent…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Life is best organized as a series of daring ventures from a secure base,” wrote psychologist John Bowlby. Some of you Aries enjoy the “daring venture” part of that formula but neglect the “secure base” aspect. That’s why your daring ventures may on occasion go awry. If you are that type…
First Bite: Café Shelburne
In 1969, Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, Jimi Hendrix closed out Woodstock and a new Toyota Corona cost $1950. It was also the year that Café Shelburne opened. Since then, the restaurant has established itself as a place where countless Chittenden County diners (and sometimes their parents and grandparents) have sat down to at…
Obituary: Leon K. Najarian,
1937-2013, Hopedale, MA Leon K. “Nudge” Najarian, of Hopedale died Wednesday, December 11, 2013 at home. He was born on May 13, 1937 in Dorchester the son of the late Nevart and Krikor Najarian. He graduated from Brighton High School in 1956. He is survived by his wife of 44 years, Pamela; his children Laurie…
European Chefs Share Their Mothers’ Little-Known Dishes
Most of us learned to cook from the same person in our lives. Her name is Mom, and she was most people’s first favorite chef, whether she’s a Cordon Bleu grad or just whips up a mean instant oatmeal. For food lovers who grow up to be chefs, it’s no different. That’s why the New…
WTF: What’s up with the teepee by Interstate 89 in Richmond?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: We just had to ask…
Local Musicians Weigh in on the Best Music of 2013
Recapping the best music from a given year is always overwhelming. So we asked local musicians, fans and assorted scenesters for their takes on the best albums (local and nonlocal) and Vermont concerts they took in this year. We also added a “wild card” category that was completely open-ended. Here’s what they said. Paddy Reagan…
Art Review: Timothy Jude Smith
Timothy Jude Smith is not the first person to note the existence of ironically named housing developments, aka suburbs — that is, names that evoke flora or fauna the development has actually displaced. But, as a graduate student in Ohio, Smith began to observe a particular phenomenon: suburbs named after Walden Pond, the rural outpost…
Letters to the Editor
Oh, Snap [Re “Photo Finish: AP’s Toby Talbot is Retiring After 30 Years Shooting Vermont,” November 27]: When comparing image “transmission” in the 1980s to an iPhone, don’t forget to add in the time it took to process the film and make a print! Martin Feldman Essex Feldman owns Light-Works, Inc., in Winooski. Sweet Deal…
Obituary: J. William O’Brien,
Winooski J. William O’Brien, 87, a lifelong resident of Winooski, died peacefully at home surrounded by the arms of his children. He follows his wife of 65 years, Phyllis Dorey O’Brien, who predeceased him on September 23, 2006, and his mother, Yvonne Provost O’Brien, who predeceased him on November 5, 1979, in leaving this world…
