Pro Snowman

[Re Feedback: “Tasteless Cover,” January 7]: In light of the letters to the editor complaining about the cover of the year-end edition, I thought I’d share my take on it. It’s framed and hung on my bathroom wall!

I found it apropos and amusing. Kudos to cartoonist Harry Bliss for summing up 2025 and the start of our New Year with such a creative image.

With regard to the “tasteless” cover of the recent Seven Days issue: It’s satire, folks! No, it isn’t of the “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” kind, but it is satire, and in this case, the sugary, feel-good-marketplace exploitation of the Santa symbol has met its match.

I share space with and care for a person who is “non-speaking.” Although her speech may be limited to few words, she is one of the most expressive people I know. And she has a great sense of humor.

The year-end issue of Seven Days was sitting out on the kitchen counter at the end of December. I was in the bathroom when I heard my lady say, “Ouch.”

I found her in the kitchen with a big smile on her face. She was pointing to the cover of the Double Issue: “Ouch.” We both burst out laughing.

Thank you, Harry Bliss, for a wonderful cover. Grotesque? Maybe. Hilarious, absolutely. Spot-on for a year like 2025.

I didn’t see the cartoon cover in question until other readers objected to it. I found it humorous, and it reminded me of the battle with the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and similar silliness. I just showed the cover to one of the nurses who works here at the hospital with me, and she burst out laughing and thought it was funny, too!

Harry Bliss is hilarious, and so was the cover art for the December 24 issue. I literally asked my husband to dig it out of the recycling bin so I could laugh at it further.

I, for one, loved the cover illustration by Harry Bliss on your end-of-year Double Issue. It perfectly captured my own sentiment, and it was funny. I don’t doubt a lot of readers laughed and enjoyed it, but as often happens, folks are more likely to make the extra effort to speak up when they have negative feelings.

I also deeply appreciate the Feedback section. It’s a nice little window into the zeitgeist of Vermonters, one I utilized myself as a health care worker during the early days of the pandemic. I distinctly remember trying to take something time-sensitive out of the oven around dinner time and pausing to answer a phone call that I thought was regarding my first COVID-19 test results, only to have a conversation with Paula Routly herself about my letter. I was surprised, confused and delighted.

I experienced these same emotions reading the Feedback section of the Double Issue, when, agreeing enthusiastically with a particular letter, I came to the end to see it was written by my own father.

Thanks for listening, Seven Days.

Beer Here

Congratulations to Jordan Barry for her thorough and thoughtful piece on our industry [“New Beer Resolutions: With Trouble Brewing Beyond Dry January, Vermont’s Craft Brewers Brace for an Uncertain Future,” January 7]. I don’t recall many articles of such depth that get to the heart of how Vermont brewers and the industry at large are managing this shifting landscape. Vermont brewing is a special community, and it was lovely to see so many industry friends in this. Cheers!

‘IPA Is Not Real Beer’

[Re “New Beer Resolutions: With Trouble Brewing Beyond Dry January, Vermont’s Craft Brewers Brace for an Uncertain Future,” January 7]: I don’t usually write letters to the editor, but when I do, they’re to the point: IPA is not real beer.

My wife and I did our share of homebrewing back in the 1990s. Give me porter, give me amber, or give me death. IPA be damned.

Still Love Burlington

[Re “The Things He Left Behind: Fifty Years After Making Burlington His Home, British Author Tim Brookes Examines What It Means to Leave,” December 24]: I don’t know Tim Brookes, but I agree with what he says makes Burlington so special. Tim arrived in Burlington in 1974. I arrived in 1978. After a long list of what makes Burlington so special, Tim says, “All those things added up, somehow, to a belief that if something didn’t exist you could just make it happen.”

That’s my life in a single sentence. In 1980 I got a call from Howard Dean, upset that public access to the lake would be crowded out by two proposed 18-story luxury condominium towers 30 feet from the lake’s edge, just north of College Street. We proposed a bike path instead.

Ten years later the Burlington Bike Path was complete. Then we got the bike bridge and the Island Line Trail four miles out into the lake. And along the way we took a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court, clearing the way for the conversion of thousands of miles of abandoned railroad beds to trails across the country.

The history of the nationwide rails-to-trails movement is the focus of the new PBS documentary From Rails to Trails. Local Motion and Vermont Public are sponsoring a public showing of the documentary on January 21 at Main Street Landing in Burlington. Check with Local Motion for details.

I’m sorry to lose a bright light like Tim Brookes, but I understand his need to reluctantly leave us. I still think Burlington is a very special place to live.

Prioritize People, Not Cars

Thank you for your coverage of the exciting and ambitious efforts to revitalize “Memorial Block” in the heart of Burlington [“Burlington Councilors Get Glimpse of Memorial Block Redesign,” December 15, online]! Adding housing and reinvigorating our downtown are grand challenges, and I am glad there are equally grand plans in the works to address them.

That said, I was a bit alarmed to read Councilor Gene Bergman’s comments regarding a perceived lack of vehicle parking at the site. Burlington is a delightfully walkable and bikeable community that recently made the choice to eliminate vehicle parking minimums in many parts of the city, precisely to free developers from the burden of being required to provide an arbitrary and excessive number of vehicle parking spaces.

I’d encourage all decision makers involved with this project to remember that the goal here is housing people, not cars — if the project team can save $11 million and thousands of cubic yards of concrete (plus that concrete’s associated carbon impact) by eliminating two floors of the proposed parking garage, I say let them do it!

In Defense of New Prez

The quick-to-judge attitude in Daniel Cohen’s letter to the editor about University of Vermont president Marlene Tromp made me angry [Feedback: “Truth About Tromp,” January 7] for a number of reasons.

First, all UVM presidents get housing as part of the employment agreement. Part of this perk is that the house is part private residence and part entertainment/meeting space for many organizations associated with the university. Past president Dan Fogel did not want to live at Englesby House when he found out that nobody knew how many people had keys to it. Instead, he chose to live in Colchester during his tenure, and UVM paid for it.

Secondly: That Tromp maintains a healthy relationship with her ex-husband — who cares for her disabled child — is quite admirable and not easy. Tromp is also helping her sister, who has cancer. It reads to me like a profoundly loving family.

Tromp does not advertise or hide this situation, so a bit of support would be appreciated. Before he starts lobbing “ride-alongs” and so-called misuse of public funds, Cohen should quit being so small-minded and do his homework.

‘Narrow-Minded’ View

[Re Feedback: “Truth About Tromp,” January 7]: Unlike Daniel Cohen, I find Marlene Tromp’s extended family refreshing, hopeful and healthy. She is excited by Burlington and her challenge as president of the University of Vermont and grateful for the beautiful old campus home that is provided for the president and her family.

It’s cruel and narrow-minded at best to judge who people love and care for. I’m happy to welcome this bright, open-minded leader to Burlington and to her rightful home on campus.

Does Cohen remember the years when the president’s residence sat empty and UVM paid a huge stipend for the president to live elsewhere — Colchester, I think?

Correction

Legendary soundman Sergei Ushakov died on January 8, 2025. The date was wrong in the December 24 article headlined “The Vermont 2025 Music Scene Unwrapped.”

This article appears in The Wellness Issue 2026.

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