Seven Days, December 27, 2023

V ERMO NT ’S INDEP E NDE NT V OICE DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024 VOL.29 NO.12 & 13 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

DOUBLE ISSUE!

The stories behind the stories in 2023 PAGE 16 / Remembering Vermonters who died PAGE 30 The year in food and farming PAGE 46 / What to do on New Year’s Eve PAGE 56 A film critic’s top picks PAGE 58 / The top 10 art shows PAGE 60 / The best of local music PAGE 68

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The last year PAGE 32

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E JANUARY 11-18, 2023 VOL.28 NO.14 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

BY ALISON NOVAK, PAGE 26

HIGHER CALLING

PAGE 18

HIRING FREEZE

SPRING AHEAD

PAGE 36

Vermont’s Zamboni driver shortage

ss wellne issue

BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED

Statehouse power backup removed over fire risk PAGE 15

Vermont’s home sauna trend

PAGE 31

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy PAGE 34

GIVE ME STRENGTH An ode to pole dancing PAGE 36

A battle over police oversight in BTV

MANGE À TROIS Three ways to brunch at Grey Jay in BTV

1. “The Loss of Grace: In Vermont’s Juvenile Lockup, a Girl Endured Violence and Isolation. She Wasn’t the Only One. And It Was No Secret” by Joe Sexton. A veteran reporter documented the abuse of one girl at the former facility, exposing its questionable practices.

MS. BALINT

BY CHELSEA EDGAR, PAGE 26

PAGE 26

Digital-only libraries plan at state colleges draws ire

Queen City votes down police board PAGE 5

New issue of our parenting magazine inside

PAGE 14

2. “Too Many Vermont Kids Struggle to Read. What Went Wrong — and Can Educators Reverse a Yearslong Slide in Literacy?” by Alison Novak. In response to declining test scores, Vermont’s educators are rethinking how they teach reading.

NO TO MORE OVERSIGHT

SPRING AHEAD

CHECKING OUT

PAGE 14

Minding the Stores

Peter Edelmann is transforming an Essex mall into a town center and Vermont “experience”

Love

Marriage

EVERLASTING LOVE

B Y K E N P I C A R D , PA G E 2 6

A Burton Snowboards exhibit spotlights artist Scott Lenhardt’s rad skills

STORY BY DEREK BROWER, PAGE 26

PAGE 34

Tips from a habitual wedding guest

SWEET SPOT

NEW DIRECTION

PAGE 42

Daily Chocolate on the move

EAT YOUR VEGGIES

PAGE 34

Matt Rogers settles in at the Flynn

MOVING PICTURES

PAGE 36

Boosting produce in VT institutions

LIGHT SHOW

PAGE 42

CASH GRAB

TURNING THE CORNER

PAGE 32

Montréal en Lumière shines

Global Roots film fest opens

SLOPE GIN FIZZ

PAGE 36

The end of an era for Chick’s Market

WHAT THE FTX?

PAGE 42

Hotel-distillery combo at Killington

Lawmakers mull IRAs for all

Sweet new digs for Pascolo in BTV PAGE 38

MAD MONEY Bernie’s new book takes on capitalism PAGE 44

MONEY

SHARED PLATES

PAGE 38

NEK students cook for community

ROCKING OUT

PUNCHING HER TICKET

PAGE 54

PAGE 32

VT teen wins second Silver Gloves

Big Heavy World cofounder leaving VT

SWEET SPOT

PAGE 38

April’s Maple taps into success

Vermont restaurants explore tipping alternatives  38 | What it costs to deliver a Waterworks burger  40

From toy cars to action figures to PEZ dispensers to oil lanterns, PA G E 2 6

FIGHT NIGHT

PAGE 34

VT cartoonist laureate Tillie Walden

PAGE 37

UVM hoops star turns pro wrestler

WEED ALL ABOUT IT!

PAGE 42

Cabot couple’s fermented foods

PAGE 14

Four stories on the cannabis scene

TASTY BEATS

FUZZY FEELINGS

PAGE 38

Music and vegan fare at Despacito

PAGE 44

Remembering cartoonist Ed Koren

RAINBOW CONNECTIONS

Inside the Summer Issue: day trips, festivals and flying with the whole fam

Madbush Falls blends biking, beds and booze PAGE 26

PAGE 18

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

Vermont towns embrace Pride in June PAGE 46

TENT CITY

BTV braces for more homeless encampments

STRING THEORIES Seven Vermont luthiers who push the boundaries of instrument making • PAGE 26

Physical Education

Gravel biking in Vermont is gaining traction and building community

BY KEN PICARD, PAGE 30

DEGREES OF DIFFICULTY

PAGE 42

PAGE 30

A VT circus school’s graduation show

CHEERS FOR BEERS

PAGE 38

Good times at Good Measure Pub

IN THE SWING

ON THE MOVES

LIVES UPENDED

PAGE 44

New works from Paula Higa Dance

BUZZ WORTHY

PAGE 18

Minor fire, major consequences

PAINTING THE TOWN

PAGE 44

Mom-daughter duo to open bistro

Secret testimony in impeachment probe

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E JUNE 28-JULY 5, 2023 VOL.28 NO.38 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

VERMONT’S INDEPENDENT VOICE JUNE 21-28, 2023 VOL.28 NO.37 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Then potent new street drugs arrived.

Vermont’s Relapse

BY COLIN FL ANDERS, PAGE 30

PAGE 40

Learning is sweet at Champlain Apiary

DRAMATIC ACT

THE BIG TO-DO

PAGE 50

New play on “Death With Dignity”

PAGE 29

Summer fun in “Verbec”

GLOBAL BUFFET

PAGE 48

A 30-hour feast in Montréal

MYSTERY TOUR

STREET SENSES

PAGE 58

On the trail of Louise Penny

FAIR BNB?

PAGE 66

Montréal’s marvelous murals

FOOD • DRINK • CULTURE • SHOPPING • SERVICES •

WEED WASHOUT

Beetlejuice 2 films in East Corinth

SECOND COURSE

PAGE 14

BTV’s short-term rental crackdown

BY SEVEN DAYS STAFF, PAGE 14

BUY THIS BOOK

PAGE 36

Marsala Salsa reopens in Johnson

V E R M O N T ’ S IN D EP E N D E N T V O IC E JULY 19-26, 2023 VOL.28 NO.41 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

V E R M O N T ’ S IN D EP E N D E N T V O IC E JULY 26-AUGUST 2, 2023 VOL.28 NO.42 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

BRAVE LITTLE FÊTE

GARDEN TO TABLE

PAGE 34

Celebrating the Coolidge centennial

PAGE 36

Restaurateurs tend to their veggies

MAKERS’ FARE

ANIMAL KINGDOM

PAGE 28

A taxidermied island rodent in the NEK

SEVEN DAYSIES WINNERS INSIDE!

PAGE 28

FLOODED WITH CALLS

PAGE 44

CREEMEES & MORE

PAGE 20

Vermont 211 was swamped

SCENE STEALER

PAGE 38

Seven sweet spots for frozen treats

RENTERS’ REVENGE

STRAY CAT STRUT

PAGE 15

Pass Fail?

OR

HONOR ROLL

PAGE 38

COMFORT FOOD

PAGE 32

BHS class of ’53 reunites

From Room 37 to Cell 17

BY CHRIS FARNSWORTH

MOM AND POP

, PAGE

APPLE SOURCES

PAGE 56

STRIKING POSES

PAGE 38

How frost affects pick-your-own

Grace Potter on her new album

PAGE 46

A traveling photo project in Lyndon

FAMILY FUN Fall issue inside!

AFTER MIRO

Mayoral candidates mull runs

BTV takes aim at a notorious property PAGE 18

SCENE CHANGE

Twilight Hour

It’s a season of transition in Vermont performing arts PA GE 26

PAGE 15

It’s decision time on Burlington’s long-simmering proposal to heat buildings with wood-fired steam B Y K E V I N MCCA L L U M, PA G E 2 8

Too many Vermont kids struggle to read. What went wrong — and can educators reverse a yearslong slide in literacy?

B Y A L I S O N N O VA K , PA G E 2 6

19th-century educator Alexander Twilight broke racial barriers, but only long after his death.

It’s complicated.

B Y D EREK B RO UW ER & C O L IN F L AN D ERS PAG E 26

B Y M A RY A N N L I C K T E I G , PA G E 2 8

ATOMIC ACQUITTAL

PAGE 34

Leahy aide helped clear Oppenheimer

HILLEL YEAH

PAGE 40

Shabbat meal kits at UVM

ARRESTING DEVELOPMENT

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

PAGE 58

Parkway reshaping BTV’s South End

David Cross on fatherhood, writers’ strike

PAGE 18

THE NEXT COURSE

GUIDE INSIDE!

PAGE 40

Montpelier restos rebound post-flood

EVERYONE’S A CRITIC How to watch theater like a pro

PAGE 36

SAME OLD SONG

PAGE 38

Is touring harder than ever?

FARM FRESH

ROAD RULES

PAGE 42

SANTIAGO’S SIZZLES

PAGE 35

Reviving a classic mountain rally

New owners at Wood’s Market Garden

POETIC STREAK

PAGE 40

A new Cuban American resto in BTV

WORDS WITH FIENDS

PAGE 46

Ellen Bryant Voigt’s new collection

PAGE 34

Challenging a VT Scrabble champ

HEY BUB HUBBUB

PAGE 38

Turmoil over Citizen Cider beer

Home projects to curb F-35 noise begin near BTV

PAGE 34

FERMENTING INTEREST

SCREEN TIME

PAGE 36

DIY winemaking grows in popularity

SNOW DAZE: Winter Issue of Kids VT inside!

PAGE 14

In Vermont’s juvenile lockup, a girl endured violence and isolation.

She wasn’t the only one.

And it was no secret.

BLIGHT SITES

Burlington Bio bites into lab-grown meat PAGE 28 / Randolph lab offers futuristic manufacturing solutions PAGE 14 Seven local tech startups worth watching PAGE 30 / Bird bikes in BTV PAGE 18 The moral dilemmas of AI PAGE 38 / Champlain College students learn motion-graphic tech PAGE 48

PAGE 42

GIFT GUIDE INSIDE!

BY DEREK BROUWER, COLIN FLANDERS & COURTNEY LAMDIN

RURAL DISQUIET

A SPECIAL REPORT BY JOE SEXTON, PAGE 26

PAGE 14

Small-town murders stir unease

ADVANTAGE PLAY

PAGE 34

The inequities of VT youth soccer

WINTER PREVIEW

BACKGROUND CHECK

HATE CRIME?

Triple shooting shocks BTV PAGE 15

TOUGH SLEDDING

PAGE 40

Saffron farming in Newbury

PAGE 28

VT skeleton racer eyes Olympics

SERVE COLD

PAGE 32

Platform tennis is a winter hit

TRAILSIDE TREAT

PAGE 34

A hot dog stand for snowmobilers

Abenaki fight is a dilemma for conservation groups

Guide to Burlington’s New Year’s Eve inside!

PAGE 15

PAGE 15

Visiting Québec’s holiday markets

Transgender newcomers find safety, services and community in Vermont

From the Center for Cartoon Studies to Watership Down, James Sturm can’t stop creating worlds B Y D A N B O LLE S , PA G E 30

OUT OF HOUSE AND HOME

V E R M O N T ’ S I ND E PE N D E N T V O IC E DECEMBER 20-27, 2023 VOL.29 NO.11 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Novel Approaches

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E DECEMBER 13-20, 2023 VOL.29 NO.10 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Digging a classic Montpelier diner PAGE 40

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E DECEMBER 6-13, 2023 VOL.29 NO.9 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 6, 2023 VOL.29 NO.8 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E NOVEMBER 22-29, 2023 VOL.29 NO.7 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

PAGE 36

BY THE WAYSIDE

Chittenden County landlords are evicting at a record pace.

But it’s the sheriff who comes knocking.

B Y D EREK B RO UW ER, PAG E 26

B Y R A C HEL HEL L M A N, PA GE 26

A complicated Burlington businessman aims to revive Johnson Woolen Mills B Y CO L I N FL A N D E R S , PA G E 3 0

POWER STRUGGLE

PAGE 14

Wind faces blowback in Vermont

PILLOW TALK

PAGE 33

“Dandy” textiles in Hinesburg

DRINK IT IN

PAGE 36

Two ChittCo cideries level up

BEST POLICY

PAGE 33

New book from ex-Bernie adviser

COMMUNITY KITCHEN

PAGE 38

What’s cooking at Access CVU classes?

JOIN THE CHORUS

PAGE 44

Holiday concerts spread cheer

SHOWS ON THE ROAD

PAGE 36

Rural arts centers face unique challenges

SWEET SHAPES

PAGE 40

A cookie cutter empire in Rutland

TURNS OF THE CENTURY Looking back at lost Vermont ski areas

PAGE 46

POSTWAR STORIES

PAGE 28

A new book from Stephen Kiernan

PRIZED POET

PAGE 32

Remembering Louise Glück

SWEET VERSES

PUZZLING PAIR Dad-daughter duo designs crosswords PAGE 33

MEAL APPEAL Breakfast, lunch and dinner in Randolph PAGE 38

From a cabin in Norwich, school principal Ken Cadow wrote a young adult novel set in Vermont that’s winning notice B Y AL ISON N OVAK, PAG E 2 6

LAND SAKES

BTV shooting suspect had troubled past

CHRISTMAS IN CANADA

PAGE 26

SPICE OF LIFE

VER MON T’S IN DEPEN DEN T VOI CE NOVEMBER 15-22, 2023 VOL.29 NO.6 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E NOVEMBER 8-15, 2023 VOL.29 NO.5 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

The Loss of Grace

Burlington’s vacant commercial buildings are eyesores and potential safety hazards.

Some remain in a state of ruin for years.

Previewing films at VTIFF

T king Refuge

LEAF THROUGH IT Fall issue inside!

TRAUMA FLOOR

B Y KE N P I C A RD , PA GE 2 6

A FAMILIAR RINK

PAGE 38

Restoring the chestnut in Vermont

Violence on the rise in emergency rooms

UVM scientists unearth bad news for our climate future beneath the Greenland ice sheet

Roller skaters look for a home

GROWTH INDUSTRY

PAGE 14

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E PE N D E N T V O I C E NOVEMBER 1-8, 2023 VOL.29 NO.4 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

ICE

PAGE 36

On the hunt at Sasquatch Festival

Behind Darn Tough’s lifetime guarantee

GUIDE INSIDE

V E R M O N T ’ S IN D E PE ND E NT V O IC E OCTOBER 25-NOVEMBER 1, 2023 VOL.29 NO.3 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

ON THIN

NOVEMBER 3-12

SAT 10/21

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E PE N D E N T V O I C E OCTOBER 18-25, 2023 VOL.29 NO.2 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

V E R M O N T’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E OCTOBER 11-18, 2023 VOL.29 NO.1 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

GUIDE INSIDE!

CREATURE FEATURE

PAGE 46

Green Mountain Book Festival returns

SWEET SOCKS

SONIC BOON? PAGE 15

THE BECHDEL FEST

PAGE 42

Meet poet-farmer Lucas Farrell

9. “A Young Man’s Path Through the Mental Health Care System Led to Prison — and a Fatal Encounter” by Derek Brouwer and Colin Flanders. Mbyayenge “Robbie” Mafuta of Burlington got limited support when his mental health declined. Now he faces a murder charge.

10. “Vermont’s Emergency Medical Services System Is Struggling to Survive. Can It Be Saved?” by Colin Flanders.

Vermont’s aging population is fueling a dramatic rise in 911 calls, and understaffed ambulance agencies are struggling to keep up.

’s r Urian Hackney Vermont drumme rock world through the wild journey 26

CRACKING DOWN

CRIME SEEN PAGE 14

V E R M O N T ’ S I ND E PE N D E N T V O I C E SEPTEMBER 27-OCTOBER 4, 2023 VOL.28 NO.51 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

V E R M O N T’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E SEPTEMBER 13-20, 2023 VOL.28 NO.49 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

V E R M O N T’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E SEPTEMBER 6-13, 2023 VOL.28 NO.48 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

B Y C HE L S E A E D GA R, PA GE 2 6

RIDE

B Y A N N E WA L L A CE A L L E N , PA G E 2 6

PAGE 34

Sous chef builds free meals program

PAGE 18

Inside Bread and Puppet Theater as founder Peter Schumann, 89, contemplates his final act

Trauma, uncertainty and hope in Barre

Newly branded Vermont State University needs more students — but its enrollment is declining

Meet the man with the camera

Free Montpelier paper reevaluates post-flood

PAGE 15

FLOOD OF EMOTIONS

THRIL L

A Vermont dog treat taste test

CROSSING THAT BRIDGE

Battle for security deposits

PAGE 37

Vermont restos under water

PAGE 15

CANINE CONCLUSIONS

PAGE 32

Meet the feline guardian of the ONE

SUNK COSTS

PAGE 32

Locals rebuild Paris’ Notre-Dame

Environmentalists protest biogas pipeline

ISSUE

Hardwick’s horniest goat

RESURRECTION STORY

PAGE 15

Vermonters prepare to pitch in

PAGE 14

Animal

STUD LIFE

PAGE 58

Future uncertain for Radio Bean

HELP IS HERE

PAGE 38

PAGE 79

Artisan crafts for flood relief

A young man’s path through the mental health care system led to prison — and a fatal encounter

ADD TO CART

New street eats on the Marketplace

FUELING OUTRAGE

Introducing pet memorials

Summer over yet!

Check out our list of 10 things to see and do!

B Y KEVIN M C C AL L UM & D EREK B RO UW ER, PAG E 26

In a devastated mobile home park, shock, sadness and frustration take hold PAGE 24 A hardware store assists Barre’s cleanup PAGE 29 At Dog River Farm in Berlin, a season’s crops are wiped out PAGE 32

PAGE 14

Colchester clears a forest for a rec center

LOVE YOU FUR-EVER

OUTDOORS

The Locals’ Guide to Vermont

PAGE 14

Intense storms push Vermont’s aging structures to the brink

IN SAND PLAIN SIGHT

PAGE 44

Lisman’s lit collection sells for millions

No federal aid for flooded pot farmers

PAGE 42

Circus of life

Historic and Catastrophic

BY RACHEL HELLMAN, PAGE 24

MIND YOUR BEESWAX

PAGE 36

Model trains at Shelburne Museum

Scorecard inside!

8. “Wish I Were Here: The Vermont Summer Bucket List” by Seven Days staff. Despite wildfire smoke and flooding, our writers suggested myriad ways to salvage the summer.

’

Unrelenting rain swamped Vermont’s cities, towns and hamlets.

The recovery is just beginning.

Vermonters break bread, dance and forge communities in “third spaces”

LITTLE ENGINES

PAGE 40

THE AFTERMATH

‘

JOHNSON COMMUNITY OVEN • CAPITAL CITY GRANGE, BERLIN HARRY’S HARDWARE, CABOT • ALBURGH TRANSFER STATION ELMORE STORE • THE WHAMMY BAR, CALAIS • LANDRY PARK, WINOOSKI

SCREEN SCENE

V E R M O N T’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E AUGUST 30-SEPTEMBER 6, 2023 VOL.28 NO.47 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Green Mountain

MEETUPS

V E R M O N T ’S I N D E P EN D E N T V O I CE AUGUST 9-16, 2023 VOL.28 NO.44 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

GET DOWN ON IT

Food trucks don’t stop in BTV

Efforts to address opioid addiction were starting to work.

VERMONT’S INDEPENDENT VOICE SEPTEMBER 20-27, 2023 VOL.28 NO.50 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

PAGE 16

At 99, Bill Blachly looks back on 40 years of Unadilla Theatre PAGE 26

SUMMER ISSUE INSIDE!

V E R M O N T ’S I N D E P EN D E N T V O I CE AUGUST 2-9, 2023 VOL.28 NO.43 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

CHECKING OUT

Motel evictions get messy

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E JUNE 14-21, 2023 VOL.28 NO.36 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

V E R M O N T ’ S IN D E P E N D E N T V O IC E JUNE 7-14, 2023 VOL.28 NO.35 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

SEEING IS BELIEVING B Y C HE L S E A E D GA R, PA GE 2 6

7. “Peter Edelmann Is Transforming an Essex Mall Into a Town Center and Vermont ‘Experience’” by Ken Picard.

Against all odds, a Vermont businessman is remaking a former collection of outlet stores in suburban Chittenden County into a cultural mecca.

Played

STAY COOL

Tips for getting there PAGE 14

PAGE 15

In The Undertow, journalist Jeff Sharlet takes readers into the Trump fever swamps

The Forecast for Vermont Dairy Is for Fewer — and Much Larger — Operations PAGE 26 Lake Advocates Say Vermont Has Botched Regulating Pollution on Dairy Farms PAGE 15 Migrant Farmworkers Fight for Better Working Conditions PAGE 20 Newsman Turned Ag Commish Anson Tebbetts PAGE 14 The Life and Times of Cow No. 74 PAGE 36 | Follow the Milk PAGE 42 Cannabis and Hops Flourish Where Cows Once Grazed PAGE 40 The Last Family Dairy in Shelburne PAGE 38

well

BON VOYAGE

WITNESS PROTECTION

PAGE 58

Burlington Discover Jazz Festival returns

What does dairy’s transformation mean for Vermont? Our full staff reports.

B Y A L I S O N N O VA K , PA G E 2 4

5. “Out of House and Home: Chittenden County Landlords Are Evicting at a Record Pace. But It’s the Sheriff Who Comes Knocking” by Derek Brouwer. Seven Days tagged along with the man whose job is to serve and enforce eviction notices.

He’s way too busy these days.

6. “From a Cabin in Norwich, School Principal Ken Cadow Wrote a Young Adult Novel Set in Vermont That’s Up for a National Book Award” by Alison Novak. Cadow’s novel, Gather, is informed by the insights and empathy that he’s cultivated as a school principal in rural Vermont.

HOW NOW?

Some Vermont students are restrained or secluded in school, with detrimental effects.

Should the practices be eliminated?

Monitoring the health of Vermont’s lakes PAGE 14 | Scientists seek solutions to tick-borne diseases PAGE 15 Chartered yacht cruises on Lake Champlain PAGE 34 | Ride-along with an urban park ranger PAGE 29 Seven offbeat summer music festivals PAGE 32 | On the road with work zone flaggers PAGE 37 Broken Hearts Burger brings a retro-modern vibe to Fairlee PAGE 42 | Summer fun at Vermont’s community theaters PAGE 48

PAGE 50

New book on Rockwell’s Arlington models

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E JULY 12-19, 2023 VOL.28 NO.40 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

FISH FOOD

An aquaponic farm’s challenges

V E R M O N T ’ S IN D EP E N D E N T V O IC E AUGUST 23-30, 2023 VOL.28 NO.46 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

PAGE 38

V E R M O N T ’ S IN D E PE ND E NT V O IC E OCTOBER 4-11, 2023 VOL.28 NO.52 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

ACTING THE PART

Jarvis Green takes a starring role

V E R M O N T ’ S IN D E P E N D E N T V O IC E MAY 31-JUNE 7, 2023 VOL.28 NO.34 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

B Y C O URTN EY L AM D IN , PAG E 24

V E R M O N T ’ S IN D E P E N D E N T V O IC E MAY 24-31, 2023 VOL.28 NO.33 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

CHIEF

For three years, Jon Murad has auditioned to be Burlington’s top cop.

Will he finally get the role?

PAGE 44

VERMONT’S INDEPENDENT VOICE JULY 5-12, 2023 VOL.28 NO.39 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

PAGE 19

Acting

A decade later, author Imogen Binnie takes stock of Nevada

V ER M O N T ’ S I N D E PE N D EN T V O I C E AUGUST 16-23, 2023 VOL.28 NO.45 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

IN FOCUS

Photographer Peter Miller dies at 89

the

V E R M O N T ’ S IN D E P E N D E N T V O IC E MAY 17-24, 2023 VOL.28 NO.32 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

TRUE GRIT

V E R M O N T ’ S IN D E P E N D E N T V O IC E MAY 10-17, 2023 VOL.28 NO.31 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

V E R M O N T ’ S IN D E P E N D E N T V O IC E MAY 3-10, 2023 VOL.28 NO.30 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

V E R M O N T ’ S IN D E P E N D E N T V O IC E APRIL 26-MAY 3, 2023 VOL.28 NO.29 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

PAGE 15

TRANSITIONAL EXPRESSION

3. “Inside Bread and Puppet Theater as Founder Peter Schumann, 89, Contemplates His Final Act” by Chelsea Edgar. To get the inside scoop, our writer spent a month embedded with the countercultural Northeast Kingdombased troupe.

4. “Blight Sites: Burlington’s Vacant Commercial Buildings Are Eyesores and Potential Safety Hazards. Some Remain in a State of Ruin for Years” by Derek Brouwer, Colin Flanders and Courtney Lamdin. A trio of news reporters investigated the stories behind Burlington’s most prominent ruins.

Vermonters love their unusual collections

ILLUSTRIOUS ILLUSTRATOR

FAST RESORT

Bidding farewell to a VFW “canteen”

PAGE 14

PAGE 44

SPRING ISSUE INSIDE!

Electric Avenues

B Y CH ELS EA ED GAR, PAGE 26

PARTING GLASS

FINAL BELL

The truth behind Middlebury principal’s abrupt resignation

HE SHOOTS!

Local actor stars with Woody Harrelson

FULL BLOOM

Podcaster Erica Heilman seeks the meaning of life, one interview at a time

The

Retirees step up for the climate with Third Act  28 | Local athletes cash in on new NCAA rule  30

PAGE 44

B Y K E V I N MCCA L L U M, PA G E 2 8

Conversation Artist

Vermont banks say customers’ deposits are safe  14 | Should personal finance classes be mandatory for students?  15

IN CONCERT

VSO names new conductor

PAGE 38

Newish global eats in ChittCo

ER doc says BTV’s top cop threatened to arrest him

Vermont needs more green power, but locals resist large projects.

Where should our energy come from?

VE RM O N T ’ S I N DE P E N DE N T VO I C E APRIL 12-19, 2023 VOL.28 NO.27 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

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VERMONT’S INDEPENDENT VOICE MARCH 29-APRIL 5, 2023 VOL.28 NO.25 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

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VE RM O N T ’ S I N DE P E N DE N T VO I C E MARCH 15-22, 2023 VOL.28 NO.23 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

THAT’S AMORE SPACE!

& Retirement PAGE 30

FOUR CORNERS

PAGE 34

Youth boxing gym opens in Winooski

PAGE 14

Rutland’s Mac Steel closes after 70 years

SHOOT FOR THE STARS

THE GOOD FIGHT

PAGE 40

but they made this image

LAW & DISORDER

IRONED OUT

ous, costly s ambiti schools Vermont’ pausing address PCBs in 26 consider to NOVAK, PAGE

BY ALISON Lawmakers -a-kind plan and one-of

WELL SEASONED

Bullock-Prado’s new VT cookbook

PAGE 14

PAGE 32

Local photographer captures the galaxy

PAGE 38

Vermonters hit the Québec curling scene

French equity firm owns six Vermont daycares

 18

PAGE 15

BY STEVE GOLDSTEIN, PAGE 24

*

SWEEPING THE NATION

PAGE 14

Crypto scheme tainted election

ENFANTS TERRIBLE

NEST EGGS

Hotels withhold deposits from homeless tenants PAGE 14

No easy fixes for home improvement fraud

The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame recognizes Stowe adventurer Jan Reynolds

B Y CHE L S E A E D G A R , PA G E 2 4

Vermont’s emergency medical services system is struggling to survive. Can it be saved?

B Y CO L I N FL A N D E R S , PA G E 2 8

ON THE LEVEL?

Wom an Wonder

A new exhibit at the BCA Center presents the possibilities — and pitfalls — of AI-generated art

ON LIFE SUPPORT

Andrew Tripp is an all-star union organizer — and a kick-ass cross-country coach, too

BY PAMEL A POLSTON, PAGE 28

SAVE THE DATE

PAGE 28

High school sweetheart stories

THE LONG RUN

VERMO N T ’S I N DEP EN DEN T VO I CE MARCH 8-15, 2023 VOL.28 NO.22 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

PAGE 36

Robots DiD Not Write This Story*

VE RM O N T ’ S I N DE P E N DE N T VO I C E APRIL 19-26, 2023 VOL.28 NO.28 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Tasty treats and tunes at Hi-Fi Paradiso in BTV

VERMO N T ’S I N DEP EN DEN T VO I CE MARCH 1-8, 2023 VOL.28 NO.21 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

PAGE 32

SIZZLING SOUNDS

VERMO N T ’S I N DEP EN DEN T VO I CE FEBRUARY 22-MARCH 1, 2023 VOL.28 NO.20 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

PAGE 15

A snow day at Cochran’s Ski Area

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E FEBRUARY 15-22, 2023 VOL.28 NO.19 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

VERMONT’S INDEPENDENT VOICE FEBRUARY 1-8, 2023 VOL.28 NO.17 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

OUT OF BOUNDS

Black athletes on racism in Vermont school sports

VERMONT’S INDEPENDENT VOICE FEBRUARY 8-15, 2023 VOL.28 NO.18 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

2023 Camp Fair Guide inside!

CHEAP THRILLS

TOPFIFTEEN

Seven Days cover stories that attracted the most online readers in 2023.

PAGE 36

After a chaotic start, Vermont’s first congresswoman finally gets to work

Exploring Montréal’s Nordic spa scene

Illegal border crossings on the rise

PAGE 15

PAGE 34

goes to WASHINGTON

PAGE 42

INTO THE MIST

OVER THE LINE

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

Brian Bittner’s new Shelburne showroom

Wolfpeach apothecary makes tasty medicine

THE YEAR IN COVERS

PAGE 38

Local seed companies are ready to grow

RETHINKING ANTIQUING

TAKE A LAP Writers’

memories of gym class

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E JANUARY 25-FEBRUARY 1, 2023 VOL.28 NO.16 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

André the Giant’s early matches in BTV

VERMONT’S INDEPENDENT VOICE JANUARY 18-25, 2023 VOL.28 NO.15 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

2023

WRESTLING WITH HISTORY

Vermont’s childcare system isn’t working for providers or parents.

They hope help is on the way.

Advocates push for stronger weed in VT

COMPILED BY MATTHEW ROY & KIRSTEN THOMPSON

Gathering Praise

11. “In a Mobile Home Park Devastated by Flood, Shock, Sadness and Frustration Take Hold” by Colin Flanders.

Residents of the small Berlin trailer community salvaged what they could from their flood-ravaged homes.

12. “‘Historic and Catastrophic’: Unrelenting Rain Swamped Vermont’s Cities, Towns and Hamlets. The Recovery Is Just Beginning” by Seven Days staff. Low-lying farms, downtowns and neighborhoods were inundated when rising rivers spilled their banks on July 10 and 11.

13. “Pass or Fail? Newly Branded Vermont State University Needs More Students — but Its Enrollment Is Declining”

by Anne Wallace Allen. Enrollment has dipped on the four campuses that comprise the newly launched state university.

14. “Vermont’s Childcare System Isn’t Working for Providers or Parents. They Hope Help Is on the Way” by Alison Novak.

Programs for young children in the Green Mountain State are expensive and scarce.

15. “Vermont’s Relapse: Efforts to Address Opioid Addiction Were Starting to Work. Then Potent New Street Drugs Arrived” by Colin Flanders. Our health care reporter explains why more people died from fatal opioid overdoses between 2020 and 2022 — 614 — than during the previous six years combined.

(Headlines on the web versions of our stories may be slightly different than what appeared in the print newspaper.)

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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OUT OF ENERGY?

[Re Last 7: “McNeil Steams Ahead,” November 22]: Since my name appeared in the recap about Burlington’s District Energy System and the McNeil Generating Station, I feel compelled to expand on the topic. In the same issue, the “Wind Resistance” story reports the difficulty of obtaining permits in Vermont for wind power. My comments supporting BDES included the fact that Vermont’s wood biomass electricity provides the New England grid with a price-stabilizing power source that mitigates rate shock when gas and oil prices spike. From an energy justice standpoint, this is a critical point.

Wind power does the same, but T.J. Poor, the director of the Department of Public Service’s Regulated Utility Planning Division, is banking on wind power imports from unpermitted and unbuilt projects in the Atlantic Ocean. Wind, solar and wood biomass each deliver 2 to 3 percent of New England’s power sources. We have a long way to go to replace the fracked natural gas, oil and nuclear power that delivers 80 percent of our electricity. Annually, wood biomass emits 100,000 fewer tons of carbon than natural gas.

Ironically, advocates opposing wood biomass and director Poor share in common the rejection of deriving our electricity from Vermont’s working landscape. Both promote the narrative that wood chips and windmills harm Vermont’s forests and ridges. Let’s compare that to the harm that the climate crisis is causing: windstorms, floods, erosion, droughts, invasive plants, insects and diseases killing whole tree stands.

Land and forest management that preserves natural resource jobs while integrating energy self-sufficiency while furthering energy justice is the sweet spot.

Liz Curry

BURLINGTON

WAKE BOATS IN MINNESOTA

[Re “New Proposed Wake Boat Rules Edge Toward a Compromise,” June 20, online]: Regarding the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources’ wake boat petition, I wish to share my Minnesota experiences.

I live on Christmas Lake, a 264-acre lake outside of Minneapolis. Twelve surf boats are permanently on the lake, and others are occasionally put in for the day.

I’ve talked with has declared this option a nonstarter as we are a Dillon’s Rule state.

That means individual municipalities are prevented from changing housing regulation without support from the state legislature.

Elected leaders: While the homes currently owned by investors may be lost to our available housing supply, please do your part to prevent future housing stock from falling into the hands of the wealthiest among us.

James Sherrard Jr.

BURLINGTON

CHRISTMAS LAKE, SHOREWOOD, MN

THE REAL HOUSING PROBLEM

[Re “Housing Crisis Is Slowing Vermont’s Population Growth, Treasurer Says,” November 6, online]: While I agree that adding more housing and updating permitting requirements are needed to tackle Vermont’s housing crisis, I’m continually frustrated that the local and statewide conversations focus solely on

© ANDRII YALANSKYI | DREAMSTIME

Joe Shneider

our limited housing supply and not that of the growing demand for housing from wealthy investors.

According to Burlington’s 2022-23 Tax Book, roughly 21 percent of the city’s single-family, duplex and triplex housing stock is investor-owned.

In a conversation with Ward 4 city councilors, they indicated that, of the 1,000 units Burlington has planned for construction, none of these is intended to be owner-occupied. If true, that confirms my concern that our elected leaders are so focused on a quick increase in housing supply that they are not putting in the frameworks to ensure we increase the percentage of our community’s owner-occupied homes.

For context, the city’s data hub BTVstat lists Burlington’s homeownership rate at 33 percent, compared to a rate of 60 percent in South Burlington.

The solution is simple yet, perhaps, politically untenable. Burlington could choose to disincentivize investor-owned properties through changes in local regulations. Unfortunately, each city leader

Connecting people to happiness.

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A POSTAL PROPOSAL

Wake surfing became a polarizing issue on Christmas Lake, as it has on many small lakes, because you can’t really avoid the safety issues for others who want to use the lake at the same time. I’ve had waves crash over the bow of our pontoon boat and been tossed around when trying to paddleboard; I know that it’s useless to try to water ski when one or more surf boats are operating. Of greatest concern, we had a near-fatal accident when a boat — nose up in the air with a surfer behind — crashed into a two-person kayak.

Some lakes are just too small for this kind of activity, and I am extremely pleased that Vermont is recognizing the need for a minimum surf-zone size in the proposed regulation. That said, I need to express my concern that wake surfing 500 feet from shore, as proposed by the ANR, still leaves one heck of a wave hitting the shore and doing damage. Consequently, I encourage ANR Secretary Julie Moore to give serious consideration to implementing the 1,000-foot distance proposed in the original March 2022 ANR petition.

The boats and their waves are only getting larger and more powerful.

Cannabis Dispensary

Suite B, Morrisville I think the federal General Services 802-851-8735 Administration should set up enough connected prefabricated buildings to Hours: Mon-Sat 11am-7pm Sunday 11am- 4pm create a temporary post office in the parking lot behind the flooded buildCannabis has not been analyzed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For use by individuals 21 years of age and older or ing [“Frustration Grows Over Delays in registered qualifying patient only. KEEP THIS PRODUCT AWAY FROM Replacing Montpelier’s Flood-Damaged CHILDREN AND PETS. DO NOT USE IF PREGNANT OR BREASTFEEDING. Possession or use of cannabis may carry significant legal penalties in some Post Office,” November 29]. jurisdictions and under federal law. It may not be transported outside of It should have a service counter, the state of Vermont. The effects of edible cannabis may be delayed by two hours or more. Cannabis may be habit forming and can impair 800 customer mailboxes and a sorting concentration, coordination, and judgment. Persons 25 years and younger machine, if necessary. This could be may be more likely to experience harm to the developing brain. It is against the law to drive or operate machinery when under the influence of operational in just a few weeks. this product. National Poison Control Center 1-800-222-1222.

The current lot and building should be sold and offered for complete redevelopment for a better use, such as 10/4/23 10:00 AM apartments above retail, restaurants8v-wildlegacy101123-bombastic.indd 1 and coffee shops on the ground floor — certainly not parking lots and mostly vacant federal office space. Tax increment financing and other tax credits should be made available to attract developers to do this.

The temporary post office setup in the parking lot out back could remain in place for a year or more to allow time for the entire property to be developed into much Book your Nepal trek better uses that would continue to help now! revitalize downtown Montpelier.

A new, permanent post office could be The Everest Three High Passes developed as a part of the same redevelop2/23-3/13, 2024 ment project or on another property that would also be downtown.

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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GET DOWN AND COME UP! TRUE TO THE CONSUMER. TRUE TO THE FARMER. TRUE TO THE ART. 132 Church Street, upstairs • 802.540.1420

true802cannabis.com Cannabis has not been analyzed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For use by individuals 21 years of age or older or registered qualifying patient only. KEEP THIS PRODUCT AWAY FROM CHILDREN AND PETS. DO NOT USE IF PREGNANT OR BREASTFEEDING. Possession or use of cannabis may carry significant legal penalties in some jurisdictions and under federal law. It may not be transported outside of the state of Vermont. The effects of edible cannabis may be delayed by two hours or more. Cannabis may be habit forming and can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Persons 25 years and younger may be more likely to experience harm to the developing brain.

It is against the law to drive or operate machinery when under the influence of this product. National Poison Control Center 1-800-222-1222.

8

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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contents DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

VOL.29 NO.12 & 13

COLUMNS

SECTIONS

10 Magnificent 14 12 From the Publisher 64 Soundbites 93 Ask the Reverend

46 Food + Drink 56 Culture 58 On Screen 60 Art 64 Music + Nightlife 70 Calendar 78 Classes 79 Classifieds + Puzzles 89 Fun Stuff 92 Personals

93

FOOD +DRINK 46

Sweet and Sour

Reflecting on a year of extremes in Vermont food and farming

Gustatory Greats

Our favorite bites and sips of 2023

54

STUCK IN VERMONT

Online Thursday

COVER DESIGN REV. DIANE SULLIVAN • IMAGE COLOSSAL SANDERS

16

30

NEWS+POLITICS 16

ARTS+CULTURE 56

Backstories 2023

Lighting the Way

Seven Days writers reveal how they nailed the news

FEATURES 30 Life Stories 2023

New Year’s Eve celebrations to inspire a brighter 2024

Getting Meta

A film critic recaps the year in film and criticism

56 Art Counts

Our top 10 Vermont exhibitions of 2023

The Best Vermont Music of 2023

Our music editor picks the year’s top local albums, singles and videos

Remembering Vermonters who died this year

SUPPORTED BY: Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger looks back on the year with her mother, Sophie Quest, and shares some archival footage from a 2018 interview with photographer Matthew Thorsen. We also catch up with “The Deadbeat Club,” which consists of Eva, her mom and her sister, Seven Days associate editor Margot Harrison.

We have

Find a new job in the classifieds section on page 84 and online at jobs.sevendaysvt.com.

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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11/9/23 2:34 PM

MONDAY 1

MAGNIFICENT

Ode to Joy 2024 starts with a bang — a timpani solo, specifically — at Green Mountain Mahler Festival’s jubilant performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Elley-Long Music Center at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester. One of Ludwig van Beethoven’s most beloved works, the Ninth includes the famous “Ode to Joy” finale. Proceeds support the McClure Miller Respite House.

MUST SEE, MUST DO THIS WEEK

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 72

COMPI L E D BY EM ILY H AM ILTON

SUNDAY 31

The Final Countdown

SATURDAY 30

Cocktails, small plates and a sparkling midnight toast mark the turning of the calendar at A Toast to the Hive, the second annual New Year’s Eve party hosted at Barr Hill in Montpelier. Locally made donuts, live music by Django Soulo and danceable tunes from DJ Satta Sound round out the night.

Thank You for the Music Dressing up in your glitzy, groovy Studio 54 best is highly encouraged at the Gimme Gimme Disco, a party for all of Vermont’s dancing queens at Higher Ground in Burlington. A DJ spins ABBA tracks all night long, as well as other hits from the 1970s and 1980s by Cher, the Bee Gees and Donna Summer.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 72 E TIM MS REA D | © SAIMNADIR

SATURDAY 30

Walk the Line Dance Berlin’s Capital City Grange comes alive with the sounds of Spintuition’s live tunes and gender-neutral calling by Nils Fredland at Montpelier Contra Dance.

With a newcomers’ lesson before the main event, locals of all experience levels can balance, shadow and do-si-do the night away at this festive community affair. Sparkly, snazzy New Year’s attire welcome.

SEE CLUB LISTING ON PAGE 67

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 72

Submit your upcoming events at sevendaysvt.com/ postevent.

SATURDAY 30

M E

Without Feather Ado I ST M EA DR | R STA © IMAGE

Rutland County Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count takes place the day before New Year’s Eve this year — you got that? Local avian enthusiasts preregister with a field crew and venture out to tally their sightings of feathered friends. A potluck follows at Proctor Free Library.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 72

OPENS MONDAY 8

YOUR MOVE Dancers and choreographers flock to the inaugural INSTINCT Experimental Dance Festival at the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center Black Box Theater in Burlington. ANIMAL Dance presents this immersive week of workshops and showcases focused on the creative process and works in progress. Preregister for workshops; pay at the door for performances.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 74

BROWSE THE FULL CALENDAR, ART SHOWS, AND MUSIC+NIGHTLIFE LISTINGS AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM.

10

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

LOOKING FORWARD FRIDAY 5

FRIDAY 5 & SATURDAY 6

Life Is a Cabaret

Chief of Laugh

The Rainbow Bridge Community Center throws a fun, fabulous Love Yourself Winter Ball at Barre Elks Lodge. This cabaret-style showcase starts the New Year off right with drag, burlesque, circus arts and live music.

All proceeds benefit the RBCC and its mission to support the LGBTQ community in central Vermont.

Middlebury native Tina Friml, fresh off her late-night debut on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” returns to the stage where she got her start. Audiences at Burlington’s Vermont Comedy Club get their ribs tickled and their sides split by this hometown hero’s witticisms about living with cerebral palsy and growing up in the Green Mountain State.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 74

SEE CLUB LISTING ON PAGE 69

© SERGEY TINYAKOV | DREAMSTIME

SATURDAY 6

Keeps on Giving Brattleboro’s Epsilon Spires presents an utterly unique Epiphany party with Gift Exchange Bingo. Guests of all ages bring a wrapped present — it can be useful, funny, homemade or just plain nice — that needs a loving new home, then enjoy a rollicking game of bingo to determine who takes home which box.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 74

SATURDAY 6

Livin’ It Up On Top If you loved Michael Chorney’s Tony Awardwinning work on the Broadway musical Hadestown, get ready for his new project Freeway Clyde. Audiences at Lincoln’s Burnham Hall enjoy the electric stylings of this sevenpiece ensemble, which combines folk traditions with genre-bending flairs such as synth sounds, jazz improvisations and rich rhythms.

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SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 74

SUNDAY 7

SATURDAY 30 & SUNDAY 31

Beet the Cold

Tickling the Ivories

Miss shopping for farm-fresh produce at the Rotary? Never fear: The Winooski Winter Farmers Market convenes every other Sunday at the O’Brien Community Center. Locals warm up and delight in the honey, kimchi, desserts, hot sauce, crafts and seasonal veggies offered up by Vermont vendors.

The Woodstock Vermont Film Series at Billings Farm & Museum continues with two New Year’s Eve weekend screenings of the new documentary Pianoforte. This roller coaster of a ride through the classical music world follows young pianists from all over the world as they prepare to compete at the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 74

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 72

ONGOING

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Great and Small

Off the Deep End

Burlington’s S.P.A.C.E. Gallery presents its Annual Small Works Art Show, a group exhibition of over 500 smallerthan-life paintings by more than 100 local artists. All the pieces are less than 12 inches on each side and for sale under $300, making them the perfect belated holiday gifts for the art lovers in your life (or yourself).

The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center presents “Sounds Deep,” a new solo show by local sculptor Art Costa. Costa uses recycled cardboard, papier-mâché and other natural materials to craft surreal deep-sea creatures. They may look alien, but these strange, sightless denizens of the dark are full of texture, color and humor.

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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12/11/23 3:30 PM

The year we just lived through was another tough one for media outlets across the country. A widely cited November 2023 report found that the news sector had shed 2,681 jobs year to date — a number that already exceeds total annual losses from both 2022 and 2021.

The labor contractions extend across all platforms: The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, Condé Nast, and vaunted nonprofit outlets such as NPR and the Texas Tribune have let staffers go. Even our neighbor to the north, which subsidizes local news publishers with tax credits and other incentives, is feeling the pinch. In early December, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announced it would lay off 10 percent of its workforce.

Trust in U.S. media is at a low point, too. According to Gallup, in 2023 newspapers had the confidence of just 18 percent of Americans, down from 51 percent in 1979.

Here in Vermont, it’s a different story. That’s why we live here, right? Maps of the country’s growing news deserts show that Vermont is still mostly verdant — except in the northeastern corner of the state that borders New Hampshire.

Seven Days is doing its part. Even people with complaints about our coverage often express appreciation for the free public service we provide, from our long-form investigations and local news reports to cultural stories and event listings. We’ve received countless love notes from readers this year, some of which are shown here.

Happily, they’re usually wrapped around a check.

In 2018, we started asking readers to help pay for our reporting by becoming Super Readers. Their positive response has encouraged us to swing for the fences — to tackle ambitious projects like our first-ever Dairy Issue on May 31 and, three weeks later, the inaugural Québec Issue. Joe Sexton’s deep dive on the child abuse that shut down the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center took up most of the paper on October 25.

Many of our cover stories in 2023 required months of reporting.

In late summer, we ran Chelsea Edgar’s account of her full-immersion stint with Bread and Puppet Theater; she was the first reporter since 1983 to embed with the iconic troupe and offer a window on its workings. The next week, Derek Brouwer and Colin Flanders

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delivered the complex profile of a defendant in a murder case. Seven Days routinely publishes quality stories you’d expect to find in a national magazine, not a free local newspaper.

Reader support has also helped us build an experienced reporting team that includes veteran consulting editors Ken Ellingwood and Candace Page, along with two full-time food writers — Jordan Barry and Melissa Pasanen — and video journalist Eva Sollberger, who filmed the 700th episode of her “Stuck in Vermont” video series in October.

Rachel Hellman, who covers our state’s rural areas, has been almost entirely financed by donors.

She came to us through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in underserved communities around the country.

If you value our work and can join the thousands of readers helping to sustain it, we welcome your support.

Contributors to Seven Days hear from Gillian English. An avid reader, she came to us in 2019 after graduating from Champlain College, where she helped restart the student newspaper. When the pandemic hit, we had to lay her off.

She wound up at a weekly paper in Mattapoisett, Mass., working as a writer, then as its editor. In January, we lured her back. For the past year, Gillian has been an invaluable part of our

team, supporting our advertising and editorial staff and managing our social media channels.

Gillian is a few years older than newly minted culture staff writer Hannah Feuer, who just graduated with a degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

Other rising talents who helped us get through the year were college student summer interns Katie Futterman and Abigail Sylvor Greenberg. Don’t miss Abigail’s very entertaining “Backstory” in this week’s issue (page 20), in which she confesses lying to her boss — me! — to get the gig. I’m so glad she did.

Seven Days aims to be a place where such promising young journalists can build careers.

Working with them makes me feel hopeful about the future of this profession, which, difficult and humbling as it can be, is reliably meaningful and rewarding — whether we’re documenting local tragedies and challenges or true tales of creativity and resilience.

For now, thanks to our readers, advertisers and supporters, the story of this newspaper remains in the latter category.

See you in 2024. Our first issue hits the streets on January 10.

Paula Routly

If you value the dedication and skill of our staff, support its efforts by becoming a Seven Days Super Reader. To make a contribution, look for the “Give Now” button at the top of sevendaysvt.com.

SEVEN DAYS, C/O SUPER READERS P.O. BOX 1164 BURLINGTON, VT 05402-1164

For more information on making a financial contribution to Seven Days, please contact Gillian English: VOICEMAIL: 802-865-1020, EXT. 115 EMAIL: SUPERREADERS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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FEED back « P.7

FILE: MELISSA PASANAN

The existing building itself is out of date, not of a good architectural design that is compatible with the best character of Montpelier, and not worth renovating or fixing. Too bad the original historic post office was demolished to build the current building.

Montpelier’s post office should not be out of the downtown area, now or in the future. Post offices bring a community together. Montpelier needs that — just not in the post office building that is there now.

Jay White

BURLINGTON

MELISSA GETS IT RIGHT

Brian Perkins

BURLINGTON

14

From left: Amina, Bahja and Qamar Ibrahim

GREAT ‘LOSS’

It took me a while before I could read this story [“The Loss of Grace,” October 25]. First, let me commend lawyer Kerrie Johnson, the only hero in this saga. For everyone else, I say shame on you. There needs to be a rigorous investigation to hold all involved fully accountable — and a hard look into utilizing evidence-based programs for vulnerable children.

V ERMON T’S IND EPE ND EN T V O ICE OCTOBER 25-NOVEMBER 1, 2023 VOL.29 NO.3 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

I want to acknowledge Seven Days food editor Melissa Pasanen and how important her journalism is in my life and to our community. The young women in her Kismayo Kitchen article [“Burlington’s Kismayo Kitchen Reopens After ChefOwner’s Untimely Death,” November 20] have been dear friends from the time they lived across Decatur Street from my house. I have worked with the older members of Ahmed Omar’s extended family — including those related to his brother-in-law, Madey Shegow — learning Somali songs, which I use in my K-2 singing program at Burlington’s Integrated Arts Academy, as well as in other community ensembles.

The Somali and new American communities are completely woven into Old North End life in so many ways, and yet it is incredibly easy for people such as myself to avoid interaction and to ignore our neighbors. To build the connections is hard work. This can be for linguistic and cultural reasons, but in the case of the Shegow family, it is literally because the four Shegow kids would travel in a group, and until this day, I can’t keep their names straight! We smile and talk, and they say my name, and I am left feeling like a fraud!

That is where Melissa’s journalism comes in. Like former Seven Days reporter Kymelya Sari, she does the hard work of getting the names — and spellings! — and then she generously shares her efforts with those of us with bad memories or social anxiety.

I seriously got a big smile when I saw her article, not only because I wish the best for this wonderful family but also because I now have a great, big smiling photo with names that I can post on my refrigerator.

Thanks, and I look forward to future articles.

The Loss of Grace

If you take a child away, you better do it with a plan that is a better option.

Grace loved horses. There are therapeutic programs for vulnerable children with animals and many modalities for assistance in healing. I met many courageous children who were taken away from their families and endured far worse abuse in their new placements. At least in their homes of origin, they were attuned to the family culture and could comport themselves accordingly.

In my first job in the field of psychology, I worked as a psychiatric clinician. Many times, the situations were dangerous, but people responded to my empathy. Love is the most powerful force in the world. Grace received none of this healing balm in her confinement.

To her family, I offer my condolences; there are no words that can heal your great loss. Through this tragedy, I pray we can evolve to do better.

Donna Constantineau NEWPORT CITY

In Vermont’s juvenile lockup, a girl endured violence and isolation.

She wasn’t the only one.

And it was no secret.

A SPECIAL REPORT BY JOE SEXTON, PAGE 26

When children are removed from their homes, they experience sadness, rejection, abandonment, feelings of worthlessness, guilt and confusion. Most families are imperfect. I feel Grace Welch’s family was judged by society because they didn’t fit our preconceived mold of what is normative.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

SALT SOLUTION

Thank you for your excellent article [“Low-Sodium Diet: Road Salt Pollutes Vermont Waterways. So Why Aren’t More Municipalities Curbing Its Use?” November 8] and for your mention of the Lake George Association’s Road Salt Reduction Initiative as “one of the nation’s most aggressive” efforts.

We are proud of our aggressive approach and prouder still to share the rest of our story: Waters can rebound as a

result of road salt reduction. We know this through the work of the Jefferson Project at Lake George, a collaboration of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, IBM Research and the LGA to study, understand and protect Lake George, serving as a model for fresh water everywhere.

The Jefferson Project has discovered areas around Lake George where chloride levels in the water are dropping — most notably at Hague Brook, a primary tributary to the lake where monthly chloride concentrations are 38 percent lower than six years ago.

This impressive result required the belief and persistence of the Town of Hague Highway Department to brine before storms, use live-edge plows, track salt application rates as well as temperature and weather, and regularly review the effectiveness of its work.

This result also required time. It can take decades for the salt put on the road to find its way into our water. While we can’t undo past salting, we can, with patience and persistence, restore the resilience of our lakes, rivers and streams — and keep our roads safe.

Nancy Hawley

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y.

MANY HAPPY RETURNS

[Re “Feet Feat: Darn Tough’s Unusual Lifetime Guarantee on Socks Is Darn Popular,” November 8]: Best socks and return policy on the planet. Thanks for the article.

Carol Ray

WOODBURY

DARN GOOD JOB

I appreciated your story on Darn Tough socks and their lifetime guarantee [“Feet Feat: Darn Tough’s Unusual Lifetime Guarantee on Socks Is Darn Popular,” November 8]. I have many pairs that have lasted for years. My dog story: My puppy at the time grabbed my very first pair of Darn Tough socks off the table before I even got to wear them! She chewed a hole in one of them, but it was near the top and they are still OK to wear.

I want to mention two other Vermont companies that have great policies regarding guarantees of their products: Orvis and the Vermont Country Store. They have quality products and stand behind them. It’s too bad that many people took advantage of the L.L.Bean guarantee by sending back wornout goods that they may have picked up at a roadside flea market, for example.

Thanks for your in-depth reporting on the treatment of our troubled youths, the housing crisis, the blighted areas of Burlington and other important topics — and

FILE: ANNE WALLACE ALLEN

Emily Brown at the Darn Tough returns desk

can be successful, including the “whole word” method. But life spent in a society where writing well and reading well are not valued has more influence on children than anything that takes place in a classroom.

Cynthia Norman

BURLINGTON

BYE-BYE, BEAUPRE

the food columns. Happy to be a Super Reader. (The check is in the mail.)

Alan Quackenbush

DUXBURY

CAN YOU READ THIS?

[Re “Reading Reckoning: Too Many Vermont Kids Struggle to Read. What Went Wrong — and Can Educators Reverse a Yearslong Slide in Literacy?” October 4]: The recent fall in student reading scores is not the fault of teachers. It is not the fault of any particular teaching method.

Literacy in this country has been declining for a good 100 years, caused by social dynamics far beyond the ability of schools to address.

First, radio, television and movies provided nonliterate ways to communicate. Then internet videos and podcasts accelerated the trend.

Students live in a world where so few can read or write well that reading seems beside the point.

Texts and emails are dashed off conversationally.

Product instructions are written so poorly one must turn to internet videos to put an appliance together or set up one’s new software.

Modern novelists write in short, direct sentences. Now even fully literate adults struggle to follow the elaborate sentences of 19th-century novels.

Many different teaching methods

[Re “Burlington High School Principal Who Pulled Fire Alarm Resigns,” November 21, online]: When principal Debra Beaupre resigned from her job, she, by that action, whether forced or not, admitted that she was not qualified for it. To activate a fire alarm because of a lunchtime fight between students is proof enough that she was not right for the job. Burlington school officials should follow her out the door.

Beaupre claimed her action was “to ensure safety and provide emotional space to students amid a heightened atypical situation.” That statement shows that she believes the inmates are running the asylum.

Some questions should be asked and answered. Is there a code of conduct that must be followed and enforced? Are the teachers really qualified? Are the teachers dressed in business attire to set an example and exude an air of authority in the classrooms? Why can fewer than half the students pass the proficiency tests for their grade level? Pouring more tax money into the black hole of education funding has never proven to be the answer to fixing this obviously broken system.

Because parents have left it up to the unionized hustlers, public education has

Debra Beaupre

morphed into state- and government-run child abuse. Students need structure and discipline when in school — not coddling and pampering, which produce dysfunctional adults.

Any alternative to public education is a better choice.

Gordon Spencer

LOWELL

NEWPORT ‘HELD FOR RANSOM’

Interesting article [“Same Old Hole: A Large Vacant Lot Remains in Downtown Newport, Frustrating City Boosters,” December 6]. Question: Why is Michael Goldberg being allowed to hold the City of Newport hostage with his inflated estimate of the valuation of the vacant lot? Does he get a cut of the sale if it ever happens? Seems unfortunate for the city that it first got swindled and then held for ransom.

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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12/11/23 2:46 PM

BACKSTORIES

2023

Seven Days writers reveal how they nailed the news

BY SE VE N DAYS STAFF

O

ne of my favorite keepsakes from a career of chasing news is a 1993 photo that topped the front page of La Opinión, the main Spanishlanguage newspaper in Los Angeles. The photo, taken from a helicopter, shows a hilltop mansion in Malibu about to be swallowed by a wall of wind-blown

16

K E N E L L I N G WO O D

Ken Ellingwood, a Seven Days consulting editor, is a former Los Angeles Times correspondent and the author of First to Fall: Elijah Lovejoy and the Fight for a Free Press in the Age of Slavery.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

“Mrs. Balint Goes to Washington: After a Chaotic Start, Vermont’s First Congresswoman Finally Gets to Work” On January 2, I flew to Washington, D.C., to document a momentous occasion — U.S. Rep. Becca Balint’s (D-Vt.) first week in the House of Representatives as the first woman elected to serve Vermont in Congress. I assumed that it would be an overwhelming experience, that I would get lost in many tunnels and be plagued by the fear that I was failing at my one task, which was to observe Balint doing important, congressional things. It did not occur to me that she might not officially become a congresswoman in that first week. The night before the House session was slated to open, I lay awake on a friend’s air mattress from 11 p.m. until my alarm went off at 6:30 a.m., agonizing over how much would occur on that historic day.

When I arrived at Balint’s office, already strung out on my second enormous coffee from the Longworth cafeteria, people were talking about the speaker

JAN

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of the House vote. Typically a formality, that vote is the first order of business undertaken at the start of a new session; until the House elects its leader, it is inert, functionally nonexistent. Word was that the Republican speaker nominee, U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), lacked enough support within his majority party.

When people talked about the possibility of “more than one vote,” they sounded pained. I should admit here that, at the time, I didn’t quite grasp why. I should also admit here that I had never witnessed a roll call vote.

I watched the first one from the press balcony above the House floor. I wrote in my notebook that I was “strangely moved” by the spectacle of 434 people standing up, one by one, and shouting their choice of leader. It’s hard for me now to recall the precise contours of that feeling, so quickly did it evaporate.

The first vote failed. Then the second vote failed. Then the third vote failed.

Then the 14th vote failed. Even when it

BEST ATTEMPT TO GET BOTH SIDES OF THE STORY

“A Matter of Principal: The Tangled Tale Behind the Abrupt Resignation of Middlebury Union High School’s Top Administrator” It’s not uncommon for school administrators to resign under mysterious circumstances. As an education reporter, I’ve come to accept the fact that no matter how juicy the rumors flying around about the reasons for a resignation, it’s often hard to substantiate them. Even when an Agency of Education investigation uncovers wrongdoing, the findings are often shrouded in secrecy and the educator is allowed to slink off quietly.

So, it was remarkable when Jill Dunn reached out to me with an elaborate story that explained why Justin Campbell, Middlebury Union High School’s former principal, had abruptly left his job several months before. Dunn, a former tennis coach and parent in the district, had been dismissed from her coaching job in fall 2022, an action she chalked up to retaliation

FILE: JON OLENDER

flames. At the bottom, tiny but plainly visible, sits a white Honda Civic — my car.

I was somewhere below in that scene, doing what would become a professional habit: covering disaster.

California has its wildfires, landslides and earthquakes. Elsewhere, it’s hurricanes or tornadoes that deliver calamity.

In Vermont — at least in 2023 — it was a historic flood. And Seven Days was there in force.

Every such catastrophe presents journalists with urgent, clinical questions: How bad is it? Where is the story best told? How can you get there? How to get word out?

There are times when the event carries personal stakes for those trying to cover it. That was the case for several of our reporters during this summer’s floods, when battering rains pushed rivers and streams over their banks, swamping downtowns and mobile home parks and displacing hundreds of residents.

The state’s July floods figure prominently in this year’s Backstories — our first-person accounts of how Seven Days’ stories and images make it onto the page. One writer describes covering damage in the Marshfield area while her own basement and yard remained a sodden mess and, like the rest of the village, without running water.

Another juggled reporting duties with the sadness of watching the Winooski River overrun her beloved community garden in Burlington’s Intervale. For a separate writer, hometown roots came in handy when she traveled to Barre to write about a flooded hardware store that stayed open to help residents mop up. Still another reporter saw grace in the willingness of flood victims to welcome him, even as they were coming to grips with their own homes in ruins.

The stories are personal and revealing, and they underscore what it means when a news organization is determined to cover its community amid the most trying conditions.

But there are plenty of other writerly delights here, too: Stories of immersive puppeteering and ill-advised roller-coaster rides, of a Montréal “cowboy” and a food writer’s race to deliver a story on deadline, with her first child on the way. There’s even one about lying to the boss. It doesn’t end in disaster.

BIGGEST BUST

APR

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Jill Dunn

2023backstories FILE: JAMES BUCK

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U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy confronting GOP members of Congress who voted against him for speaker of the House

became abundantly clear that McCarthy would lose again and again and again, all the votes still had to be tallied; hundreds more people had to sound their yawp into the void. In the press room, the miasma of wilted salad thickened. From the balcony, I kept an eye on Balint to see if she would duck out of the chamber, granting me an

opportunity to ask her how she felt about her new workplace. Nothing about that week went as I had anticipated, except the constant sense of failure. Nine months later, McCarthy’s speakership would go the way of the lettuce.

for speaking out against what she perceived as sexist treatment in the athletic department. In her quest to exonerate herself, Dunn had hired a private investigator, who uncovered information showing that Campbell had likely fabricated student interviews submitted to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Dunn shared a trove of evidence that backed up her story: dozens of emails between herself and administrators and the school district’s lawyer, meetings with Campbell that she’d recorded, and the private eye’s report.

When I presented the findings to the school district, it corroborated many of the key details of Dunn’s account. But I still didn’t have Campbell’s side of the story. Before I could write the article, I needed to give him the opportunity to refute the allegations against him, or at least explain why he had taken the actions that resulted in his resignation.

I left several phone messages but didn’t hear back from Campbell. So, with the encouragement of my editors, I decided to take the next logical step: going to his home outside of Middlebury.

I typed up a short letter explaining who I was and why I wanted to talk to him. I drove south down Route 7, my heart pounding. I tried to calm myself by thinking about the worst thing that might happen: a verbal barrage or a door slammed in my face, perhaps. I could handle that.

When I pulled into Campbell’s driveway, it was clear that someone was home.

Two dogs barked in the yard and a car sat in the driveway, a pair of glasses casually tossed on the dashboard. I approached a door and knocked, timidly at first and then more forcefully.

“Hello, is anyone there?” I called out.

After around 10 minutes, when it became clear that no one was going to greet me, I slipped my letter in the screened-in porch and left.

When we published the story later that month, I knew that I’d at least given Campbell the opportunity to share his perspective. I still wonder what he would have said.

C HE L S E A E D G A R

A L I S O N N O VA K BACKSTORIES

» P.18 SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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Backstories « P.17 FILE: DARIA BISHOP

MOST FORGIVING SOURCE

“Last Call: Lift a 3 Regulars Glass and Sing Farewell to Burlington’s VFW ‘Canteen’” MAY

“Burned: A Fire Their 10 Shuttered Burlington Apartment Building.

Where to Next?”

MAY

VFW Post 782

FILE: COURTNEY LAMDIN

Lenora Travis first called Seven Days because she wanted somebody to write about the VFW. The club had made a deal to sell its headquarters on South Winooski Avenue in Burlington to the Champlain Housing Trust, which would redevelop the property into affordable housing while including a new, smaller space for the club.

Less certain was the future of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 782 barroom, a favorite hangout for some of the club’s members, veterans’ families and Burlington karaoke diehards. Travis invited me to stop by on the bar’s final night. She assured me I’d hear an earful from vets who were angry about how certain club leaders had handled the situation.

At the bar that night, a few people did vent. But I was struck more by the joy of the place, this local watering hole that was also a social hub for people who needed one. After a couple of hours, I put away my notebook and drank beers with some regulars while we listened to others belt out their favorite swan songs.

A day after the story published, Travis gave me another call. She wasn’t happy. I hadn’t been as critical of the bar closure as she’d hoped. I’d also made an error,

Rachel Kelley (left) and Lenora Travis outside Handy’s Service Center

she informed me. I’d written that Travis gave artificial roses to each of her favorite ladies. The roses, she corrected, were real.

Travis had never given anyone an artificial flower in her life, she added.

I had made an assumption — a journalist’s cardinal sin — and by doing so I revealed more about myself than about Travis. I apologized and corrected the story, but I figured Travis would never come to me with another scoop.

Wrong again! The next weekend, she phoned me. Her apartment building on St. Paul Street had been damaged by an electrical fire, and now she and the other tenants were staying at a hotel.

The landlord, Joe Handy, wasn’t paying for her hotel stay, and repairing the building would take months. In the meantime, she and some of the other tenants of modest means were homeless. She thought Handy should foot the bill.

My colleague Courtney Lamdin and I looked into her claim. Travis was right.

The city has an ordinance that requires landlords to cover tenants’ relocation expenses when they’re displaced through no fault of their own. But city officials hadn’t told Handy about his obligations because, it turned out, they had made their own errant assumption. “I presumed he is aware because he’s been in business for so long,” Patti Wehman, manager of the city’s Code Enforcement division, told us.

In the months that followed, Handy still refused to pay, so the city fronted the cost of Travis’ mounting hotel bill. Officials then put a lien on the Handy property in an ongoing effort to recoup the nearly $20,000 in city funds.

The city only intervened because Travis had invited me to her favorite bar — and then was willing to give me a second chance.

DE RE K BRO U W E R

Creating a Community of Readers EMPOWER YOUR 2024

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DISPENSARY Fred Tuttle and John O’Brien in 1996

FUNNIEST FACT-CHECK

Seven Days’ special Dairy Issue was devoted entirely to examining the viability of Vermont’s signature agricultural industry. Here the elephant in the room is the “cow in the barn.” I was the lead editor on the project.

The anchor story, by Kirk Kardashian, provided a historical overview as well as essential info about how the business works. It needed some color, so I inserted a quick anecdote about Fred Tuttle, the folksy dairy farmer who had starred in John O’Brien’s 1996 film Man With a Plan, then actually ran for the U.S. Congress in real life as a publicity stunt to promote the movie:

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Dairy has even produced folk heroes such as Fred Tuttle, the Tunbridge farmer who entered the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 1998, challenging Jack McMullen, a wealthy businessman from Massachusetts.

In an unforgettable exchange during a debate, Tuttle queried his opponent, “How many teats does a Holstein have, and how many does a Jersey have?”

McMullen guessed six, which is two too many. Tuttle beat him to win the GOP nomination by 10 points, and then endorsed incumbent Democrat Patrick Leahy, who easily won reelection.

My dilemma: To verify the quote, reported by many journalists before me, I listened to the debate. And to my ear, it

didn’t sound like Tuttle said “teats.” His word seemed to rhyme with “bits.” Still, his thick accent made me hesitant to conclude he had used a vulgar term for breasts during the debate, which aired on Vermont Public Radio.

I listened again and again. Tuttle pronounced the word with a twang, a hint of a long “e” sound, that made me hesitate.

I’d have loved to ask Tuttle, but he died in 2003.

I had several conversations, including with journalists who covered the race, all inconclusive. Publisher Paula Routly suggested consulting O’Brien, now a Democratic state rep from Tunbridge.

When he didn’t call back, I decided to stick with written precedent, and I filed the “teats” quote.

I was home, an hour or so after Seven Days’ weekly deadline, when my cellphone rang. It was O’Brien. His timing was terrible, but I nonetheless popped the question: Did Tuttle say “teats” or “tits”?

O’Brien was unequivocal. Tuttle said the latter, he informed me.

I hung up and hastily called a couple of folks on our design team who were, fortunately, still available on a Tuesday night. They tweaked the quote before the issue was shipped to our printers in Québec that night.

I braced myself for blowback from readers. As it turned out, though, we never heard a peep.

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Backstories « P.19

BIGGEST LIE

“Now You See It: a New Film, Vanish, 14 In Local Photographer Jim Westphalen Traces a Fading American Countryside” JUN

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“Floodwaters Spared Waitsfield. What Explains the Town’s ‘Miracle’?”

“Forgive Them Their On Their 19 Trespasses: Third Album, Ascendant Burlington Folk-Punk Band Tall Travis Embrace Change” JUL

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“Wish I Were Here: The Vermont Summer Bucket List”

It’s bad to lie in a job interview.

It’s especially bad to lie during a job interview when the lie is that you meet the basic requirements of the job and, in fact, you do not.

But in my defense, I really wanted to intern at Seven Days.

I was thrilled when publisher Paula Routly answered my cold email in March and suggested a Zoom interview later that week. At the end of our chat, she offered me a job.

Then, just before I hung up, she interjected: “You can drive, right?”

“Uh, of course.”

But I could not drive — at all.

In New York City, where I grew up, learning to operate a car simply hadn’t been necessary. Suddenly, though, I had no choice but to get my license, fast.

As soon as Yale University’s spring semester ended, I threw myself into driver’s ed, learning months’ worth of material in a matter of days. This was made possible by

Tall Travis at the Dog House in South Burlington

Eventually, my luck ran out. It was mid-July, and I was in a place far scarier than a flooded country road: the downtown City Market, Onion River Co-op parking lot. Locals know that it’s a driver’s hellscape. Backing out of my spot, I hit a parked car and left a nice, juicy dent in its backside.

The situation worsened when I exited my car to leave a note on my victim’s windshield and saw the members of Tall Travis — the band I was profiling for the paper that week — walking across the lot. I remembered someone at the paper cautioning me that reporting in Burlington meant Street-legal Abigail you’d have to face your subjects at the grocery store. Not if you hide, I thought, ducking behind the car I’d just hit. (It my superhero driving instructor, Big Mike (his chosen was a personal low.)

I left Vermont with incredible memories, mostly of creename). I owe him everything. mees and James Kochalka. The few coworkers I confided in I passed the road test on May 25. I moved to Vermont vowed secrecy. On rare occasions, I see the contact “Isabelle five days later. Living in Burlington doesn’t require much driving, but reporting for Seven Days took me beyond Fender Bender” in my phone and shudder, but mostly I’ve the city. In a car I’d borrowed from my cousin for the tried not to think about my perilous time as a closeted new summer, I white-knuckled it to Jim Westphalen’s Shel- driver.

Then, this month, I got an email from Paula: “You didn’t burne art studio and Clearwater Sports’ Waitsfield HQ. actually know how to drive a car even though you said you I even managed a treacherous drive to Waterbury, did!

And you had an accident?” hard-hit by flooding. The soggy terrain was a new chalI couldn’t lie my way out of that one. Consider this piece lenge. I received warnings: “Don’t drive through water, even if it seems still.” “Use a paper map. Don’t trust your as my penance, an offering of the things Seven Days editors phone.” It had only been a month since I learned three- love most: a good story, and the truth. point turns. Who knows how I made it home in one piece.

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SADDEST UPDATE

“Vermont’s Relapse: Efforts to Address Opioid Addiction Were Starting to Work.

Then Potent New Street Drugs Arrived.”

I felt myself rooting for Kelly almost immediately.

I was writing about Vermont’s drug crisis, and Kelly had agreed to be interviewed as long as we withheld her last name, since her family wasn’t aware of the extent of her recent drug use.

She described how, during a stretch of sobriety some years ago, she had built a

She used again, the first time in months, and woke up hours later to find a needle still in her arm.

She was ashamed and angry at herself, she said, and planned to avoid using again. “I want my dignity back,” she said through tears. We exchanged numbers and vowed to keep in touch.

The story ran a couple of weeks later and garnered a lot of thoughtful feedback, including from readers who expressed heartache over Kelly’s WITNESS experience. I wondered PROTECTION what she thought about it, but calls to her cellphone went unanswered. I found myself walking through City Efforts to address Hall Park whenever I opioid addiction was downtown so that were starting to work.

I could scan the crowd Then potent new street drugs arrived. for her face.

One afternoon in August, while rushing to an interview, I thought I saw her huddled in a corner of City Hall Park under a large blanket near a couple of police officers. I returned to the park about an hour later to see if I could find her, but the woman was gone.

DRAMATIC ACT MIND YOUR BEESWAX LITTLE ENGINES I later learned it couldn’t have been her because, several days Amanda Bean on the cover of the June 14 issue after the story ran, Kelly life of which she was proud, with a house, died, succumbing to an infection linked a marriage and a job as a recovery coach. to drug use.

“I’ve tasted it,” she said of a life without Looking back on our interview, I drugs. “I had confidence. I loved who I was struck by her comments about why was. I held my head up high.” she agreed to speak with me. At a time But addiction took it all away. After when the negative effects of drug use another relapse last summer, Kelly, 38, were being felt more in the community, ended up homeless, shooting up in Burl- she hoped that her story might help ington’s City Hall Park and racking up a remind readers that drug users are slew of retail theft charges that landed people, too. her in prison. She had been released the Addiction has no boundaries, she told day before our interview. me. “It doesn’t care how well educated you About halfway through the hour-long are,” she said. “It doesn’t care how good of a conversation, I sensed she was weigh- family you come from. It doesn’t care what ing whether to reveal something to me. you do for work, what color you are or how She grew quiet, then said she had met nice you are. That doesn’t matter. up with her boyfriend the previous day, “At the end of the day, we all die the even though she knew it would not be a same.” good idea: He was camping outside and COLIN FLANDERS actively using. She thought she could resist the temptation, but she was wrong.

BACKSTORIES » P.22

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Secret testimony in impeachment probe

VERMONT’S INDEPENDENT VOICE JUNE 14-21, 2023 VOL.28 NO.36 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

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Vermont’s Relapse

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Backstories « P.21 FILE PHOTOS: DARIA BISHOP

MOST CRUCIAL ‘COWBOY’ “Montréal on the Menu: Thirty Years and 30 Hours of Eating Through a Global City”

When Seven Days decided to produce a Québec Issue this year, I was looking forward to heading north to eat a day’s worth of meals in Montréal with maybe a brief sidebar list of past favorites. Somehow, one day turned into three after friends of publisher Paula Routly suggested I chat with Marie Comtois, a native Montréaler, who they said knew the city and its restaurant scene intimately.

I figured Marie would help me uncover some off-the-beaten-path destinations to add to my agenda, but soon she was offering not only to help map out the itinerary but also insisting on taking vacation days to be our guide and driver.

“I always have time for food!” Marie wrote in our initial email exchange.

We drafted an ambitious plan based on Marie’s assurance that she could get us around efficiently. All I had to do was get myself and my sidekick, photographer Daria Bishop, into the city.

Things were going fine as we sailed past the iconic Farine Five Roses factory only to get snarled in a tangle of navigational challenges as we approached our hotel just off the Place des Arts. Construction made it look as if the hotel street were temporarily

one way. After several frustrating tours around the neighborhood, we realized it was, in fact, a two-way street. I practically threw my car keys at the valet and happily relinquished all remaining city driving.

As soon as Marie pulled up in her gray Mitsubishi Outlander, we could tell we were in capable hands. She sported aviator glasses and a don’t-mess-with-me attitude, and the parking gods almost always seemed to be on her side. If not, she would strike up a conversation and ask a construction worker or guy smoking on the corner to watch the car while we popped in for a bite.

“I’m a little bit of a cowboy,” Marie confided shortly before she purposely drove the wrong way down a one-way street to evade one of the countless Day-Glo orange “Rue barrée” street closure signs.

Much as she loves her city, Marie frequently lamented the state of Montréal’s streets. She pointed out “potholes so big you could barbecue in them.” In reference to the infestation of traffic cones, she declared darkly, “Cones are the enemy.”

But nothing could stop her as we dashed between croissants, dumplings and cannoli.

She was thrilled to help us share with Vermonters many of her favorite spots — and even learn about a few from us.

We never could have taxied or Ubered our way through as much ground — 16-plus destinations in more than 30 waking hours — as we did with Marie’s help.

Sometimes, I wished she were a little less efficient to allow me more time to digest between stops.

JUN

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Avocado toast with gravlax and Béné Olé at L’Entre-Pots

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feeling rather proud of my ability to plan.

On June 20, I headed into the hospital at 7 a.m. for a scheduled induction.

That afternoon, with Pitocin coursing through my body, I read the online version of my story. The next day, still waiting for labor to progress and with no more episodes of “Ted Lasso” to watch, I read the print edition while bouncing on an exercise ball. I was made aware of the length of my hospital stay when one of my midwives came in that evening, holding the paper open to the food section.

“I know you’ve been here since yesterday,” she said, looking rather confused.

“When did you write this?”

Fifty-one hours later, my baby was finally in my arms. Some things aren’t as easy to plan for as story deadlines.

OF

I was eight months pregnant when stories were assigned for Seven Days’ first Québec issue — and in the hospital, in labor, a month later when that issue hit newsstands on June 21. My son, Oliver, was born on June 22.

The culture team had been brainstorming north-of-the-border ideas for months in our editorial meetings, and a strong emphasis on Montréal’s food scene had emerged. During a May meeting when stories were finalized, an editor asked: Did I want to write about the origins of the city’s big-holed, wood-fired bagels? Boy, did I.

JUN

But glancing back and forth between my calendar and my evergrowing belly, I declined. The potential for a surprise delivery in Canada — free health care and dual citizenship for the baby notwithstanding — seemed too risky.

Instead, I agreed to write a short homage to a favorite little Montréal Jordan Barry wine bar, where I’d had an incredible and Oliver meal the previous fall. As it happened, that little spot, Mon Lapin, had just been named one of the best restaurants in Canada.

Instead of traveling internationally, I dug out menus I’d kept and scrolled through the photos of each dish saved on my phone, of” list. Being exceedingly pregnant, the doing my best to conjure the restaurant’s whole thing made me very hungry. essence from afar. I called up Vermont-based I filed the story on June 9 and finished chefs, winemakers and café owners — all edits by June 11. The design team had my Mon Lapin superfans — to ask what makes photos, the web headline was written, and it special enough to top that prestigious “best I was ready to sign off for maternity leave,

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“Canada’s Best: Vermont Food and Wine Pros Hop to Mon Lapin”

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MOST CAREFUL PLANNING

JO RDAN BARRY

FILE: KEVIN MCCALLUM

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“Heavy Rain, Flooding Hit Vermont — and Rivers Are Rising” When I left my home in Waterbury Center to report on Vermont’s fast-rising floodwaters, I fully expected to return to my family that evening. The Winooski River wasn’t supposed to crest until late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. I thought I could document flooding in the Capital City without getting swept up in it.

But like many Vermonters, I had no idea what I was in for. After interviewing dozens of Montpelier residents as their downtown was becoming a massive, muddy bathtub, it was time to pull the plug.

I slogged back to my car near the high school, heaved my soggy camera bag in back and headed toward home. As I approached the northbound Interstate 89 on-ramp, however, traffic slowed, then stopped dead. I waited. I checked my phone for updates.

Then a guy walking along the line of cars reported that a rockslide had closed the highway. Several truckers had pulled their big rigs to the side of the road, apparently settling in for a long night.

A firefighter confirmed my fears — the highway northbound was closed and not expected to reopen anytime soon.

I knew that the local road to Waterbury, Route 2, was underwater in several places, leaving me few options.

It was getting dark. I was hungry. The downtown was underwater. But the prospect of curling up for the night, soaking wet and hungry, in my car motivated me to keep trying to find a way home.

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Following East Hill Road out of town to Middlesex Center seemed the most direct route, but the Winooski had other ideas, blocking my path at flooded State Street. I also tried to escape north on Elm Street, but the raging North Branch had overtaken it.

My next plan was to head for higher ground. I drove over the Main Street bridge, plowed through several inches of water covering Barre Street and turned uphill toward the College of Fine Arts.

This detour allowed me to get out of town and head north on County Road.

I made it to Maple Corner, but the road west was washed out, forcing me to turn around and head back toward town.

Luckily, the state’s cell network held up better than its transportation system. I texted friends in North Montpelier who, despite the late hour, immediately offered a warm meal and room for the night. I gratefully accepted both.

Early the next morning I made my way back downtown, the utter devastation of which was coming into focus.

I got to work photographing swiftwater rescue teams from New York who had plucked people from flooded buildings. I followed residents in kayaks as they checked up on neighbors. I talked to business owners grieving the loss of their livelihoods.

I was stuck, all right, precisely where I needed to be.

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KEVIN MCCALLUM BACKSTORIES

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well

Played

Backstories « P.23

At 99, Bill Blachly looks back on 40 years of Unadilla Theatre

PAGE 26

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“Did Your Garden Flood?

Here’s What to Know”

When the flood hit Vermont this summer, I found myself living a double life. During the day I was a breaking-news reporter, driving across the state to interview Vermonters affected by the downpours; my coworkers and I worked long hours to bring a last-minute cover story to fruition.

After work, though, I was dealing with my own flood-related trouble.

The Intervale in Burlington — home to my beloved collective garden — was underwater.

My misfortune was admittedly small potatoes compared to the wrenching tragedies I was witnessing while reporting: flooded homes, destroyed cars, decimated downtowns. But losing Seedsong — the

name of the garden I’m a part of — was personally devastating.

When I first arrived in Burlington to work at Seven Days, in June 2022, I didn’t have many friends. I found Seedsong while perusing volunteer opportunities through City Market, Onion River Co-op’s member-worker program. After just one garden shift, I decided to officially join.

Unlike community gardens — where individuals have their own box plots — Seedsong members share one large garden.

Members of Seedsong work weekly shifts, have monthly potlucks and share the harvest, no matter how big or small.

It made me feel at home in Vermont. I spent hours after work each week in the

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Congressional Delegation, FEMA Officials Tour Flood-Ravaged Barre A Flooded Hardware Store Helps Barre’s Cleanup

In July 2007, I was on summer break from college when a torrential rain hit my hometown of Barre. The north end of the city, where my grandparents had owned a convenience store for decades, was underwater.

I linked up with Erik Wells, my journalism school classmate and childhood friend, to document the flood from Beckley Street, just down the hill from my mom’s house. We trained the lens of our video camera on the deluge, in awe of the water’s destruction.

Sixteen years later almost to the day, this summer’s devastating flood brought me back to that very same spot, where my personal and professional lives collided in ways I’d never experienced.

It started at the service center off Interstate 89 in Berlin. There I was, in my hastily-purchased rubber boots and water-wicking pants — and there, too, was my sister’s high school boyfriend, getting something en route to the airport. I said a quick hello, then made my way downtown. I was writing about how a flooded 24

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

2023 VOL.28 NO.40

Historic and Catastrophic’

‘

BY SEVEN DAYS STAFF,

PAGE 14

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Vermonters prepare to

pitch in

Locals rebuild Paris’ Notre-D

ame

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Vermont restos under water

FILE: COURTNEY LAMDIN

STORY THAT HIT CLOSEST TO HOME

impending storm, a garden friend and I worried about sufficient watering.

When we learned that the Winooski River would most likely breach, we rushed to harvest what veggies we could alongside other farmers and gardeners at the Intervale. I Unrelenting rain swamped Vermont’s cities, towns and haml drove straight from Johnson, ets.

The recovery is just begin ning. where I had spent the day interviewing sources affected HELP IS HERE RESURRECTION STORY SUNK COSTS by the flooding, to sort through vegetables.

The next day, the water Intervale, harvesting carrots and squashcame, decimating our crops. ing cucumber beetles alongside my new As we mourned the lost harvest, we friends. In the winter, we spent evenings wondered: Could we eat a squash that planning the next season’s garden. We never touched contaminated water? What had big ambitions: rows of garlic, spin- about a tomato that grew after the flood? ach and a new variety of potatoes. In the How long until we could replant? In fact, spring, we planted fragile starts in cold could we ever replant in this same spot? soil.

I pitched a story about post-flood The weekend before the flood, we gardening to our food team and got to had gathered to celebrate the garden’s work. Some of what I learned determined July abundance. Green tomatoes blushed Seedsong’s next steps. We waited more pink. Peonies had popped. Oblivious to the than a month before returning to our plot DENT VOICE JULY 12-19,

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“‘Historic and Catastrophic’: Unrelenting Rain Swamped Vermont’s Cities, Towns and Hamlets. The Recovery Is Just Beginning.”

VERMONT ’S INDEPEN

JUL

SEVENDAY SVT.COM

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An Intervale garden path after the flood

and decided to forego harvesting for the rest of the season. We planted cover crops to restore the nutritional health of the soil and tested our garden for heavy metal contamination.

I’m not glad that Seedsong flooded, but my front-row seat to the flood helped me better understand its toll.

store, Nelson Ace Hardware, kept its doors open to help the flooded town.

I was a natural fit for the story.

Besides being from Barre, I already knew Bob Nelson, the owner. When I was a kid, my dad would sometimes sit in with Nelson’s classic rock band, Native Tongue, at Barre’s summertime heritage festival. It was hard to reconcile my memories of Nelson crooning on stage with the man who was now in front of me, sleep-deprived and stressed out, helping customers find hoses and pipe fittings in a store with no power.

Later that day, I was dispatched to Beckley Street, where state and federal officials were scheduled to tour the damage and speak to residents. It’s also where my grandmother owns an apartment house, and my family had questions about flood relief. My mom said she’d join me at the press conference.

This will be a first, I thought.

My mom got there before I did.

“Reporters everywhere,” she texted me.

“It looks like everyone is parking near Second Street.”

Low-lying Second Street, a Beckley cross street, was covered in thick, foulsmelling mud. Renters — including a

former classmate’s mom, I later learned — were pumping out their basements.

Perhaps sensing my discomfort, my mom hung back as I joined fellow reporters on the sidewalk. She didn’t end up sticking around: She needed supplies for her own flooded basement and went to get them at Nelson’s.

As I waited for the government motorcade, I looked up to see my best friend’s dad and waved hello. He lives on Beckley, too, albeit above the flood’s waterline. I don’t remember our exact conversation. He probably said something like, “Isn’t this crazy?” And I probably agreed. Because it was.

Five months later, Barre flooded again, but not as badly. Though Nelson’s store basement took on water, his inventory was spared: His employees, anticipating a deluge, moved everything to higher ground. My mom’s basement stayed dry, thanks to a hardworking sump pump. And my grandmother’s apartment house? She sold it — one less thing to worry about the next time Barre floods. Because it will. And I’ll be around to cover it.

R A C HE L HE L L M A N

COURTNEY LAMDIN BACKSTORIES

» P.26

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Backstories « P.25 “In a Mobile Home Park Devastated by Flood, Shock, Sadness and Frustration Take Hold”

I thought I was alone at the Berlin Mobile Home Park when a person called out from behind me. “You can come in and take photos, if you’d like!”

Addie Wheeler yelled, leaning against the door to her sodden porch.

Thus began one of the more challenging yet fulfilling reporting stretches of my career.

I had driven to the mobile home park on July 12 after consulting a map and noting that its proximity to a nearby waterway may have put it in the crosshairs of the historic floods two days earlier. Unfortunately, I was right: All but one of the 30 homes had been severely damaged by floodwater.

Residents were told to avoid the park

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until the owner cleared mud from the road. But Wheeler had come back anyway, desperate to collect whatever belongings she could salvage, including her 10-yearold son’s baseball jersey; he had a game that night.

I spent the next three days at the park, forming a routine of sorts. I’d walk up and down the mud-covered, quarter-mile road and introduce myself to anyone I saw. Each time I expected to be told to kick rocks; these people had just lost their homes and most of their belongings.

Instead, everyone agreed to speak with me and many brought me inside. A few even let me tag along as they surveyed the damage themselves for the first time.

Just as surprising was the near-universal insistence that their situation somehow could have been worse. Those with flood insurance expressed concern about neighbors without it. Those with family to stay with fretted over their elderly neighbors stuck in the emergency shelters. Here they were, in one of their darkest moments, thinking of others.

I have always marveled at the willingness of people to allow journalists

FILE: COLIN FLANDERS

MOST GRACIOUS SOURCES

A resident taking a moment at a flooded home

into their lives — especially in moments of crisis. As my boots slipped on their muddy floors, I thought of the condo I had recently bought and how devastated I would feel had this happened to me.

Would I have welcomed a stranger inside to witness my misfortune? I feared not.

“Water Flows Again in Marshfield, and a State Official Apologizes” I was visiting my kids in Vancouver, B.C., when the Winooski River overflowed on July 10, inundating parts of Marshfield village and sending rivers of runoff down hillsides into homes on higher ground — including mine.

A flurry of texting followed. Farflung friends checked in with me, and I peppered my neighbors with questions while they pumped the water out of their basements and mine.

Floodwaters had washed out a steep road, breaking pipes and cutting off access to the village’s well. I tried to picture how residents were meeting basic needs such as showers, dishes and flushing the toilet.

Where were they getting water?

“Puddles,” one neighbor replied. That was for flushing toilets. Water for bucket baths and cooking came from large tanks that a local contractor set up next to the village store.

As I biked around Vancouver in the days after the flood, I tried to stay in the moment. I don’t get many chances to spend time away from work with my two kids. But

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I anxiously ruminated about the stuff in my basement: books, papers and kids’ artwork stored in plastic tubs and on pallets.

And as a reporter, I regretted missing the big story unfolding in my own community. Montpelier’s damage was the focus of the news, and nobody was paying much attention to what was happening in our hard-hit little town.

I got home five days after the flood to find a mess in my house and yard, some dead appliances and ruined belongings, and a community mobilized to help. I quickly figured out how to live without running water. Chatting at the spigots of the donated tanks yielded a torrent of information about our recovering community.

Everyone was asking the same question: Why wasn’t the state helping? The co-owner of our village store said she’d seen U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s motorcade zip past on the way to a press conference with Gov. Phil Scott showcasing flood damage in Hardwick.

They knew we were here. The National Guard was delivering drinking water. But our volunteer emergency management

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

C O LI N FL AN DE RS

FILE: ANNE WALLACE ALLEN

WORST-TIMED VACATION

The residents of Berlin Mobile Home Park did, and, because of it, we were able to document one of the more urgent stories to come out of the floods in a compelling and intimate way. For that, I’ll always be grateful.

Justin Campbell

director, Justin Campbell, couldn’t get the state to provide portable showers or other help. We felt invisible.

I asked Scott at a press conference how many towns had no running water nine days after the flood. None, he answered. When I explained that many in Marshfield were still lugging buckets into their homes, the flustered state public safety commissioner, Jennifer Morrison, said she wasn’t aware of this because Marshfield hadn’t properly notified the authorities.

A flap ensued. Marshfielders heatedly defended Campbell, who was putting in

18-hour days responding to the flood.

Campbell and Morrison exchanged tense and then conciliatory messages.

By the next day, another flood was under way, this one of mops, disinfectant, toiletries and other supplies. FEMA workers and volunteers knocked on doors in Marshfield to offer help. It felt good to have the town’s experience acknowledged.

I even heard from a woman who got my number from the state’s 211 system and called to ask if I wanted to pray with her.

The disaster was many of the things one hears: exhausting, expensive and upsetting. Fine, silty dust infiltrated our homes, working its way into kitchen appliances and between the pages of books. The dog barked nonstop at the road repair outside as I worked in my home office.

I have a new empathy for the people I interview when they’re in the throes of a chaotic life event. When something like this happens, you really want to be seen and heard.

AN N E WALL AC E ALLE N

2023backstories

BADDEST BACK STORY

“Thrill Ride: Vermont Drummer Urian Hackney’s Wild Journey Through the Rock World” “Well, yeah, you definitely don’t have any business being on anything that jostles you around and hangs you upside down,” she said, now using her “Oh, I’m talking to a moron” voice. “You, um, you weren’t thinking of doing that, were you?”

“What? Me? No, that would be dumb.

Bye!” I lied as I zipped up my jacket and started for the door.

FLOOD OF Two weeks later I EMOTIONS was in Queensbury, N.Y., staring up at the wooden roller coaster known as the Comet at Six Flags Great Escape. I’d just bribed the attendant $20 to let the subject of my story, punk-rock drummer Urian Hackney, ride Hackney’s mer Urian um the coaster by himself. rld dr t wo on ck e ro Verm through th wild journey The two of us drove there on a Tuesday, along with photographer Luke Awtry, with a single goal: to get a photo of Hackney at the very top of the towering coaster, arms up, for the cover of Seven Days. The stomachchurning amusement FUN FAMILY POSES STRIKING SOURCES APPLE perfectly illustrates his wild ride in the music business. And, like I told the doc, he loves roller coasters.

As Hackney started to walk toward the Comet, he turned to look at me and smiled.

“You’re riding the next one with me, right?” he said.

The voices of my doctor, editors, partner — even former surgeon general C. Everett Koop — all popped into my head.

“Don’t be stupid, Chris. Just ride the tea cups with him or something.”

Urian Hackney Twenty minutes later, Hackney and I were screaming together in joy as we plummeted through the air, conseleave my fancy new doctor’s office, I let quences be damned. As we staggered out slip: “Hey, so I’m working on this story, of the cart, Hackney pointed to another and I’m going to take this dude to Great coaster at the park.

Escape. He’s sort of obsessed with roller “We gotta do that one next.” coasters.”

My back felt fine, but I knew I’d “Oh, how fun!” she replied. “Don’t eat already tempted fate that day. too much junk food; the stuff at amuse“Next time, man,” I said. Plus, I didn’t ment parks always messes me up when feel like bribing anyone else.

I go. And obviously stay off those rides.”

C HR I S FA R N S WO R T H “Hmm? Come again?” I said, my heart sinking.

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Backstories « P.27

DEEPEST IMMERSION

Bread and Puppet Theater seems, from the outside, as if it shouldn’t exist. Founded by Peter and Elka Schumann, the troupe has been performing outdoor spectacles on its Glover property since the early 1970s. On summer weekends, thousands come to watch surreal papiermâché tableaux brought to life by volunteers, many of whom live on the land — in trailers, old school buses, motorboats and other structures not usually meant for human habitation. During the performances, the puppeteers wear all white, like members of a utopian religious sect.

Since I attended my first show a few years ago, I’ve been curious about the little society of performers that flourishes each summer at

FILE: JOSH KUCKENS

“Circus of Life: Inside Bread and Puppet Theater as Founder Peter Schumann, 89, Contemplates His Final Act” AUG

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the theater’s 200-acre farm. I love immersive reporting assignments, and I figured that the only way to understand Bread and Puppet — a quasi-commune, led by a visionary artist and sustained by mostly unpaid labor — was to spend a lot of time there.

So, for the month of July, I joined the circus. I would spend up to a week at a time in Glover, staying with a friend in East Calais or in a cozy shed attached to the Museum of Everyday Life just a couple miles from the theater, which Clare Dolan, the museum’s founder and one of Bread and Puppet’s most dedicated puppeteers, graciously allowed me to use.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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Early on, one of the puppeteers said to me, “Time moves so weirdly here.” Within a few days, I understood what he meant.

Bread and Puppet exists in a completely analog universe. There is no cell service; the Wi-Fi network is kept secret; someone rings a bell in the barn three times a day to signal the morning meeting, lunch and dinner. After doing chores, we rehearsed.

There was a disorienting sameness to each day, and yet each day we were also figuring out anew how to keep the Bread and Puppet apparatus running. I felt like I was living in someone else’s dream, which, in fact, we were. Bread and Puppet is Peter

Schumann’s reverie, populated by his vast hordes of papier-mâché beings. We were there to become art.

By my third week — the second had been cut short by the floods — there were warning signs that I was forgetting the ways of non-circus existence. After being outside from early in the morning until late at night, sitting on the ground or on tree stumps, I would return home and feel oppressed by my furniture. What was I doing with all this stuff? What higher purpose did these comforts serve?

Life at Bread and Puppet was intensely, sometimes miserably physical; every task integrated the body and the mind in the service of art. Sitting in front of a computer screen and writing all day, my usual mode of creative existence, now seemed deeply fucking boring.

When I finally left Glover for good, I felt a sadness unlike anything I’ve experienced at the end of reporting a story. (By that point, I had come back around on the virtues of some modern conveniences, namely indoor plumbing.) I wrote 7,000 words about it, but the intensity of life at Bread and Puppet, in the midst of so much beauty, is a rare and inexpressible thing.

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“From Room 37 to Cell 17: A Young Man’s Path Through the Mental Health Care System Led to Prison — and a Fatal Encounter” I thought the hardest part of profiling a man charged with murder would be convincing him to talk. Defendants in such cases rarely take the stand, let alone speak publicly before trial.

But Mbyayenge “Robbie” Mafuta, a young man who is accused of murdering his prison cellmate a year ago, was eager to tell me and my colleague Colin Flanders about his life in Burlington, where he developed a serious mental illness before his incarceration.

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Instead, it was the agencies charged with helping Mafuta who clammed up.

Their initial responses were familiar and practiced. The nonprofits have policies, pegged to state and federal patient privacy protections, not to comment on clients — or even confirm that someone was one.

Mafuta, though, counseled by his public defenders, told us that he was willing to waive those protections. His lawyers provided us with stacks of Mafuta’s medical records from the University of Vermont Medical Center, Howard Center and the Brattleboro Retreat that they had obtained to help prepare a likely insanity defense.

Flanders and I approached those agencies and others that had provided services to Mafuta, including the group home where he lived as a teenager and the homeless shelters where he sought respite but was also repeatedly kicked out of.

We told the organizations that Mafuta was willing to sign any necessary waivers to allow employees to discuss his case or provide his records to us. We asked for the appropriate forms.

Their answers surprised us. They weren’t going to say or provide anything, even with Mafuta’s permission. Mafuta couldn’t even get his own records.

Champlain Inn shelter coordinator Heather Bush wrote that there were “multiple reasons” why guests at the homeless shelter could not obtain their own records. She didn’t explain those reasons but alluded in other emails to a need to maintain trust with guests and “the integrity of the agency.”

The Committee on Temporary Shelter, another Burlington homeless shelter where Mafuta stayed, told us it does allow residents to “review” some of their records under supervision of a COTS employee. But COTS does not extend that privilege to guests who were “exited for violent behavior,” spokesperson Rebekah Mott said.

And Paul Detzer of Howard Center, the state-designated mental health provider for Chittenden County, told us that a “release is irrelevant in this case as the person is in jail and there is an active investigation happening.”

Here was a young man who’d needed help — psychiatric care and a safe place to stay — but whose complex needs weren’t effectively met. So Mafuta ended up, predictably, in prison, where he killed his cellmate.

Yet our ability to probe the system’s shortcomings was limited, paradoxically, by policies that are supposed to protect the people it serves.

The problem isn’t limited to Vermont.

A couple of months after our story ran, the New York Times published an extensive investigation into the circumstances behind nearly 100 instances of violence in New York City committed by homeless residents with mental illness.

That city’s social safety net, the Times found, had repeatedly “failed in glaring and preventable ways.

“Yet rather than be held accountable,” the Times asserted, “city and state agencies have repeated the same errors again and again, insulated from scrutiny by state laws that protect patient privacy but hide failings from public view.”

The Times had run into the same wall of secrecy that we’d encountered: “The agencies declined to discuss the failures even when provided with signed privacy waivers.”

Their reporters were left wondering the same thing we were: Who are these policies really protecting?

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Life Stories Remembering Vermonters who died in 2023 B Y SEVEN DAY S STAFF

‘With Her Life and With Her Business, She Just Walked the Walk’ JANET CARSCADDEN, January 24, 1972-March 22, 2023 B Y C A R O LY N S H A P I R O

J I

n Vermont, six degrees of separation is really more like one or two. Aside from the occasional annoyances of living in such a small, close-knit community — say, running into exes at the co-op — that unique interconnectedness is part of why so many of us choose to be here. We get to know our neighbors and share in their triumphs and tragedies. Vermont is a place where one person can make a difference with their life — and leave a profound void when they die.

Seven Days has been highlighting some of those Vermonters since 2014 with a year-end package called “Life Stories.” In it, we profile a handful of locals who died that year and made impacts, large and small, on those around them. Other than looking for a range of ages, ethnicities and backgrounds, we don’t have any set criteria for whom we choose — though we do generally opt to tell the stories of people whose lives, or deaths, might not have made headlines.

Speaking about the lives of the recently deceased is an emotional yet rewarding endeavor, for survivors and reporters alike. And it often provides reminders of what — and who — make our little corner of the world so special.

This year’s collection features two Burlington women, Janet Carscadden and Mary Manghis, who died a few months apart. Carscadden founded Evolution Physical Therapy & Yoga; Manghis was the produce manager at City Market, Onion River Co-op — though as you’ll see in the following pages, both were much more than their job titles.

In learning about the lives of Carscadden and Manghis, our reporters also learned that the two women, and their respective partners, Patrick

30

Johnson and Glenn Eames, were close friends — because Burlington. Eames even suggested Johnson as a primary source for Melissa Pasanen’s profile of Manghis.

Throughout Carscadden’s and Manghis’ illnesses, the couples leaned on each other for support, often visiting when one or both women were in the hospital.

When they died — Carscadden in March, Manghis in May — their partners grew even closer in their shared losses.

“It is both an odd and interesting experience,” Johnson told Pasanen.

“And I don’t shirk its uniqueness and the benefit of it.” But, he added, “The irony sucks.”

For the first couple of months, Johnson said, he and Eames spent a lot of time together, “processing and healing.”

Johnson said Eames’ support gave his grief depth. “It’s one thing to go through your own stuff, but then to listen to how someone else processes the same thing allows you to both grieve and have empathy for someone else,” he said. It was, he said, “an elevated sense of grieving.”

“He was there like a rock when I was filled with self-doubt and guilt about whether I was doing or had done the right things for Mary’s care,” Eames said of Johnson in an email. “He, like no one else could, understood what Mary and I were going through. He was and is, in the truest definition, a friend. He was a blessing.”

Certainly, the two men have been a blessing for each other, much as their partners were in life — not only for them, but for so many others in Burlington and beyond.

Read on for their stories and those of other Vermonters who died this year.

Deepest gratitude to their families and friends for sharing them with us.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

DAN BOLLES

anet Carscadden knew how to throw a party. For years during the annual South End Art Hop in Burlington, she hosted a Friday night shindig at Evolution Physical Therapy & Yoga, on Kilburn Street, bringing in music and a big spread of food that drew crowds. In the Old North End, she oversaw the popular community dinners for the Wards 2 and 3 Neighborhood Planning Assemblies, marshaling teams of inexperienced volunteers to serve close to 150 people on some occasions.

Her motivation for organizing the elaborate, multicourse monthly meals “wasn’t because she needed to hold court,” said Patrick Johnson, Janet’s partner for about 14 years. “It was because people appreciated it. She wasn’t boastful or prideful about it.”

A native Canadian with characteristic composure, Janet founded Evolution to pair the mindful practice of yoga and meditation with physical therapy, her lifelong career. Friends and family say her kitchen proficiency could just as easily have led her to success as a professional chef.

When she wasn’t helming her business, Janet cooked for anyone who showed up at the Burlington home where she lived with Patrick. Those two vocations dominated her life until she died in March at age 51 from, as her friends and family put it in her obituary, “a stupid fucking brain tumor.”

Operating a private practice was personally satisfying to Janet but not particularly lucrative, Patrick said. Physical therapy was Evolution’s primary source of income, because medical insurance generally covered clients’ costs. That revenue stream subsidized the yoga classes, workshops, instructor trainings and other activities.

“Janet didn’t care about the money,” said Michelle Downing, a former Evolution physical therapist who met Janet soon after the practice opened and worked there for more than seven years. “She just cared

about keeping the doors open so we could keep doing the work.”

Janet’s “holistic-minded approach” to treating both body and mind, blending Western and Eastern modes of medicine, set the tone for Evolution’s operation, Downing said.

According to Patrick, Janet paid herself the same or less than her fellow physical therapists. She encouraged continuing education among staffers and gave employees control over their schedules, insisting that none work a full 40-hour week.

At its peak, Evolution employed about 50 people.

Janet threw staff parties and often brought in Janet at pastries — Miss Weinerz Evolution vegan doughnuts were a Physical favorite.

Therapy & Evolution became Yoga a community gathering space as much as a health care provider. Clients took off their boots at the front door.

Comfy couches and a fully stocked tea bar in the lobby encouraged them to stay and sip.

For the annual Old North End Ramble, a neighborhood celebration in July, Janet kicked off the day’s events with a yoga class in Battery Park. She’d instruct attendees to grab a partner for supportive poses and, at the end of the session, would bring everyone into a circle to clasp arms, like a group hug.

She also launched Yoga on the Dock, summer outdoor yoga sessions on a long pier behind the Community Sailing Center in Burlington, facing Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks.

The opening of Evolution in 2006 marked an evolution of sorts for Janet herself. A voracious meat eater, she turned vegan after attending a monthlong yoga teacher workshop in Bali. Not wanting to contribute to carbon emissions, she rode her bike or skied to work all year.

“With her life and with her business, she just walked the walk,” Downing said. “She had principles, and then she enacted them.”

Even under the stress of keeping the business afloat, Janet never lost her cool.

She refused to fight with Patrick during any disagreement, he said. She chalked it up to the differences between her home country and his: “America fought for its independence, and Canada just waited,” he recalled her saying.

Over the years, Janet embraced social activism, particularly in response to income inequality and other societal injustices. She got involved in community organizations and rolled up her sleeves. She worked on political campaigns for Progressive city council candidates Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and Perri Freeman.

She never would just sit on the sidelines and complain, friends and family said.

“She was always kind of spunky. She was a doer,” said Judy Carscadden, Janet’s older sister. “She had a very clear sense of right and wrong, right from an early age. She would stick up for what she believed … She always just felt like if there’s something that isn’t right, then she’d just figure out a way to fix it and do it.”

Janet was born and raised in Toronto, the second of three daughters whose parents encouraged self-reliance and independent thinking in their children, said the youngest, Jean-Ann Carscadden. All the girls played sports, and Janet was on field hockey and volleyball teams.

In a large motor home, the Carscaddens traveled with their daughters to most of the United States and much of Canada. More recently, the family spent summers together at a cottage north of Toronto.

“She would come to Canada with these jars of kombucha and pickled things,” JeanAnn said.

Janet graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in physical therapy — the same field as her mother.

With few jobs available in Canada, she was recruited to work for a practice in Panama City, Fla., then moved for a job in Mystic, Conn.

That’s where she first met Patrick, who grew up in Mystic, when he was back home visiting mutual friends. In 2002, they reconnected again after Janet had moved to Vermont with her then-boyfriend. She took physical therapy jobs at Copley Hospital in Morrisville and then at University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington.

There, she eventually rose to a managerial position but grew frustrated by the “lack of forward-thinking,” according to Patrick, when she began to suggest incorporating yoga and other methods to support physical therapy. The hierarchy of a traditional health care institution stymied her, he said.

So she left to start Evolution with partner Susan Cline Lucey, a specialist in pregnancy and postpartum yoga and a trained doula and childbirth educator.

Janet “dumped all of her savings, every

IF THERE’S SOMETHING THAT ISN’T RIGHT,

THEN SHE’D JUST FIGURE OUT A WAY TO FIX IT AND DO IT.

J UD Y C AR S C AD D E N

Janet doing yoga by Lake Champlain

Janet (left) at a community dinner

bit, cashed her 401k,” Patrick said. “When she decided to do something, she did not shirk.”

After Janet broke up with her boyfriend, she and Patrick dated briefly, but it was a while before the relationship took hold. He eventually won her over.

In 2009, Janet moved into Patrick’s Green Street house, where he lived with a longtime roommate, Mark Richards, a man with Down syndrome. Not only was Janet unbothered about sharing her space, Patrick said, but she and Mark grew close, going on outings to food trucks and events around Burlington.

Earlier this year, Mark moved back in

with his family in Bellows Falls. On a recent phone call, he described Janet as a “good party person” and a “fun person to hang out with.”

They watched “The Great British Baking Show” together, and he convinced Janet to make some of the elaborate desserts, including Baked Alaska.

In her cramped kitchen, Janet flung spices and stirred up sauces, rarely using cookbooks or recipes. For one dinner party, she shipped in fish from the West Coast for guests to make sushi rolls, recalled Alissa Monte, a longtime friend who worked at Evolution as business manager.

“Just an incredible hostess,” she said of

Janet, adding that her “generous spirit” was evident in her approach to her business and staff.

Many in the Old North End might say the same. For the Ward 2 and 3 community dinners, Janet insisted on preparing ambitious all-vegan menus, Johnson said.

“Her ability to organize 10, 15 volunteers and very complicated meals, from Ethiopian to hand-making pasta, dumplings” was remarkable, said Patrick, who tried to steer her to simpler meals. “She would not listen to me, and it would always be phenomenal.”

Janet never stood still. In 2014, she went back to school to earn her doctorate in physical therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions in Boston.

After much prodding by Patrick, she agreed to become a U.S. citizen in 2015. “I wanted her to vote,” he said.

In September 2021, while riding her bike home from Art Hop, Janet felt that something was wrong and pulled over. A friend saw her and brought her home. An immediate trip to the UVM Medical Center emergency department revealed that she had glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive type of brain tumor.

She was “pissed off” about the diagnosis, Monte said. But in classic Janet fashion, she refused to give in. She and Patrick traveled to Boston every three weeks for an experimental treatment.

Soon after the initial surgery on her tumor, she went to Yoga on the Dock, modifying her poses to address her faltering balance. “She loved sitting by the lake,” her sister Judy said. “When she was sick, we would often walk down and sit on the bench looking at the lake.”

During her yoga training in Bali, Janet had kept a journal. In it, she wrote, “We don’t heal in isolation but in community,” Judy recalled.

Janet never returned to Evolution following her diagnosis. After failing to find a buyer for the practice, Patrick and the staff shut it down in January 2022.

The always chatty Janet lost her ability to speak but continued to communicate through some favorite songs, Patrick said, including “So Lonely” by the Police and Ani DiFranco’s “Untouchable Face,” also known as the “Fuck You” song.

She never lost her appetite. In her final days, Janet enjoyed chocolate ice cream with Downing and a food run to City Market with Monte.

What she really wanted was more time.

As Patrick put it, “I think she was just getting going in a lot of aspects of life.”

LIFE STORIES

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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Life Stories «P.31

‘She Was Somebody Everyone Looked Up To’

Joan Robinson

JOAN ROBINSON, May 24, 1950-June 16, 2023

BY J ORDAN ADAMS

A

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“I knew from the first weekend I spent with her that that was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with,” Suzi said.

“It was just one of those amazing things.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SUZI WIZOWATY

s a young child, Jesse Clements frequently traveled from Boston to Vermont to spend time with her aunt, Joan. Their favorite shared activity was drawing. They would lose themselves in the process, surrounded by craft supplies and pencils strewn across the basement floor.

As Jesse presented her creations, Joan lavished praise.

“She was just the most encouraging [person],” Jesse, now a grade school teacher in Berkeley, Calif., recalled during a recent phone call with Seven Days.

Jesse noted that Joan always gave her full attention. She also pointed out that Joan and her wife, Suzi Wizowaty, kept a shelf of children’s books in their collection, despite not having kids of their own.

“It wasn’t until I was 17 or 18 that I was like, Oh, most adults [without kids] don’t have a shelf of children’s books in their house just ready for you,” Jesse said.

Joan dedicated her life to helping children access their creative side. Born in Summit, N.J., and raised in Houston, Texas, she became a classroom teacher, a librarian, a traveling storyteller and a performing arts educator who revolutionized the way Vermont students — and teachers — approached learning.

“She was somebody everyone looked up to,” said longtime friend and colleague Robin Fawcett, who has taught performing arts at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg since the mid-’90s. “She was really a leader in so many ways.”

Suzi was also a local leader, serving as a Democrat in the Vermont House of Representatives for the Chittenden-6-5 district from 2009 to 2015. During that time, she worked on the House Judiciary Committee to help pass Vermont’s “Death With Dignity” law, Act 39, which allows terminally ill patients to hasten death with assistance from medical professionals. It was because of that legislation that Joan was able to choose to end her own life on June 16, at age 73, after living for years with Parkinson’s disease.

When Joan and Suzi first met in the 1970s, they were instantly drawn to each other.

Greeting cards by Joan

After living together for several years in New Jersey, where Joan taught second grade, the couple moved to Burlington in 1985. They liked the progressive vibe — at the time, the Queen City was under the mayorship of Bernie Sanders. Though queer couples did not have the rights and protections in 1985 that they do today, they always felt safe and comfortable in Burlington.

Joan’s first job in the area was as librarian at the Ilsley Public Library in Middlebury.

Through that role, she met fellow Addison County librarian Abi Sessions, who served at several local schools.

Their first project together was bringing so-called “poetry breaks” to local classrooms. They would show up, perform a short work and then “just dissolve into laughter in the hallway,” Sessions said.

Poetry breaks evolved into a full-fledged storytelling partnership. Though many storytellers made the rounds at the time, there weren’t any duos that Sessions could recall. They wanted to tell classic, traditional stories, but also tales that “put forth

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

a vision of people or situations that we felt strongly about,” Sessions continued. Their Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty program highlighted strong female characters.

They worked with minimal props and costumes — though, at Halloween time, Sessions would roll a giant wheelbarrow into the room that concealed Joan, who would pop out and spook the audience.

Joan and Sessions never decidedly disbanded their duo, though career changes made it more difficult to keep it going. In the mid-’90s, Joan took a big job leading the Flynn’s education department. Former

executive director Andrea Rogers recalled that, other than a handful of summer camps and student matinées, the Burlington performing arts center didn’t offer much in the way of education before Joan’s arrival.

“The seeds were there, but they needed Joan’s watering,” Rogers said.

Over the past several decades, Joan and many other teaching artists worked together to create a robust slate of performing arts classes, which reached a pinnacle just before the pandemic. The Flynn’s educational programming today reaches tens of thousands of kids and adults each year.

One of Joan’s most noteworthy and longest-running student programs, which she would bring to area schools, was called Words Come Alive! In each session, kids would hear stories, then creatively reimagine them through dramatic and theatrical exercises.

“She was a weaver,” Fawcett said. “She would have an idea and a clear plan for the class. But if the kids had ideas of what to

make or how to do things, she would always say yes and make it happen — and still be in charge of the classroom.”

She also created History Comes Alive!, a program held at Shelburne Museum and other locations with preserved historical features, and Science Comes Alive! Rogers noted that Joan’s teaching materials remain in the Flynn’s archive.

While things were flourishing at the Flynn, an elementary school in Burlington’s Old North End was floundering. Joan served on a task force that changed the fate of the H.O. Wheeler School, turning it into a magnet school focused on the arts.

The Integrated Arts Academy was born in 2008.

Joan had been teaching graduate courses for teachers at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester that focused on including the arts in general pedagogy. Teachers who made the transition from Wheeler to IAA learned how to nurture the arts and inject them into traditional educational curricula.

“We had a school full of people who were really committed to arts integration and infusing the arts throughout the school day,” former IAA principal Bobby Riley said.

Though not every child is destined for a life on the stage or in the studio, Joan

believed that the arts held the power to fondly on teaming up for short perforunlock the potential inside all learners. mances with Joan at biweekly assemblies.

“It’s a way to reach more students …

“I think the students really enjoyed Part of what you’re doing is being able to seeing us in that role — acting silly, being teach a full classroom of learners and valu- vulnerable — because we asked that of the ing different forms of intelligence,” Lida students so often,” Riley said.

Winfield, chair of the Joan started to dance department at pull back from her Middlebury College, role at IAA after her explained. Winfield Parkinson’s diagnoworked closely with sis. She and Suzi had Joan through the downsized from their Flynn and Words Burlington home to Come Alive! the Wake Robin retireT h o u g h Jo a n ment community in began as essentially Shelburne, where Joan continued to be an outside consultant to IAA, she eventually a leader and organizer. became the school’s Well known to full-time drama coach some but possibly when she left the Flynn hidden to others, in 2013 after 18 years. one of Joan’s talents S UZI W IZO WATY At the school, Joan and was cartooning and Sessions’ poetry breaks illustrating. At Joan’s took on a new life. Kids would spend days funeral, Suzi displayed several posters preparing a presentation, which would featuring birthday and holiday cards that become an indoor road show unexpectedly Joan had made for her. popping in to classrooms.

Bursting with life and whimsy, Joan’s Riley, who had a theater background creations could likely have been a secondbefore becoming an educator, looks back ary, or even primary, source of income. But

I KNEW FROM THE FIRST WEEKEND I SPENT WITH HER THAT

THAT WAS THE PERSON I WANTED TO SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE WITH.

she “hated business-type stuff,” Suzi said, and never pursued it — though, before her partner’s death, Suzi turned some of Joan’s work into packages of cards, which can be purchased at the Wake Robin gift shop.

Throughout their 40-plus years together, the couple led a “kind of ordinary, simple, domestic, happy life,” Suzi said. They enjoyed spending time together, hiking with their dogs, Saturday night grocery shopping, working in their garden and reading at night in front of the woodstove.

More than being a master teacher and a quietly gifted artist, Joan was known for her warmth, curiosity and compassion.

“She was a really positive, upbeat, generous person with a really big heart,” Suzi said.

“A lot of people, you tell them stuff and they just don’t remember,” Sessions said. “[Joan] always remembered … She was just amazing that way.”

On a personal note, this journalist can attest to that. Joan never forgot who I was — though I only took one class from her, when I was 11 years old, in 1994. At least I think that’s when it was. I can’t quite remember.

But Joan would have.

LIFE STORIES

» P.34

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Life Stories «P.33

Bruce McKenzie with family

‘He Just Never Stopped Drumming’ BRUCE MCKENZIE, October 16, 1952-October 14, 2023 B Y CH RI S FAR NSW ORTH • farnsworth@sevendaysvt.com

T

o those who knew him longest, Bruce McKenzie had always been a drummer. The youngest of 11 kids, Bruce was born six months after his father, Harold, drowned in Burlington Bay; he was raised by his mother, Lennie, and his eldest siblings, sister Thelma and brother Joe. It was Thelma who first noticed her baby brother’s inherent sense of rhythm: He would keep time with a knife and fork on any surface he could find.

“Thelma signed Bruce up for drum lessons with Boyd Cheeseman, who ran the local music shop, Boyd’s,” Bruce’s ex-wife, musician Mary McGinniss, recalled. “And it’s really one of the most remarkable things about Bruce: He just never stopped drumming, right up until he couldn’t anymore.”

Bruce joined his first band, the Heartbeats, when he was a 15-year-old student at Rice Memorial High School. A trio called Coyote followed. But when he and some other local players founded the Burlington band the N-Zones in the mid-1970s, something clicked. The seminal group became the best pure rhythm and blues, down-anddirty bar band in the area, holding court at iconic city venues such as Hunt’s (now the Vermont Comedy Club) and Nectar’s, where the N-Zones gave a group of scruffy college kids called Phish their first proper gig.

Despite that early success, Bruce’s lifelong relationship with music and percussion

34

Bruce with sons Owen and Willy Dee

never stopped evolving. A growing fascination with Afro-Brazilian rhythms and a chance opportunity at the 1995 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival led him to cofound the samba street band Sambatucada. More than just a band, the group has spent the decades since teaching the power of percussion. It had instructed more than 1,000 students in the art of samba drumming when Bruce died from cancer on October 14, two days shy of his 71st birthday.

His focus as a teacher wasn’t limited to

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

music. Bruce worked as a caseworker for adults with disabilities and spent time as a youth counselor at the King Street Center.

Having never known his own father, Bruce “didn’t really grow up in a traditional American patriarchal-model family,” his oldest son, Owen, said. His upbringing by his sister Thelma, a vivacious and bold woman, and his brother Joe, a quiet, shy gay man, “just made him such a warm, empathetic person.”

Bruce and McGinniss met in grade school

and married in 1978. They raised sons Owen and Willy Dee together. Their marriage ended in 1993, but they remained friends and became proud grandparents to Shannon Manchester and Noah and Colin McKenzie.

“Part of Bruce’s spirit was that he could see people as they truly were, no matter who it was,” McGinniss said. “He just had a way of really seeing you with that big heart of his.”

Bruce connected with people not just by playing music but sharing it. A raconteur with a voracious taste in genres, he could often be found handing out mixtapes and burned CDs to friends, bandmates, clients and anyone else he thought needed some new music in their lives.

“Bruce and I go back all the way to me watching him play in the N-Zones,” said longtime friend Erhard Mahnke, a former Burlington City Council president and founding member of Sambatucada. “Every couple of weeks or so, he’d slip me a new CD and say, ‘You’ll dig this,’ and he was usually right! It was a huge source of joy in his life to turn people on to new music.”

That spirit extended to his home, where Bruce let his kids snoop around his vast record collection. Owen recalled stealing the Clash’s seminal album Combat Rock from his dad, who also got him into British punk icons the Sex Pistols and American new-wave band Devo.

“His ear was just so good,” Owen said, recalling his father’s uncanny ability as an active listener. Bruce would often hear a song his son was listening to and almost instantly be able to tell him whom the musicians were influenced by. “I was listening to Rage Against the Machine when I was a teenager, and he walked by and said, ‘These guys are obviously big Led Zeppelin fans.’ At the time, I was a typical kid and scoffed at it. But then I read an interview with the band, and they kept talking about Zeppelin. I was like, ‘Goddamn, how does he always know?’”

Those patient, attentive ears were part of what made Bruce such a skillful drummer, according to his contemporaries. Jeff Salisbury, a veteran Vermont musician who has played with the likes of Albert King and Max Roach and taught several generations of local drummers, always appreciated Bruce’s economical touch.

“I called him the Charlie Watts of Burlington,” Salisbury said, referring to the legendarily steady drummer of the Rolling Stones.

“Bruce never overplayed; he always serviced the song. For me, the things that are of value in music are your heart and your ears. And Bruce was really good with both of those.”

Mahnke recalled something Bruce told him many years ago when talking about life philosophies.

“Bruce always brought up what he called ‘the Omnipotent Groove,’” Mahnke said. “He said there was this constant source of groove

that moved all of us, all of the time, and it was very much the North Star in his life.”

In the late 1990s, Bruce’s groove moved away from playing blues and rock as he began to focus his musical energy on Sambatucada.

His fascination with Brazilian rhythms and his love of teaching people grew as Bruce took the reins as the group’s leader.

“I finally realized I couldn’t really plan a summer vacation, because he just never wanted to miss a gig with Sambatucada,” recalled Bruce’s partner, Keiko Kokubun, whom he met in 2006. “It meant everything to him.”

According to Mahnke, Sambatucada’s mission was to spread the love of Brazilian musical traditions. But Bruce was adamant that the group be composed of people from all walks of life and open especially to musical novices; he wanted Sambatucada to be a true community band.

“He had such a knack for taking people with no musical experience and maybe not the best sense of rhythm and really turning them into proper drummers,” Mahnke said.

Such was Bruce’s devotion that even as cancer diminished him to the point where he could no longer lead Sambatucada, he couldn’t stop thinking of its future. Keiko

THE THINGS THAT ARE OF VALUE IN MUSIC ARE YOUR HEART AND YOUR EARS. The N-Zones

AND BRUCE WAS REALLY GOOD WITH BOTH OF THOSE.

J E F F S A L I S B U RY

remembers Bruce being “in and out of this world” in the final weeks of his life and worrying over who would continue his legacy with the group, often saying, “I’m loading up my wagon. I’m beat. Someone has to lead the band.” He would also ask after his suitcases, where he kept his assortment of instruments.

“He knew he was getting ready to leave this place,” Keiko said. “And like a true musician, he wanted to know where all his instruments were.”

As he lay dying, his friends and students in Sambatucada packed up their drums and drove out to visit him in his hospice home.

Relax.

Rejuvenate.

Renew.

They set up on the lawn to play one final performance for Bruce, a day Mahnke recalls with both great joy and sorrow.

“They bundled Bruce up and wheeled him out on the terrace to watch us,” Mahnke said. “We put T-shirts on all the drums to keep them a little quieter because, well, we were playing at a hospice home.”

Bruce wasn’t having it, however. Mahnke remembered his old friend shouting, almost as soon as the band started up, “Get those shirts off the drums! Louder! And more rim shots!”

“Bruce was really lucky to know what he was going to do in his life so early on,” Keiko

said. “He knew what he was meant to do, and he did just that.”

After Bruce died, Keiko thought about how he and his longtime friend and N-Zones bassist Mark Ransom would reminisce about their days playing in blues bands around Vermont. Bruce had dreamed of a final N-Zones reunion with all of his old friends, but it sadly wasn’t to be. Ransom, who had throat cancer, died earlier this year following surgery. Bruce’s brother-in-law Jim McGinniss, who also played bass in the band, died in 2022. As more and more of that generation of Burlington musicians fades away, Keiko hopes they won’t be forgotten.

“What those bands did — their legacy — it’s not as recognized as perhaps it should be,” she said.

“I was just recently listening to an N-Zones album, actually,” Salisbury said, speaking of the band’s 1982 record Ain’t Got You. “The tunes always fit together so nicely — ‘Killer Bee Bop’ was a great track. I’m incredibly sorry Bruce is gone now. He was a big piece of this city’s music history.”

LIFE STORIES

» P.36

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Life Stories «P.35

W

hen Mary Manghis started working at Onion River Co-op in Burlington’s Old North End, co-op members made up most of the shoppers scooping brown rice and rolled oats from wooden bulk bins. It was the early 1990s, the staff collective had no management hierarchy, and Mary could see the whole store from her perch at the register.

By the time of the co-op’s controversial 2002 relocation downtown, Mary had moved from part-time cashier to produce buyer. The shiny new 12,000-square-foot City Market, Onion River Co-op building on South Winooski Avenue was not only a huge physical change but a cultural leap.

Then-colleague Annie Harlow said Mary was among those who “grappled initially” with how the co-op could stay true to its homegrown, antiestablishment ethos.

“She wasn’t sure she wanted to move with the store, because it was going to be a combination store: a big supermarket with less natural food,” Harlow said. “She thought it would dilute the community.”

After careful consideration, Mary concluded that a larger co-op could have a bigger positive impact on Vermont farms and help more people eat locally grown, healthy food, Harlow said. Once Mary decided to stay, “She was 100 percent all in.”

That was the case with whatever Mary did: biking everywhere in all kinds of weather; throwing herself into the drum rhythms of West African and AfroCaribbean dance; and lavishing care on her gardens, where blooms in shades of her favorite purple complemented the lilacclapboarded Old North End home that Mary shared with her partner of 43 years, Glenn Eames.

At City Market, “she put care into the smallest things, because something as simple as arranging the garlic neatly showed respect for both the grower and the customer,” coworker Sarah Zareva said. “She did this because she felt providing food was the root of community.”

Over her 21 years as the co-op’s Burlington produce buyer, Mary championed local farms but never coddled them. With clear communication and expectations, she helped farmers thrive, made it easier for people to buy local vegetables and fruits, and boosted agriculture around the state.

“Vermont is very well known for its local food scene, and Mary helped shepherd that into existence,” said Justin Rich, owner of Burnt Rock Farm in Huntington.

In 2018, the year Mary retired, the co-op’s downtown produce department generated $6 million, 70 percent from organic produce.

While City Market cannot specify how much of that produce was local, many farmers credit Mary with playing a key role in their individual and collective success.

36

Mary Manghis at City Market

‘She Felt Providing Food Was the Root of Community’ MARY MANGHIS, March 28, 1951-May 17, 2023

BY ME L IS S A PAS ANE N • pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

Before Amir Hebib had even built his first cultivated mushroom house in Colchester in 2005, Mary encouraged him, he recalled. “Without City Market, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything,” Hebib said.

Even after she retired, Mary and Glenn would visit AH Mushrooms by bike, and she always stopped to chat at the farmers market. “She had some kind of a natural connection with people who grow things,” Hebib said.

“It’s hard to imagine the local vegetable market without Mary,” said Hilary Martin, a co-owner of Diggers’ Mirth Collective Farm in Burlington.

Mary and Glenn, founder of Burlington’s Old Spokes Home bicycle shop, were a few years into retirement together when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in August of

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

2022. She died in May at the age of 72, just as her gardens were reawakening.

“I’m appreciating watching all the plants spring out of the ground and trees leaf out,” Mary wrote by email to a friend a few weeks before her death. “Unfortunately, I’m less able to get out for long walks at the moment but still trying.”

Nature and physical activity were a balm and a necessity for Mary. Sporting dark braids and a helmet striped green to resemble a watermelon, she was a familiar Burlington sight, “hairy calves of steel” pumping as she cycled by, as friend Patrick Johnson fondly described her.

Year-round, Mary and Glenn headed out on their bikes to explore. During the winter, they fat-biked, skated and backcountry skied, often with Johnson and his partner, Janet Carscadden, who died in March.

Gliding through the woods, “Mary loved the clarity of the air, the blue sky and just the quiet,” Glenn said.

Mary had no time for TV, small talk or social media. She always made time to attend Vermont International Film Foundation screenings, volunteer at O.N.E. Community dinners and pedal to the farmers market before biking to dance class.

“She wasn’t a big, flashy, fiery dancer, but she knew those steps,” fellow dancer Jamaica White said. “She was the one to watch.”

Unflappably calm, “Mary was a quiet force. She had so much to teach, but she did it in a very gentle way,” White said. “You could learn from her without even realizing you were learning.”

“She was an action-ist, not an activist,” Johnson said.

Threaded throughout her pursuits were Mary’s subtle contrarian humor and whimsy.

For Halloween and thrice-yearly costumed bike ride gatherings of which she and Glenn were the ringleaders, Mary always pulled together memorable outfits. Zareva recalled one featuring an elaborate jacket, a nose with whiskers and striped tights. Everybody wanted to know who Mary was. “Why do I have to be anything?” Zareva remembered Mary responding with a bemused smile. “It’s just a costume.

It’s supposed to be your imagination.”

The only child of two working parents, Mary grew up in Plaistow, N.H., and spent a lot of time with her maternal grandparents and five uncles, who were “like big brothers to her,” Glenn said. She danced, loved music and had a pony. But by her late teenage years, Mary committed to a different kind of steed and started biking to work.

Her love of good food began young, too. Her Greek American father was an accomplished cook, and “all the kids would gather” at their house, Glenn said.

Although Mary earned a degree in early childhood education, food and agriculture called to her. Shortly after college, she married her high school sweetheart, Joel Jenne, and they bought a New Hampshire farm with another couple. Mary, an animal lover, became vegetarian then, Glenn said: “When it finally came to slaughtering the animals, that was it for Mary.”

After selling the farm, Mary, Joel and two friends opened a vegetarian restaurant in Laconia, N.H., in 1978. At the time, Glenn owned a small business nearby with his then-wife. His older sister worked at the restaurant, and he became a regular, stopping by for veggie lasagna, spanakopita and baklava.

Coincidentally, Glenn and his wife were splitting amicably around the time Mary and Joel decided to part ways. “I sent away for a

divorce kit from the National Organization for Women for a $25 donation, I think,” Glenn recalled. It was simply a friendly gesture, he said, when he loaned the kit to Joel.

When Glenn’s sister learned that Mary was going contra dancing, she suggested that Mary invite him. Glenn was not a dancer, but he went. The two started hiking and biking together.

“What I really loved about her was, she wasn’t preoccupied with things,” Glenn reminisced. Where others might collect possessions, Mary gathered experiences and nurtured relationships. She had zero interest in doing anything for show. “She didn’t speak unless she had something to say,” Glenn said.

In 1982, the couple embarked on an epic, two-year global bike trip. For $2,500 each per year — including multistop, one-way airline tickets — they adventured through southern Europe, India, Southeast Asia,

bakery. Reynolds had moved to Burlington and urged them to join her.

Naturally, Mary and Glenn biked much of the way along the mountain chains from Santa Barbara, Calif., up to British Columbia. In Banff, Alberta, they hopped a train to Montréal and biked down to Burlington, where they crashed with their friend.

The trio remained close even after Reynolds moved. That Mary thrived at the co-op made sense to her old friend. “She needed to be doing something life-giving, nurturing,” Reynolds said.

At City Market, Zareva said, Mary would start early-summer workdays by admiring the freshly watered pansies for sale. She grew them at home and told Zareva “it always felt like all of these faces smiling up at her.”

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Mary Manghis and Glenn Eames on Cape Cod

Asia, and North Africa. They mostly camped, indulged occasionally at corner tea shops and skinny-dipped in every cold stream or waterfall. “She wasn’t shy about that at all,” Glenn said with a chuckle.

His partner never lost her cool, Glenn said, even as they weathered a Lord of the Flies-style encounter with a pack of youngsters in Kosovo, who dragged a log across their path; a lengthy wait for their bikes in India after a luggage snafu; and an unwelcome two-month break near the MoroccoAlgeria border while Mary recovered from hepatitis A. During their forced downtime, they became fast friends with Peace Corps volunteer Amy Reynolds. She was housesitting for the owners of an Englishlanguage bookstore, who had offered the couple a room while Mary recovered.

Reynolds remembers laughter shared over travel tales, the delicious pancakes Mary whipped up and the pair’s self-sufficiency.

In 1986, Mary and Glenn were living in San Francisco, where Mary worked at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center’s legendary

important consistency was to them, planned meticulously and honored every commitment.

Following City Market’s move downtown, Harlow said, it became the largest outlet for local food in the state.

Mary built a database to manage the “extremely huge and complicated puzzle” of projections, orders and vendors.

“She evolved into it in a really beautiful way,” Harlow said, “not only for herself personally but for the local food economy.”

Former City Market general manager Clem Nilan said Mary could easily have climbed the management ladder but had no interest. “She was very grounded about what she wanted to do and how she could make a difference,” he said.

As part of Mary’s memorial celebration in June, friends planned a bike ride from Battery Park to the Intervale. When the forecast called for rain, numbers dwindled, though a hearty dozen still biked — as Mary undoubtedly would have.

LIFE STORIES

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COURTESY OF THE TAULTON FAMILY

I

n the public housing complex in Clairton, Pa., where Glenn Taulton grew up, he wasn’t allowed to practice his tuba at home. The apartment was small, and Glenn’s father didn’t want his kids to be musicians.

“Anything but music,” was the message from their father, recalled Byron Taulton, Glenn’s younger brother.

So Glenn would stay at school late to practice in the band room or take his horn to a hillside at Millvue Acres, the housing project, and play in a stand of apple trees.

Neighbors might hear “Puff the Magic Dragon,” one of Glenn’s favorite songs, coming through his tuba.

Finding a place and a way to make music was a cornerstone of Glenn’s life. He sang hymns in church choirs and Motown hits with his friends. He led the sousaphone section in his high school’s acclaimed 200-piece marching band (plus 25 majorettes) and played in the school jazz band.

For the last 30 years, as local listeners and players know, Glenn performed solo, with his band, G-Thang, and with numerous musicians at spots around Burlington: stealing the show with “My Girl” on karaoke night at the St. John’s Club (his karaoke buddy, Rich Graham, said by email that he was lucky to sing backup for Glenn on Temptations’ songs), joining Bobby McFerrin on vocals at the Flynn for “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” and performing in Lyric Theatre’s Finian’s Rainbow on the same stage.

Folks could see Glenn playing congas — an instrument that was dear to him — at a Leunig’s Bistro jazz gig or hear him singing “Mercy Mercy Me” in a duo at the Switchback Brewing taproom.

“People say about Beethoven’s music, even though we knew he invented it, it sounds like it was always there,” said jazz pianist Tom Cleary, who teaches music at the University of Vermont. “I know Glenn moved here from Pittsburgh; it just seemed like he had always been here.”

Glenn died of a cardiac event on May 13, at age 71, in his apartment in Burlington’s Old North End. His memorial service was filled with music performed by Vermont artists. Jenni Johnson sang the hymn “Lead Me, Guide Me,” and Cleary played a piece by trombonist James Harvey, “In Memory.”

There were nonmusical moments, as well, to honor the Navy veteran who moved to Chittenden County with his family in 1992 to work at IBM. From the pulpit of the First United Methodist Church of Burlington, Glenn’s daughter, Tiffany, read a condolence letter from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

“We, as a nation, owe your father a tremendous debt of gratitude for putting on the uniform to keep our communities and our families safe and protected,” Sanders

From left: Glenn Taulton Jr., Glenn Taulton and James Taulton in the mid-1990s

‘He’d Always Have a Tune to Sing’ GLENN EDWARD TAULTON October 31, 1951-May 13, 2023

BY S AL LY P O L L AK

wrote. “I greatly appreciated his support for workers’ rights, and his commitment in the fight for equality.”

The oldest of three siblings, Glenn grew up in Clairton, a steel mill town outside of Pittsburgh. His father, Joseph, worked two eight-hour shifts a day in the mill, Byron recalled. Despite his father’s admonition to stay away from music, Glenn enthusiastically pursued the art form that ran in his family: His paternal grandfather, James “Boogie” Taulton, was a jazz pianist.

“Glenn was an artist,” Byron, 68, said.

“Once he learned the [band] music, there was no beating him out.” He could tripletongue on the tuba, Byron said of the technique used to articulate notes rapidly.

Glenn attended Duquesne University

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

in Pittsburgh on a music scholarship and earned a degree in music education. He taught music in Pittsburgh public schools before joining the Navy in the late 1970s, when his then-wife, Frances, was pregnant with their first child.

Glenn served in the Navy for six years, during which he was a band leader and worked in encrypted communications. On completion of his service and two years in the reserves, the Taultons moved to Manassas, Va., where Glenn worked for IBM. He transferred to the Essex, Vt., plant in the early 1990s, and the family settled in South Burlington.

The Taulton children — Tiffany, Glenn Jr. and James — remember their father always singing, with a repertoire that

ranged from Parliament to Frank Sinatra to gospel.

“He’d always have a tune to sing, and he was really happy with his voice,” James, 40, said.

As some of the few (or sometimes the only) Black students in their schools, the Taultons faced blatant racism and more subtle forms of discrimination. Tiffany received a note in her locker at South Burlington High School telling her to “go back to Africa,” she said. When educators placed her in lower-level classes, her father made sure she was moved to a higher track.

“You didn’t want Glenn Taulton coming to your school,” Tiffany said.

Glenn offered unwavering support to his children and impressed upon them the value of education.

“My parents made sure that we were in places where we could get a good education,” Tiffany said. “My father didn’t want the teachers to look at our skin color. If he felt they were being discriminatory, the teachers could look forward to seeing him the next day. Nobody was going to treat his children wrong.”

Glenn’s work for equality reached beyond the local school system. He was active in efforts to organize workers at IBM. At a 1994 forum, he implored the University of Vermont to increase its minority hiring.

Glenn served on the board of City Market, Onion River Co-op when the memberowned store built its downtown Burlington location. He was recruited to run for the board when co-op leaders wanted to diversify the body, then-board president Don Schramm said.

“He was enthusiastic about the project and a cheerleader for it,” said Schramm, who recalled Glenn giving people tours of the new building.

Glenn taught music and Latin dance to kids in local programs, often with an assist from his own school-aged children. His sons played percussion, and his daughter was his dance partner.

“He did a really good job trying to get kids on rhythm,” James said. “He’d light up with kids.”

In 1997, after Glenn and Frances separated, she moved back to Pittsburgh with their children. He stayed in Vermont; a couple years later, he purchased a house in Burlington’s South End with his thenpartner, Molly Fleming. She had a young daughter, Zoe, whom Glenn helped raise.

“My daughter was a very little blonde thing,” Fleming said. “They would get all kinds of looks when they walked together downtown. He was always very clear with her that color didn’t matter.”

In the years after his immediate family moved away, Glenn developed a devoted friendship and strong kinship with his second cousin, Jeffrey Williams, who

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TO OUR CUSTOMERS & FRIENDS Thank you all for another busy and fun holiday season!

Every year at this time we're filled with gratitude from the support we feel from our community. Wishing you all a happy & healthy holiday season and the best for 2024.

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Glenn (center) singing at Rich Graham’s (with arm raised) birthday in 2008

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moved to Vermont in 2002 for his job with last years of his life, at First United Meththe Department of Homeland Security. odist Church Burlington. Sometimes he They enjoyed dinners at the Wind- walked in when the service was almost jammer Restaurant and going out to hear over, wearing a three-piece suit and fedora music; almost everywhere and carrying his hymnal, they went, someone recogthe Rev. Kerry Cameron, 68, nized Glenn, Williams said. said. Soon, he’d be leading When Williams was the congregation in song, sick, Glenn cared for him his voice both lightening and at his home in St. Albans strengthening the church and cooked him old-style music, the pastor recalled.

“He was an incredibly Southern dishes, recipes spiritual evangelist,” she passed down from his grandmother. The two said. traded family stories in On occasion, Glenn and Glenn’s apartment in the Cameron walked together JAME S TAU LTON Rose Street Artists’ Co-op down Church Street, with in Burlington, which he the reverend donning a hat filled with an ever-growing collection of in sartorial harmony with her congregant. paraphernalia from the Pittsburgh Steel“He would just greet people and smile ers, his beloved hometown football team. at them,” Cameron said. “And the next “It was nice to just have that connec- thing you knew, he’d sing a song from the tion,” Williams, 61, said. “We were always Supremes.” there for each other.”

Glenn worshipped at New Alpha Missionary Baptist Church and, in the LIFE STORIES » P.40

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Life Stories «P.39

N

icole Killian was especially proud of the time she saved a woman’s toes.

A patient arrived at the emergency room with frostbitten feet so severe that staff were considering amputation.

But Nicole, then a nurse practitioner at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, N.Y., objected. Instead, she committed to pouring gradually warmer water on the patient’s feet for hours until they thawed.

That kind of measured decision making under pressure was typical of Nicole. An emergency room nurse and former president of the 911 ambulance service Richmond Rescue, she gained a reputation for her calm and empathetic demeanor as she responded to crises ranging from frostbite to car accidents to sexual assault.

When Nicole “would come in and take over as a charge nurse, the whole department would breathe a little bit more easily,” said Meaghan Knakal, an emergency medical technician with Richmond Rescue and close friend of Nicole’s. “You just knew that she was going to come in and handle it.”

To cope with the constant exposure to trauma, Nicole sought solace through travel and spending time in nature. On July 10, at the age of 28, she died doing what she loved most. While hiking a technically challenging route on Black Tusk, a mountain in British Columbia near Whistler, she stepped on loose volcanic rock that gave way underneath her.

A month later, several hundred people showed up to celebrate Nicole’s life at Bolton Valley Resort. Guests donned hiking boots in her memory.

Nursing gave Nicole the flexibility she sought. She traveled almost every month, whether hiking a volcano in Guatemala, section-hiking the Long Trail, horseback riding in Nicaragua or spelunking in ice caves in Iceland. She ran marathons and completed the Rut, a roughly 17-mile course on Lone Peak in Montana that gains a daunting 7,800 feet of elevation.

In 2017, she posted the view out her plane window to Instagram with the caption, “I haven’t been everywhere but it’s on my list.” She traveled with friends, family and her canine companion, Moose — a boxer-bulldog mix who accompanied her in everything from hiking to standup paddleboarding.

Nicole might have seemed shy at first, according to her dad, Mike Killian. “You’d never know” how adventurous she was, he said. “But that’s part of who she was. She would see where her comfort zone was — and she’d push it.”

Nicole grew up in Richmond. She learned to ski at just 3 years old and frequented the slopes at Bolton Valley.

40

Nicole Killian and her dog, Moose

‘She Made the World a Little Less Scary’ NICOLE KILLIAN, November 25, 1994-July 10, 2023

BY H ANNAH F E UE R • hfeuer@sevendaysvt.com

A hiker from a young age, Nicole would follow a trail of M&M’s her mom, Eveline Habermann, left along the path to coax her onward. On Labor Day every year, the family would drive out to Burton Island State Park, where the kids were free to explore by bike as long as they communicated back to their parents through walkie-talkies.

“I do it!” became Nicole’s slogan as a toddler — a response she gave whenever her parents would try to do something on her behalf. “Very quickly, she proved that she was a very independent person,” Eveline said. “She just knew what she wanted.”

That drive for independence continued

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into Nicole’s teenage years. Eager to transition into adult life, she graduated a year early from Mount Mansfield Union High School in 2012 and went on to study nursing at the University of Vermont.

Through college, Nicole worked as a nurse’s assistant at the UVM Medical Center. She volunteered abroad in Tanzania and Guatemala, where she took on increased responsibility — providing care to those with HIV/AIDS, pulling infected teeth and assisting in the delivery of babies.

After graduation in 2016, she worked as a nurse in the emergency department at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., and as a scribe at the UVM Medical Center. She hoped to go on for

additional schooling to become a nurse practitioner, but she delayed her dream to earn an online doctor of nursing from University of South Alabama.

Mike said he didn’t realize until after the fact that Nicole had chosen to attend online school primarily so she could help when he was diagnosed with throat cancer — a sacrifice he never would have asked of her. “Every visit I went to with the oncologist or with radiation folks, she was there by my side,” he said. “She really took care of me.”

Nicole extended that same familial treatment to her neighbor, Sue Drollette, who was undergoing treatment for colorectal cancer. Nicole would accompany Drollette to doctors’ appointments, give her medical advice over the phone, and come over to the house just to hug her and hold her hand.

“She’d say, ‘Ask me anything that you’re worried about, and I promise I will always tell you the truth,’” Drollette said. “She wouldn’t gloss over something.”

That candid approach was characteristic of Nicole. “She would acknowledge that situations were really crummy and just take that in stride,” her friend Knakal said.

Nicole’s forthright communication helped patients “begin processing the event in order to be able to start moving forward.”

In 2017, Nicole was nominated for the DAISY Award, a program honoring nurses who go above and beyond to provide compassionate care to patients and families. “Made me feel like a person and not a number. Made my wife comfortable during a stressful time,” the nominator wrote.

“She’s a lovely person who obviously cares about other people.”

Trauma-informed care was an asset as a first responder at Richmond Rescue, where Nicole led a Sunday night crew that worked a 12-hour shift starting at 6 p.m.

Nicole’s skill and sensitivity earned her leadership positions at the 911 ambulance service; she was elected vice president in 2017 and president in 2018.

Allina Bennett, who worked the Sunday night shift, said Nicole taught her everything she knows about emergency response; for her comforting presence, Nicole was a role model. “She led by example,” Bennett said. “I remember always thinking, I want you to be my nurse [if ] I had a time of need.”

In 2019, Nicole started graduate school at New York University to become a nurse practitioner with a specialty in palliative care. After earning her license, she continued to work in emergency rooms at New York-Presbyterian and Mount Sinai hospitals in New York City, as well as at the UVM Medical Center. She split her time between Richmond and New York City,

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Nicole and her brother playing in the leaves

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Nicole hiking a section of the Long Trail with Moose

racking up more than 100,000 miles on her Subaru.

At UVM, Nicole was most passionate about her work as a forensic nurse examiner, treating patients who were victims of sexual assault or domestic violence and aiding them in evidence collection.

Nicole was especially thoughtful in her approach, Knakal said. For example, Nicole would communicate patients’ stories to other staff, rather than making them retell the traumatic event themselves. She also validated patients’ desires to sometimes refrain from proceeding with an examination — a way to give victims back their autonomy in the aftermath of an assault. After Nicole’s death, UVM named one of the rooms used in the sexual assault nurse examiner’s program after her.

“She made the world a little less scary,” said Knakal’s husband, Alex, who’s also a paramedic at Richmond Rescue. “That level of panic or anxiety would always decrease a little bit with her around.”

Travel was a way to recharge. Her excursions were ambitious but low budget. In 2018, she drove up the coast of California with her sister, Elise. The two would park their camper van at a Walmart overnight and sustained themselves on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. In 2022, the pair biked across the Netherlands on shoddy bikes meant for commuting, not long-distance travel. They never needed “to do anything fancy” to have fun, Elise said.

Nicole was set to start a full-time job as a concierge nurse with Sollis Health, a private urgent care practice in New York City, when she died.

For her family and friends, a cruel irony of the loss is thinking about how Nicole would have been there for them as they grieve. “She made you feel safe, and she made it OK not to be OK,” Knakal said.

“All she wanted to do was to make people feel better.”

LIFE STORIES

» P.42

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Life Stories «P.41

Fred Fayette Jr. with the University of Vermont women’s Nordic ski team

‘He Knew Just What You Needed’ FRED FAYETTE JR., May 7, 1942-April 26, 2023

I

B Y KEN P IC AR D • ken@sevendaysvt.com

n spring 2015, Stella Holt, then a competitive skier and graduating student athlete, made a 13-minute documentary film that chronicles the life of Fred Fayette Jr., a longtime assistant Nordic ski coach at the University of Vermont. In one scene, Fred stands along a racecourse calling out times and words of encouragement to the skiers as they speed by.

To those who knew Fred from his four decades of volunteering with the UVM athletics department, it was no surprise that he inspired a student athlete to tell his story in her senior project.

What’s remarkable is that Holt didn’t ski for UVM but for rival Middlebury College.

As UVM director of athletics Jeff Schulman explained, the film is a testament to the deep affection that scores of student athletes and fellow coaches felt for Fred.

“I’ve been working in college athletics for 30-plus years, and I’ve never met anyone like Fred Fayette,” said Schulman, who was himself a UVM student athlete in the 1980s when he first met Fred. “The impact he had on generations of skiers can never be overstated. He was a beloved figure in collegiate skiing.”

And beyond. Fred, who died in April, was many things to many people: an accomplished mariner who charted the 42

Fred with his wife, Susan Walter

depths of Lake Champlain and helped discover and preserve many of its historic sunken wrecks; a mechanical wizard with MacGyver-like problem-solving skills who adopted cutting-edge technologies years before most people ever heard of them; an adored husband and family man who led the restoration of Juniper Island, which his family owns; and a selfless individual who

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

always had a smile on his face and made strangers feel welcome.

“He infiltrated everyone’s life in such a gentle way,” said Fred’s older sister Kathy Baumann. “He knew just what you needed.

If ever there was a problem — with anything — he was the one we all turned to.”

Fred Fayette Jr. was born in Burlington on May 7, 1942, the third child of Ellen and

Frederick Fayette Sr. Fred’s father was a lawyer and longtime Democratic state lawmaker who ran, unsuccessfully, for the U.S. Senate in 1958 and 1964. Fred’s mother died of a brain tumor when he was only 7.

The eldest son of 11 siblings, Fred grew up in South Burlington, where he developed an early passion for boating on Lake Champlain. In 1956, his father purchased Juniper Island from the U.S. government for $7,000. The 13-acre isle, three miles west of the Burlington waterfront, was home to Lake Champlain’s first lighthouse until it burned down in 1963. Years later, Fred, Kathy and their siblings rebuilt the lighthouse keeper’s residence using the original bricks.

In 1961, Fred enlisted in the military and was sent to the U.S. Naval Training Station in Great Lakes, Ill. With a keen interest in aviation, he enrolled in every course available to new recruits and was eventually assigned to an elite air reconnaissance squadron. There, Fred learned nautical and electronics skills that later proved essential to his career as a ship’s captain and aquatic researcher.

After leaving the military, Fred attended UVM, where he ran track and cross-country. A natural athlete, he was recruited by the Nordic and Alpine ski teams, though at the time Fred didn’t even know how to ski.

A decade after graduating, Fred was still skiing and also training younger athletes; in all, he helped coach 21 individual national champions and five national championship teams.

Schulman pointed out that, for decades, Fred took pride in the fact that he wouldn’t accept a paycheck for his coaching — he did it out of sheer love of the work. It wasn’t until UVM’s risk management department decided that only paid employees could drive the team vans that the athletics director “broke the bad news” to Fred that he had to get paid. “He said, ‘Jeff, how can you do this to me?’” Schulman recalled with a laugh.

In 1979, while visiting the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, where many of his athletes trained, Fred met the love of his life, Susan Walter, who at the time worked in the kitchen. Because Susan was very busy — and Fred was too shy to ask her out — he missed his initial opportunity to get to know her. Nevertheless, Fred kept returning to Craftsbury hoping to find Susan.

It took 15 years, but on January 4, 1994, their paths finally crossed again.

“Suddenly, I see this beautiful face coming up these stairs,” Fred recounts in Holt’s film. “[Susan] stopped and looked at me. I looked at her, and she remembered me ... It was this great joy in my heart that, suddenly, here she is.”

“The first thing he said to me was, ‘Are you married?’” Susan remembered. “I

wasn’t, and that was the beginning.” The couple married in 2002.

Susan said she was always impressed by Fred’s ability to stay calm — an invaluable trait when you’re coaching elite skiers. As Fred explains in the film, his favorite part of coaching was ensuring that the competitors were having a good time, “and if they’re not, trying to see if there’s something I can say or do to make them a little happier.”

“He’d always say, ‘Life is a series of moments, and every moment is wonderful,’” Susan added. To Fred, “Everything was possible, and everything was positive.”

Fred’s boundless enthusiasm extended to his life’s other great love: Lake Champlain. From 1972 to 1987, Fred and his brother Dave owned and operated Colchester’s Marble Island Resort on Malletts Bay, which had a marina, tennis courts, a golf course, a hotel and a banquet hall.

“People came for years just because they loved Fred and Dave so much,” Susan said.

“It was like one big family.”

It was through the resort that Fred first met Art Cohn, cofounder and now director emeritus of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. In the 1980s, Fred needed help moving a 100-foot barge that served as a breakwater for the resort’s marina. Because Cohn was an experienced diver, Fred enlisted his help.

The two soon became regular work colleagues and best friends. Cohn credits Fred and their third partner, Peter Barranco, a local navigator and historian who also died this year, with completing the first-ever comprehensive survey of Lake Champlain’s bottom.

During the 10-year project, Fred piloted his 40-foot research vessel, Neptune, more than 6,300 miles, identifying and cataloging the lake’s 300-plus shipwrecks. They include Benedict Arnold’s Revolutionary War gunboat Spitfire, which Cohn called one of the most significant shipwreck discoveries in modern times.

Cohn, who considers Fred a brother,

Fred was known by many as an accomplished mariner.

described him as a master mariner whose Despite his love of intricate devices and mechanical and problem-solving abilities complex challenges, Fred had simple tastes. were second to none. When the new Cham- According to Susan, his favorite meal was plain Bridge was being erected between pasta and tomato sauce, and his favorite Vermont and Crown restaurant was any gas Point, N.Y., it was Fred station where he could who plotted the route find a giant cookie and of the barges that hauled freshly brewed coffee. the prefabricated archEven in such quickway up the lake and into stop eateries, Fred could position. forge enduring friend“If you were going ships. That’s where Jen to be out on the broad Mathews, now a spirilake and the wind was tual life coach living in blowing and you had Bristol, met Fred. In 1993 she was working six-footers out there, which is terrifying, you behind the counter wanted Freddy at the at a Burlington coffee helm,” Cohn said. “He shop — now the site just had a skill set and a of Zabby & Elf’s Stone AR T C O H N personality that inspired Soup — where Fred was confidence.” a regular customer.

Indeed, Fred was an early adopter of “He was always so smiley and friendly such technologies as GPS, cellphones, and funny,” Mathews recalled. “Even laptops and the internet. though we had very short moments in “Freddy was out doing deepwater between customers ... he would always ask research on Lake Champlain before anyone what was going on in my life and would even knew what that was,” Cohn added. genuinely want to know.”

“Who builds, then sends down a camera, Despite their three-decade age differinto 300 feet of water in the 1970s? That ence, the two became fast friends. Fred gave just wasn’t done.”

Mathews her first pair of cross-country

IF YOU WERE GOING TO BE OUT ON THE BROAD LAKE AND THE WIND WAS BLOWING ...

YOU WANTED FREDDY AT THE HELM.

skis, and in the warmer months he took her out on Lake Champlain and showed her Juniper Island.

“Fred was someone who was engaged in life so fully,” Mathews added. “He was one of the most enthusiastic people I have ever met.”

Though Fred didn’t have children of his own, his extended family all looked up to him. Fred’s brother-in-law Walter Baumann recalled the time when Fred’s then-6-year-old niece wrote a story about him, in which she referred to her uncle as “our leader.”

“After that, everyone called him ‘The Leader,’” Walt said. Though Fred was slightly embarrassed by it, the name stuck.

Even into his eighties, Fred never lost his independence or mental sharpness. He remained active until the final weeks of his life.

“Fred was never going to die,” Susan said about her late husband’s optimistic mindset, “because when you’re positive and live in the moment, death is not something that ever comes into your head.”

Fred died after a brief illness just days shy of his 81st birthday. When death finally stopped him, it happened quickly, like a boat gently running aground on a sandy shore.

“He was a free spirit, until he wasn’t,” Susan added. “He got older but never got old. And that makes me happy.”

In addition to his wife, Fred is survived by eight siblings and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

But Susan emphasized that Fred never wanted family and friends to talk about how he died — he would rather they focus on how he lived.

As Fred puts it in the film, “Whether you’re ski racing ... or trying to map the bottom of Lake Champlain, it’s the journey that’s the important part.”

LIFE STORIES

» P.44

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Life Stories «P.43

E

leanor Ott had a genius for bringing people together. In the book-lined dining room of her 19th-century farmhouse in Maple Corner, she ran an eclectic backwoods salon, hosting women’s discussion groups and rune feasts to fête the solstices. At her table, you might find yourself elbow-toelbow with a close friend of the crown prince of England, a psychic healer from Iceland, or a photographer who had documented the Civil Rights movement.

On most subjects, she had at least one book and several well-researched opinions. “She was completely curious and open to everything, except for maybe the National Football League,” her friend Andy Christiansen said.

Eleanor’s inner world was as vibrant as her outer one. Widely read in shamanism and Norse mythology, she taught anthropology and folklore at Goddard College from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s.

She often dreamed about animals and seemed to climb into their consciousness as easily as she could recite the names of eastern woodland bird species.

“It wasn’t anything for her to say that she’d been sitting by her kitchen window and was suddenly ‘out there,’ in the fox.

Meaning she was the fox,” said Eleanor’s friend Kathleen Osgood, who edited three books of her prose, poetry and drawings, called Heart-Work Trilogy: Three Books to Open Our Hearts.

For Eleanor, the study of the arcane was part of her lifelong yearning for a connection to something bigger — to a family that encompassed humans, animals and unseen spirits. Through her own search for belonging, she built a community that became a family unto itself. Following a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease, she died on August 13 at the age of 86 at her home in Maple Corner, while eight or nine of her friends sat vigil around a bonfire in her yard and sang to her through her window.

Eleanor was born in New York City during the height of the Great Depression. Her birth mother surrendered her to an orphanage when she was barely 2 years old, and she was adopted by a couple who lived in Bristol, Pa. Her adoptive father, Paul Forster, was an attorney; his wife, Helen, was a high school history teacher. They rented a room in their big Victorian house to a single woman, a teacher who had traveled all over Europe and documented her adventures in journals and blackand-white photographs, which she showed to young Eleanor in the living room during the World War II blackouts.

After earning a degree in philosophy and literature at North Carolina’s Warren 44

Eleanor Ott (left) with her friend Maija Rothenberg in June 2023

‘She Was Completely Curious and Open to Everything’ ELEANOR KOKAR OTT August 20, 1936-August 13, 2023

BY C H E L S E A E D GAR • chelsea@sevendaysvt.com

Wilson College and a master’s in education at Radcliffe College in Massachusetts, Eleanor went to the University of Pennsylvania for a PhD in anthropology and folklore. In her twenties, she biked alone across England, hanging out at archaeological dig sites by day and camping along the side of the road at night. Eleanor had an abiding interest in

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

primitive structures; at Goddard, one of her signature courses was titled: “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About a Stone Wall but Were Too Afraid to Ask.” Her brief marriage to Tom Ott, a poet, ended in the early ’70s, shortly after she moved to central Vermont.

Eleanor had a personal cosmology that transcended the bounds of any religious

or spiritual tradition. “She had a real deep sense that her little lifetime, in this little place, is part of a tiny, huge flow — of humanity, of life,” said her longtime friend Maija Rothenberg. She first met Eleanor in 1971, when Rothenberg’s thenboyfriend was a student in Eleanor’s class on William Blake at Goddard. Eleanor invited the couple to go camping with her on an island off the coast of Maine, which Rothenberg assumed would be an uncomfortably rustic experience, featuring many undercooked hot dogs. Instead, Eleanor served them fresh lobsters and dolmas stuffed with lamb and pine nuts, made with grape leaves that she grew on her property.

“She introduced me to a whole different way of seeing the world,” said Rothenberg, who now lives in Chicago. “You know how some people just talk at you, like, ‘Blah blah blah, how are you? Blah blah blah’?

It wasn’t like that with Eleanor. She saw you. She was ready to take things in.” One year, for her birthday, Rothenberg sent her a kitschy garden rock that said, “Fairies are welcome here.” When Eleanor received it, she seemed a bit dubious. “I don’t know if I want fairies in my garden,” she told Rothenberg.

Since her early childhood, Eleanor had known that she was adopted, and the mystery of her birth family was like a locked box that she carried with her at all times. “Because my pre-adoption identity was a profound riddle to me, I seesawed between experiencing the classic archetypal figures of the abandoned victim and the blessed survivor,” Eleanor wrote in an essay titled “Reflections on My Given Name,” published in one of the books of her trilogy. “Neither of these feelings in me was stable enough to claim me, breeding a deep uncertainty about who I was, about what my relation to my past history was, which, of course, I did not know.”

One weekend, Rothenberg said, Eleanor and her friend Nancy deGroff took a trip up to Montréal. They went to dinner at a Hungarian restaurant, where live performers played Hungarian folk music.

On the drive home that night, Eleanor had a sudden emotional breakdown. “They had to pull over. Nancy had to drive. It didn’t make any sense,” Rothenberg said. Several years after that episode, when Eleanor began searching in earnest for information about her family of origin, she made a startling discovery: Her birth parents were Hungarian.

“She would have heard this language and maybe some of these songs in her first 16 months of life that were deep inside her psyche,” Rothenberg said. In some visceral

COURTESY OF JON QUBE

Eleanor Ott knitting in her office at Goddard circa 1973

SHE HAD A REAL DEEP SENSE THAT HER LITTLE LIFETIME, IN THIS LITTLE PLACE,

IS PART OF A TINY, HUGE FLOW — OF HUMANITY, OF LIFE. M AI JA ROT H EN BERG

COURTESY OF PEG TASSEY

Eleanor Ott

way, Eleanor had known the truth about her identity all along.

Through a Hungarian Catholic church in New York City, Eleanor found birth records indicating that she could be the daughter of one of three sisters, whose last name was Kokar. She tracked down one of their sons, Lou Cherry, a social worker who lived on Long Island. “We may be cousins,” she told him on the phone. As it happened, they were both going to be in Chicago for Thanksgiving, and they arranged to meet at O’Hare airport.

On the appointed day, Rothenberg drove Eleanor to O’Hare. “She was positively vibrating in her seat,” Rothenberg recalled, “just like a nuclear reactor.” Rothenberg had booked “one of those high-roller airline lounges” for the occasion. A few minutes after they arrived at the lounge, as Rothenberg tells it, “the door opens, and in comes this, like, elf.” Cherry was exactly Eleanor’s height, with the same nimbus of curly hair. He later told Eleanor that as they embraced for the first time, he had an overwhelming thought: “This isn’t a cousin. This is my sister. She looks exactly like my mom.”

Over the next three decades, Eleanor and Cherry forged a deep bond that answered Eleanor’s need for a connection with her unknown past. In 2012, he moved into her house and took care of her when her Parkinson’s progressed to the point where she could no longer manage alone, and Eleanor dedicated one of the books of her trilogy to him: “It has only been possible to collect and bring into public view this volume with support, guidance, chicken paprikash, and endless photocopying of Lou Cherry,” she wrote. In 2021, Cherry died of pancreatic cancer. In the final years of Eleanor’s life, her friend Trees-ah Elder, a nurse, lived with her and cared for her.

In the wake of Eleanor’s death, the members of her chosen family — including her runes group, which used to gather every Monday night around her dining room table — have been at a loss for how to proceed without their matriarch. On August 20, which would have been Eleanor’s 87th birthday, some of the group members tried to consult the runes for guidance, Christiansen said.

But their grief clouded their ability to take in the message.

“To do a good job picking the runes, you have to sort of abstract yourself and let go of attachments,” he said. “I wasn’t doing a very good job of that in that moment.” ➆

▲ Ron Artiss II & The Truth, 4/19

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45

Sweet and Sour Reflecting on a year of extremes in Vermont food and farming

BY J ORDAN BAR RY & ME L IS S A PAS ANE N • jbarry@sevendaysvt.com, pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

Ham-and-cheese croissants speared with cornichons at Boxcar Bakery

I

t was the worst of times, it was the best of times… Yes, we know we have that Charles Dickens quote backward, but sheesh, 2023 has been one tough year.

Despite the challenges, we’ve relished plenty of good things to eat and drink, heartwarming moments and lots of laughter. The perseverance and creativity of Vermonters involved in growing, crafting and serving up all manner of deliciousness continue to impress us.

From the sweetest to the most anticipated, here are a Seven Days-style dozen (i.e., 14) superlatives to recap the year.

M.P.

Sweetest Annual Tradition

We kicked off 2021 with a story about doughnuts. In 2022, we talked to Chris Johnson, Nomad Coffee head baker (now owner!) about croissants and kouign amanns. This year, we cranked our January diet-busting approach up a notch with the new “Bakery Month.”

A bunch of bakeries had opened at the end of 2022, so we did the hard job of heading out postholidays to taste their pastries, cakes and flourless chocolate mousse-cake-pie-tortes all month long. In Shelburne, Leunig’s Le Marché Café offered creations inspired by local mountains and sandwiches perfect for picnicking on them. Burlington’s Belleville

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Belleville Bakery chef-owner Shelley MacDonald with customers

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food+drink

BOOK OUR SPACE NOW FOR 2024!

Stay tuned for pop up dinners:

TIKI BAR TAPAS NIGHT: Bakery delighted with European-style treats and “ex-boyfriend” cookies from its open kitchen. Essex Junction’s Boxcar Bakery had me pounding plump ham-and-cheese croissants and the aforementioned chocolate mousse-cake-pie-tortes (not their real name).

I think 2024 needs a sweet start, too.

J.B.

Nettle chitarra with zucchini and aged goat cheese at Hen of the Wood’s new location in Waterbury

LIKE ANY FIRST LOVE, THE ORIGINAL HEN OF THE WOOD RETAINS A SPOT IN MY HEART.

A Salute to Jimmy Buffet Join us for Caribbean sounds and small bites!

Most Anticipated Restaurant Opening (and Reopening — and Re-reopening)

People who dined at Hen of the Wood’s original Waterbury location over its 18 years found the restaurant idyllically, quintessentially Vermont, with its rustic stone walls and riverside tables. From an operations standpoint, however, the space was a challenge, founder-owner Eric Warnstedt said when he finally confirmed a long-planned move in March.

Hen of the Wood reopened to the public in a brand-new, custom-designed space at 14 South Main Street on April 7, only to close temporarily after service that same night when a sprinkler system malfunctioned. It re-reopened on May 31.

The new restaurant was largely unscathed by the July flooding, which swamped Warnstedt’s Prohibition Pig across the street. But Hen did close for a few days, and its basement “speakeasy” remained shuttered for about a month before re-reopening.

Now all that is water under the bridge (sorry), and the new Waterbury Hen has settled into its sleek, contemporary home.

Diners can sit at the chef’s counter for a close-up view of cooks seasoning salads or sizzling steaks on the wood-fired grill — similar to the scene at Hen’s Burlington sibling.

Like any first love, the original retains a spot in my heart. I’m looking forward SWEET AND SOUR

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47

12/15/23 9:45 AM

Best New Grocery Staples JORDAN BARRY

Breakfast sandwich with Birch Hill English Muffins

Earthkeep Farmcommon

April's Maple creemee

Christine Lazor and Collin Mahoney in 2017

FILE: DON WHIPPLE

Sweet and Sour « P.47 to sharing the details of a new restaurant concept better suited to the historic grist mill space that Warnstedt hopes to launch in 2024. Stay tuned.

FILE: DARIA BISHOP

Longest Drive for a Story

Two noteworthy Vermont farms are tied for this distinction: one designed as a new model for reinvigorating defunct 48

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

NEN

Biggest Looming Farm Transition(s)

The family of pioneering Butterworks Farm cofounder Jack Lazor, who died Butterworks Farm in 2020, also maple yogurt concluded this year that it was ready to hand over the reins to new owners.

Jack and Anne Lazor’s daughter, Christine Lazor, said the decision to sell was hard but a relief. “We’ve been kind of burnt out for a really long time,” she acknowledged.

In August, the property went on the market as two separate entities: the Butterworks dairy business, which includes the milking herd and equipment used to make a regionally distributed line of organic, grass-fed dairy products; and the 167-acre farm with two homes and farm buildings.

The business is listed for $830,000 and the farm for $760,000.

Devotees of Butterworks yogurt (this reporter included) will be grateful to hear that Christine; her husband, Collin Mahoney; and the rest of the Butterworks team plan to keep making it until a buyer takes over.

A PASA

J.B.

dairy farmland and the other associated with a successful Vermont dairy product line.

The first is Earthkeep Farmcommon, the former Nordic Farm on Route 7 in Charlotte; the second is Butterworks Farm in Westfield. Both went on the market earlier this year. As of press time, representatives for each property said they were in discussion with potential buyers but had nothing to report.

After the unexpected December 2022 death of Earthkeep Farmcommon’s visionary founder, Will Raap, his family partnered with LandVest real estate on selling the high-profile 583-acre former dairy farm.

At the time, Raap’s widow, Lynette Raap, wrote, “Our family does not have the ability to carry forward Will’s vision.”

She added that they were hopeful someone else would see the farm’s potential.

In April, LandVest did not set a price but solicited proposals from prospective buyers informed by farm property assets, conservation restrictions on development and some financial information.

That initial effort did not yield a deal, and the farm is now listed for sale for $2.3 million.

J.B.

Funniest Conversation MELISS

I didn’t go to Montréal for our Québec Issue, but earlier in the year, I got so close to the border that my phone thought I was in Canada.

We don’t often venture that far north and east into the Northeast Kingdom for stories, but a sugaring-season feast beckoned at April’s Maple in Canaan. On a bluebird day in early March, I drove three hours and 13 minutes for a creemee.

The maple-on-maple-on-maple cone was worth the trip, as were the maple sugar pancakes, the maple hot dog with maple mustard, the maple-barbecue pulled pork sandwich and the maple-apple coleslaw. The daylong adventure paid off in another way: It was prime snowmobiling season, and April’s is right on the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers trails. A glimpse into that world led me to a story on Kendyl’s Buns on the Run in nearby Norton for our Winter Preview Issue.

The drive there is even longer: Kendyl’s is accessible only via snowmobile.

FILE: JAMES BUCK

M.P.

The official description of our “Small Pleasures” series is “an occasional column that features delicious and distinctive Vermont-made food or drinks that pack a punch.” The unofficial description? It’s the stuff we always buy at the grocery store (or farmers market or specialty shop, as the case may be).

This year, the column featured maple skyr, kimchi, English muffins, spice blends, dosa batter, hot-smoked fish, halvah, Peruvian cacao and cider jelly. Each item found its way into my pantry or fridge, even when I wasn’t the one writing about it.

I bought so many Birch Hill English Muffins, in fact, that I knew immediately when owner and muffin man Eric Hill took a week off in early November. It was delivery day at City Market, Onion River Co-op, and the usual shelf wasn’t stocked with original or garlic-and-herb.

I saw Hill a couple of weeks later at the first winter Burlington Farmers Market of the year, where he was shopping, not vending. I was glad he got a break from filling his dining room with electric griddles, but man, I missed those muffins.

M.P.

For May’s Dairy Issue, I headed to Baird Farm in North Chittenden to talk with the Baird family about how they’ve transformed their former dairy farm into a flourishing maple biz. I expected sobering facts about struggling dairies, insights into land use and a strong dose of history.

The owners of Baird Farm

HAPPY NEW YEAR

FILE: DARIA BISHOP

food+drink

TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS!

THANK YOU

FOR YOUR PATRONAGE IN THE YEAR 2023.

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Max Orleans serving a drink at the Pinery during the South End Get Down

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Best View of the Barge Canal

I did not expect to laugh my ass off for nearly two hours. Jacob Powsner and Bob, Bonnie and Jenna Baird are funny folks. The story ended up being super short, but the banter will bring me back — hopefully for a walk in the woods during sugaring season.

After I left, they posted a photo of us in the doorway of the old milking parlor on the farm’s Instagram stories. Above it was a poll, captioned “What they chattin’ ’bout?” The options: • Headlocks, WWE, and the Poetics of Dairy Transitions • Whey as a Fire Detergent: a Comparative Analysis • That Weird Human Urge to Give Your Vehicle a Name • Two Top Causes of Mastitis: Sugarin’ & Deer Hunting The answer? “All of the above.”

OK, front-row seats to a Superfund site might not be a big selling point. But the Pinery, a new seasonal beer garden in Burlington’s South End, did a lot for the canal’s image this summer.

I had trouble believing co-owners Tyson Ringey and Max and Louie Orleans when they hyped the view, so I went there to see for myself — and took in several stunning sunsets with a spritz in my hand. The family- and dog-friendly beer garden is exactly what Pine Street needed for casual summer hangs, as well as a great seating addition to the Orleans bros’ rebranded Friday food truck gathering, the South End Get Down. I’m thrilled they’ll both be back next year.

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J.B.

Most Sobering Reminder That Mother Nature Is in Charge

J.B.

I DID NOT EXPECT TO LAUGH MY ASS OFF FOR NEARLY TWO HOURS.

FILE: CALEB KENNA

The mid-May cold snap that hit blooming apples, grapes and blueberries left many Vermont farmers and orchardists reeling. But that became a runner-up in this category when record-breaking, torrential rains inundated the state on July 10.

Seven Days reporters headed out to cover volunteers helping with emergency harvests in Burlington’s Intervale, then followed up with guidance for flooded community and home gardeners.

We told the story of hard-hit Dog River Farm in Berlin, where George Gross lost 90 percent of the crops in his fields and found fish in puddles after the storm.

Restaurants around Vermont suffered catastrophic losses, too. In Barre, Montpelier, Richmond and Woodstock, we spoke with owners who were overwhelmed by the damage but also buoyed

SWEET AND SOUR

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49

12/16/23 11:38 AM

Owner Niem Duong at flooded Pho Capital

FILE: DARIA BISHOP

Biggest Hubbub

FILE: JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

Hey Bub beer

FILE: GLENN RUSSELL

FILE: CAROLYN SHAPIRO

Ahmed Omar in 2019

George Gross with a jalapeño plant at Dog River Farm

Sweet and Sour « P.49 by physical and financial support from their communities.

Rich McSheffrey, owner of Cornerstone Pub & Kitchen in Barre, described the bucket brigade of volunteers who helped bail five feet of standing water from his restaurant basement. He called it “one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.”

Cornerstone managed to reopen in seven weeks. After a ton of work by chefowner Niem Duong and her small crew, Montpelier’s Pho Capital began serving again, appropriately, on Labor Day weekend. Other affected restaurants, such as Three Penny Taproom and Oakes & Evelyn in Montpelier, had a much longer road to recovery; both reopened in November.

While floodwaters have receded, it remains to be seen how the loss of income and the debt involved in rebuilding will affect restaurants in the long term, especially in the face of continued high ingredient and labor costs. Restaurateurs are a tough and passionate bunch. We’re rooting for them.

M.P.

50

Most Heartbreaking Loss

Ahmed Omar, chef-owner of Kismayo Kitchen, wasn’t beloved just by customers of the little restaurant he ran at the entrance to Burlington’s Intervale. He was also a highly respected member of the African diaspora and Muslim communities in northern Vermont.

Omar, who died unexpectedly in his sleep on August 13 at the age of 36, was known for his warmth, generosity and ambition. Everyone felt at home with his multicultural menu, ranging from Philly cheesesteaks to coconut chicken stew with rice from his native Somalia.

“He touched so many lives,” his friend Maryan Maalin said. “If you were new to

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

town, he would say, ‘Come, stop by, and I will give you free food.’”

Omar left behind a grieving family, including his wife, Anisa Mohamed, and their two young daughters. In the immediate aftermath of his death, it was unclear whether his restaurant would go on.

But on November 15, almost three months to the day after Omar’s death, Mohamed reopened Kismayo Kitchen with the help of family and friends. She did it to “keep his legacy going,” she said, and for their daughters.

“They told me, ‘Baba used to tell us this was going to be ours,’” Mohamed recalled her girls saying about their father. “‘You just run it for us ’til we can do it.’”

M.P.

Reporter Carolyn Shapiro spent more than six weeks working on a story investigating employee allegations of mismanagement at Burlington’s Citizen Cider around the launch of its Hey Bub light beer.

We published the resulting article on September 25 — the first news report on the controversy. Shapiro detailed how the marketing approach for the new beer — which included T-shirts with suggestive phrases, such as “Keep It Trimmed” and “Get Plowed” — made Citizen employees feel uncomfortable and unsafe at work.

More than a dozen eventually quit, “citing incidents related to the Hey Bub release and what they view as its offensive marketing,” Shapiro wrote.

Over the following weeks, online commentary snowballed, including videos and a boycott campaign encouraged and tracked by Burlington social media personality Jonny Wanzer. He cited additional anonymous complaints alleging a toxic working environment at Citizen Cider.

Wanzer’s first video on the subject was posted on October 11 on YouTube, where it has generated more than 21,000 views.

Several Vermont media outlets covered the growing boycott.

On October 18, Citizen Cider made its first public statement, announcing that it would bring in a third-party organization to evaluate its policies and practices and interview employees. On November 28, the company posted on social media that the external investigation had “helped us understand where we have fallen short” and pledged a “commitment to change.” Citizen said it had “taken down the shirts with innuendoes and acknowledge[d] that they made some of our employees feel unsafe,” among other actions.

The jury of public opinion is still out on whether Citizen Cider can get back into the community’s good graces — and back on the shelves of many locally owned retailers and restaurants that have removed it.

M.P.

Most Unexpected Shout-Out

Kale used to consider itself lucky to garnish the salad bar. But over the past decade or so, the leafy green has been promoted to the role of pleasantly palatable, nutritious vegetable.

This fall, Seven Days helped kale land a joke on national late-night TV — specifically, a shout-out on “Late Night With

MELISSA PASANEN

food+drink

CHEERS TO A HAPPY NEW YEAR

Massaged kale salad made with Lesbian Kale Sauce

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Seth Meyers

Seth Meyers” in an October 3 “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” segment.

Sure, Meyers credited only “a newspaper in Vermont.” But who else but us would publish a reader-requested recipe for “Lesbian Kale Sauce”?

Please watch Meyers work hard to keep a straight face while telling the joke on the show’s YouTube channel. Maybe we should whip him up a batch when he comes to Burlington to perform at the Flynn in February.

Most Extreme Reactions to an Article Subject

When I dove into the subject of lab-grown meat for an October 17 cover story about two University of Vermont mechanical engineers who are working on growing meat from cells extracted painlessly from live animals, I wouldn’t shut up about it.

The scientific, cultural, environmental and ethical questions involved in Rachael Floreani and Irfan Tahir’s research challenged and fascinated me, and I was curious about how others saw the trade-offs.

M.P. SWEET AND SOUR

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51

Might lab-grown meat feed a hungry, climate-changed world, I asked people, or would it contribute further to its demise?

Along with the UVM researchers, I talked with other scientists, chefs, farmers, philosophers, food systems experts and plain old eaters: omnivores, vegetarians and vegans.

Many believed in the potential benefits of meat grown off the hoof, so to speak, for the environment, animals and humans alike. Some were open to the idea but concerned about the Pandora’s box that such new technologies might open.

Then there were the nonmeat eaters and meat eaters alike who vowed they would never eat what they saw as highly processed Frankenfood. I was surprised by how many people expressed this revulsion, though I shouldn’t have been.

As I learned, the technological obstacles to scaling up to mass production of lab-grown meat are high. The number of “Ewwww” reactions made clear that the cultural obstacles may be just as formidable.

FANCY, MAJESTIC AND REVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENTS ARE RUMORED AROUND TOWN.

Biggest Holes

FILE: DARIA BISHOP

J.B.

52

Cindi Kozak and Jordan Ware

Arroz caldo and Filipino bánh mì at the soon-to-close Kuya's at One Main

M.P.

The Denny’s on Shelburne Road in South Burlington closed in November. Writing about chains isn’t our usual gig, but the loss of one of the state’s only 24-hour restaurants is a hole in the market worth mentioning.

Other restaurant closures left holes, too. Some are physical, like the stillempty ArtsRiot building, where a new vegan restaurant (part of an out-of-state chain) was promised and never materialized. Others are emotional, like the recent news that Filipino-fusion spot Kuya’s at One Main, a Randolph favorite, will close on December 30. That one hurts.

Some holes are more quickly filled.

Vermont Fine, which took over for the long-running Kitchen Table Bistro in Richmond, shuttered in July after nine months.

By September, the new Kitchen Table opened in the same historic brick building.

Adventure Dinner popped up at Peg & Ter’s, keeping things festive while we await news of the Shelburne restaurant’s future.

Other holes are uncertain. Will Deep City reopen? Or Philo Ridge Farm’s restaurant? Who’s gonna buy Church Street Tavern or El Gato Cantina’s Burlington spot? Is there anywhere to get a sit-down meal in Burlington after 11 p.m.?

MELISSA PASANEN

JORDAN BARRY

Sweet and Sour « P.51

Chris Johnson of Nomad Coffee

Most Anticipated for 2024

All that being said, we have plenty to look forward to in the coming year.

Fancy, majestic and revolutionary developments are rumored around town.

Longtime Hen of the Wood colleagues Cindi Kozak and Jordan Ware have started renovating the old Penny Cluse Café building for their new, approachable farm-to-table spot, Frankie’s. Meanwhile, the restaurant group owned by

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

Kozak and Ware’s former boss, Warnstedt, is developing a casual seafood restaurant, Original Skiff Fish + Oyster, for the Hilton Burlington Lake Champlain. Both projects anticipate a spring opening.

Nomad Coffee’s new owner, Chris Johnson, is planning a Church Street bakery in the former Red Onion Café space (talk about holes…). Up the street, we’re excited about Always Full

Asian Market’s second location. Elsewhere nearby, we’re ready for Switchback Brewing’s expanded taproom and restaurant, the full Specs experience in Winooski, and pizza and cocktails at Myer’s Wood Fired.

Finally, if you’ll grant us a wish: For the second year in a row, we’re begging somebody to please, please open a Jewish deli.

J.B.

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LIGHTS. LIFTS. ACTION. NEW LIFT, NIGHT SKIING, AND APRÈS-SKI. KICK OFF A SUPER SWEET SEASON AT THE BOWL! AND YEAH, WE’RE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

middleburysnowbowl.com SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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Gustatory Greats Our favorite bites and sips of 2023

B Y J ORDAN B ARRY & ME L IS S A PAS ANE N • jbarry@sevendaysvt.com, pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

FILE: JAMES BUCK

JORDAN BARRY

W

hen you eat and drink for work, you chase the new and newsworthy — and that’s what typically fills the pages of Seven Days’ food section. But we food writers also eat plenty of off-theclock meals at regular spots and old favorites. As we look back on everything we enjoyed over the course of the year, many of those dishes stand out, too — and not just to us.

This month, dishes at two of our old favorites ended up on other outlets’ year-end lists, bringing national recognition to the Burlington scene: Bon Appétit staff said the Café HOT.’s chicken-fried scrambled egg sandwich was “glorious,” and the New York Times fêted Honey Road’s halibut chraimeh special.

We wholeheartedly agree — and, in fact, marveled over the inventive chicken-fried egg in our “Twenty-One Yum Salute” last December.

Here are this year’s best-of lists from each of us, commemorating seven bites and sips that tickled our taste buds and reminded us that eating and drinking for work — or not! — is really freaking fun.

Watson Wheeler Cider

JORDAN BARRY

Pig-head terrine breakfast sandwich from Downhill Bread

Breakfast burrito and cortado at the Old Brick Store

Beguiled by Breakfast and Bread Pudding

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

Grass Cattle Company burger

Pretzel bread pudding at Short Notice

JORDAN BARRY

Turkish Breakfast tower, shakshouka, kale salad and boozy beverages at the Grey Jay

FILE: JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

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Wedge salad at Broken Hearts Burger

MELISSA PASANEN

I had a sweet year, but all of my best bites were savory. Sure, there were doughnuts and creemees — there always are. But the dishes that stuck with me skewed to the other end of the spectrum: salty, carby, wild and mostly meaty.

It takes quite a salad to beat out a doughnut. Both were highlights of a springtime meal at BROKEN HEARTS BURGER in Fairlee (well, everything was). But the WEDGE SALAD has invaded my psyche. The properly huge iceberg hunk had all the right elements, plus bonus touches such as a fistful of herbs and warm chunks of smoked pork belly.

The first time I went to the GREY JAY for brunch, I underestimated how much of the Burlington brunch spot’s menu I’d want to order. The towering TURKISH BREAKFAST was too big a move for two people with an already full table. Thankfully, I was able to go back — and back again — for the lavish

FILE: DARIA BISHOP

J.B.

food+drink

J.B.

Comfort Me With Chalupas and Chicken Hearts

Looking back over the year, I’m not surprised to see that my favorites lean toward the uncomplicated and the comforting, a gustatory tour of classics from the Green Mountains and around the globe.

At the risk of getting thrown out of Vermont, I must divulge that hazy double IPAs are not so much my thing. But the

FILE: JAMES BUCK

Breakfast sandwich and cider doughnut at Café NOA

FILE: JEB WALLACE-BROD

EUR

FILE: JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

CASK-PULLED HEADY TOPPER at the ALCHEMIST’s

Cask-pulled Heady Topper

MELISSA PASANEN

MELISSA PASANEN

MELISSA PASANEN

Creole shrimp with black beans, maduros and a mojito at Santiago's Cuban Cuisine

Saag paneer (top) at Aromas of India

FILE: DARIA BISHOP

stack of dips, jam, citrus, pickles, olives, deviled eggs, mana’eesh and simit.

I battled midday crowds at the Burlington Farmers Market over the summer to lunch on a grass-fed, fresh-grilled BURGER from GRASS CATTLE COMPANY — worth it! The regenerative Charlotte farm’s beef is the best around, and a juicy burger makes a great, if messy, market snack.

I grew up in Bennington County and have long lamented how the southwest corner of Vermont lags behind in the beverage world. Cue my surprise when, at a very fun tasting event organized by Eden Ciders, I met the founders of Shaftsbury’s WATSON WHEELER CIDER. They forage apples in the Green Mountain National Forest for their pét-nat style WILDMAN, named for a character in local lore. I’d risk disappearing on Glastenbury Mountain for a glass.

“Globally inspired small plates” are 2023’s “farm to table”: great when done right, but done a little too often. I was burned out on the whole concept when Randolph’s SHORT NOTICE smacked me across the face with a spot-on meal. The PRETZEL BREAD PUDDING with housemade bratwurst was German inspired, and frankly just inspired.

Since mid-October, I have eaten approximately two BREAKFAST BURRITOS per week from the revamped OLD BRICK STORE in Charlotte. I don’t plan to stop.

I do plan to spend more midweek mornings in Bristol, where the DOWNHILL BREAD team started whipping up BREAKFAST SANDWICHES at Tandem in November. On Wednesdays only, the microbakery sells classic bacon-egg-and-cheeses on its English muffins and, more importantly, a bonkers version made with seared pig-head terrine.

Grilled chicken heart skewers at Paradiso Hi-Fi

Mushroom chalupa from La Chapina

Burger at Waterworks Food + Drink

beer café in Stowe delivers an unexpectedly creamy, citrusy and still distinctively dank version of the state’s most beloved beer. Even I found it eminently crushable.

I headed to WATERWORKS FOOD + DRINK in Winooski to analyze the cost of the restaurant’s BURGER for our Money & Retirement Issue, not to eat it. But when they set the order down in front of me so that we could discuss all of its components — a halfpound of griddled beef sandwiched with thinly sliced red onion, American cheese, housemade pickles and Dijonnaise on a top-notch bun … I mean, it would have been wasteful not to dig in, right?

In June, I finally caught one of the tempting dinner pop-ups at Minifactory in Bristol. Wendy Girón, who owns a catering business called LA CHAPINA, was making Guatemalan CHALUPAS. Sturdy, oval, handmade tortillas were laden with tender braised meat or mushrooms, deeply seasoned beans, fresh guacamole, salsa with a polite kick, and Girón’s own cheese. These were my first chalupas; I hope to have many more.

The breakfast sandwich of housesmoked brisket on a housemade English muffin at CAFÉ NOA in Montpelier was excellent, but the from-scratch CIDER DOUGHNUTS, sweetened with equal parts maple syrup and sugar, nudged it off this list.

All I need to be transported away from cold, dark winter can be found at SANTIAGO’S CUBAN CUISINE in Burlington, where the ripe plantains called MADUROS are fried into the soft, caramelized food incarnation of a warm hug.

To fully experience the eclectic menu at PARADISO HI-FI on Burlington’s Pine Street, I recommend picking omnivorous dining companions who like to share. Our October party of five was entranced by the chewy yet tender grilled, SKEWERED CHICKEN HEARTS, reminiscent of Brazilian churrasco but paired unexpectedly with rich brown butter and fruity, tangy habanada peppers.

Nothing says classic comfort like Indian SAAG PANEER. The velvety, delicately spiced exemplar at AROMAS OF INDIA in Williston contained plentiful cubes of perfectly tooth-resistant fresh paneer and let the spinach flavor shine.

M.P.

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COURTESY OF KYLE TANSLEY

culture

Lighting the Way

FESTIVALS

New Year’s Eve celebrations to inspire a brighter 2024 B Y A NG EL A SI M PSON • angela@sevendaysvt.com

Highlight in Burlington

T

here’s something essentially human about marking milestones — looking back, taking stock and moving forward with the expectation that what’s ahead will be better than what’s behind. As early 18th-century poet and satirist Alexander Pope famously wrote, “Hope springs eternal.”

That’s all well and good, Alex, but we’re staring down 2024 here, and you never navigated a modern U.S. presidential election year. Hope and good cheer seem in short supply as we face political divisions, wars, racial inequity and climate change, among many other challenges, around the world and at home in Vermont.

But here’s the deal: For better or worse, we’re all in this together. Our problems arise from the people packed together on planet Earth — and the solutions will come from them, too. This New Year’s Eve, let’s usher in 2024 with as much of Pope’s hope as we can muster, and let’s do it together.

Our towns will be filled with makers, artists, musicians and other performers, ready to welcome the New Year with a bang — a literal bang of fireworks, in some cases. Burlington’s Highlight and St. Johnsbury’s First Night North are the two signature celebrations, but smaller parties are happening all over the state, too. From a roaring twenties-themed send-off in Greensboro to a kid-friendly countdown in Norwich, there are dozens of ways to join with your neighbors in revelry.

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The Fluffy Bus

Mal Maïz

The Nth Power

Spiritual Soundings

Will celebrating big on December 31 mean we’ll face the New Year with optimism, resolved to tackle 2024’s challenges with renewed vigor and fresh ideas? Here’s hoping.

HIGHLIGHT

Sunday, December 31, 11 a.m., to Monday, January 1, 12:30 a.m., at various locations in Burlington. Buttons are $15; free for kids 5 and under. highlight.community

Burlington celebrates its sixth year of

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

community-curated New Year’s Eve festivities, with many events crowdsourced through the Bright Ideas Project, funded

by VSECU, and coproduced by Burlington City Arts and Signal Kitchen. At more than 12 hours of programming along a walkable route of eight indoor and outdoor venues, partiers of all stripes can find their groove.

CIRCUS SMIRKUS sets a high bar for indoor fun with three shows at Burlington City Hall Auditorium before the venue transforms into Swiftie Central. She’s TIME

magazine’s Person of the Year for a reason, so count on the TAYLOR SWIFT ERAS TOUR DANCE PARTY to be a crowd magnet, with DJ LOVE DOCTOR running through the record-setting tour’s full three-hour set list on vinyl.

At Waterfront Park, CIRQUE DE FUEGO follows a jaw-dropping fire show with a crowd-favorite tradition: a controlled burn of a Champ effigy, designed by sculptor CHRIS CLEARY. It’s a symbolic sayonara to the outgoing year.

Those performances are what BCA communications director John Flanagan calls “obvious blockbusters,” but he encourages revelers to check out other “more understated goings-on,” such as the ILLUMINATED SCULPTURE GARDEN by artists CLAY MOHRMAN and PHOEBE LO at Waterfront Park and SPECTER, a series of glowing orbs around town created by artist PETE EDWARDS. The interactive spheres invite you to speak your hopes for the future — or anything you feel like telling them, really — and they’ll respond through light.

Need to catch your breath? Don’t miss Spiritual Soundings: Woodland Echoes at BCA Center. Scrag Mountain Music founder and co-artistic director EVAN PREMO and flutist MICHAEL LAUGHING FOX CHARETTE of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa perform an ambient-style musical meditation that invites deep listening and connection.

A few other Highlight highlights: BIG GAY NEW YEAR at ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain; SKYLARK, chamber music paired with poetry, at the First Unitarian Universalist Society; MAKE-AND-TAKE ART ACTIVITIES at BCA Center; illuminated artmobile the FLUFFY BUS and live music from psychedelic Latin masters MAL MAÏZ, indie rocker GREG FREEMAN and soul/funk/ blues outfit the NTH POWER at Waterfront Park; and family-friendly sets at VERMONT COMEDY CLUB. Break out your noisemaker, put on your big plastic 2024 glasses and don’t miss the 8 p.m. waterfront fireworks!

FIRST NIGHT NORTH

Sunday, December 31, 3 p.m. to midnight, at various locations in St. Johnsbury.

Buttons are $15-50; free for preschoolers. catamountarts.org/first-night-north

The merrymaking starts an hour earlier than usual this year at First Night North, possibly because organizers needed extra time to fit in more than 175 performers at nearly 70 shows popping up all around St. Johnsbury.

If you’re an early bird who won’t make it to midnight, Vermont’s longest-running New Year’s Eve festival offers plenty of front-loaded options to prevent FOMO. If you’re ready to party ’til the ball drops,

Bryan Blanchette

OTHER WAYS TO WELCOME 2024

TOWNS WILL BE FILLED WITH MAKERS, ARTISTS, MUSICIANS AND OTHER PERFORMERS,

HIGHLAND NYE MASQUERADE: THE ROARING ’20S: A Prohibition-era

READY TO WELCOME THE NEW YEAR WITH A BANG.

bash — but with plenty of cocktails.

Sunday, December 31, 8 p.m.-midnight, at Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro. $30. Info, 533-2000, highlandartsvt.org.

LAST NIGHT FIREWORKS IN TAYLOR PARK: An ooh-and-ahh-inspiring

display of lights to send 2023 on its way. Sunday, December 31, 7 p.m., at Taylor Park in St. Albans. Free. Info, 524-1500, facebook.com/downtownst. albans.

NEW YEAR’S EVE AT GRIZZLY’S: Live

music, fireworks and a Champagne toast for the 21-plus crowd. Sunday, December 31, 8 p.m., at Grizzly’s at the Base Lodge in Stratton. $40. Info, 297-4371, stratton.com.

NEW YEAR’S AT NOON: A morning of

activities geared toward families with kids through age 12, with countdown celebrations every hour until noon.

Sunday, December 31, 9:30 a.m.-noon, at the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich. $11 for members; $15 for nonmembers; free for children under 2.

Info, 649-2200, montshire.org.

NEW YEAR’S EVE WITH MIHALI: Family-friendly fun featuring reggae singer-songwriter Mihali and an early Champagne toast countdown. Sunday, December 31, 7:30 p.m., at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. $20-40. Info, 382-9222, townhalltheater.org.

‘OH WHAT A NIGHT’: A museum

fundraiser with music by Route 5 Jive, dinner and desserts, a Champagne toast, and a bonfire. Sunday, December 31, 8 p.m., at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction. $35. Info, 356-2776, mainstreetmuseum.org.

COURTESY OF CATAMOUNT ARTS

there’s a MIDNIGHT DANCE PARTY on Main Street, where ribbon-twirling revelers count down to the raising of the giant Ball of Lights. That’s right: In St. J, the massive ball — built at the Foundry makerspace and larger than the one in New York City’s Times Square — goes up.

ALYX THE MAGICIAN kicks things off with a 3 p.m. show at the St. Johnsbury School before joining the on-site FAMILY FUN FAIR. She’ll continue to perform strolling tricks while families check out crafts, a snake exhibit and an obstacle course.

Care for some music? Take your pick from more than a dozen genres. Artists include father-daughter folk duo the BOB & SARAH AMOS BAND at United Community Church, world music guitarist HIROYA TSUKAMOTO at St. Andrew ’s Episcopal Church, Abenaki singersongwriter BRYAN BLANCHETTE at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum and traditional Celtic group ISLAY MIST CEILIDH at South Church Hall.

Circus arts collective CIRQUE US joins the lineup for the first time with a highspirited performance — key word: high.

The troupe needed an indoor venue that would accommodate its soaring acrobatics, so aerialists, jugglers and clowns will let loose in the lofty St. Johnsbury School gym.

Other headliners include musicianpoet TOUSSAINT ST. NEGRITUDE, storyteller DJELI, martial arts-dance fusion outfit DIDÊ CAPOEIRA VT, the UNITED COMMUNITY HANDBELL ENSEMBLE and high school a cappella stars the St. Johnsbury Academy HILLTONES. Nine straight hours of action means you’ll likely need to refuel at some point. Your indoor pop-up and outdoor food truck options are vast, including pancakes; steamed pork buns; mac and cheese; Cuban, Filipino and Puerto Rican specialties; and fresh-made doughnuts.

Free shuttles run in continuous 15-minute loops among the dozen venues, so check the schedule and plan your itinerary — or hop on and off spontaneously and see what surprises await. ➆

First Night North in St. Johnsbury

Djeli

A TOAST TO THE HIVE: NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY!: A raw bar, special cocktails,

small plates, dancing to live music and a DJ, and a midnight toast. Sunday, December 31, 6 p.m.-midnight, at Barr Hill in Montpelier. $20-25; free for kids 18 and under. Info, 472-8000, sevendaystickets.com.

Alyx the Magician

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

Hiroya Tsukamoto

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on screen Getting Meta

A film critic recaps the year in film and criticism B Y M ARG OT HAR RI S ON • margot@sevendaysvt.com

COURTESY OF POP. 87 PRODUCTIONS/FOCUS FEATURES

D

o movie critics still have a purpose? That’s the question that kept intruding as I compiled my year-end roundup of the films I saw in 2023. When anyone can praise or eviscerate a movie online, does being a publication’s official critic mean anything?

The question came up in connection with the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes that rocked Hollywood this year, putting many productions on hold as the creatives behind them demanded fair treatment from a rapidly changing industry.

The strikes were resolved in September and November, respectively. While they lasted, however, union members did not promote their own work, and a few critics took to social media to ask whether reviewing films such as Barbie might also be considered crossing the picket line.

The answer was no, according to an FAQ published in Variety in July: “Critics are not on strike and are not obligated to stop reviewing movies or TV shows.” But the question was dicier for film “influencers,” some of whom are paid by studios to promote movies and “work under the SAG-AFTRA Influencer Agreement.”

Who are these influencers, anyway?

According to an August 15 New York Times story, the most popular film commentators on TikTok “can reach an audience of millions and earn tens of thousands of dollars per post.” And they don’t like to be called “critics.”

“I just don’t see myself in that light,” the story quoted one influencer as saying. “A lot of us don’t trust critics,” another said.

Several described traditional critics as snobbish or out of touch with the mainstream. Some said they prefer to keep their harsher critiques to themselves. Many make a living from their work, which is increasingly rare among traditional critics.

(Note to any reader tempted to tell me to “Get a real job”: I’m an editor who reviews movies on the side.)

Old-school critics may feel inclined to dismiss these influencers — especially the ones who hype movies for pay, putting

Asteroid City

REVIEWS

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with a shred of originality, even if casual moviegoers would consider it boring or a downer. Rather than going to the movies to escape, critics go hoping to have their interest piqued by something new.

Of course, we all have personal tastes and histories that affect how we see movies. Even to me, a part-time critic who doesn’t attend the big festivals, the Times critics’ picks seemed a little rarefied: Few of those films will play in Vermont theaters at all.

But I don’t think we need to feel slighted by prominent critics who choose to champion movies we haven’t seen.

Personally, I take their “best of ” lists as recommendations for future streaming.

And if they dismiss the movies I love, I give their arguments a fair hearing until it’s time to channel the Dude in The Big Lebowski: “Yeah, well, y’know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.”

There’s room for a lot of opinions about art in this world — so much room that sometimes we can even appreciate those with which we disagree. Here are some of the opinions I had about movies this year.

COURTESY OF A24 FILMS

Breakout performance

Priscilla

themselves outside the bounds of journalism. But it’s harder to dismiss the claim that critics are “out of touch,” because many moviegoers agree.

Earlier this month, the Times published its various critics’ best-of-2023 lists — followed by a compilation of readers’ unhappy responses to those lists. Many commenters objected to the omission of Barbie from the top 10 films, for instance; others spoke up for Anatomy of a Fall and The Holdovers. I was particularly struck by a comment from Brian Seifert of Cincinnati, who offered an astute take on why critics and audiences might disagree:

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

Critics see a lot of junk, so they like the intense, quality-issue movies that come along. Average people deal with a lot of junk, so they like lighter entertainment to escape and relax. The two groups have never been farther apart.

While I’ve never been a big fan of “lighter entertainment,” I agree that the more movies you see, the more you demand from them. The occasional action blockbuster is escapist fun. But when you see similar movies week after week after week, you come to know their standard beats so well that you would rather see anything

Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is an epic exploration of the evil that men do. But it’s Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart, the Osage woman who has the bad luck to wed Leonardo DiCaprio’s scheming protagonist, who walks away with the film. Even when she’s silent, her presence speaks volumes. Witness also Gladstone’s starring role in The Unknown Country, an indie film released on video on demand this year, in which she plays a grieving woman on a revelatory road trip.

Closest Vermont came to Hollywood

The cast and crew of Beetlejuice 2 came to East Corinth over the summer, making it the first big Hollywood movie to shoot in Vermont in decades. But we’ll have to wait for next fall to see the final product.

Meanwhile, the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival screened Joonam, an absorbing, intimate documentary shot in Bristol about director Sierra Urich’s relationship with her Iranian-born mother

COURTESY OF IFC FILMS

and grandmother. (It’s not streaming yet, but catch it at the Woodstock Vermont Film Series in February.)

Landscape With Invisible Hand, a flawed but fascinating adaptation of the satirical novel by Vermont author M.T. Anderson, opened and closed quickly in theaters. (Stream it on MGM+.)

Celine Song’s poignant relationship drama Past Lives, recipient of five Golden Globe nominations, also has a local link: Native Vermonter and Middlebury College grad Ben Kahn served as its first assistant director.

As for Paint, the comedy starring Owen Wilson as a Bob Ross knockoff who lives in Vermont and exudes crunchy-granola vibes — well, let’s just say its brushstrokes were a little too broad.

Most quotable screenplay

French legal drama Anatomy of a Fall kept me guessing with its twisty screenplay that jumps from language to language.

Dream Scenario and Maestro have some great lines. But let’s be honest: No screenplay from 2023 will be quoted as often as Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s for Barbie. You can certainly critique America Ferrera’s monologue about the double binds of modern womanhood — countless social media pundits already have. But this shockingpink satire touched a nerve.

Paint

Least boring biopics

Best aesthetics

COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. PICTURES

I’m encouraged to see more filmmakers exploring the less endearing sides of their famous subjects. In Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan created a cautionary tale about pursuing knowledge for its own sake and then recoiling from the consequences. Bradley Cooper’s Maestro is a love letter to Leonard Bernstein and to his talented and long-suffering wife, Felicia Montealegre, that doesn’t gloss over the difficulties of their partnership.

Streaming-only films most deserving of a theatrical release

No One Will Save You (Hulu) is an inventively crafted alien invasion movie that would look great on the big screen.

Its creator argues it belongs where it is, though, and he may have a point — the protagonist is an introvert homebody, like so many of us streaming fans. How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Hulu, rentable) is a nail-biting eco-thriller that would have been great fun to experience with a crowd.

Barbie

Streaming-only film least deserving of a theatrical release

COURTESY OF A24 FILMS

These days, when a movie isn’t part of an already-popular franchise, the easiest way to sell it is to hope it becomes a viral meme — a story or character concept so irresistible that influencers publicize it for free. Cocaine Bear had its moments.

But the CGI critter couldn’t compete with the murderous acrobat/songstress/ AI-enhanced doll who cavorted her way through M3GAN.

I wish Asteroid City were a cake so I could eat it. Seriously — rarely has a film been more delectably designed than Wes Anderson’s whimsical comedy set in a sun-washed, UFO-ridden desert. Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla captured a different but also toothsome vision of midcentury, pearly-white and practically pulsing with teenage alienation.

Most riveting performance

We saw engrossing work from many actors this year: the aforementioned Gladstone, Moore in May December, Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers, Cailee Spaeny in Priscilla, Jeffrey Wright in American Fiction, Cooper and Carey Mulligan in Maestro, Thomasin McKenzie in Eileen, Ryan Gosling in Barbie. But I have to give it to Sandra Hüller as a German writer accused of murdering her husband in Anatomy of a Fall. Transparent and cryptic at once, she keeps transforming before our eyes.

Best film

Netflix’s Leave the World Behind did have a brief theatrical release in larger markets, but I’m glad I didn’t see it that way. This apocalyptic fable with a stellar cast ended up being heavy-handed and interminable.

Best meme movie

actor researching for the role of a genteel southern matron (Julianne Moore) with a shocking tabloid history. Their uneasy interactions are rich in insights about the vexing line between fiction and reality.

Beau Is Afraid

Most meta movie

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse used dozens of different animation styles as vehicles for witty commentary on the nature of comic-book storytelling. Reality turned a found audio recording into gripping drama and an investigation of what reality means to us, anyway. Dream

Scenario used Nicolas Cage (who else?) as a metaphor for internet virality. Both Killers of the Flower Moon and Asteroid City nodded self-consciously to their own artifice.

But my favorite movie about moviemaking was Todd Haynes’ May December, in which Natalie Portman plays an

Among the films I haven’t yet had the chance to see are Poor Things, Rustin, The Zone of Interest, The Taste of Things, The Color Purple, Napoleon, and The Boy and the Heron. Those aside, I’ve already pointed out many fine films of 2023 that I think have broad appeal. Now I will make an unabashedly subjective pick, one that you should perhaps take as a recommendation only if you are a Franz Kafka superfan who enjoys seeing other people’s paranoid imaginings play out in surreal screen epics. Yes, I’m talking about Beau Is Afraid, one of the most anxietyridden movies ever made.

Now, go forth and complain that critics are out of touch. If I inspired you to sing the praises of your own favorites, I’ve done my job. ➆

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art

Art Counts Our top 10 Vermont exhibitions of 2023

C

ompiling annual top-10 lists is a treat, because it allows us to recall the myriad art shows we enjoyed throughout the year. On the other hand, it’s achingly difficult to whittle the options to 10. Every month, our calendar is packed with exhibitions to visit all around the state. Shout-out to the artists, curators, venues and supporters that make this possible. You rock.

Maintaining an art gallery is itself as much art form as business. In 2023 we welcomed four new ones: Hexum Gallery in Montpelier, Conant Square Gallery in Brandon, the Phoenix in Waterbury and Bryan Fine Art Gallery in Stowe. Sadly, we bid farewell to Northern Daughters in Vergennes, where for seven-plus years Justine Jackson and Sophie Pickens mounted excellent, eclectic exhibitions.

We were also saddened by the misfortune that literally rained down on several Vermont art institutions in July. Flooding damaged the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, the Vermont Arts Council and Supreme Court buildings in Montpelier, and Studio Place Arts in Barre, among others. Kudos to all who have helped with recovery.

Our list of favorite art shows comes with two caveats: The selected exhibitions had to appear in a Vermont gallery and receive a full review in this paper.

Here they are, in chronological order, with a brief description and quote from the review. ➆

BY PAME L A P O L S TO N • ppolston@sevendaysvt.com

“Cameron Davis: Poetic Ecologies” Vermont Supreme Court Gallery, Montpelier

This was a gorgeous solo exhibit of mixedmedia paintings that are loosely tethered to botany and in which Davis explores the web of life with spiritual curiosity and extraordinary skill. Her relationships to both Earth and art are empathic; many of her dense compositions have an ethereal inner glow, beckoning like a secret or a portal.

What we said: “Her artistic process creates multiple spaces — perhaps multiple realities — within a single painting.”

“Daniel Callahan: En-MassQ” Brattleboro Museum & Art Center

The Boston multimedia artist presented large, close-up photos of somber faces — many of them his own — hand-painted 60

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

“Starburst MassQ” by Daniel Callahan

art

in a variety of unique patterns he calls MassQs. Inspired by face-adorning rituals from many cultures, Callahan seeks not to conceal but to uncover the person’s identity and state of being in the moment. To observers, his subjects acquired a fierce authenticity.

What we said: “The results are arresting and often quite beautiful.”

Kate Burnim, “Liminal Arc” Vermont Supreme Court Gallery, Montpelier

The Montpelier artist’s enigmatic figurative paintings reveal her fascination with in-between spaces — not just physical but temporal, psychological and emotional. She even shifts direction within a single painting, producing fragmented but profoundly expressive compositions.

Though deeply immersed in the process of art making, Burnim also seems to focus on the storytelling potential of her works.

What we said: “The commonality of her paintings here — liminal space — invites viewers to envision their own.”

“Susan Rothenberg” Hall Art Foundation, Reading

This exhibition was originally scheduled for 2020 and postponed because of the pandemic. Sadly, in the interim, Rothenberg died at age 75.

For Vermont gallerygoers, the survey of nearly 30 drawings and paintings — spanning her career from 1974 to 2012 — was a rare treat. Most of Rothenberg’s paintings are immense and contain illusive figurative elements — human, equine or puppet — within a field of explosive brushwork. Her canvases are confounding in the best way.

What we said: “Rothenberg’s compositions transcend the strictures of the rectangular canvas and viewers’ expectations of perspective.”

Denis Versweyveld, “Still Life” Axel’s Frame Shop & Gallery, Waterbury

Versweyveld’s white sculptures and muted works on paper presented a master class in understatement, as well as a welcome calm. His carved or cast objects, which are coated with plaster, milk paint or limewash, are homey shapes: teapots, bottles, pears, eggs. Situated

Clockwise from top left: “Encounter” by Cameron Davis; “Repair” by Kate Birnim; “The Master” by Susan Rothenberg; “Eagle” by Nicholas Galanin ("A Place of Memory"); “Tin Can” by Denis Versweyveld

throughout Axel’s light-filled quarters, they were both unobtrusive and very much present. His paintings and drawings, too — more pears, more receptacles — brilliantly and quietly give voice to the special in the ordinary.

vanessa german. Following the Tlingit tradition, Nicholas Galanin’s photographs and mask are more austere and minimal.

Though leavened with humor, this exhibit was a defiant celebration of Indigenous creativity.

What we said: “His work makes itself known with a whisper, never a shout.”

What we said: “The Current presents visitors with ancestral legacies and cultural perspectives to take home and ponder.”

“A Place of Memory” The Current, Stowe

This provocative exhibition had a serious mission. Its artists reclaim their ancestral stories, rejecting white-dominated perspectives in favor of authentic cultural expressions. The artworks were aesthetically and conceptually engaging, particularly the wildly inventive assemblages of Nyugen E. Smith and

Terry Ekasala, Rick Harlow, Craig Stockwell, “Nor’easter” Bundy Modern, Waitsfield

These three established artists have paint, abstraction and geography in common but distinct aesthetic expressions. Their largescale paintings suited the grandeur of the ART COUNTS

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

» P.62 61

art DEC. 27-JAN. 10 high-ceilinged gallery and magnetized viewers at eye level. Ekasala’s canvases hint at representation, but more engaging is her intuitive handling of color and form. Harlow’s vibratory paintings seem nearly monochromatic but dissolve into thousands of multicolored specks as the viewer draws nearer. Stockwell’s installation references the real-life dangers of Mount Washington in figurative drawings and text, bookending these with colorful geometric abstractions. This exhibit was a stimulating meeting of the intuitive, the linear and the cosmic.

What we said: “Viewers could reap mind-bending rewards.”

Aurora Robson, “Human Nature Walk” Brattleboro Museum & Art Center

Driven by the millions of tons of plastic items produced each year, and that find their way to landfills, oceans and even human bloodstreams, Robson turns the stuff into inventive sculptures. Dozens of her freestanding, wallhung or suspended sculptures transform the large front gallery (the exhibit is still on view). Cut, shredded, frilled and molded from a variety of erstwhile functional plastic items, they suggest exotic sea creatures, flowers, fungi or microorganisms. The artist invited the public to bring in plastic lids, which she organized by color and arranged in shallow, waterdrop-shaped bins around the room. Robson’s installation is as motivational as it is fantastical.

What we said: “One wall piece, constructed of white packing straps, is like a weaving gone rogue.”

“Tossed: Art From Discarded, Found and Repurposed Materials” Middlebury College Museum of Art

The staggering amount of detritus in the world was also the impetus for this exhibition, which featured throwaway

COURTESY OF ERIN JENKINS

Art Counts « P.61

Clockwise from top: “Backyard” by Terry Ekasala; detail of “Human Nature Walk” installation by Aurora Robson; detail of “Listening, You See” by Bunny Harvey, featured in “Traces”; “No. 382 of the Poly S. Tyrene Memorial Maritime Museum” by Duke Riley, featured in “Tossed”

objects transformed by artists around the globe. Though not a new theme, it has admittedly generated ingenious and often spectacular artworks. One showstopper in “Tossed” was “Hovor,” by renowned Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui. A tapestry constructed of crumpled liquor bottle caps and copper wire, it was draped along one wall and glimmered softly. Longtime exhibition designer Ken Pohlman took a turn as curator, and his expertise was evident. Other works included a gasoline container that mimics a Yoruba mask, jugs painted to resemble scrimshaw and an owl sculpture fashioned from rusted wire.

What we said: “Despite its delicacy, the drawing makes clear who is responsible for this single-use plastic item.”

“Traces” Kents’ Corner State Historic Site, Calais

Visitors to the annual “Art at the Kent” show typically comment on the creative curation of Allyson Evans and Nel Emlen.

And for good reason: After 16 years, they’re deeply familiar with every wavy-paned window, unusual door, fireplace and wall texture. The women thoughtfully place works by Vermont artists not only throughout the 19th-century building

GET YOUR ART SHOW LISTED HERE AND ONLINE!

PROMOTING AN ART EXHIBIT? SUBMIT THE INFO AND IMAGES BY FRIDAY AT NOON AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT OR ART@SEVENDAYSVT.COM.

62

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

VISUAL ART IN SEVEN DAYS:

ART LISTINGS ARE WRITTEN BY PAMELA POLSTON. LISTINGS ARE RESTRICTED TO ART SHOWS IN TRULY PUBLIC PLACES.

= ONLINE EVENT OR EXHIBIT

FIND ALL ART SHOWS + EVENTS AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/ART

but outdoors, too. This year’s 23-artist iteration seemed particularly lively, with a simpatico proximity of colors, shapes, mediums and subject matter.

The exhibit also offered interactive items that invited hands-on engagement. In the atmospheric Kent, history mingles companionably with contemporary art.

What we said: “Together, the two meticulously wrought objects form an exclamation point.”

INFO To read or reread all art reviews online, go to sevendaysvt.com, click on the Arts + Culture tab and select Art Reviews.

But wait, there’s more!

93

additional art listings are on view at sevendaysvt.com/art.

Find all the calls to artists, ongoing art shows and future events online.

OPENINGS + RECEPTIONS ANDY WARHOL: “Small is beautiful,” a retrospective of more than 100 small-format paintings from the Hall Collection that span the artist’s career.

Also on view: outdoor sculptures by world-renowned artists. Limited weekend hours. Hall Art Foundation, Reading, January 6-February 25. Info, vermont@hallartfoundation.org.

CARA ARMSTRONG: “Everyday Alchemy,” digital drawings by the director of the School of Architecture + Art at Norwich University. Reception: Friday, January 12, 5-7:30 p.m. T.W. Wood Gallery, Montpelier, January 3-20. Info, 262-6035.

MICHAEL GAC LEVIN: “Yellow Brick Road,” paintings about parents, parenthood and reflections on mortality. Closing reception: Friday, January 5, 4-8 p.m. Hexum Gallery, Montpelier, through January 12. Info, hexumgallery@gmail.com.

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2024 Biz Buzz Evenings

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See who’s hiring at jobs.sevendaysvt.com.

1/31

Burlington

WEDNESDAY

3/27

Brattleboro Showcase

WEDNESDAY

3/28

STONE CHURCH AT 5:30PM

Waitsfield

THURSDAY

FIREFOLK ARTS AT 5:30PM

4/3

White River Junction

WEDNESDAY

PUTNAM’S VINEYARD AT 5:30PM

4/4

‘WARP & WEFT’: Works in textile, collage, print and mixed media by Jasmine Parsia, Emma Warren, Hannah Morris, Elise Whittemore, Karen Cygnarowicz, Carleen Zimbalatti and Rachel Laundon. Reception: Friday, January 5, 5-9 p.m., with live music from Cleary/Gagnon/Saulnier Jazz Trio. The Phoenix, Waterbury, January 5-March 29. Info, joseph@ thephoenixvt.com.

Rise of the Valkryies

FOAM BREWERS AT 5:30PM

Waterbury

THURSDAY

4/17

STONE’S THROW AT 5:30PM

Bristol

WEDNESDAY

5/8

HOGBACK BREWERY AT 5:30PM

Waitsfield

WEDNESDAY

LAWSON’S FINEST AT 5:00PM

Full schedule at vtwomenpreneurs.com

ART EVENTS ‘DANCE! PAINT! WRITE!: A workshop that includes movement, painting and writing while listening to an inspirational soundtrack; open to teens and adults of all mobility and skill levels.

In person or via Zoom. Expressive Arts Burlington, Tuesday, January 2 6:30-9 p.m., and Wednesday, January 3, 9:30 a.m.-noon. $25 per session. Info, 343-8172.

OPEN STUDIO: A guided meditation, an hour of art making in any modality or genre, and a share-and-witness process. No experience required.

Many materials available. Expressive Arts Burlington, Thursday, January 4, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Donations. Info, 343-8172.

8v-jobfiller-career2021.indd 1

7/30/218v-VTWomenpreneurs122723 1:54 PM

1

JAN 4

BLAKE WEXLER

JAN 11

CASEY BALSHAM

JAN 12 & 13

LIZ GLAZER

JAN

12/18/23 5 & 6 1:02 PM

TINA FRIML

JAN 26 & 27

JAN 31

SARA SCHAEFER

STEVEN ROGERS

ARTISTS TALK: ‘SELDOM SEEN’: Featured artists wrap up their shared exhibit with a discussion: Fran Bull, Carolyn Shattuck, Tom Merwin, Sandy Mayo, Joan Curtis, Bob Hooker and Dorothea Langevin. Conant Square Gallery, Brandon, Saturday, January 6, 4:30-5:30 p.m. Free. Info, 558-0874. ➆

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63

COURTESY OF TODD OWYOUNG/NBC

music+nightlife Tina Friml on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”

S UNDbites News and views on the local music + nightlife scene

Mark Ransom

B Y CHRI S FARNSWO RT H

Rearview Mirror: Looking Back at 2023

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, it’s time to look back at the year in Vermont music.

It’s been a strange one, but considering how weird the preceding two years were, maybe we should just call 2023 as close to normal as we’re going to get anymore?

First and foremost, we said a lot of goodbyes, both to cherished musicians and to some of the scene’s most beloved institutions. In particular, a storied generation of Burlington rockers took a hit this year with the deaths of some of the most influential Vermont musicians of the past four decades.

Bassist MARK RANSOM died in the final week of 2022, but it would prove to be a 64

harbinger of sorts. His longtime friends and sometime bandmates through the years, JIM MCGINNISS and BRUCE MCKENZIE (see “Life Stories” on page 36), died months later. Those three played a big part in establishing the Burlington music scene we know today, with pioneering bands such as the N-ZONES, PINE ISLAND, SAMBATUCADA, the MERCURIES, the X-RAYS and CHROME COWBOYS. Ransom and McGinniss were top-notch bass players; drummer McKenzie was dubbed “the CHARLIE WATTS of Burlington” by no less an authority than Vermont drum guru JEFF SALISBURY. The three musicians’ excellence can be heard on their bands’ assorted albums, EPs and singles — though, to be honest, there’s a tragic shortage of

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

recorded material from that late ’70s and early ’80s era of Burlington music. Yet their impact went far beyond the songs they wrote or recorded. At a memorial show for Ransom at the Higher T RY E AW UK Ground Ballroom in South :L E L FI Burlington earlier in the year, an entire generation of local musicians reunited, reconnected or just reminisced about lost friends. They also played songs not heard on local stages in decades. There were tears but plenty of laughs, as well.

It’s hard not to feel like a specific time in our city’s music

history is slipping away. That’s natural: Time moves on, new kids pick up instruments and form bands, and the cycle continues. I wouldn’t have it any other way. But I hope both longtime local music fans and our younger crop of musicians take some time to not only remember but listen to the work of musicians like Ransom, McGinniss and McKenzie, who put so much of themselves into the DNA of Burlington’s music scene.

The Vermont scene in general had some big breakthroughs this year.

Strafford native NOAH KAHAN continued his meteoric rise, releasing singles with POST MALONE and KACEY MUSGRAVES before he was nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy. He joins U.S. Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) and Jericho’s ERIN BENTLAGE in getting recognition from the Recording Academy — the former for his latest audiobook, It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism, and the latter for her work with the vocal group SÄJE. Brattleboro rockers THUS LOVE pushed on as well, touring the UK with British indie rockers DRY CLEANING and releasing the excellent single “Centerfield.” They also headlined a new festival created by the folks at Brattleboro’s Stone Church called Field Day, a very welcome addition to the Green Mountain music fest lineup.

Why is it so welcome, you ask?

Well, along with ABBIE MORAN and the Wallflower Collective’s Big Gay Block Party held in September, Field Day was a rare positive in the festival category, as many of the state’s tentpole events either folded in 2023 or were significantly downsized.

The Burlington Discover Jazz Festival sliced its usual 10-day run in half — though big sets from KAMASI WASHINGTON and SAMARA JOY helped alleviate any sore feelings.

And the annual Waking Windows fest in Winooski found itself in transition. Though it was never officially canceled, the fest was much smaller and more focused on local music this year.

GRACE POTTER’s Grand Abbie Moran Point North throwdown disappeared altogether, with the singer admitting in an interview with yours truly that its chances of returning aren’t great.

Collectively, it still feels like we’re coming back from the Great

CHRIS FARNSWORTH

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reads, “We will keep you posted about what’s to come when we know more.

We miss you already but we’ll be back as soon as we can.” Let’s hope it’s not too long!

For all the adversity, there was plenty to be excited about. Higher Ground and Burlington hot spots Radio Bean and Foam Brewers all celebrated their birthdays with gusto and big nights of local music. The Stone Church launched Grrrls to the Front, an initiative to train and facilitate more women working in the music biz. Kahan played “Saturday Night Live” only weeks after comedian and native Vermonter TINA FRIML performed on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and Spotify tried to trick everyone into moving to Burlington.

Here’s to 2024! May it be a fruitful year for the arts, may we finally get something to fill the ArtsRiot-size hole on Burlington’s Pine Street, may we get new albums from fresh faces — and please, please, no more concerts over Zoom. Come what may, keep an eye (and ear) on this space. You know we’ll be watching and listening.

On the Beat Charlie-O’s World Famous after July’s flooding

Interruption of the pandemic in some ways. Musicians are trying to figure out how to make a living playing music in a swiftly changing landscape while dealing with new dangers, like venues taking cuts from bands’ merchandise sales.

That’s less of an issue in Vermont than in other places. But local venues have had to grapple with issues of their own. Soaring insurance rates cast doubt on whether some bars would be able to operate in Vermont at all. The state legislature had to get involved in order to keep Vermont bars and nightclubs open, passing a bill over the summer addressing the massive cost of liquor liability insurance.

It wasn’t money woes but historic flooding that scuttled summer shows at many central Vermont venues.

Along with scores of local businesses and homes, bars such as Montpelier dive extraordinaire Charlie-O’s World Famous and Gusto’s in Barre were flooded and closed, along with beloved Montpeculiar store Buch Spieler Records. I’m not sure I can recall a more grim scene in my time as music editor than walking through the Capital City and seeing the hulking Grace Potter collections of soaking refuse piled up on the streets.

After some hard months of cleanup, venues such as Bent Nails Bistro and Hugo’s in Montpelier and Moog’s Joint in Morrisville are back up and running, thankfully.

Charlie-O’s couldn’t catch a break, though. After suffering some fire damage in October, it remains closed.

A message on the bar’s Facebook page

LiveAtNectars.com

SAT 12.30

Harmonies For Courage: Benefit for Veterans

w/ Grippo Funk Band SUN 12.31

Diva Dynasty Countdown:

New Years Tribute to the

Women of Funk and Groove TUE 1.9

PRESENTED BY FIDDLEHEAD

Grateful Tuesdays w/ Dobbs’ Is Dead

WED 1.10

FREE

Wed. Nectar’s Comedy Show FRI 1.12

Double You w/ Turtle Logic SAT 1.13

Dead To The Core FRI 1.19

Good Gravy SAT 1.20

Brownstein Family Band w/ Marc (the Disco Biscuits), Jake (Eggy), Zach (Jon Anderson)

WED 1.24

Mr. Mota THUR 1.25

Mono Means One feat. John Ferrara w/ Lara Cwass

Remember the Advance Music Acoustic Singer/Songwriter Contest? The downtown Burlington music shop, now named Music & Arts, used to hold a yearly showdown for the area’s singer-songwriters, which rewarded the winners with recording time. The contest ended its 21-year run in 2019, but singer-songwriter DAVID KARL ROBERTS and the Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge are bringing it back, baby!

Starting on January 16 and running until the finals on March 5, the Emerging Songwriter Contest calls for hopefuls to play a 15-minute set of original music on an acoustic instrument (no showing up with Marshall stacks, people). They will be scored by a rotating cast of judges — including me.

That’s right, I’ll chase musicians down outside the paper to review them! No escape, motherfuckers.

First place in the contest gets a full day of recording, mixing and mastering at Tank Recording Studio in Burlington; second gets a booked show at Venetian; and third takes home a $100 gift certificate from Music & Arts. So get that guitar out of the closet, dust off your breakup anthem and sign up at venetiansodalounge.com/contest. ➆

FRI 1.26

Annie in the Water w/Fungkshui SAT 1.27

The Full Cleveland THUR 2.1

Burning Monk & PREECE play Green Day

FRI 12.29

herodose SAT 12.30

Emo Night NYEE w/ Malachi SUN 12.31

DJ Svpply's NYE Bash SAT 1.13

Jason Bason SUN 1.14

Sunday Night Mass w/ Kevin Knapp AQUA, KANGANADE , B-GUNN, Justin REM

FRI 1.19

After Hours w/ MALACHI SAT 1.26

Emo Night w/ Malachi

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

65

music+nightlife

CLUB DATES

Find the most up-to-date info on live music, DJs, comedy and more at sevendaysvt.com/music. If you’re a talent booker or artist planning live entertainment at a bar, nightclub, café, restaurant, brewery or coffee shop, send event details to music@sevendaysvt.com or submit the info using our form at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

live music

SUN.7

Mia x Ally (Celtic, rock) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $25/$30.

THU.28

Andrew Richards Quartet (jazz) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Sunday Brunch Tunes (singersongwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 10 a.m. Free.

The Cabot Folk Club with Bow Thayer (Americana) at Willey Memorial Hall, Cabot, 7 p.m. $12/$15.

TUE.9

Big Easy Tuesdays with Back Porch Revival (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Chad Hollister (Americana) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Bluegrass Jam (bluegrass) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 7 p.m. Free.

Jazz with Alex Stewart and Friends (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 8:30 p.m.

Dobbs’ Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10/$20.

Jomoband (R&B) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 6 p.m. Free.

Zach Nugent’s Dead Set (tribute) at Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsfield, 5 p.m. Free.

Purple: An All-Star Tribute to Prince (tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 8 p.m. $25.

WED.10

Bent Nails House Band (rock) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Red Hot Juba (jazz, swing) at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

THU.28 // PURPLE: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE TO PRINCE [TRIBUTE]

Ryan Power, Wren Kitz (indie) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $10/$15.

The Royal Treatment When Prince departed this world in 2016, we lost one of the most innovative,

talented and mercurial musicians ever to grace the stage. It would take a mighty collection of musicians to re-create the

FRI.29

Alex Stewart (jazz) at Bleu Northeast Kitchen, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

magic of Prince’s music, which spans genres and decades. Fortunately, PURPLE: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE TO PRINCE is just such a

Anachronist (indie rock) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 9 p.m.

Free.

vast array of beloved hits with top-notch players from groups like the High Breaks and the Seth Yacovone Band. Catch

The Barn Rats (rock) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6 p.m. Free.

CombustOmatics (rock) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

Dave Mitchell’s Blues Revue (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

Jackson Garrow (folk) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m.

Free.

collection. Burlington DJ extraordinaire Craig Mitchell can sing with the best of them, and he tackles the Purple One’s them on Thursday, December 28, at Zenbarn in Waterbury Center.

In the Pocket (jazz) at Bleu Northeast Kitchen, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Jester Jigs (rock) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

Left Eye Jump (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

Jason Baker (acoustic) at Gusto’s, Barre, 6 p.m. Free.

Nickel & Dime (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m.

Free.

Josh Jakab (singer-songwriter) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 6 p.m.

Free.

The PET Project (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Magic User (synth punk) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 7 p.m.

Free.

Rootbound, Ally Tarwater (rock) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m.

Free.

Neon Ramblers (bluegrass) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 9 p.m. $10/$15.

Soul and Soda (covers) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Purple: A Tribute To Prince (tribute) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 8 p.m. $10.

The Tenderbellies, Beg, Steal or Borrow (bluegrass) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $15/$18.

Rap Night Burlington (hip-hop) at Drink, Burlington, 9 p.m. $5.

SUN.31

Reid Parsons (singer-songwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 4 p.m. Free.

The Rough Suspects (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

Toast (rock) at the Old Post, South Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

WD-40 (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

SAT.30

Grippo Funk Band (funk) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10/$15.

66

Back to the ’80s (’80s tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 8 p.m. $25.

Cozy (rock) at the Depot, St. Albans, 9 p.m. $10.

Diva Dynasty (funk, soul tribute) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10.

Great Gatsby New Year’s Eve Party (New Year’s Eve celebration) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 8 p.m. $75.

Highlight 2023: Daytime Disco (New Year’s Eve celebration) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 3 p.m.

Free with Highlight button.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

Highlight 2023: Burlington Electronic Department (New Year’s Eve celebration) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free with Highlight button.

Jerborn & Sparky (acoustic) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 1 p.m.

Free.

Moondogs (rock) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10.

The Nailers (rock) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 5 p.m. Free.

Pontoon (yacht rock) at Monkey House, Winooski, 9 p.m. $15.

Quadra (rock) at the Old Post, South Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Sticks & Stones (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

Sunday Brunch Tunes (singersongwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 10 a.m.

Ursa and the Major Key (rock) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Zach Nugent’s Dead Set (Grateful Dead tribute) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 8 p.m. $25/$30.

TUE.2

Big Easy Tuesdays with Back Porch Revival (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Bluegrass Jam (bluegrass) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 7 p.m. Free.

The Dale and Darcy Band (folk) at Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsfield, 5 p.m. Free.

Dobbs’ Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10/$20.

Madigan Linnane (singersongwriter) at the Filling Station, White River Junction, 6 p.m. Free.

Good Gravy (bluegrass) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $5/$10.

Nobby Reed Project (R&B, swing) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 6 p.m. Free.

Honky Tonk Tuesday with the Hogtones (country) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10.

FRI.5

WED.3

Bent Nails House Band (rock) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Bluegrass & BBQ (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Jazz Jam Sessions with Randal Pierce (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Live Jazz (jazz) at Leunig’s Bistro & Café, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead covers) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $5.

Willverine (electronic) at the Wallflower Collective, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

THU.4

Black Flannel Blues Jam (blues) at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Jazz with Alex Stewart and Friends (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 8:30 p.m.

Bluegrass & BBQ (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Jazz Jam Sessions with Randal Pierce (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Live Jazz (jazz) at Leunig’s Bistro & Café, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead covers) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $5.

Willverine (electronic) at the Wallflower Collective, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

djs

The Dave Matthews Tribute Band (tribute) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $20/$25.

THU.28

Dave Mitchell’s Blues Revue (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

Vinyl Night with Ken (DJ) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 6 p.m. Free.

Kyle Stevens (acoustic) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Rap Night Burlington (hip-hop) at Drink, Burlington, 9 p.m. $5.

Tall Travis (folk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10/$15.

SAT.6

The Hitmen (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m.

Free.

Left Eye Jump (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

Sarah Bell (singer-songwriter) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

SunDub, Mighty Mystic (reggae) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $15/$18.

Whiskey & Wine (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

DJ Chaston (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m.

Free.

FRI.29

DJ Craig Mitchell (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ CRWD CTRL (DJ) at Monkey House, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Kata (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ Taka (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10/$15.

DJ Two Rivers (DJ) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

SAT.30

Blanchface (DJ) at Manhattan Pizza & Pub, Burlington, 10 p.m.

Free.

Crypt Goth Night (DJ) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 8 p.m.

Free.

DillanwithaQ (DJ) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, noon. Free.

DJ A-Ra$ (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, midnight. Free.

DJ Broosha (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10/$15.

DJ Matty P (DJ) at Monkey House, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Raul (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Gimme Gimme Disco (DJ) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $25/$29.

Matt Payne (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m.

Free.

Molly Mood (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

SUN.31

DJ Svpply (DJ) at Club Metronome, Burlington, 10 p.m. $15.

DJ Taka (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10/$15.

WED.3

Local Dork (DJ) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

THU.4

DJ Chaston (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m.

Free.

Vinyl Night with Ken (DJ) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 6 p.m. Free.

FRI.5

DJ Craig Mitchell (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Kata (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ Taka (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10/$15.

SAT.6

Blanchface (DJ) at Manhattan Pizza & Pub, Burlington, 10 p.m.

Free.

WED.10

Local Dork (DJ) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

DJ Raul (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

open mics & jams

HAVEN (DJ) at MothershipVT, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

MON.1

DJ A-Ra$ (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, midnight. Free.

Matt Payne (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m.

Free.

Molly Mood (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

SUN.7

Mi Yard Reggae Night with DJ Big Dog (reggae and dancehall) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

Open Mic Night (open mic) at Despacito, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.3

Irish Sessions (Celtic, open mic) at St. John’s Club, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Open Mic with Danny Lang (open mic) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 7 p.m. Free.

Venetian Soda Open Mic (open mic) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

The Ribbit Review Open-Mic & Jam (open mic) at Lily’s Pad, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.10

FRI.5

Irish Sessions (Celtic, open mic) at Burlington St. John’s Club, 6:30 p.m. Free.

MON.8

Open Mic with Danny Lang (open mic) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 7 p.m. Free.

Open Mic Night (open mic) at Despacito, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

comedy

Red Brick Coffee House (open mic) at Red Brick Meeting House, Westford, 7 p.m. Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

TUE.9

Open Mic (open mic) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m.

Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

THU.28

Cameron Esposito (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $35.

COMEDY

» P.69

New Nonstop Service to Florida Service to Tampa International Airport (TPA) will begin January 31, 2024 and flights to Orlando International Airport (MCO) will begin February 14, 2024 on Breeze Airways.

flybtv.com SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

67

music+nightlife

The Best Vermont Music of 2023 Our music editor picks the year’s top local albums, singles and videos B Y CH RI S FAR NSW ORTH • farnsworth@sevendaysvt.com

A

BEST ALBUMS 1. Dari Bay Longest Day of the Year

Zack James is a study in musical evolution.

He started his career as the drummer for teenage Brattleboro rock sensations the Snaz, a collection of high school friends who released several impressively slick garagerock records before calling it quits in 2017.

James began making music as Dari Bay, relocated to Burlington and released some promising, fuzzed-out garage-rock tracks of his own. With his debut LP Longest Day of the Year, however, James put the focus on his songwriting, crafting short tunes suffused 68

5. Brian McCarthy Nonet

THUS LOVE

BEST SINGLES

After|Life

1. THUS LOVE, “Put on Dog” 2. ROUGH FRANCIS, “Haunted” 3. NARROW SHOULDERS, “Summer’s End” 4. A2VT, “Money Money Money” 5. LILY SEABIRD, “Cavity” 6. NOAH KAHAN FEAT. POST MALONE, “Dial Drunk” 7. MADAILA, “Time Erase” 8. HONEY & SOUL, “Lady King” 9. KONFLIK, TERMANOLOGY, “Don’t Let’em” 10. DUTCH EXPERTS, “Morrígu” COURTESY OF PATRICK MCCORMACK

fter some truly strange years when unprecedented challenges and just generally weird shit plagued the Vermont music scene, 2023 was a banner year for Green Mountain musicians. Some of the state’s biggest names represented, whether it was Noah Kahan snagging a Best New Artist Grammy Award nomination or Grace Potter dropping a new LP. As always, there were plenty of surprises and new names on the scene, too, all contributing to the everexpanding lineage of Vermont-made music.

Choosing the “best” from all that great music is a thankless task that required some serious dark-night-of-the-soul-style brooding on my part. I wandered through the snowy Green Mountain National Forest and pondered. I sat by the shores of Lake Champlain and reviewed. I even walked into the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Waterbury and demanded to have the room so I could think.

(I was escorted out, with no free ice cream.)

As my tired carcass collapsed in front of the hearth after my soul-searching, I knew that the following selections were undoubtedly the best Vermont records, singles and videos of 2023. But if you disagree and are mean to me online, I’ll switch this whole fucking list to Weezer albums recorded after 2000.

BEST VIDEOS 1. MARCIE HERNANDEZ, “Easy on Me” 2. JAMES KOCHALKA SUPERSTAR FEAT. FRANKIE COSMOS AND FRANCIS MACDONALD,

“All Our Favorite Bands (Are Breaking Up)” 3. JABEDON, “Petals” 4. COOKED, “Neurosis”

Noah Kahan

5. ANDRIANA CHOBOT, “Galaxy Eyes”

with elements of dream-pop and alt-country that coalesce into a remarkable record.

2. Caleb Lodish I Expect Nothing in Return

An inspired collaborator for several years, Burlington’s Caleb Lodish stepped up big-time in 2023 when he dropped his debut, I Expect Nothing in Return. The producer channeled his inner Damon Albarn, taking guest verses from some of the area’s best rappers, such as Obi the Voicegod and 99 Neighbors’ HANKNATIVE, and expertly weaving them into bold, vibrant tracks.

Darting from one style to the next, Lodish delivers an album that doubles as a state of the union for the next generation of 802 hip-hop.

Judging by this record, things are looking up.

3. tip/toe Hot Girls Don’t Trust the Government

Burlington pop singer and producer tip/ toe, aka Eve Meehan, dropped one of the

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

best-titled albums of the year with Hot Girls Don’t Trust the Government. In an album brimming with sugarcoated pop and neon-lit hip-hop, Meehan goes from aiming humorous barbs at transphobes to delving into dark topics such as depression. Through it all, Meehan keeps the jams coming, creating a record as danceable as it is brainy.

4. Dwight + Nicole The Jaguar, the Raven & the Snake

Soul and blues trio Dwight + Nicole’s 2023 release, The Jaguar, the Raven & the Snake, is the Burlington band’s third full-length LP. (It has also put out a slew of EPs.) While the album is no drastic shift to a new sound, it perfectly distills the many sides of couple Dwight Ritcher and Nicole Nelson, from sultry R&B to roots rock to bighearted ballads. It’s also one of the best-sounding records of 2023, with gorgeous production from Grammy-nominated, New York Citybased producer Joel Hamilton.

How can I leave a concept record about the birth — and eventual death — of the universe out of my top seven? Composer, saxophonist and University of Vermont instructor Brian McCarthy pulls off the unique double achievement of crafting a riveting score of high-wire jazz orchestration for a science fact concept album. His nonet swings through songs about Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration while moving in and out of funk, Latin and experimental shades of jazz.

6. conswank Low Point Retreat

A member of the recently disbanded Burlington hip-hop collective 99 Neighbors, conswank broke out on his own in 2023 with Low Point Retreat. The album showcases conswank’s ability to work with the assorted luminaries of the Burlington hip-hop scene, including North Ave Jax and former bandmate Sam Paulino, as well as his ease in crafting sad-boy hip-hop that still manages to slap.

7. Grace Potter Mother Road

One of the Green Mountain State’s most successful musical exports (and part-time resident once again) returned in 2023 with a new vibe and a new record. Motherhood, accepting the aging process and learning to embrace saying “fuck you” instead of “thank you” all contributed to the Vermont native’s strongest album in years. Mother Road sounds simultaneously like the end of an era for Grace Potter and the beginning of a new one.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

• • • • •

NO FUN HAUS, Afters

WILLVERINE, Music Like Dirt REMI RUSSIN, A Second Pass

REBECCA RYSKALCZYK, Say It Back

JEWELRY COMPANY, Romance Scam Online

GOT MUSIC NEWS? MUSIC@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

comedy THU.28

« P.67

Venetian Karaoke (karaoke) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

FRI.29-SUN.31 // TOM THAKKAR [COMEDY]

MON.1

Trivia Monday with Top Hat Entertainment (trivia) at McKee’s Pub & Grill, Winooski, 7-9 p.m.

Free.

FRI.29

Tom Thakkar (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $25.

Trivia with Craig Mitchell (trivia) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

SAT.30

Tom Thakkar (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $25.

TUE.2

SUN.31

Highlight: Good Clean Fun (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 11 a.m., 1, 3 & 5 p.m. $15.

MON.1

Comedy Open Mic (comedy open mic) at the 126, Burlington, 7 p.m.

Free.

TUE.2

Free Stuff! (comedy) at Lincolns, Burlington, 9:30 p.m. Free.

WED.3

New Year, New Jokes (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Standup Comedy Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m.

THU.4

Devil’s Advocate New York City-based comedian

a thing or two about tenacity. As the cohost of the “Stand by Your Band” podcast, he’s witnessed fans of some of the lamest bands in history go to bat for their darlings, from Fuel to Shaquille O’Neal (remember his rap career?). He’s also made appearances on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” and “Conan,” as well as hosted his own Comedy Central show, “Stand Up With Tom Thakkar.” He performs on Friday, December 29, through Sunday, December 31, at the Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington.

SUN.7

Blake Wexler (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. $15.

$5 Improv Night (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5.

Comedy Wolf: Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

MON.8

FRI.5

Comedy Open Mic (comedy open mic) at the 126, Burlington, 7 p.m.

Free.

Tina Friml (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $20.

TUE.9

SAT.6

WED.10

Tina Friml (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $20.

Free Stuff! (comedy) at Lincolns, Burlington, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Standup Comedy Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m.

trivia, karaoke, etc.

THU.28

Karaoke Night (karaoke) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m.

Free.

Music Bingo (musical bingo) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Highland Lodge, Greensboro, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at McGillicuddy’s Five Corners, Essex Junction, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Thursday (trivia) at Spanked Puppy Pub, Colchester, 7 p.m. Free.

FRI.29

SUN.7

Sunday Funday (games) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, noon.

Free.

MON.8

Trivia Night (trivia) at the Depot, St. Albans, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Tuesday (trivia) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 7 p.m.

Free.

Tuesday Trivia (trivia) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m.

Free.

WED.3

4Qs Trivia Night (trivia) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

Venetian Trivia Night (trivia) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

THU.4

Karaoke Night (karaoke) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m.

Free.

Karaoke with DJ Big T (karaoke) at McKee’s Pub & Grill, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free.

Radio Bean Karaoke (karaoke) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m.

Free.

SUN.31

Trivia (trivia) at Jericho Café & Tavern, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Sunday Funday (games) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, noon.

Free.

Karaoke (karaoke) at McKee’s Pub & Grill, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free.

Karaoke Tuesdays (karaoke) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Karaoke (karaoke) at McKee’s Pub & Grill, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free.

New Queers Eve (drag) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $20/$30.

FRI.5

Venetian Karaoke (karaoke) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Taproom Trivia (trivia) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6:30 p.m. Free.

TOM THAKKAR knows

Trivia Thursday (trivia) at Spanked Puppy Pub, Colchester, 7 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with Motorcade (karaoke) at Manhattan Pizza & Pub, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with DJ Party Bear (karaoke) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m.

Free.

Tom Thakkar (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8 & 10:30 p.m. $25.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Highland Lodge, Greensboro, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at McGillicuddy’s Five Corners, Essex Junction, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Monday with Top Hat Entertainment (trivia) at McKee’s Pub & Grill, Winooski, 7-9 p.m.

Free.

Trivia with Craig Mitchell (trivia) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

TUE.9

Karaoke with Motorcade (karaoke) at Manhattan Pizza & Pub, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Karaoke Tuesdays (karaoke) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with DJ Party Bear (karaoke) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m.

Free.

Taproom Trivia (trivia) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at the Depot, St. Albans, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Tuesday (trivia) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 7 p.m.

Free.

Tuesday Trivia (trivia) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m.

Free.

WED.10

4Qs Trivia Night (trivia) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

Venetian Trivia Night (trivia) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free. ➆

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

69

calendar

DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

WED.27 business

QUEEN CITY BUSINESS NETWORKING INTERNATIONAL GROUP: Savvy businesspeople make crucial contacts at a weekly chapter meeting. Burlington City Arts, 11:15 a.m.-1 p.m. Free.

Info, 829-5066.

community

CURRENT EVENTS: Neighbors have an informal discussion about what’s in the news.

Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30 a.m.noon. Free. Info, 878-4918.

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: A drop-in meetup welcomes knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers and beyond. BYO snacks and drinks. Must Love Yarn, Shelburne, 5-7 p.m. Free.

Info, 448-3780.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: Viewers learn the true story behind one of our most iconic — and misunderstood — predators. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11:30 a.m., 1:30 & 3:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $14.50-18; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: Sparkling graphics and vibrant interviews take viewers on a journey alongside NASA astronauts as they prepare for stranger-than-science-fiction space travel. Northfield

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: Scientists dive into the planet’s least-explored habitat, from its sunny shallows to its alien depths. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11 a.m., 1 & 3 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $14.50-18; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: Through the power of special cameras, audiences are transported into the world of the teeniest animals on Earth. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10:30 a.m., 12:30, 2:30 & 4:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $14.50-18; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL’: Northern Stage brings Charles Dickens’ classic story of redemption and community to life in an original adaptation.

Byrne Theater, Barrette Center for the Arts, White River Junction, 2 & 7:30 p.m. $19-69.

Info, 296-7000.

A FOREST OF LIGHTS: The VINS forest canopy walkways and surrounding woodlands transform into a twinkling winter wonderland open for strolling. Vermont Institute of Natural Science, Quechee, 5-7 p.m. $7-12; free for kids 3 and under. Info, 359-5000.

WINTER LIGHTS: Buildings and gardens glow in multicolored illuminations for the holiday season. Shelburne Museum, 5-8 p.m. $10-15; free for kids under 3; preregister.

Info, 985-3346.

language

BEGINNER IRISH LANGUAGE CLASS: Celtic-curious students learn to speak an Ghaeilge in a supportive group. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free.

Info, 863-3403.

WHAT’S THAT WINE WEDNESDAYS: Aspiring sommeliers blind-taste four wines from Vermont and beyond.

Shelburne Vineyard, noon-6 p.m. $15. Info, 985-8222.

ELL CLASSES: ENGLISH FOR BEGINNERS & INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS: Learners of all abilities practice written and spoken English with trained instructors. Presented by Fletcher Free Library. 6:30-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, bshatara@burlingtonvt.gov.

health & fitness

montréal

food & drink

CHAIR YOGA: Waterbury Public Library instructor Diana Whitney leads at-home participants in gentle stretches supported by seats.

10 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

LIST YOUR UPCOMING EVENT HERE FOR FREE! All submissions must be received by Thursday at noon for consideration in the following Wednesday’s newspaper.

Find our convenient form and guidelines at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

Listings and spotlights are written by Emily Hamilton. Seven Days edits for space and style. Depending on cost and other factors, classes and workshops may be listed in either the calendar or the classes section. Class organizers may be asked to purchase a class listing.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

70

holidays

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE TENNIS CLUB: Ping-Pong players swing their paddles in singles and doubles matches. Rutland Area Christian School, 7-9 p.m. Free for first two sessions; $30 annual membership. Info, 247-5913.

THU.28 crafts

KNIT FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR: All ages and abilities are invited to knit or crochet hats and scarves for the South Burlington Food Shelf. All materials are provided.

South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 2-5 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

KNITTING GROUP: Knitters of all experience levels get together to spin yarns. Latham Library, Thetford, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 785-4361.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

food & drink

health & fitness

ARE YOU THIRSTY, NEIGHBOR?: A special discount cocktail menu sparks conversations and connections over cribbage and cards.

Wild Hart Distillery and Tasting Room, Shelburne, 3-8 p.m. Free.

Info, info@wildhartdistillery.com.

FREE WINE TASTING: Themed wine tastings take oenophiles on an adventure through a region, grape variety, style of wine or producer’s offerings. Dedalus Wine Shop, Market & Wine Bar, Burlington, 4-7 p.m. Free. Info, 865-2368.

Barn Opera throws a spectacularly singular New Year’s Eve soirée full of food, fun and friendship. The evening is divided into two acts, one swanky and one sweaty: “The Masquerade” and “Club Brandon.” Part one features a candlelit concert of operatic favorites by the piano, a delectable meal catered by Neshobe Café and a dress code worthy of a Venetian masked ball. For part two, the Inn’s ballroom is transformed into a festive nightclub, complete with lasers, dance music and a live stream of the ball drop in New York City’s Times Square.

Tickets include unlimited wine and beer and a midnight Champagne toast.

art Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

LONG-FORM SUN 73: Beginners and experienced practitioners learn how tai chi can help with arthritis, mental clarity and range of motion. Congregational Church of Middlebury, 3:30-5 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, elizabetharms56@gmail.com.

holidays

‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL’: See WED.27, 7:30 p.m.

THU.28

» P.72

It Ain’t Over

FIND MORE LOCAL EVENTS IN THIS ISSUE AND ONLINE:

= ONLINE EVENT

CHESS FOR ALL: All skill levels are welcome at this weekly game session. Cobleigh Public Library, Lyndonville, 6:30-9 p.m. Free.

Info, 626-5475.

DUPLICATE BRIDGE: A lively group plays a classic, tricky game with an extra wrinkle. Waterbury Public Library, 12:30-4:30 p.m.

Free. Info, 244-7223.

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

GRAND MARCHÉ DE NOËL: Shoppers traverse the Quartier des Spectacles in search of one-of-a-kind gifts. Grand Marché de Noël, Montréal, 1-9 p.m. Free. Info, 514-550-7646.

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/music.

games

DEC. 31 | HOLIDAYS

‘FROM VENICE TO VERMONT’ Sunday, December 31, 6:30 p.m.-2 a.m., at the Brandon Inn. $100. Info, 772 -5601, barnopera.com.

© MARIIA BOIKO | DREAMSTIME

crafts

Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, noon, 2 & 4 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $14.50-18; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

sports

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

FAMILY FUN

DEC. 31 | FAMILY FUN

Check out these family-friendly events for parents, caregivers and kids of all ages.

• Plan ahead at sevendaysvt.com/family-fun.

• Post your event at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

burlington

burlington

NOON YEAR’S EVE!: A fun-filled song session with Linda Bassick and a kid-friendly countdown get kids excited for 2024. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

SLED DOGS LIVE: October Siberians brings its impressive team of huskies for a meet and greet on the terrace.

ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10:30, 11:30 a.m., 1 & 2 p.m.

Regular admission, $14.50-18; free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

rutland/killington

NEW YEAR’S EVE CELEBRATION & FIREWORKS: The whole ski bum family is guaranteed a good time at a party featuring s’mores, crafts, games and a parade. K-1 Base Lodge, Killington Resort, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Free. Info, 800-734-9435.

chittenden county

COMICS CLUB: Graphic novel and manga fans in third through fifth grades meet to discuss current reads and do fun activities together. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 3-4 p.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

CRAFTYTOWN!: From painting and printmaking to collage and sculpture, creative kids explore different projects and mediums. Ages 8 and up, or ages 6 and up with an adult helper. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 1-2 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

PLAY TIME: Little ones build with blocks and read together. Ages 1 through 4.

Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 1010:45 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

TEEN NIGHT: ‘HARRY POTTER’ MOVIE NIGHT: Fantasy fans ages 12 and up break out the popcorn for a flick in this fun franchise. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 5 p.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

mad river valley/ waterbury

LEGO CHALLENGE CLUB: Kids engage in a fun-filled hour of building, then leave their creations on display in the library all month long. Ages 9 through 11.

Waterbury Public Library, 3-4 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 244-7036.

rutland/killington

‘MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS’: Wintry crafts and refreshments punctuate a screening of the 2011 film adaptation of a beloved children’s book. Castleton Free Library, 3-5 p.m. Free. Info, 468-5574.

THU.28

burlington

GROW PRESCHOOL YOGA: Emily from Grow Prenatal and Family Yoga leads little ones in songs, movement and other fun activities. Ages 2 through 5. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11:30 a.m.-noon.

Free. Info, 863-3403.

HOT CHOCOLATE TASTE TEST: Teens put their refined palettes to the test.

Ages 11 through 18. Fletcher Free

TEEN BOARD GAMES: Countless board games are on the menu at this meetup for adolescents ages 13 and up. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Free.

Info, 846-4140.

SUN.31

WED.27

BABYTIME: Caregivers and infants from birth through age 1 gather in the Wiggle Room to explore board books and toys.

South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

SATURDAY STORIES: Kiddos start the weekend off right with stories and songs. Ages 3 through 7. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 10-10:45 a.m.

Free. Info, 878-6956.

Library, Burlington, 4-5 p.m. Free. Info, 540-2546.

chittenden county CRAFTYTOWN!: See WED.27.

PRESCHOOL MUSIC WITH LINDA BASSICK: The singer and storyteller extraordinaire leads little ones in indoor music and movement. Birth through age 5. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

PRESCHOOL PLAYTIME: Pre-K patrons play and socialize after music time.

Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

STORY TIME: Little ones from birth through age 5 learn from songs, crafts and picture books. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 10-10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

TEEN ARTS AND CRAFTS: PERLER BEADS: Creative kids make cute designs out of fused doodads. Ages 13 through 18. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

stowe/smuggs

WEE ONES PLAY TIME: Caregivers bring kiddos 3 and younger to a new sensory learning experience each week. Morristown Centennial Library, Morrisville, 10 a.m. Free. Info, 888-3853.

mad river valley/ waterbury

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Games, activities, stories and songs engage 3through 5-year-olds. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

rutland/killington

500-PIECE PUZZLE COMPETITION: Families and friends race to put together puzzles over pizza. Ages 10 and up.

Castleton Free Library, 5-7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 468-2750.

northeast kingdom

STORY TIME: Kids 5 and under play, sing, hear stories and color. St.

In With the New Year

upper valley

Little kids shouldn’t have to miss out on the New Year’s festivities just because midnight is past their bedtime. The Montshire Museum of Science has families with children through age 12 covered at a blowout bash celebrating the planet, science and New England winter. Dressed in their fancy — or pajama-party — best, guests are gifted a gourmet hot cocoa kit, make climate resolutions for 2024, enjoy a special toddler story time and count down to the New Year every hour on the hour until noon.

NEW YEAR’S AT NOON Sunday, December 31, 9:30 a.m.-noon, at Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich. $11-15. Info, 649-2200, montshire.org.

Johnsbury Athenaeum, 10:15-10:45 a.m.

Free. Info, 745-1391.

FRI.29

chittenden county

KIDS MOVIE IN THE AUDITORIUM: Little film buffs congregate in the library for a screening of a family-friendly film.

See southburlingtonlibrary.org for each week’s title. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

LEGO BUILDERS: Each week, children ages 8 and older build, explore, create and participate in challenges. Children ages 6 to 8 are welcome with an adult.

South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

SPARKLING SPIRALS: Crafters of all ages make festive decorations out of paper plates. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

barre/montpelier

STORY TIME & PLAYGROUP: Participants ages 7 and under hear stories, sing songs and eat tasty treats.

Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 426-3581.

upper valley

STORY TIME: Preschoolers take part in tales, tunes and playtime. Latham Library, Thetford, 11 a.m. Free. Info, 785-4361.

northeast kingdom

STORY TIME: See THU.28, 10-10:30 a.m.

SAT.30

burlington

FAMILY PLAYSHOP: Kids from birth through age 5 learn and play at this school readiness program. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 10-11:30 a.m. Free.

Info, 863-3403.

REINDEER LIVE: Vermont Reindeer Farm brings its antlered charges along for an up-close visit. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11:30 a.m., 12:30 & 1:30 p.m. Regular admission, $14.50-18; free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

chittenden county

BALLOON ANIMALS!: Aspiring clowns ages 6 through 12 craft creatures and flowers out of balloons. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 3-4 p.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

NEW YEAR’S AT NOON: Activity stations around the museum celebrate the New Year in scientific style. For families with kids ages 12 and under. See calendar spotlight. Montshire Museum of Science, Norwich, 9:30 a.m.-noon. $11-15. Info, 649-2200.

TUE.2

burlington

AWKWARD TALKS: A BOOK CLUB FOR PARENTS & CAREGIVERS: Family nurse practitioner Celia Bird prepares grown-ups for conversations with their kids about bodies, consent and how babies get made. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 6-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

Info, 863-3403.

SING-ALONG WITH LINDA BASSICK: Babies, toddlers and preschoolers sing, dance and wiggle along with Linda.

Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

PLAYGROUP & FAMILY SUPPORT: Families with children under age 5 play and connect with others in the community. Winooski Memorial Library, 10:3011:30 a.m. Free. Info, 655-6424.

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Little ones enjoy a cozy session of reading, rhyming and singing. Birth through age 5. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

WED.3

burlington

STEAM SPACE: Kids explore science, technology, engineering, art and math activities. Ages 5 through 11. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Free. Info, 863-3403.

TODDLER TIME: Librarians bring out books, rhymes and songs specially selected for young ones 12 through 24 months.

WED.3

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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calendar THU.28

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A FOREST OF LIGHTS: See WED.27.

WINTER LIGHTS: See WED.27.

Gift of the Magi

JAN. 5 & 6 | HOLIDAYS

montréal

GRAND MARCHÉ DE NOËL: See WED.27.

FRI.29 film

COURTESY OF DANA ROBINSON

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

health & fitness

GUIDED MEDITATION ONLINE: Dorothy Alling Memorial Library invites attendees to relax on their lunch breaks and reconnect with their bodies. Noon-12:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, programs@ damlvt.org.

holidays

‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL’: See WED.27.

A FOREST OF LIGHTS: See WED.27.

WINTER LIGHTS: See WED.27.

lgbtq

CHRISTMAS DRAG SHOW: Tippy Gourley, Miss Amber Skyy, Red Delicious and others make the yuletide gay at this glitzy seasonal spectacular. Strand Center Theatre, Plattsburgh. N.Y., 7 p.m. $20. Info, 518-563-1604.

RPG NIGHT: Members of the LGBTQ community gather weekly to play games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Everway. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Barre, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 622-0692.

montréal

GRAND MARCHÉ DE NOËL: See WED.27.

‘THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE’: Ambient music collective the Empyreans provide a live score to this seminal 1921 silent ghost story.

Epsilon Spires, Brattleboro, 8 p.m. $10-20. Info, info@epsilonspires.org.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

WOODSTOCK VERMONT FILM SERIES: ‘PIANOFORTE’: A new documentary follows the young performers at the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition. Billings Farm & Museum, Woodstock, 3 p.m. $1215. Info, 457-2355.

games

CHESS CLUB: Players of all ages and abilities face off and learn new strategies. ADA accessible.

South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

WOODSTOCK VERMONT FILM SERIES: ‘PIANOFORTE’: See SAT.30.

health & fitness

‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL’: See WED.27, 2 p.m.

‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL’: See WED.27, 2 p.m.

A FOREST OF LIGHTS: See WED.27.

FIRST NIGHT NORTH: Local institutions throw a New Year’s Eve party packed with music, comedy, fireworks and more. See catamountarts.org for full schedule. Various St. Johnsbury locations, 3 p.m.-midnight. $15-50; free for preschoolers. Info, 748-2600.

music

film

CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT: Birders in the Rutland area venture out in groups to tally their sightings of feathered friends. Various Rutland locations. Free; preregister. Info, birding@rutlandcountyaudubon. org.

GRAND MARCHÉ DE NOËL: See WED.27.

TOURNESOL: The acoustic band delivers Parisian café vibes in the tasting room loft. Shelburne Vineyard, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 985-8222.

outdoors

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

72

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

holidays

MONTPELIER CONTRA DANCE: Dancers wear their festive best to balance, shadow and do-si-do the night away to live tunes by Spintuition and gender-neutral calling by Nils Fredland. Capital City Grange, Berlin, beginners’ lesson, 7:40 p.m.; dance, 8-11 p.m. $5-20. Info, 225-8921.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

film

holidays

montréal

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.27, 1-3 p.m.

COMMUNITY YOGA CLASS: An all-levels session offers a weekly opportunity to relax the mind and rejuvenate the body. Wise Pines, Woodstock, 10-11 a.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 432-3126.

SAT.30

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

crafts

KARUNA COMMUNITY MEDITATION: A YEAR TO LIVE (FULLY): Participants practice keeping joy, generosity and gratitude at the forefront of their minds. Jenna’s House, Johnson, 10-11:15 a.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, mollyzapp@live.com.

health & fitness

WINTER LIGHTS: See WED.27.

dance

SUN.31

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

A FOREST OF LIGHTS: See WED.27.

‘FROM VENICE TO VERMONT’: Barn Opera throws the swankiest New Year’s Eve party in town, complete with fine dining, operatic performances, a laser-lit dance floor and a live stream of the ball drop in Times Square. See calendar spotlight. The Brandon Inn, 6:30 p.m.-midnight. $100. Info, 772 -5601.

HIGHLAND NYE MASQUERADE: THE ROARING ‘20S: Party people in their flapper best indulge in cocktails, dancing and a buffet of salty and sweet canapés.

Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, 7 p.m.-midnight. $530. Info, 533-2000.

HIGHLIGHT: The Queen City’s all-day and all-night New Year’s

Eve festival features music, magic, fireworks and family fun. See high light.community for full schedule.

Downtown Burlington, 11am-midnight. $12-15; preregister. Info, jflanagan@burlingtoncityarts.org.

NEW YEAR’S EVE WITH MIHALI: The Twiddle cofounder soundtracks an invigorating evening ending in a Champagne toast. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 7:30-10 p.m. $20-40. Info, 382-9222.

‘OH WHAT A NIGHT’: A rollicking New Year’s Eve fundraiser features tasty nosh and tearing up the dance floor to live tunes by Route 5 Jive. Dress code is formal/funky.

Main Street Museum, White River Junction, 8 p.m.-midnight. $35; cash bar. Info, info@mainstreet museum.org.

A TOAST TO THE HIVE: Special cocktails and small plates mark the New Year, topped off with a sparkling toast at midnight. Barr Hill, Montpelier, 6 p.m. $20-25.

Info, 472-8000.

WINTER LIGHTS: See WED.27.

montréal

GRAND MARCHÉ DE NOËL: See WED.27, 1-9 p.m.

MON.1 film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

holidays

A FOREST OF LIGHTS: See WED.27, 5-7 p.m.

WINTER LIGHTS: See WED.27, 5-8 p.m.

music

GREEN MOUNTAIN MAHLER FESTIVAL: BEETHOVEN’S NINTH SYMPHONY: The orchestra and chorus ring in the New Year with a joyous performance of one of classical music’s most iconic works.

Elley-Long Music Center, Saint

The town of Cabot closes out the holiday season with its annual Epiphany festival, a two-day extravaganza of performance and play. There’s wintry fun out the wazoo, from folk dancing and wassailing to kids’ crafts and a paper lantern parade. Cabot Community Theater performs its annual mummers play, professional storyteller Simon Brooks gets everyone chuckling, No Strings Marionette delights audience members of all ages, and live music abounds from acts including the Jeremy Sicely Band, the Dave Keller Band and Chippewa flutist Michael Laughing Fox Charette.

CABOT VILLAGE 12TH NIGHT CELEBRATION Friday, January 5, 7-9 p.m.; and Saturday, January 6, noon-10 p.m., at various Cabot locations. Free. Info, 793-3016, cabotarts.org.

Michael’s College, Colchester, 3 p.m. $20-30. Info, gmmf@ vtmahler.org.

outdoors

1ST DAY HIKE TO BUTLER LODGE: A moderately difficult trek takes hikers and snowshoers up to a log cabin and back. Preregister by December 30 for time and details.

Butler Lodge Trailhead, Underhill.

Free; preregister; limited space.

Info, 899-9982.

NEW YEAR’S DAY BIRDING ON THE BURLINGTON WATERFRONT: Queen City avian enthusiasts get a head start on their big year at a lakeside walk with Green Mountain Audubon Society.

Perkins Pier, Burlington, 8-10 a.m.

Free; preregister. Info, gmas@ greenmountainaudubon.org.

TUE.2

community

CURRENT EVENTS DISCUSSION GROUP: Brownell Library holds a virtual roundtable for neighbors to pause and reflect on the news cycle.

10-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6955.

dance

SWING DANCING: Local Lindy hoppers and jitterbuggers convene at Vermont Swings’ weekly boogie-down. Bring clean shoes.

Champlain Club, Burlington, 7:309 p.m.; beginner lessons, 6:30 p.m. $5. Info, 864-8382.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

food & drink

COOKBOOK CLUB: Readers choose a recipe from Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds

by Hetty Lui MacKinnon to cook and share with the group. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 5:30-6:45 p.m.

Free. Info, 846-4140.

holidays

A FOREST OF LIGHTS: See WED.27, 5-7 p.m.

FOMO? Find even more local events in this newspaper and online:

art Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

language

MANDARIN CONVERSATION CIRCLE: Volunteers from Vermont Chinese School help students learn or improve their fluency.

ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 11 a.m.noon. Free. Info, 846-4140.

See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

PAUSE-CAFÉ FRENCH CONVERSATION: Francophones and French-language learners meet pour parler la belle langue.

Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 5-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 343-5493.

music + nightlife

tech

film

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

= ONLINE EVENT

EVENING DROP-IN TECH HELP: Experts answer questions about phones, laptops, e-readers and more in one-on-one sessions.

ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 5-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

words

BURLINGTON LITERATURE GROUP: CÉSAR AIRA: Readers analyze four of the author’s novels over four weeks: An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter, Varamo, The Little Buddhist Monk and The Divorce. 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, info@nereadersandwriters.com.

WED.3 activism

DISABLED ACCESS & ADVOCACY OF THE RUTLAND AREA (DAARA) MONTHLY ZOOM MEETING: Community members gather online to advocate for accessibility and other disability rights measures. 11:30 a.m.-noon. Free.

Info, 779- 9021.

business

QUEEN CITY BUSINESS NETWORKING INTERNATIONAL GROUP: See WED.27.

community

COMMUNITY PARTNERS DESK: VETERANS OUTREACH PROGRAM: Representatives post up in the main reading room to answer questions and provide resources. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

crafts

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.27.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

« P.71

Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

BABY TIME: Parents and caregivers bond with their pre-walking babes during this gentle playtime. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

mad river valley/ waterbury

QUEER READS: LGBTQIA+ and allied youth get together each month to read and discuss ideas around gender, sexuality and identity. Waterbury Public Library, 6-7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 244-7036.

TEEN HANGOUT: Middle and high schoolers make friends at a no-pressure meetup. Waterbury Public Library, 3-6 p.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

THU.4

burlington

food & drink

sports

film

CHESS FOR ALL: See THU.28.

WHAT’S THAT WINE WEDNESDAYS: See WED.27.

health & fitness CHAIR YOGA: See WED.27.

holidays

A FOREST OF LIGHTS: See WED.27, 5-7 p.m.

language

BEGINNER IRISH LANGUAGE CLASS: See WED.27.

ELL CLASSES: ENGLISH FOR BEGINNERS & INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS: See WED.27.

SPANISH CONVERSATION: Fluent and beginner speakers brush up on their español with a discussion led by a Spanish teacher. Presented by

MUSIC AND MOVEMENT WITH MISS EMMA: The star of “Music for Sprouts” and “Mr. Chris and Friends” leads little ones 5 and younger in singing, scarf play and movement. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10:30-11:15 a.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

PRESCHOOL MUSIC WITH LINDA BASSICK: See THU.28.

PRESCHOOL PLAYTIME: See THU.28.

stowe/smuggs

WEE ONES PLAY TIME: See THU.28.

mad river valley/ waterbury

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: See THU.28.

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

THU.4 BURLINGTON BIZ BUZZ: Local female business owners meet and chat over coffee. Zero Gravity Beer Hall, Burlington, 10-11 a.m. Free.

Info, info@vtwomenprepeurs.com.

crafts

KNITTING GROUP: See THU.28.

etc.

NIGHT OWL CLUB: Astronomers and space exploration experts discuss the latest in extraterrestrial news with

DUPLICATE BRIDGE: See THU.28.

health & fitness

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

LONG-FORM SUN 73: See THU.28.

food & drink

holidays

ARE YOU THIRSTY, NEIGHBOR?: See THU.28.

WINTER LIGHTS: See WED.27, 5-8 p.m.

DESTINATION DINNER: MOROCCO: Chicken tagine, chickpea stew, couscous, hummus and orange cake delight taste buds. Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, 5-7 p.m. $6-20; preregister; limited space. Info, 533-2000.

lgbtq

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

business

games

BLOOD DRIVE: Locals donate fluids to the American Red Cross.

ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10 a.m.2:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 846-4140.

POP-UP HAPPY HOUR: Locals connect over drinks at a speakeasy-style bar. Hosted by OUT in the 802. Lincolns, Burlington, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info, 860-7812.

FRI.5

JAN. 6 | FAMILY FUN Powder to the People

» P.74

residents up to age 5 encounter the wonders of the great outdoors. Meet at the Education Barn. Green Mountain Audubon Center, Huntington, 9:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 434-3068.

TUE.9

burlington

SING-ALONG WITH LINDA BASSICK: See TUE.2.

chittenden county

Little skiers and snowboarders get their start on the slopes at Killington’s annual Mini Shred Madness competition. Divided into two groups — Super Grom for first-time park riders under 9 and Grom for kids 10 through 13 with some park experience — snow sliders of all genders learn the ropes from the Woodward Mountain Park team.

Then it’s off to the races at a friendly tournament perfect for shredders who have been looking to strut their stuff. Helmets are required at all times.

PLAYGROUP & FAMILY SUPPORT: See TUE.2.

MINI SHRED MADNESS

burlington

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: See TUE.2.

mad river valley/ waterbury

HOMESCHOOL COMPUTER CLUB: Home students learn everything from basic tech techniques to graphic design in this monthly class. Waterbury Public Library, 11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

WED.10

Saturday, January 6, 10 a.m.-noon, at Killington Resort. $20. Info, events@killington.com, killington.com.

GROW PRESCHOOL YOGA: See THU.28.

chittenden county

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE TENNIS CLUB: See WED.27.

© ELIZAVETA GALITSKAYA | DREAMSTIME

WED.3

FAMILY FUN

curious attendees. Presented by Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium.

7 p.m. Free. Info, 748-2372.

FREE WINE TASTING: See THU.28.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

Dorothy Alling Memorial Library.

5-6 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, programs@damlvt.org.

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

FRI.5

upper valley

STORY TIME: See FRI.29.

SAT.6

burlington

FAMILY PLAYSHOP: See SAT.30.

mad river valley/ waterbury

SATURDAY STORY TIME: A special guest leads little readers in songs, dancing and lots of fun. Ages 5 and under. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

rutland/killington

MINI SHRED MADNESS: Grom skiers and riders 13 years old and under have fun as they slide to victory. See calendar spotlight. Killington Resort, 10 a.m.-noon. $20. Info, events@killington.com.

SUN.7

burlington

MASKS ON! SUNDAYS: Elderly, disabled and immunocompromised folks get the museum to themselves at a masks-mandatory morning. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 9-10 a.m. Free; preregister.

Info, 864-1848.

STEAM SPACE: See WED.3.

TODDLER TIME: See WED.3.

SENSORY-FRIENDLY HOUR: Folks of all ages with sensory processing differences have the youth area to themselves.

Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11 a.m.noon. Free; preregister. Info, 863-3403.

MON.8

burlington

STORIES WITH SHANNON: Bookworms ages 2 through 5 enjoy fun-filled reading time. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

WATERCOLOR BOOKMARKS: Artistic teens paint beautiful placeholders in this drop-in craft session. Ages 11 through 18.

Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 3:305:30 p.m. Free. Info, 540-2540.

mad river valley/ waterbury

LEGO CHALLENGE CLUB: Kids engage in a fun-filled hour of building, then leave their creations on display in the library all month long. Ages 6 through 8. Waterbury Public Library, 3-4 p.m.

Free; preregister. Info, 244-7036. K

chittenden county

WEEKLY FREE NATURE PLAYGROUP: Richmond, Huntington and Hinesburg SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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FRI.5 crafts

FIRST FRIDAY FIBER GROUP: Fiber-arts fans make progress on projects while chatting over snacks. GRACE, Hardwick, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, info@ruralartsvt.org.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

Oh, Christmas Tree The Main Street Museum welcomes White River Junctioners to mark Three Kings’ Day and the start of Carnival in a blaze of glory. The institution’s annual tree burn and zydeco party is kept warm all night long by donated Christmas trees which, having served their purpose, become a glorious bonfire on the banks of the White River. The magical mayhem is further fueled by live Cajun music, delicious punch and a gumbo that any Louisianan would be proud of. Drop off your tree before January 6.

p.m. $5 suggested donation. Info, info@mainstreetmuseum.org.

TREE BURN Saturday, January 6, 6 p.m., at Main Street Museum in White River Junction. $5 suggested donation. Info, info@ mainstreetmuseum.org, mainstreetmuseum.org.

JAN. 6 | HOLIDAYS

MAH-JONGG: Tile traders of all experience levels gather for a game. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 1-3 p.m. Free.

Info, 878-4918.

SUN.7 crafts

health & fitness

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.27, 1-3 p.m.

GUIDED MEDITATION ONLINE: See FRI.29.

film

holidays

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

CABOT VILLAGE 12TH NIGHT CELEBRATION: Storytellers, musicians, dancers and actors from around New England celebrate the end of the holiday season. See cabotarts.org for full schedule.

See calendar spotlight. Willey Memorial Hall, Cabot, 7-9 p.m.

Free. Info, 793-3016.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

MNFF SELECTS: ‘A COMPASSIONATE SPY’: A new documentary tells the story of the Manhattan Project physicist who sold nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union and his wife, who kept his secret for decades. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 2 p.m. $14-16. Info, 382-9222.

WINTER LIGHTS: See WED.27, 5-8 p.m.

lgbtq

FOMO? Find even more local events in this newspaper and online:

art Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

= ONLINE EVENT 74

DITRANI BROTHERS: European folk, Roma swing and early American ragtime combine into a flavorful mélange when this Brattleboro band takes the stage.

Jason Scaggs opens. Live stream available. Next Stage Arts Project, Putney, 7:30 p.m. $10-25. Info, 387-0102.

JOSHUA GLASS: The local pianist and songwriter rocks out on the keys. Shelburne Vineyard, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 985-8222.

games

RPG NIGHT: See FRI.29.

music

FREEWAY CLYDE: Michael Chorney, the Tony Award-winning composer of Hadestown, and his musical collaborators shift between the sounds of folk, jazz and bluegrass. Burnham Hall, Lincoln, 7-10 p.m. $15-25. Info, 349-3364.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

LOVE YOURSELF WINTER BALL: A cabaret-style showcase starts the New Year off right with drag, burlesque, circus arts and live music. Barre Elks Lodge, 6-11 p.m. $20-50. Info, 622-0692.

WINTER LIGHTS: See WED.27, 5-8 p.m.

tech

MORNING TECH HELP: Experts answer questions about phones, laptops, e-readers and more in one-on-one sessions. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Free; preregister. Info, 846-4140.

SAT.6 dance

FIRST SATURDAY WESTIE SOCIAL: Beginners, new members and experienced West Coast Swing dancers are welcome.

Lessons, 7 p.m. North Star Community Hall, Burlington, 8-10:30 p.m. $15 suggested donation. Info, 488-4789.

MONTPELIER CONTRA DANCE: See SAT.30..

etc.

MEDITATION AND BUDDHIST DISCUSSION: Readings and reflections follow a half hour of mindfulness. Refreshments served. Shambhala Meditation Center, Burlington, 9:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Free. Info, 658-6795.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

‘NABUCCO’: Biblical stories are the basis of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, filmed at the Metropolitan Opera and broadcast on the big screen.

Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 1 p.m. $12-26. Info, 382-9222.

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

food & drink

adults welcome. noon-4 p.m.

Free. Info, 244-7036.

BOARD GAME BRUNCH: The Friendly Tabletop Gamers of Essex and Beyond host a morning gameplay session for anyone 18 and up.

ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 9:30 a.m.2:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

CHESS CLUB: See SAT.30.

health & fitness

COMMUNITY YOGA CLASS: See SAT.30.

holidays

CABOT VILLAGE 12TH NIGHT CELEBRATION: See FRI.5, noon-10 p.m.

BURLINGTON WINTER FARMERS MARKET: Dozens of seasonal stands overflow with produce, artisanal wares and prepared foods. Burlington Beer, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 560-5904.

GIFT EXCHANGE BINGO: Locals celebrate Epiphany by bringing a fun, wrapped gift to swap during this all-ages game. Epsilon Spires, Brattleboro, 6-9 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, info@epsilonspires.org.

games

TREE BURN: Having served their purpose, Christmas trees become a glorious bonfire to the spicy strains of live Cajun music, while Louisiana nosh and king cake are served. See calendar spotlight. Main Street Museum, White River Junction, 6

BEGINNER DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Waterbury Public Library game master Evan Hoffman gathers novices and veterans alike for an afternoon of virtual adventuring. Teens and

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

food & drink

WINOOSKI WINTER FARMERS MARKET: Families shop for meat pies, honey, kimchi, bread and prepared foods from more local vendors at an indoor marketplace. O’Brien Community Center, Winooski, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free.

Info, farmersmarket@downtown winooski.org.

health & fitness

COMMUNITY MINDFULNESS PRACTICE: New and experienced meditators are always welcome to join this weekly practice in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hahn.

Sangha Studio — Pine, Burlington, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, newleafsangha@gmail.com.

KARUNA COMMUNITY MEDITATION: A YEAR TO LIVE (FULLY): See SUN.31.

MON.8 dance

INSTINCT EXPERIMENTAL DANCE FESTIVAL: ANIMAL Dance

presents an immersive week of workshops and showcases focused on the creative process and works in progress. Black Box Theater, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 11 a.m.12:30 p.m., 2-4 & 6-7:30 p.m. $1825; $60-500 for festival passes; preregister for workshops. Info, instinctdancefest@gmail.com.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

language

ENGLISH CONVERSATION CIRCLE: Locals learning English as a second language gather in the Digital Lab to build vocabulary and make friends. ADA accessible.

South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

TUE.9

community

CURRENT EVENTS DISCUSSION GROUP: See TUE.2.

dance

INSTINCT EXPERIMENTAL DANCE FESTIVAL: See MON.8.

SWING DANCING: See TUE.2.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

food & drink

ARLO MARKET: Locals buy potatoes, beans and beyond in bulk at pay-what-you-can prices. O.N.E. Community Center, Burlington, 3-6 p.m. Free. Info, 660-0440, ext. 101.

language

PAUSE-CAFÉ FRENCH CONVERSATION: See TUE.2.

SOCIAL HOUR: The Alliance Française of the Lake Champlain Region hosts a rendez-vous over Zoom.

5:30-6:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

Info, ellen.sholk@gmail.com.

words

BURLINGTON LITERATURE GROUP: CÉSAR AIRA: See TUE.2.

THE MOTH STORYSLAM: Local tellers of tales recount true stories in an open mic format. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7:30 p.m.

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

$17.50; preregister. Info, susanne@ themoth.org.

POETRY GROUP: A supportive drop-in group welcomes those who would like to share and listen to poetry. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 11 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 846-4140.

‘JOURNEY TO SPACE 3D’: See WED.27.

Waterbury Public Library, 6-8 p.m.

Free. Info, 244-7036.

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.27.

NXT ROCKUMENTARY FILM SERIES: ‘HYPE!’: This 1996 documentary follows the birth of grunge in the Pacific Northwest.

Next Stage Arts Project, Putney, 7-8:30 p.m. $10. Info, 451-0053.

dance

‘OCEANS: OUR BLUE PLANET 3D’: See WED.27.

VIRTUAL VERMONT TRIVIA: PEOPLE OF VERMONT: History buffs bust out their knowledge of the Green Mountain State’s past. Courtesy of the Vermont Historical Society.

7-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 828-1414.

AMERICA: Anyone with an interest in the needle arts is welcome to bring a project to this monthly meeting. Holy Family Parish Hall, Essex Junction, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

Free. Info, gmc.vt.ega@gmail.com.

INSTINCT EXPERIMENTAL DANCE FESTIVAL: See MON.8.

WED.10

WESTIE WEDNESDAYS DANCE: See WED.27.

business

QUEEN CITY BUSINESS NETWORKING INTERNATIONAL GROUP: See WED.27.

crafts

GREEN MOUNTAIN CHAPTER OF THE EMBROIDERERS’ GUILD OF

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GREAT WHITE SHARK 3D’: See WED.27.

‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

food & drink

WHAT’S THAT WINE WEDNESDAYS: See WED.27.

games

BOARD GAME NIGHT: Lovers of tabletop fun play classic games and new designer offerings.

health & fitness CHAIR YOGA: See WED.27.

language

BEGINNER IRISH LANGUAGE CLASS: See WED.27.

ELL CLASSES: ENGLISH FOR BEGINNERS & INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS: See WED.27.

lgbtq

QUEER WRITER’S GROUP: LGBTQ authors meet monthly to discuss their work, write from prompts, and give each other advice and feedback. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Barre, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info, 622-0692.

politics

SARAH COPELAND HANZAS: The Vermont Secretary of State speaks about the state of civics education in our schools. KelloggHubbard Library, Montpelier, 7-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

sports

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE TENNIS CLUB: See WED.27.

theater

‘COME FROM AWAY’: SOLD OUT. This Tony Award-winning musical tells the stirring true story of a small Newfoundland town that hosted 7,000 stranded travelers on September 11. The Flynn, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $85.70-125.

Info, 863-5966.

words

LIFE STORIES WE LOVE TO TELL: Prompts from group leader Maryellen Crangle inspire true tales, told either off the cuff or read from prewritten scripts.

Presented by Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. 2-3:30 p.m.

Free; preregister; limited space.

Info, 878-4918. ➆

With care and support tailored to each individual, you can relax and enjoy the things you love.

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HOLT, BROKER • LOST LANTERN SPIRITS • LOST NATION THEATER • LUCAS TREE EXPERTS • LUCILLE ALLEN • LUCY MACKENZIE HUMANE SOCIETY • LUND • LYNDON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY AMERICORPS PROGRAM (LEAP) • LYRIC THEATRE • M GALE BUILDERS • MACDUN GARDEN CARE • MAD RIVER GLEN • MAD RIVER MENTORING • MAD RIVER PATH ASSOCIATION • MAD RIVER VALLEY ARTS • MADELEINE'S BAKERY • MAGIC MANN • MAHANEY CENTER FOR THE ARTS AT MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE • MAIN STREET BARBERS • MAIN STREET LANDING CO. • MAITRI HEALTH CARE FOR WOMEN • MALONEY PROPERTIES • MAMA'S GARDENS • MANCHESTER MUSIC FESTIVAL • MANDARIN • THE MANSFIELD BARN • MANSFIELD HALL • MANSI MEDIA • MAPLE CITY DINER • MAPLE RIDGE MEMORY CARE & SENIOR LIVING • MAPLE WIND FARM • MARBLESTONE WEALTH AT AMERIPRISE FINANCIAL • MARCOM GROUP • MARVELL • MASS. BAY BREWING COMPANY • MASSAGE ENVY • MATER CHRISTI SCHOOL • MATHEW'S MONTREAL'S FAMOUS • MAYNARD CLINIC OF ACUPUNCTURE • MAYO HEALTH CARE, INC. • MCCORMICK, FITZPATRICK, KASPER & BURCHARD PC • MCKEE'S PUB & GRILL • MCKENZIE OF VT • MCNEIL & REEDY • MEACH COVE FARMS • MEALS ON WHEELS OF LAMOILLE COUNTY • MED ASSOCIATES • MEDIA FACTORY • MEN’S ROOM • MERCY CONNECTIONS • MICKENBERG, DUNN & SMITH, PLC • MIDDLEBURY AREA LAND TRUST • MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE • MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE - NEW PERENNIALS PROJECT • MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ARTS • MIDDLEBURY INN • MIDDLEBURY NATURAL FOODS CO-OP • MIDDLEBURY PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY • MIDDLEBURY SNOW BOWL • MILK WITH DIGNITY STANDARDS COUNCIL • MILNE TRAVEL • MILTON TOWN SCHOOL DISTRICT • MIRABELLES • MIRROR MIRROR • MISERY LOVES COMPANY • MJS CONTRACTING • MK CLOTHING • MMR, LLC •

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

Sincerest thanks to the

A DV E R T ISE R S who supported Seven Days in 2023.

We wouldn't be here without you!

DUMB L U C K

PUB AND GRILL • DUNKLEY'S GYMNASTICS • EAGLE ISLAND • EARLY LEARNING P R E S C H O O L CENTER • EASTVIEW AT MIDDLEBURY • EAT & BE HOOPY • ECCO • ECHO AT THE LEAHY CENTER FOR LAKE CHAMPLAIN • ECOPIXEL • THE EDGE • EDGEWATER GALLERY • EFFICIENCY VERMONT • EL GATO CANTINA • ELAN ACADEMY OF CLASSIC BALLET • ELDERLY SERVICES • ELDERWOOD AT BURLINGTON • ELEMENT REAL ESTATE • ELLIS MUSIC COMPANY • ELMORE COMMUNITY TRUST • ELOQUENT PAGE • EMPOWER MEDSPA • ENGINEERS CONSTRUCTION • ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS MANAGEMENT • EOS TRANSITION PARTNERS • EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF VT • EPISCOPAL PEACE FELLOWSHIP • ERIN DUPUIS - VTRECO • ESMOND COMMUNICATIONS • ESSEX COMMUNITY JUSTICE CENTER • ESSEX EXPERIENCE • ESSEX PEDIATRICS • THE ESSEX RESORT & SPA • ESSEX WESTFORD SCHOOL DISTRICT • ESV HOLDING, INC. • ÉVÉNEMENTS ATTRACTIONS QUÉBEC • EVERNORTH • EVERYBODY WINS! • THE EXCHANGE • EXOTIKA DISPENSARY • EYES OF THE WORLD • FAB-TECH • FAMILY FIRST CHIROPRACTIC • FARM & WILDERNESS FOUNDATION • FARRELL DISTRIBUTING • FERRO JEWELERS • FETCH THE LEASH • FILLING STATION • FIRE AND ICE • FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH - BURLINGTON • FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH - ESSEX JUNCTION • FIRST NIGHT ST. JOHNSBURY • FLAVORS HOOK KIDS • FLEDGLING FARM • FLEMING MUSEUM • FLEX REAL ESTATE • FLOAT ON DISPENSARY • FLOWER BASKET • THE FLYNN • FOLINO'S • FOUNDATION FOR CHIROPRACTIC PROGRESS • FOURBITAL FACTORY • FRANKLIN GRAND ISLE RESTORATIVE JUSTICE CENTER • FRESH WIND ARBOR • FRESH WINDS CLEANING SERVICES • FRIENDS OF NORTHERN LAKE CHAMPLAIN • FRIENDS OF THE FRAME • FRIENDS OF THE MAD RIVER • FRONT PORCH FORUM • FULL CIRCLE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT • FURCHGOTT SOURDIFFE GALLERY • FUSE • GALLAGHER, FLYNN & COMPANY, LLP • GARDENER'S SUPPLY COMPANY • GAT AIRLINE GROUND SUPPORT • GENERAC/DR POWER EQUIPMENT • GENERATOR • GILWEE GROUP • GIRL SCOUTS OF THE GREEN AND WHITE MOUNTAINS • GIRLINGTON GARAGE • GIRLS NITE OUT PRODUCTIONS • GIRLS ON THE RUN VERMONT • GMCS, INC. • GODDARD COLLEGE • GOOD NEWS GARAGE • GOODWATER BREWERY • GOSS FUNERAL SERVICES • GOVERNOR'S INSTITUTES OF VERMONT • GRAM CENTRAL • GRANGE HALL CULTURAL CENTER • GRASS QUEEN • GRAVEL & SHEA • GRAYSTONE GROUP ADVERTISING • GRAZERS • GREATER BURLINGTON INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION • GREATER BURLINGTON MULTICULTURAL RESOURCE CENTER • GREATER BURLINGTON YMCA • GREEN LEAF CENTRAL • GREEN MOUNTAIN CENTER FOR GIFTED EDUCATION (TDI) • GREEN MOUNTAIN CLUB •

MONAGHAN SAFAR DWIGHT PPLC • MONARCH ENERGY • MONKEY DO! PLAYGROUND • MONROE STREET BOOKS • MONROE TRACTOR • MONTESSORI SCHOOL OF CENTRAL VERMONT • MONTPELIER ALIVE • THE MONTPELIER BRIDGE • MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE • MONTRÉAL ITALIAN FESTIVAL • MONTSHIRE MUSEUM • MOSAIC LEARNING CENTER • MOTOR • MOUNT MANSFIELD ACADEMY • MOUNTAIN LAKE PLASTIC SURGERY • MOUNTAIN TIMES • MOUNTAIN TOP INN • MOUNTAIN TREE CO • MOUNTAIN VILLAGE SCHOOL • MOVING LIGHT DANCE • MSK • MULE BAR • MUSEUM OF EVERYDAY LIFE • MUSIC CONTACT INTERNATIONAL • MVP HEALTH PLAN • MYGIRLS ENTERPRISES, INC. • MYTI • NANCY JENKINS REAL ESTATE • NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS - NAMI • NATIONAL LIFE GROUP • NATIVEENERGY • NATURE BY DESIGN • NATURE CONSERVANCY OF VT • NATURE'S MYSTERIES APOTHECARY • NATUROPATHIC ADVANTAGE • NBG TEAM • NCSS • NDI (ASCENSION TECHNOLOGY) • NECANN • NECK OF THE WOODS • NECTAR'S • NEDDE REAL ESTATE • NEIWPCC • NEK BROADBAND • NEW ENGLAND CONSULTING ENGINEERS • NEW ENGLAND FEDERAL CREDIT UNION • NEW ENGLAND NEWSPAPER AND PRESS ASSOCIATION (NENPA) • NEW FRAMEWORKS • NEWPORT CITY DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT • NFI VERMONT, INC. • NIGHT EAGLE WILDERNESS ADVENTURES • NO WORRIES LAWN & PLOW CARE, LLC • NOFA VERMONT • NOMAD COMMUNICATIONS & PRESS C/O MASCOMA BANK • NORTH BRANCH NATURE CENTER • NORTH COUNTRY COMMUNITY RADIO • NORTH COUNTRY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION • NORTH HERO HOUSE • NORTH STAR SPORTS • NORTHEAST DISABLED ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION • NORTHEAST KINGDOM HUMAN SERVICES (NKHS) • NORTHEAST WILDERNESS TRUST • NORTHEASTERN REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE • NORTHERN FOREST CANOE TRAIL • NORTHERN STAGE • NORTHFIELD SAVINGS BANK • NORTHWEST REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION • NORTHWEST UNIT FOR SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CENTER • NORTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER • NORTHWOODS STEWARDSHIP CENTER • NORWICH UNIVERSITY • NPI • NRG SYSTEMS • NVRH • OASIS DAY SPA • OFFICE OF DEFENDER GENERAL • OFFICE OF SENATOR PETER WELCH • OFFSET HOUSE/ CATAMOUNT COLOR • OH MY DOG • OHAVI ZEDEK SYNAGOGUE • OLD SPOKES HOME • OLD STONE HOUSE MUSEUM • OLLI UVM • OMNIMED • ONE CREDIT UNION • ONE DAY IN JULY, LLC • ONECARE VERMONT • ONION CITY CHICKEN & OYSTER • ONION RIVER OUTDOORS • ONSEN RAMEN • OOM YUNG DOE VERMONT • OPEN DOOR CLINIC • OPERA COMPANY OF MIDDLEBURY • OPERA HOUSE AT ENOSBURG FALLS • ORCHARD VALLEY WALDORF SCHOOL • ORLEANS EVENTS • ORLEANS SOUTHWEST SUPERVISORY UNION • ORTON FAMILY FOUNDATION • OTTER CREEK ASSOCIATES • OUR HOUSE • OUTDOOR GEAR EXCHANGE • OUTRIGHT VERMONT • OXBOW MUSIC FESTIVAL • OZZIE VANS • PALMER'S SUGAR HOUSE • PAPA FRANK'S • PARAMOUNT THEATRE • PARC SAFARI • PARK SQUEEZE • PARKWAY DINER • PART 2 AFTERSCHOOL • PARTNERS IN ADVENTURE • PATHWAYS VT • PAUL SUMNER • PAUL, FRANK AND COLLINS • PAWS AT HOME • PCC • PCI CAPITAL PROJECTS CONSULTING • PEAK MOTOR AND PUMP • PEET LAW GROUP • PEREGRINE DESIGN BUILD • PERKINS-PARKER FUNERAL HOME • PERRYWINKLE'S • PET FOOD WAREHOUSE • PETRA CLIFFS • PH INTERNATIONAL • PHOENIX BOOKS • PHOENIX FEEDS • PIECASSO • PINNACLE PROPERTIES • PLACE CREATIVE COMPANY • PLANNED PARENTHOOD • PLATTSBURGH STATE UNIVERSITY • POCO • POK-O-MACCREADY • POLLI CONSTRUCTION • POM EASY • POMERLEAU REAL ESTATE • POOL WORLD • POP MONTRÉAL INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL • POPULATION MEDIA CENTER • POSITIVE PIE 2 • PP&D • PRE-TECH PRECISION MACHINING • PRESERVATION BURLINGTON • PREVENT CHILD ABUSE VERMONT • PREVENTION WORKS VT • PRIMMER PIPER EGGLESTON & CRAMER • PROHIBITION PIG • PROMETRIC • PROTECT OUR WILDLIFE • PT360 • PTARMIGAN MEDIA • PÊCHE MEDICAL SPA • QI VETERINARY CLINIC • QUEEN CITY GHOSTWALK • QUEEN CITY TANGO • QUINCY HOTEL ENOSBURG FALLS • R K MILES • RADIANCE MEDICAL AESTHETICS & WELLNESS SPA • RADIATE ART SPACE • RADIO NORTH GROUP • THE RADIO VERMONT GROUP • RAIL CITY MARKET • RAILROAD & MAIN • RAILYARD APOTHECARY • RCX RULES • READY FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATION • RECYCLE BALLS • RED CLOVER CHILDREN'S CENTER • RED HEN BAKING CO. • RED HOUSE BUILDING, INC. • RED ROCK MECHANICAL • RED WAGON PLANTS • REDHEAD MEDIA • REDSTONE • REP. BECCA BALINT • REPLAYS VERMONT • RESCUE SOCIAL CHANGE GROUP • THE RESIDENCE AT OTTER CREEK • THE RESIDENCE AT QUARRY HILL • THE RESIDENCE AT SHELBURNE BAY • RESONANT LINK • RESOURCE • REVISION MILITARY • REVITALIZING WATERBURY • RHINO FOODS • RICHMOND FOOD SHELF & THRIFT SHOP • RICHMOND FREE LIBRARY • RICHMOND HISTORICAL SOCIETY - OLD ROUND CHURCH • RIKERT OUTDOOR CENTER • RIVER ARTS, INC. • ROBBI HANDY HOLMES • ROBIN LLOYD - GREEN VALLEY MEDIA • ROCK POINT SCHOOL • ROCKSTAR REAL ESTATE COLLECTIVE • ROCKY RIDGE GOLF CLUB • ROOTED ENTERTAINMENT SOLUTIONS - GREEN MTN SMOKE OUT • ROOTS FARM MARKET • ROYALTON FIRE DISTRICT • RUBIN, KIDNEY, MYER & DEWOLFE • RURAL ARTS COLLABORATIVE • RUSSELL MEMORIAL LIBRARY • RUSTIC ROOTS SALON • RUSTY DEWEES • RUTLAND COUNTY SOLID WASTE DISTRICT (RCSWD) • RUTLAND FREE LIBRARY • RÍ RÁ IRISH PUB • SAGE MOUNTAIN • SAINT MICHAEL'S COLLEGE • SAINT MICHAEL'S COLLEGE - SOCCER CAMP • SAINT MICHAEL'S COLLEGE PLAYHOUSE • SAINT MICHAEL'S GRADUATE PROGRAM • SALTWATER COLLECTIVE (DELTA DENTAL) • SALVATION FARMS • SAM MAZZA • THE SANDBOX • SARA HOLBROOK CENTER • THE SCALE POKE BAR • SCHIP'S TREASURE • SCHOOL'S OUT • SCHOOLHOUSE LEARNING CENTER • SCOTT PARTNERS • SCOUT • SD IRELAND • SEABA • SELF • SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS • SENIORS HELPING SENIORS • SHALIMAR OF INDIA • SHEARER AUDI ACURA • SHEEHEY FURLONG & BEHM P.C. • SHELBURNE CRAFT SCHOOL • SHELBURNE FARMS • SHELBURNE MUSEUM • SHELBURNE ORCHARDS • SHELBURNE PLAYERS • SHELBURNE TAP HOUSE • SHELBY PERRY • SHIDAA PROJECTS INC. - CULTURAL CAMP • SHORE ACRES INN AND RESTAURANT • SIDEPONY BOUTIQUE • SIGN-ARAMA • SIKORA SERVICE CENTER • SILVER LEAF IN-HOME CARE • SILVER MAPLE CONSTRUCTION • SIMON SAYS • SIMONE COTE •

SIMPLE ROOTS BREWING CO. • SIMPLY READY • A SINGLE PEBBLE RESTAURANT • SKIDA • SKINNY PANCAKE • SKIRACK • SLATE • SMALL DOG ELECTRONICS • SMALL MAMMAL • SMITH-ALVAREZ-SIENKIEWYCZ ARCHITECTS • SMUGGLERS' NOTCH RESORT • SNOW FARM VINEYARD • SNOWFLAKE CHOCOLATES • SOJOURN BICYCLING & ACTIVE VACATIONS • SOLHEM SAUNA • SOULLIFT SAUNAS • SOULSHINE POWER YOGA • SOUTH BURLINGTON ENERGY FESTIVAL • SOUTH BURLINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT • SOUTH HERO LAND TRUST • SP LARSON • SPA NORDIC STATION • SPANISH IN WATERBURY CENTER • SPECTRUM DAEP • SPECTRUM YOUTH & FAMILY SERVICES • SPEEDER & EARL'S • SPHERION • SPIN-MEDIA RESOURCES • SPLASH AT THE BOATHOUSE • SPRING LAKE RANCH • SPRUCE PEAK ARTS • SPRUCE PEAK PERFORMING ARTS CENTER FOUNDATION • SPRUCE PEAK RESORT ASSOCIATION • SRH LAW • SSTA • SSVF - UVM • ST. ALBANS HISTORICAL SOCIETY • ST. ANNE'S SHRINE • ST. JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH • ST. JOHNSBURY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE • STAPLETON PAINTING • STARLING COLLABORATIVE • STARTUP RUTLAND • STATE OF VERMONT JUDICIARY • STATE OF VT - DEPARTMENT FOR CHILDREN & FAMILIES • STEPS TO END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE • STERLING COLLEGE • STERLING RIDGE RESORT • STERN CENTER FOR LANGUAGE & LEARNING • STONE BLOCK ANTIQUES • STONE ENVIRONMENTAL • STONE'S THROW PIZZA • STONEWALL KITCHEN • STOP BTV BIOMASS • STOWE CIDER • STOWE ELECTRIC DEPT • STOWE LAND TRUST • STOWE LIVING • STOWE MOUNTAIN RESORT • STOWE PERFORMING ARTS • STOWE STREET CAFÉ • STRAM CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE • STRATEGIS • THE STRIKE ZONE • STUDIO 221, THE SODA PLANT • STUDIO PLACE ARTS • SUGARBUSH RESORT • SUGARBUSH SOARING • SUGARSNAP • SUMMER MUSIC OF GREENSBORO • SUMMIT PROPERTY MANAGEMENT • SUMMIT SCHOOL OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC & CULTURE • SUN CAMPS • SUN RAY FIRE & SECURITY • SUNCOMMON • SUNDOG POETRY CENTER, INC. • SUPER THIN SAWS • SUSTAINABLE ENERGY OUTREACH NETWORK (SEON) • SUSTAINABLE WOODSTOCK • SWEENEY DESIGNBUILD • SWEET P BOUTIQUE • SWIFT HOUSE INN • SWITCHBACK BREWING • SYLVAN LEARNING • TAIKO STUDIO • THE TAVERN • TEMPLE SINAI • TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES • TETRA TECH ARD • THEATER IN THE WOODS • THOMAS CHITTENDEN HEALTH CENTER • THOMAS HIRCHAK CO. • THOMAS MOCK • THORN + ROOTS • THREE NEEDS BREWERY & TAPROOM • TIMBER TENDER • TIMBERLOCK • A TIME TO HEAL • TINY THAI RESTAURANT • THE TIPSY PICKLE • TOM BANJO AZARIAN • TOMGIRL KITCHEN • TOPNOTCH RESORT AND SPA • TOURTERELLE • TOVE WEAR • TOWN AND COUNTRY FURNITURE • TOWN OF BOLTON • TOWN OF BRANDON • TOWN OF BRISTOL • TOWN OF CAANAN, NH • TOWN OF CHARLOTTE • TOWN OF COLCHESTER • TOWN OF EAST MONTPELIER • TOWN OF ESSEX • TOWN OF FAIRFAX • TOWN OF FAIRFIELD • TOWN OF FERRISBURGH • TOWN OF GEORGIA • TOWN OF HIGHGATE • TOWN OF HINESBURG • TOWN OF HUNTINGTON • TOWN OF HYDE PARK • TOWN OF JOHNSON • TOWN OF LINCOLN • TOWN OF LYNDON • TOWN OF MILTON • TOWN OF MORRISTOWN • TOWN OF NORTHFIELD • TOWN OF PANTON • TOWN OF RICHMOND • TOWN OF SHELBURNE • TOWN OF ST. ALBANS • TOWN OF ST. GEORGE • TOWN OF STARKSBORO • TOWN OF STOWE • TOWN OF UNDERHILL • TOWN OF WATERBURY • TOWN OF WESTFORD • TOWN OF WILLISTON • TRAPP FAMILY LODGE • TRAVELODGE • TRIAD DESIGN SERVICE, INC. • TRILLIUM HILL FARM • TRILLIUM MANUAL THERAPIES • TRINITY CHILDREN'S CENTER, INC. • TRIVALLEY TRANSIT • TRUE 802 CANNABIS • TRUE NORTH • TURNING POINT CENTER • TURTLE FUR • TW WOOD GALLERY • TWO BROTHERS TAVERN • TWO RIVERSOTTAUQUECHEE REGIONAL COMMISSION • TYLER PLACE FAMILY RESORT • U.S. COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS • U.S. PROBATION DISTRICT OF VT • UMBRELLA • UMIAK • UNCOMMON BOLD • UNION BANK • UNION BANK - KELLY DEFORGE • UNION MUTUAL COMPANIES OF VT • UNION STREET MEDIA • UNITARIAN CHURCH OF MONTPELIER • UNITED PROFESSIONS AFT VT • UNITED WAY NORTHWEST VT • UNIVERSITY MALL • UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT MEDICAL CENTER • UPPER VALLEY FOOD CO-OP • URBAN MOONSHINE NATURAL PRODUCTS • US DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF VT • US POSTAL SERVICE ESSEX • US SHERPA • USDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE • UVM CANCER CENTER • UVM COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES • UVM COLLEGE OF EDUCATION & SOCIAL SERVICES • UVM DEPARTMENT OF ATHLETICS • UVM DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION • UVM DEPARTMENT OF RESIDENTIAL LIFE • UVM DINING • UVM ENGAGEMENT AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT • UVM EVENT SERVICES • UVM FOUNDATION • UVM GLOBAL OUTLOOK PROGRAM • UVM HEALTH NETWORK • UVM HEALTH NETWORK — HOME HEALTH & HOSPICE • UVM HISTORY DEPARTMENT • UVM LANE SERIES • UVM LARNER COLLEGE OF MEDICINE • UVM OFFICE OF PRIMARY CARE & AHEC PROGRAM • UVM OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH • UVM RUBENSTEIN SCHOOL • UVM THEATRE • UVM VCHIP • V SMILEY PRESERVES • VACD • VALLEY PLAYERS • VALLEY VISTA • VBK LAW • VBT DELUXE BICYCLE VACATIONS • VCAM • VELCO • VEOC • VERMONT ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING • VERMONT ADULT LEARNING - WATERBURY • VERMONT AFFORDABLE HOUSING COALITION • VERMONT AFTERSCHOOL • VERMONT AGENCY OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD & MARKETS • VERMONT AGENCY OF HUMAN SERVICES • VERMONT AGENCY OF NATURAL RESOURCES • VERMONT ARMY NATIONAL GUARD • VERMONT ARTS COUNCIL • VERMONT ASSOCIATION FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND ADDICTION RECOVERY • VERMONT ASSOCIATION OF CONSERVATION DISTRICTS • VERMONT AUTO ENTHUSIASTS • VERMONT AWARDS & ENGRAVING • VERMONT BABY EXPO • VERMONT BALLET AND THEATER SCHOOL CENTER FOR DANCE • VERMONT BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION • VERMONT BEVERAGE SUPPLY • VERMONT BOOK SHOP • VERMONT BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU • VERMONT BREWERS FESTIVAL • VERMONT BURLESQUE FESTIVAL • VERMONT BUSINESSES FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY • VERMONT CANNABIS SOLUTIONS • VERMONT CANOE AND KAYAK • VERMONT CAPTIVE INSURANCE ASSOCIATION • VERMONT CARE PARTNERS • VERMONT CARES • VERMONT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE • THE VERMONT CHORAL UNION • VERMONT CHRISTIAN RADIO -

WJPL-LP 92.1FM • VERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS • VERMONT COMEDY CLUB • VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL • VERMONT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION • VERMONT COMPOST COMPANY • VERMONT CONSERVATION VOTERS • VERMONT CONSTRUCTION & GENERAL CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION • VERMONT CONSTRUCTION COMPANY • VERMONT COOKIE LOVE • VERMONT COUNCIL ON RURAL DEVELOPMENT • VERMONT CRAFTS COUNCIL • VERMONT DAY SCHOOL • VERMONT DEPARTMENT FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION • VERMONT DEPARTMENT OF BUILDINGS & GENERAL SERVICES PLANNING & PROPERTY MANAGEMENT • VERMONT DEPARTMENT OF FORESTS, PARKS & RECREATION • VERMONT DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES • VERMONT DEPARTMENT OF LIQUOR & LOTTERY • VERMONT DEPARTMENT OF STATE’S ATTORNEYS AND SHERIFFS • VERMONT DEPARTMENT OF TAXES • VERMONT DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM AND MARKETING • VERMONT EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP CENTER • VERMONT ENERGY EDUCATION PROGRAM • VERMONT FAMILY PHARMACY • VERMONT FARM SHOW • VERMONT FEDERAL CREDIT UNION • VERMONT FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER OFFICE • VERMONT FOLKLIFE • VERMONT FOODBANK • VERMONT FRESH NETWORK • VERMONT GARDEN NETWORK • VERMONT GATHERINGS • VERMONT GENERAL ASSEMBLY - OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE HUMAN RESOURCES • VERMONT GOLF ASSOCIATION • VERMONT GRANITE MUSEUM • VERMONT GROWERS ASSOCIATION • VERMONT HAND CRAFTERS • VERMONT HIGHER EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE (VT-HEC) • VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY • VERMONT HITEC • VERMONT HOUSING & CONSERVATION BOARD • VERMONT HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY • VERMONT HUMANITIES COUNCIL • VERMONT INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE • VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL • VERMONT LAND TRUST • VERMONT LANDLORDS ASSOCIATION • VERMONT LEAGUE OF CITIES & TOWNS • VERMONT LEGAL AID, INC. • VERMONT MAPLE FESTIVAL • VERMONT MAPLE SUGAR MAKERS' ASSOCIATION • VERMONT MECHANICAL • VERMONT MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDATION • VERMONT MORTGAGE COMPANY • VERMONT NATURAL COATINGS • VERMONT NATURAL RESOURCES COUNCIL • VERMONT NATUROPATHIC MEDICINE • VERMONT NEA • VERMONT NETWORK AGAINST DOMESTIC AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE • VERMONT NURSERY & LANDSCAPE ASSOCIATION • VERMONT ORGANIC FARMERS • VERMONT OXFORD NETWORK • VERMONT PAINT COMPANY • VERMONT PARKS FOREVER • VERMONT PROFESSIONALS OF COLOR NETWORK, INC • VERMONT PROGRAM FOR QUALITY IN HEALTH CARE, INC. • VERMONT PUB & BREWERY • VERMONT PUBLIC • VERMONT PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION • VERMONT PUBLIC POWER SUPPLY AUTHORITY • VERMONT PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION • VERMONT RAIL SYSTEM • VERMONT REAL ESTATE COMPANY • VERMONT REGENERATIVE MEDICINE • VERMONT RIDE NETWORK • VERMONT RURAL WATER ASSOCIATION • VERMONT SCHOOL COUNSELOR ASSOCIATION • VERMONT SMOKE AND CURE • VERMONT STAGE COMPANY • VERMONT STATE COLLEGES • VERMONT STATE COURTS • VERMONT STATE CURATOR'S OFFICE • VERMONT STATE ETHICS COMMISSION • VERMONT STATE HOUSING AUTHORITY • VERMONT STATE LABOR COUNCIL AFL-CIO • VERMONT STATE POLICE • VERMONT STATE UNIVERSITY • VERMONT STUDIO CENTER • VERMONT SUSTAINABLE JOBS FUND • VERMONT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA • VERMONT TECHNICAL COLLEGE • VERMONT TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE • VERMONT TEDDY BEAR COMPANY • VERMONT TENT COMPANY • VERMONT TIRE & SERVICE, INC. • VERMONT VICTORY GREENHOUSES • VERMONT WEDDING ASSOCIATION • VERMONT WILDLIFE PATROL • VERMONT WOMENPRENEURS • VERMONT WORKS FOR WOMEN • VERMONT YOUTH ORCHESTRA • VHB • VHFA • VILLAGE TAVERN • VINE RIPE GREENHOUSE CONSTRUCTION • VINS NATURE CENTER • VIP • VISUAL AID SOCIETY • VITAL COMMUNITIES • VITAL DELIVERY SOLUTIONS • VLCT - MUNICIPAL ASSISTANCE • VLITE • VMEC • VNLA - GREENWORKS • VPIRG • VSAC • VSEA • VSECU • WAHL MEDIA • WAITSFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL • WAITSFIELD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST • WAKE ROBIN • WAKE ROBIN RESIDENTS' ASSOCIATION • WALKER'S VERMONT MAPLE SYRUP • WALLY'S PLACE • WARREN SCHOOL • WASHINGTON CENTRAL UNIFIED UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT • WASHINGTON COUNTY MENTAL HEALTH • WASHINGTON ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE • WATER WANDERINGS • WATERBURY PUBLIC LIBRARY • WATERBURY WINTERFEST • WATERSHEDS UNITED VT • WATERWORKS FOOD & DRINK • WAYSIDE RESTAURANT • WCAX-TV • WELLPATH • WELLS MOUNTAIN • WESTVIEW MEADOWS • WHISTLE PIG • WILD BIRCH DESIGN • WILD LEGACY CANNABIS • WILD TRAILS FARM • WILDFLOWER WILDERNESS EXPEDITIONS • WILDLAND TREKKING COMPANY • WILDSCAPE DESIGN • THE WILL CALL • WILLISTON COMMUNITY THEATRE • WILLISTON HOT YOGA • WILLISTON PLACE INDEPENDENT SENIOR LIVING • WILLISTON RECREATION & PARKS • WILLOWELL FOUNDATION • WILSON HOUSE OF EAST DORSET • WIND KNOT PUBLISHING • WINDJAMMER HOSPITALITY GROUP • WINDOWS & DOORS BY BROWNELL • WINOOSKI CONSERVATION DISTRICT • WINOOSKI HOUSING AUTHORITY • WINOOSKI ORGANICS • WINOOSKI PTO • WINOOSKI VALLEY PARK DISTRICT • WIRTHWEIN CORPORATION • WISE • WNCS/THE POINT • WND&WVS • WONDERFEET • WOOD 4 GOOD • WOOD AND WOOD SIGNS • WOOD MOUNTAIN FISH • WOODBURY MOUNTAIN TOYS • WOODCHUCK THEATER CO. • WOODSMAN'S TREE SERVICE • WOODSTOCK INN & RESORT • WORTHY BURGER • YATES FAMILY ORCHARD • YELLOW MUSTARD • YESTERMORROW DESIGN/BUILD SCHOOL • YIPES! AUTO & GRAPHICS • YWCA OF VT • Z MOTORSPORTS • ZENBARN FARMS • ZERO GRAVITY SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

77

In your heart forever.

Share the story of your special friend.

Your beloved pet was a part of the family.

Explain how and why in a Seven Days pet memorial. Share your Seven Days Pet Memorials animal’s photo and SPONSORED BY a written remembrance in the Paws Fur-ever Loved section of the at Home newspaper and online. It’s an Mobile Veterinary Hospice & affordable way to acknowledge End of Life Care and celebrate the nonhuman companions in our lives.

Fur-ever

TO SUBMIT A PET MEMORIAL,

please visit sevendaysvt.com/ petmemorials or scan the QR code.

classes THE FOLLOWING CLASS LISTINGS ARE PAID ADVERTISEMENTS. ANNOUNCE YOUR CLASS FOR AS LITTLE AS $16.75/WEEK (INCLUDES SIX PHOTOS AND UNLIMITED DESCRIPTION ONLINE). SUBMIT YOUR CLASS AD AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTCLASS.

astrology YOUR ASTROLOGICAL MOON: Mother, Moods and Mystery: In this three-part series, explore your natal moon to gain deeper understanding of your emotional needs, including your emotional development, triggers, instincts and more. The ancient wisdom tradition of astrology offers fresh insights into your patterns, helping you develop self-acceptance and practical tools for better well-being. Wed., Jan. 10, 17 & 24, 5:30-7 p.m. Cost: $60/for all 3 classes. Location: The Wellness Collective, 875 Roosevelt Hwy., Ste. 120, Colchester. Info: Hidden Path Astrology, Jennie Date, 802578-3735, hiddenpathastrology@ gmail.com, hiddenpathastrology. com.

Française, online or in-person.

Info: Micheline, education@aflcr. org, aflcr.org.

jewelry

martial arts

JEWELRY AND ENAMELING CLASSES: I teach small workshops and private lessons for adults in my well-equipped personal studio. This winter, I’m offering a variety of classes using silver, in which students will learn techniques such as soldering and riveting. I’m also offering kiln-fired enamel classes. Class size is one to four students; no experience necessary. Weekends Jan.-Mar. One- to 12-hour classes. Location: Jolynn’s Workshop, Charlotte. Info: Jolynn Santiago, 330-599-9418, jolynnsantiago@ gmail.com, jolynnsantiago.com.

AIKIDO: THE POWER OF HARMONY: Cultivate core power, aerobic fitness and resiliency.

The dynamic, circular movements emphasize throws, joint locks and the development of internal energy. Introductory classes for adults and youths.

Ask about our intensive training program and scholarships.

Inclusive training and a safe space for all. Visitors welcome!

Beginners’ classes 4 days/week.

Membership rates incl. unlimited classes. Contact us for info about membership rates for adults, youths & families. Location: Aikido of Champlain Valley, 257 Pine St., Burlington. Info: Benjamin Pincus, 802-951-8900, bpincus@burlingtonaikido.org, burlingtonaikido.org.

language ADULT LIVE SPANISH E-CLASSES: Join us for adult Spanish classes this winter, using Zoom online video conferencing. Our 18th year.

Learn from a native speaker via small group classes or individual instruction. You’ll always be participating and speaking. Beginning to Advanced. Note: classes fill up quickly. See our website or contact us for details. Group classes begin week of January 8; private instruction any time. Location: Spanish in Waterbury Center, online. Info: 802-585-1025, spanishparavos@ gmail.com, spanishwaterbury center.com.

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE WINTER SESSION: Join us for online or in-person adult French classes this winter. Our seven-week session starts on January 8 and offers classes for participants at all levels. Please go to our website to read all about our offerings, or contact Micheline. 7-week class begins Jan. 8. Location: Alliance

music MUSIC TOGETHER FAMILY MUSIC: A research-based and fun program built on the concept that all children are musical.

Emily Mott — a musician and experienced music instructor — helps you become a musical family, with songs, rhythmic chants, movement and instrument play.

These activities are informal, nonperformance-oriented musical experiences—developmentally appropriate for children and easy for parents and caregivers. Location: Murmurations Aerial Studio, 208 Flynn Ave., Burlington. $220 per family, additional siblings under 8 mo. free. Every Wed., 10 a.m. starting Jan. 17. Emily Mott, 617-872-4432, emilyarwenmott@gmail.com, songiverstudio.com.

TAIKO & DJEMBE CLASSES: Taiko Tue. & Thu., Djembe Wed., starting 12/4, 1/3, 2/6. Dropins welcome. Kids & Parents Taiko Tue. & Thu., 4-5:30 p.m.

Adult Intro Taiko, 5:30-7 p.m.

Accelerated Taiko, 7-8:30 p.m.

Drums provided. 4-week classes.

World Drumming Wed. Kids & Parents, 4-5:30 p.m. Adult Djembe, 5:30-7 p.m. Conga Beginners, 7-8:30 p.m. Drums provided. Location: Taiko Studio, 208 Flynn Ave., Burlington. Info: Stuart, 802-999-4255, classes@ burlingtontaiko.org.

well-being PAIN MANAGEMENT CLASS: Living with chronic pain can mean much more than “toughing it out.” Experienced psychologist is offering a class to teach pain management skills and help you get back to living a more rewarding life. Tue., Jan. 9, 16, 23 & 30, 5:30-7 p.m. Cost: $200 for 4 sessions. 595 Dorset St., Ste. 2, Burlington. Info: Judith Vanderryn, Ph.D., 802-6518999. ext. 4.

massage ABDOMINAL MASSAGE INTENSIVE: Build your abdominal bodywork tool set in addressing the root of common symptoms, taught from a Chinese medicine perspective. You will learn to formulate your sessions to meet each client’s unique needs.

Engage with students in this hands-on intensive and enjoy online access to recorded presentations and videotaped techniques.

Jan. 25 & 26, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Cost: $360/2-day training w/ online materials. Location: The Wellness Collective, 875 Roosevelt Hwy., Ste. 120, Colchester. Info: Core Connections Abdominal Centered Therapy, Caitlin Perry, 802-3992082, coreconnectionsvt@gmail. com, coreconnectionsvt@gmail. com.

CLASS PHOTOS + MORE INFO ONLINE SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSES 78

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

COURTESY OF KELLY SCHULZE/MOUNTAIN DOG PHOTOGRAPHY

Humane

Society of Chittenden County

HAPPY TAIL housing »

APARTMENTS, CONDOS & HOMES

on the road »

CARS, TRUCKS, MOTORCYCLES

pro services »

CHILDCARE, HEALTH/ WELLNESS, PAINTING

buy this stuff »

APPLIANCES, KID STUFF, ELECTRONICS, FURNITURE

music »

INSTRUCTION, CASTING, INSTRUMENTS FOR SALE

jobs »

NO SCAMS, ALL LOCAL, POSTINGS DAILY

Formerly known as Anubis, our sweet girl Jinx has been in our home for one full year! While we initially weren’t searching for a new friend when we walked into HSCC last year, the universe had other plans. My husband and I were grieving the loss of a much-wanted pregnancy, and all we wanted was to pet some cute animals and maybe put some of our broken pieces back together — however, when we stepped into that kitten room, a little black kitten came right up to us and demanded attention, stealing our hearts in the process and earning an important spot in our home!

Jinx has used the past year to slowly warm up to us.

She’s come out of her shell as the snuggly, sweet kitty we know now, but she certainly made us work for it!

She’s grown to trust us completely, and her growth makes me emotional sometimes. Now, she loves to snuggle with everyone, gives kisses to her little (human) brother and cat dad, and loves to be picked up so she can look outside the front-door window.

Her favorite toy is a teaser with a worm on the end,

though the worms never seem to last long when she gets ahold of them! She’s not afraid to share her opinions if you take too long to feed her or if you’re playing too slowly, which always makes us laugh.

Jinx has become an incredibly healing friend for our family. I can’t imagine a life where we don’t have her with us, and I thank God for letting her pick us a full year ago. They say a cat's purr is healing, and my family is certainly a living testament to that.

Thank you for helping us fill an empty spot in our lives!

— Jinx’s Family Sponsored by:

Visit the Humane Society of Chittenden County at 142 Kindness Court, South Burlington, Tuesday through Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. or Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Call 862-0135 or visit hsccvt.org for more info.

NEW STUFF ONLINE EVERY DAY! PLACE YOUR ADS 24-7 AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM. SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

79

CLASSIFIEDS

housing ads: $25 (25 words) legals: 52¢/word buy this stuff: free online

CLASSIFIEDS KEY appt. appointment apt. apartment BA bathroom BR bedroom DR dining room DW dishwasher HDWD hardwood HW hot water LR living room NS no smoking OBO or best offer refs. references sec. dep. security deposit W/D washer & dryer

housing

OFFICE/ COMMERCIAL OFFICE/RETAIL SPACE AT MAIN STREET LANDING on Burlington’s waterfront. Beautiful, healthy, affordable spaces for your business. Visit mainstreetlanding.com & click on space avail.

Melinda, 864-7999.

veterans! 1-866-5599123. (AAN CAN)

services

AUTO DONATE YOUR CAR TO CHARITY Running or not! Fast, free pickup. Maximum tax deduction. Support Patriotic Hearts. Your car donation helps

FINANCIAL/LEGAL $10K+ IN DEBT? Be debt-free in 24-48 mos. Pay a fraction of your debt. Call National Debt Relief at 844-9773935. (AAN CAN) APPEAL FOR SOCIAL SECURITY Denied Social Security disability? Appeal! If you’re 50+, filed SSD

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 and similar Vermont statutes which make it illegal to advertise any preference, limitations, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, handicap, presence of minor children in the family or receipt of public assistance, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or a discrimination. The newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate, which is in violation of the law. Our

services: $12 (25 words) fsbos: $45 (2 weeks, 30 words, photo) jobs: michelle@sevendaysvt.com, 865-1020 x121

Waterbury, VT Home with Apartment & Garage

3 ACRES

3515 GREGG HILL RD, WATERBURY, VT

Live Auction: Tuesday, Jan. 9 @ 11AM Register & Inspect from 10AM

HOME: 3/BD, 1.5/BA APARTMENT: 2/BD, 1 BATH

Foreclosure Auction: 4/BD, 1.5/BA Home, Springfield, VT

& were denied, our attorneys can help.

Win or pay nothing.

Strong recent work history needed. Call 1-877-311-1416 to contact Steppacher Law Offices LLC. Principal office: 224 Adams Ave., Scranton, PA 18503.

(AAN CAN) SAVE YOUR HOME Are you behind paying your mortgage? Denied a loan modification?

Threatened w/

print deadline: Mondays at 3:30 p.m. post ads online 24/7 at: sevendaysvt.com/classifieds questions? classifieds@sevendaysvt.com 865-1020 x115

PROFESSIONAL THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE THERAPY Steamed towels/hot packs. 30 years’ experience. Gift certificates avail. Plainfield. Contact Peter Scott at 802-5223053 or pscottmbs@ gmail.com.

NEVER CLEAN YOUR GUTTERS AGAIN! Affordable, professionally installed gutter guards protect your gutters & home from debris & leaves forever!

For a free quote, call 844-947-1470. (AAN CAN)

REMOTE REIKI & ORACLE $50 remote Reiki healing & intuitive oracle sessions done by Reiki master Erica. Receive link to private YouTube audio of session.

Contact bella_imelda@ yahoo.com to book.

BEAUTIFY YOUR HOME Get energy-efficient windows. They will increase your home’s value & decrease your energy bills. Replace all or a few! Call now to get your free, no-obligation quote. 844-335-2217.

PSYCHIC COUNSELING Psychic counseling, channeling w/ Bernice Kelman, Underhill. 40+ years’ experience. Also energy healing, chakra balancing, Reiki, rebirthing, other lives, classes & more. 802-899-3542, kelman.b@juno.com.

HOME/GARDEN 21 OLIVE STREET, SPRINGFIELD, VT

Live Auction: Thursday, Jan. 11 @ 11AM Register & Inspect from 10AM

2100 SF HOME WITH 4/BD & 1.5/BA. INCLUDES 2 SHEDS!

BATH & SHOWER UPDATES In as little as 1 day!

Affordable prices. No payments for 18 mo.

Lifetime warranty & professional installs.

Senior & military discounts avail. Call 1-866-370-2939. (AAN CAN)

DISCOVER OXYGEN THERAPY THCAuction.com  800-634-SOLD Try Inogen portable oxygen concentrators.

Free information kit. Call readers are hereby informed that all foreclosure? Call the 866-859-0894. (AAN dwellings advertised in this newspaper Homeowner’s Relief Line 8v-hirchakbrothers122723.indd 1 12/15/23 11:01 CAN) AM are available on an equal opportunity now for help: 855-721basis. Any home seeker who feels he 3269. (AAN CAN) WATER DAMAGE or she has encountered discrimination REPAIR SERVICES should contact: FREE AUTO INSURANCE If you have water CASH FOR CANCER QUOTES HUD Office of Fair Housing damage to your home & PATIENTS For uninsured & insured 10 Causeway St., need cleanup services, Diagnosed w/ lung drivers. Let us show you Boston, MA 02222-1092 call us! We’ll get in & cancer? You may qualify how much you can save!

(617) 565-5309 work w/ your insurance for a substantial cash Call 855-569-1909. (AAN — OR — agency to get your home award, even w/ smoking CAN) Vermont Human Rights Commission repaired & your life back history. Call 1-888-37614-16 Baldwin St. to normal ASAP! Call 0595. (AAN CAN) Montpelier, VT 05633-0633 833-664-1530. (AAN 1-800-416-2010 CAN) hrc@vermont.gov

HEALTH/ WELLNESS

And on the seventh day, we do not rest.

Instead we bring you...

PET NEW PET GROOMER Dirty Paws Pet Spa is opening at 4050 Williston Rd. Grooming all breeds of dogs & cats. With decades of experience, we will make your pet look & feel wonderful. Call 802-264-7076.

buy this stuff

for a 50-pills-for-$99 promotion. Call 888531-1192. (AAN CAN) DIRECTV SATELLITE TV Service starting at $74.99/mo.! Free installation! 160+ channels avail.

Call now to get the most sports & entertainment on TV! 877-310-2472.

(AAN CAN)

PETS GSP PUPPIES GSP puppies born Sep. 28. 1st shots, wormed, health certificates, ready to go. Come meet the gundogsvt. com crew. $1,300 each.

Contact Rodger at 802-745-8599.

WANT TO BUY TOP CASH FOR OLD GUITARS 1920-1980 Gibson, Martin, Fender, Gretsch, Epiphone, Guild, Mosrite, Rickenbacker, Prairie State, D’A ngelico & Stromberg + Gibson mandolins & banjos.

Call 877-589-0747. (AAN CAN)

MISCELLANEOUS BCI WALK-IN TUBS Now on sale! Be 1 of the 1st 50 callers & save $1,500. Call 844-5140123 for a free in-home consultation. (AAN CAN) DISH TV $64.99 $64.99 for 190 channels + $14.95 high-speed internet. Free installation, Smart HD DVR incl., free voice remote.

Some restrictions apply.

1-866-566-1815. (AAN CAN) MALE ENHANCEMENT PILLS Bundled network of Viagra, Cialis & Levitra alternative products

music

INSTRUCTION GUITAR INSTRUCTION Berklee graduate w/ 30 years’ teaching experience offers lessons in guitar, music theory, music technology, ear training. Individualized, step-by-step approach.

All ages, styles, levels.

Rick Belford, 864-7195, rickbelford.com.

LEGALS »

Get the newsletter featuring notable news, arts and food stories handpicked by our editors. Sit back, relax and read up on what you may have missed.

SUBSCRIBE TODAY:

SEVENDAYSVT.COM/ENEWS 80

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

4h-sundaybest-dog.indd 1

3/2/21 6:43 PM

Calcoku SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSIFIEDS »

Using the enclosed math operations as a guide, fill the grid using the numbers 1 - 6 only once in each row and column.

4-

2÷

2-

40x 6x

120x

numbers 1-9 only once in each row, column and 3 x 3 box.

2-

2÷

1-

14+

2÷

9 6 7

4 7 9 5 1

3 9 4 8

6

3 3 4 7 2 5

30x

Extra! Extra!

1

There’s no limit to ad length online.

WANT MORE PUZZLES? Try these online news games from Seven Days at sevendaysvt.com/games.

NEW ON FRIDAYS:

Put your knowledge of Vermont news to the test.

9 Difficulty - Hard

CALCOKU

1 6

3 2÷

Open 24/7/365.

View and post up to Post & browse ads Complete the following by using the at your convenience.

6 photos perpuzzle ad online.

8 1

2÷

2-

Show and tell.

Sudoku

SUDOKU

BY JOSH REYNOLDS

Difficulty: Medium

No. 822

BY JOSH REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: ★★★

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: ★★

Fill the grid using the numbers 1-6, only once in each row and column. The numbers in each heavily outlined “cage” must combine to produce the target number in the top corner, using the mathematical operation indicated. A one-box cage should be filled in with the target number in the top corner. A number can be repeated within a cage as long as it is not the same row or column.

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers one to nine. The same numbers cannot be repeated in a row or column.

1

3

6

5

2

4

5

6

4

2

3

1

6

4

5

3

1

2

2

1

3

4

6

5

4

2

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3

crossword 3 5 2 1 4 6

8 7 2 1 3 9 6 4 5 ANSWERS 1 4 9ON P.82 5 6 2 3 7 8 ★ = MODERATE ★★ = CHALLENGING ★★★ = HOO, BOY! 5 6 3 8 4 7 1 2 9 4 8 7 9 5 1 2 3 6 FORGET 6 THE 2 WHOLE 1 3 7THING 8 5 9 4 ANSWERS ON P.82 » 3 9 5 4 2 6 7 8 1 9 3 4 7 1 5 8 6 2 2 5 8 6 9 3 4 1 7 7 1 6 2 8 4 9 5 3

See how fast you can solve this weekly 10-word puzzle.

NEW EVERY DAY:

Guess today’s 5-letter word.

Hint: It’s in the news!

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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Legal Notices NORTHSTAR SELF STORAGE WILL BE HAVING A PUBLIC AND ONLINE SALE/AUCTION FOR THE FOLLOWING STORAGE UNITS ON JANUARY 4, 2024, AT 9:00 AM Northstar Self Storage will be having a public and online sale/auction on January 4, 2024 at 9am EST at 205 VT-4A West, Castleton VT 05735 (2-3, 3-10, 3-32, 3-40) and online at www.storagetreasures. com at 9:00 am in accordance with VT Title 9 Commerce and Trade Chapter 098: Storage Units 3905. Enforcement of Lien Unit # 1 2-3 2 3-10 3 3-32 4 3-40

Name Mark Lahue James Burch Beverly Burch Allen Lake

Contents Household Goods Household Goods Household Goods Household Goods

TOWN OF SWANTON Request for Proposals (RFP) for Grant Writing Services Overview The Town of Swanton is accepting proposals for grant writing services for the proposed multigenerational community center project.

Scope of Work The contracted work is to include grant research and proposals/applications for grants relevant to building and operating a multi-generational community center and also possible future projects.

The Town of Swanton is seeking a grant writer or firm with a proven track record in: • Creating complex proposals from diverse funding sources.

• Skills in demographic data collection and analysis.

• An entrepreneurial approach to funding development.

Previous experience should include: • Working in the philanthropic arena of rural areas.

• Previous personal and/or professional experiences in communities with less than 10,000 people.

Fee Schedule The fee schedule should be all-inclusive and

PLACE AN AFFORDABLE NOTICE AT: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LEGAL-NOTICES OR CALL 802-865-1020, EXT. 121.

presented on an hourly basis. Applications must provide a detailed price breakdown including fees.

The cost will be based on the projected hours of work provided. The contractor will invoice and be paid per application.

Award The Town of Swanton plans to award the contract

by January 30, 2024. The executive committee will then mutually discuss and refine the scope of work with the selected applicant and shall negotiate final conditions, compensation and performance schedule.

RFP Questions and Responses All questions pertaining to the proposal must be submitted in writing via email to: Brian Savage-Town Administrator at townadmin@ swantonvermont.org Application Requirements To apply submit the following: 1) Examples of grant sources from which the applicant has successfully obtained funding (provide specific examples of grant programs, government programs agencies, or foundations, amounts and purpose grant(s).

2) An excerpt from a successful grant written by the applicant that is representative of his/her writing style. The excerpt should not exceed 2 pages and should not contain any confidential or proprietary information.

3) Schedule of proposed fees.

4) A minimum of three (3) professional references from clients for whom the applicant has successfully performed similar work.

5) Proposals must be received by 4:00 pm on January 15, 2024, in one PDF file to Brian Savage, Town Administrator, Town of Swanton at townadmin@swantonvermont.org.

6) Total proposal should not be no longer than 8 standard letter-sized pages. Proposals not meeting the criteria outlined in the RFP will not be considered.

The Town of Swanton reserves the right to reject any or all proposals

WARNING

Tara Lavallee, Unit 613.

Kevin Hampsey, Unit 907.

Policy Adoption Champlain Valley School District The Board of School Directors gives public notice of its intent to adopt local district policies dealing with the following at its meeting scheduled on January 23, 2024:

Copies of the above policies may be obtained for public review at the Office of the Human Resources Dept. in Shelburne, VT. NOTICE OF SELF-STORAGE LIEN SALE Chimney Corners Self Storage 76 Gonyeau Road, Milton VT 05403 Notice is hereby given that the contents of the self-storage units listed below will be sold at public auction by sealed bid. This sale is being held to collect unpaid storage unit occupancy fees, charges, and expenses of the sale. The entire contents of each self-storage unit listed below will be sold, with the proceeds to be distributed to Chimney Corners Self Storage for all accrued occupancy fees (rent charges), late payment fees, sale expenses, and all other expenses in relation to the unit and its sale.

Contents of each unit may be viewed on January 3rd 2024, commencing at 10:00 am. Sealed bids are to be submitted on the entire contents of each self storage unit. Bids will be opened one half hour after the last unit has been viewed on January 3rd. The highest bidder on the storage unit must remove the entire contents of the unit within 48 hours after notification of their successful bid. Purchase must be made in cash and paid in advance of the removal of the contents of the unit. A $50 cash deposit shall be made and will be refunded if the unit is broom cleaned. Chimney Corners Self Storage reserves the right to accept or reject bids.

To the creditors of: Thomas Trainer, late of South Burlington, Vermont: Aileen C. Trainer has been appointed a personal representative of the above-named estate. All creditors having claims against the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the date of the publication of this notice.

The claim must be presented to the undersigned, attorney for the personal representative, at the address listed below with a copy filed with the Register of the Probate Court. The claim will be forever barred if it is not presented as described above within the four (4) month deadline.

Dated: December 18, 2023 Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Thomas A Little Thomas A Little, Esq. Attorney for Personal Representative Aileen C Trainer Address: Little & Cicchetti, P.C. PO Box 907, Burlington, VT 05402-0907 Telephone: 802-862-6511 Name of Publication: Seven Days First Publication Date: 12/202023 Second Publication Date: 12/27/2023 Name of Probate Court: State of Vermont Chittenden Probate Division Address of Probate Court: PO Box 511, 175 Main Street , Burlington, VT 05402

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The contents of the following tenant’s self-storage units will be included in this sale:

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

In re ESTATE of Thomas Trainer NOTICE TO CREDITORS

B3 - Board Member Conflict of Interest D16 - Employee Conflict of Interest

PUZZLE ANSWERS FROM P.81

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STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT DOCKET NO.:​ 23-PR-03988

convenient email

sign up to keep up: sevendaysvt.com/daily7 ST8V-Daily7072920.indd 1

7/24/20 8:30 AM

Support Groups A CIRCLE OF PARENTS FOR MOTHERS OF COLOR Please join our parent-led online support group designed to share our questions, concerns & struggles, as well as our resources & successes!

Contribute to our discussion of the unique but shared experience of parenting. We will be meeting weekly on Wed., 10-11 a.m. For more info or to register, please contact Heather at hniquette@pcavt.org, 802-498-0607, pcavt.org/family-support-programs.

A CIRCLE OF PARENTS FOR SINGLE MOTHERS Please join our parent-led online support group designed to share our questions, concerns & struggles, as well as our resources & successes!

Contribute to our discussion of the unique but shared experience of parenting. We will be meeting weekly on Fri., 10-11 a.m. For more info or to register, please contact Heather at hniquette@ pcavt.org, 802-498-0607, pcavt.org/ family-support-programs.

A CIRCLE OF PARENTS W/ LGBTQ+ CHILDREN Please join our parent-led online support group designed to share our questions, concerns & struggles, as well as our resources & successes!

Contribute to our discussion of the unique but shared experience of parenting. We will be meeting weekly on Mon., 10-11 a.m. For more info or to register, please contact Heather at hniquette@ pcavt.org, 802-498-0607, pcavt.org/ family-support-programs.

AL-ANON For families & friends of alcoholics.

Phone meetings, electronic meetings (Zoom) & an Al-Anon blog are avail. online at the Al-Anon website. For meeting info, go to vermontalanon alateen.org or call 866-972-5266.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Do you have a drinking problem? AA meeting sites are now open, & online meetings are also avail. Call our hotline at 802-864-1212 or check for in-person or online meetings at burlingtonaa.org.

ALL ARTISTS SUPPORT GROUP Are you a frustrated artist? Have you longed for a space to “play” & work?

Let’s get together & see what we can do about this! Text anytime or call 802-777-6100.

ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION SUPPORT GROUPS Support groups meet to provide assistance & info on Alzheimer’s disease & related dementias. They emphasize shared experiences, emotional support & coping techniques in care for a person living w/ Alzheimer’s or a related dementia. Meetings are free & open to the public. Families, caregivers & friends may attend. Please call in advance to confirm the date & time. The Williston Caregiver Support Group meets in person on the 2nd Tue. of every mo., 5-6:30 p.m., at the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library in Williston; this meeting also has a virtual option at the same time; contact support group facilitators Molly at dugan@ cathedralsquare.org or Mindy at moondog@burlingtontelecom.net. The Middlebury Support Group for Individuals w/ Early Stage Dementia meets the 4th Tue. of each mo., 3 p.m., at the Residence at Otter Creek, 350 Lodge Rd., Middlebury; contact Daniel Hamilton, dhamilton@residenceottercreek. com or 802-989-0097. The Shelburne Support Group for Individuals w/ Early Stage Dementia meets the 1st Mon. of every mo., 2-3 p.m., at the Residence at

Shelburne Bay, 185 Pine Haven Shores, Shelburne; contact support group facilitator Lydia Raymond, lraymond@ residenceshelburnebay.com. The Telephone Support Group meets the 2nd Tue. of each mo., 4-5:30 p.m. Prereg. is req. (to receive dial-in codes for toll-free call). Please dial the Alzheimer’s Association’s 24-7 Helpline, 800-2723900, for more info. For questions or additional support group listings, call 800-272-3900.

AMPUTEE SUPPORT GROUP VT Active Amputees is a new support group open to all amputees for connection, community & support.

The group meets on the 1st Wed. of the mo. in S. Burlington, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Let’s get together & be active: running, pickleball & ultimate Frisbee. Email vtactiveamputees@gmail.com or call Sue at 802-582-6750 for more info & location.

ARE YOU HAVING PROBLEMS W/ DEBT? Do you spend more than you earn? Get help at Debtor’s Anonymous & Business Debtor’s Anonymous. Wed., 6:30-7:30 p.m., Methodist Church in the Rainbow Room at Buell & S. Winooski, Burlington.

Contact Jennifer, 917-568-6390.

BABY BUMPS SUPPORT GROUP FOR MOTHERS & PREGNANT WOMEN Pregnancy can be a wonderful time of your life. But it can also be a time of stress often compounded by hormonal swings. If you are a pregnant woman, or have recently given birth & feel you need some help w/ managing emotional bumps in the road that can come w/ motherhood, please come to this free support group led by an experienced pediatric registered nurse. Held on the 2nd & 4th Tue. of every mo., 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Birthing Center, Northwestern Medical Center, St. Albans. Info: Rhonda Desrochers, Franklin County Home Health Agency, 527-7531.

BETTER BREATHERS CLUB American Lung Association support group for people w/ breathing issues, their loved ones or caregivers. Meets on the 1st Mon. of every mo., 11 a.m.-noon at the Godnick Center, 1 Deer St., Rutland. For more info, call 802-776-5508.

BRAIN INJURY SUPPORT GROUP Vermont Center for Independent Living offers virtual monthly meetings, held on the 3rd Wed. of every mo., 1-2:30 p.m.

The support group will offer valuable resources & info about brain injury. It will be a place to share experiences in a safe, secure & confidential environment. To join, email Linda Meleady at lindam@vcil.org & ask to be put on the TBI mailing list. Info: 800-639-1522.

CONTACT CLASSIFIEDS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM OR 802-865-1020 EXT. 115 TO UPDATE YOUR SUPPORT GROUP

discussion & sharing among survivors & those beginning or rejoining the battle.

Info, Mary L. Guyette RN, MS, ACNS-BC, 274-4990, vmary@aol.com.

CENTRAL VERMONT CELIAC SUPPORT GROUP Last Thu. of every mo., 7:30 p.m. in Montpelier. Please contact Lisa Mase for location: lisa@harmonizecookery.com.

CEREBRAL PALSY GUIDANCE Cerebral Palsy Guidance is a very comprehensive informational website broadly covering the topic of cerebral palsy & associated medical conditions.

Its mission is to provide the best possible info to parents of children living w/ the complex condition of cerebral palsy. Visit cerebralpalsyguidance.com/ cerebral-palsy.

CODEPENDENTS ANONYMOUS CoDA is a 12-step fellowship for people whose common purpose is to develop healthy & fulfilling relationships.

By actively working the program of Codependents Anonymous, we can realize a new joy, acceptance & serenity in our lives. Meets Sun. at noon at the Turning Point Center, 179 S. Winooski Ave., Suite 301, Burlington. Info: Tom, 238-3587, coda.org.

THE COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS SUPPORT GROUP The Compassionate Friends international support group for parents, siblings & families grieving the loss of a child meets every 4th Tue. of the mo., 7-9 p.m., at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, 2 Cherry St., Burlington. Call/email Alan at 802-233-0544, alanday88@ gmail.com, or Claire at 802-448-3569.

DECLUTTERERS’ SUPPORT GROUP Are you ready to make improvements but find it overwhelming? Maybe 2 or 3 of us can get together to help each other simplify. Info: 989-3234, 425-3612.

DISCOVER THE POWER OF CHOICE! We welcome anyone, including family & friends, affected by any kind of substance or activity addiction. This is an abstinence-oriented program based on the science of addiction treatment & recovery. Meets are online Sun. at 5 p.m. at the link: meetings.smartrecovery. org/meetings/1868. Face-to-face meetings are 1st & 3rd Sun. at 3 p.m. at the Turning Point of Chittenden County.

Meetings for family & friends are online on Mon. at 7 p.m. at the link: meetings/ smartrecovery.org/meetings/6337.

Contact volunteer facilitator Bert at 802-399-8754 w/ questions. You can learn more at smartrecovery.org.

BURLINGTON MEN’S PEER GROUP Tuesday nights, 7-9 p.m. in Burlington.

Free of charge, 30 years running. Call Neils 802-877-3742 or email neils@ myfairpoint.net.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SUPPORT Steps to End Domestic Violence offers a weekly drop-in support group for female-identified survivors of intimate partner violence, including individuals who are experiencing or have been affected by domestic violence. The support group offers a safe, confidential place for survivors to connect w/ others, to heal & to recover. In support group, participants talk through their experiences & hear stories from others who have experienced abuse in their relationships. Support group is also a resource for those who are unsure of their next step, even if it involves remaining in their current relationship.

Tue., 6:30-8 p.m. Childcare is provided.

Info: 658-1996.

CANCER SUPPORT GROUP The Champlain Valley Prostate Cancer Support Group will be held every 2nd Tue. of the mo., 6-7:45 p.m. via conference call. Newly diagnosed?

Prostate cancer reoccurrence? General

FAMILY & FRIENDS OF THOSE EXPERIENCING MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS This support group is a dedicated meeting for family, friends & community members who are supporting a loved

BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR DRAGON BOAT TEAM Looking for a fun way to do something active & health-giving? Want to connect w/ other breast cancer survivors? Come join Dragonheart Vermont. We are a breast cancer survivor & supporter dragon boat team who paddle together in Burlington. Please contact us at info@drgonheartvermont.org for info.

one through a mental health crisis.

Mental health crisis might include extreme states, psychosis, depression, anxiety & other types of distress. The group is a confidential space where family & friends can discuss shared experiences & receive support in an environment free of judgment & stigma w/ a trained facilitator. Wed., 7-8:30 p.m. Downtown Burlington. Info: Jess Horner, LICSW, 866-218-8586.

FAMILY RESTORED: SUPPORT GROUP FOR FRIENDS & FAMILIES OF ADDICTS & ALCOHOLICS Wed., 6:30-8 p.m., Holy Family/St. Lawrence Parish, 4 Prospect St., Essex Jct. For further info, please visit thefamilyrestored.org or contact Lindsay Duford at 781-960-3965 or 12lindsaymarie@gmail.com.

FCA FAMILY SUPPORT GROUP Families Coping w/ Addiction (FCA) is an open community peer support group for adults (18+) struggling w/ the drug or alcohol addiction of a loved one. FCA is not 12-step-based but provides a forum for those living the family experience, in which to develop personal coping skills & to draw strength from one another.

Our group meets every Wed., 5:30-6:30 p.m., live in person in the conference room at the Turning Point Center of Chittenden County (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington), &/or via our parallel Zoom session to accommodate those who cannot attend in person. The Zoom link can be found on the Turning Point Center website (turningpointcentervt. org) using the “Family Support” tab (click on “What We Offer”). Any questions, please send by email to thdaub1@gmail. com.

FIERCELY FLAT VT A breast cancer support group for those who’ve had mastectomies. We are a casual online meeting group found on Facebook at Fiercely Flat VT. Info: stacy.m.burnett@gmail.com.

FOOD ADDICTS IN RECOVERY ANONYMOUS (FA) Are you having trouble controlling the way you eat? FA is a free 12-step recovery program for anyone suffering from food obsession, overeating, under-eating or bulimia. Local meetings are held twice a week.: Mon., 4-5:30 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist Church, Norwich, Vt.; & Wed., 6:30-8 p.m., at Hanover Friends Meeting House, Hanover, N.H. For more info & a list of additional meetings throughout the U.S. & the world, call 603-630-1495 or visit foodaddicts.org.

G.R.A.S.P. (GRIEF RECOVERY AFTER A SUBSTANCE PASSING) Are you a family member who has lost a loved one to addiction? Find support, peer-led support group. Meets once a mo. on Mon. in Burlington. Please call for date & location. RSVP to mkeasler3@ gmail.com or call 310-3301 (message says Optimum Health, but this is a private number).

GRIEF & LOSS SUPPORT GROUP Sharing your sadness, finding your joy.

Please join us as we learn more about our own grief & explore the things that can help us to heal. There is great power in sharing our experiences w/ others who know the pain of the loss of a loved one & healing is possible through the sharing. BAYADA Hospice’s local bereavement support coordinator will facilitate our weekly group through discussion & activities. Everyone from the community is welcome. 1st & last Wed. of every mo. at 4 p.m. via Zoom. To register, please contact bereavement

program coordinator Max Crystal, mcrystal@bayada.com or 802-448-1610.

GRIEF SUPPORT GROUPS Meet every 2nd Mon., 6-7:30 p.m., & every 3rd Wed. from 10-11:30 a.m., at Central Vermont Home Health & Hospice in Berlin. The group is open to the public & free of charge. More info: Diana Moore, 224-2241.

GRIEVING A LOSS SUPPORT GROUP A retired psychotherapist & an experienced life coach host a free meeting for those grieving the loss of a loved one. The group meets upstairs at All Souls Interfaith Gathering in Shelburne. There is no fee for attending, but donations are gladly accepted.

Meetings are held twice a mo., the 1st & 3rd Sat. of every mo. from 10-11:30 a.m. If you are interested in attending, please register at allsoulsinterfaith. org. More information about the group leader at pamblairbooks.com.

HEARING VOICES SUPPORT GROUP This Hearing Voices Group seeks to find understanding of voice-hearing experiences as real lived experiences that may happen to anyone at any time. We choose to share experiences, support & empathy. We validate anyone’s experience & stories about their experience as their own, as being an honest & accurate representation of their experience, & as being acceptable exactly as they are. Tue., 2-3 p.m.

Pathways Vermont Community Center, 279 N. Winooski Ave., Burlington. Info: 802-777-8602, abby@pathways vermont.org.

HELLENBACH CANCER SUPPORT People living w/ cancer & their caretakers convene for support. Call to verify meeting place. Info, 388-6107.

INTERSTITIAL CYSTITIS/PAINFUL BLADDER SUPPORT GROUP Interstitial cystitis (IC) & painful bladder syndrome can result in recurring pelvic pain, pressure or discomfort in the bladder/pelvic region & urinary frequency/ urgency. These are often misdiagnosed & mistreated as a chronic bladder infection. If you have been diagnosed or have these symptoms, you are not alone. For Vermont-based support group, email bladderpainvt@gmail.com or call 899-4151 for more info.

INTUITIVE EATING SUPPORT GROUP Free weekly peer-led support group for anyone struggling w/ eating &/or body image. The only requirement is a desire to make peace w/ food & your body. Meeting format is: a short reading from Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch, 4th edition, followed by open sharing & discussion. Come find community through sharing struggles, experience, strength & hope. Located at the Pickering Room, Fletcher Free Library, Sun. 1-2:30 p.m. Contact 202-553-8953 w/ any questions.

KINDRED CONNECTIONS PROGRAM OFFERED FOR CHITTENDEN COUNTY CANCER SURVIVORS The Kindred Connections program provides peer support for all those touched by cancer. Cancer patients, as well as caregivers, are provided w/ a mentor who has been through the cancer experience & knows what it’s like to go through it. In addition to sensitive listening, Kindred Connections provides practical help such as rides to doctors’ offices & meal deliveries. The program has people who have experienced a wide variety of cancers. For further info, please contact info@vcsn.net.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

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84 DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST YOUR JOBS AT: PRINT DEADLINE: FOR RATES & INFO:

JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POST-A-JOB NOON ON MONDAYS (INCLUDING HOLIDAYS) MICHELLE BROWN, 802-865-1020 X121, MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

YOUR TRUSTED LOCAL SOURCE. JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Multiple Positions Mosaic is hiring a full time Office Operations Manager and a part time Development Associate.

Please visit mosaic-vt.org/about for more information.

Are you looking for an innovative, dynamic, and collaborative place to work?

Join us at Lake Champlain Waldorf School to deliver a holistic and developmental approach to education.

(802) 862-7662

Make a difference through sustainable agriculture, trail building, water quality, forest health, and carpentry projects.

Paid positions starting in March and May include:

DELIVERY DRIVERS WANTED We are currently accepting applications for both part time and full time positions. We have several different shifts available.

Feel free to stop in to our office at 54 Echo Place, Suite #1, Williston, VT 05495 and fill out an application.

You can also apply online via our website at shipvds.com or email Ian Pomerville directly at ian@shipvds.com.

Day Crew Leader

Food & Farm Crew Leader

Co-lead a crew where Members get to work

Co-lead a crew – up to 8 Members – in vegetable production and harvest, raising chickens, and cooking in the commercial kitchen. Location: Richmond.

in their own community. Locations: Burlington, Rutland, Vergennes, Woodstock.

Projects include trail and water quality work.

Find these & 17 more opportunities at vycc.org

Open Positions: • First Grade Teacher • Fourth Grade Teacher

1 Program Specialist Rhino’s hiring is hot right now! Get on 4t-VYCC122023 The Department of Education at UVM board in time for their busy season.

is currently hiring a full time Program Specialist. The candidate will support multiple Education programs with student tracking, recruitment, and communication, as well as administrative reporting. This is an 11-month (August-June), full time, in-person position beginning in January of 2024.

Check out our website for all job listings, which include: www.lakechamplainwaldorfschool.org

Production 1st shift at $17.00/hr Production 3rd shift at $17.00/hr

2v-LakeChamplainWaldorfSchool1220&122723 12/18/23 1 9:40 AM

+ $1.50 shift differential

Maintenance Technician II $29.50 - $33.50/hr (DOE) +$6.00 shift differential

Assistant Director KidSafe Collaborative is seeking a full-time Assistant Director to work closely with the Executive Director to oversee and implement office operations and to support the implementation of program activities such as child protection and family support teams and systems improvement initiatives.

12/18/23 9:39 AM

Sanitation 2nd Shift at $17.00/hr + $1.00 shift differential

Earn some “Dough” at Rhino Foods!

Qualifications include a Bachelor’s degree and one to three years’ related experience. Proficiency with office software, strong organizational skills, and excellent written communications required.

Experience with education administration preferred. Responsibilities include reporting, knowledge and adherence to policies, and student communications and tracking from recruitment to graduation.

To apply, please include a cover-letter that addresses a) your experience b) your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and c) how your skillset can contribute to our team.

Apply to: uvmjobs.com/postings/69049. Open until filled, a review of applications will begin immediately.

rhinofoods.com/about-rhino-foods/jobs-and-careers

ATTENTION RECRUITERS: Check out these openings and others on our career page:

*Rhino Foods runs sex offender checks on all employees

POST YOUR JOBS AT: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTMYJOB PRINT DEADLINE: NOON ON MONDAYS (INCLUDING HOLIDAYS) FOR RATES & INFO: MICHELLE BROWN, 802-865-1020 X121, MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Please visit kidsafevt.org for a full job description and application information.

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FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @SEVENDAYSJOBS, SUBSCRIBE TO RSS, OR BROWSE POSTS ON YOUR PHONE AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

DIRECTOR

JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Property Manager

In the wake of devastating floods of July, the residents of Montpelier VT formed Montpelier Commission for Recovery and Resilience to ensure that the city and surrounding region are prepared to withstand the future climate-related challenges that are sure to come our way. The commission now seeks a Director to execute projects and facilitate education and outreach about the work of the commission while maintaining a focus on equity and environmental justice.

Rutland Housing Authority is seeking an experienced Property Manager.

The ideal candidate will be a proven leader with affordable housing and Low Income Housing Tax Credit experience, possess excellent management and record keeping skills. Computer skills and prior supervisory experience are required. The RHA offers a competitive salary, defined pension, generous vacation, holiday, sick pay, health, dental, life, short & long term disability along with the chance to be part of a team creating future housing opportunities in our community.

Are you our next Guest Services Representative? Buyer? Produce Associate?

Scan to see all open positions!

STAFF CURATED BENEFITS

Or email khathaway@rhavt.org.

Apply online at healthylivingmarket.com/careers

Finance Director

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Join the Copley Lab Team

Application deadline JANUARY 19th.

12/19/23 11:36 AM

General Assembly Capitol Police

2/2/22 4:58 PM

At Copley Laboratory, all team members play a critical role; each opinion matters; and there is opportunity for advancement. We welcome all qualified applicants—those with many years of experience and those who are just starting their careers.

Help us protect, care for, and connect people to the home we share using your love of numbers.

We’re currently seeking:

• Proven ability to lead, serve internal partners, and collaborate

Laboratory Supervisor

The annual starting salary is $87,639, plus a generous benefits package to cover the cost of health insurance. We also provide 6 weeks of time off plus sick time, a 403(b) retirement plan with match, and flexible/hybrid work schedules.

Ideal candidates will advance our fiscal health through: • Sound budgeting, controls, and financial management • Strong attention to detail

Medical Lab Scientist—Night Shift

Employment Counsel

MULTIPLE POSITIONS OPEN!

Kirsten Hathaway, Director of Finance and Human Resources Rutland Housing Authority, 5 Tremont Street, Rutland, VT 05701.

Send applications to: contactmcrr@gmail.com.

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DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

Please submit a letter of interest and resume, in confidence, to:

This is an exciting opportunity for the right person to have a lasting impact on the City of Montpelier and its people and to have a meaningful role in shaping the future of the emerging fields of climate resilience and disaster management.

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NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY!

Learn more and apply at vlt.org/employment. The position will remain open until January 12, 2024.

For more info, visit copleyvt.org/careers or call J.T. Vize at 802-888-8329

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The Vermont Land Trust is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We honor and invite people of all backgrounds and life experiences to apply.

11/16/23 9:54 AM

Seasonal Positions The Legislative support offices are currently hiring.

The nonpartisan offices are an interesting, challenging, and exciting place to work.

You will be part of a highly professional and collegial team that is proud of, and enthusiastic about, the mission of the state legislature. v

To apply, please go to 'Career Opportunities' at legislature.vermont.gov.

Full-time NTT

LECTURER OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE

The School of World Languages and Cultures at the University of Vermont invites applications for a full-time, non-tenure track position in Japanese language, at the rank of Lecturer. The initial appointment term is for the 2024-25 academic year and is renewable, based on the factors outlined in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. The position will start in the Fall of 2024 (August 19, 2024).

The successful candidate should: Hold a M.A. or higher degree in Japanese language pedagogy or relevant areas; Have native or near-native fluency in both Japanese and English, and at least two-year experience teaching Japanese to students in North America at the college level.

Please apply online, see posting #F2919PO at www.uvmjobs.com.

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Director of Healthy Youth Initiatives

Seeking a youth-centric organizer ready to inspire and welcome a growing community hungry for a radically hopeful future vision!

The Vermont Network is looking for someone who can translate and align public health, health equity, intersectional social justice and youth organizing frameworks and manage complex long-term community change projects. Our ideal candidate is an expert strategist, collaborator and facilitator who can lead the Network’s efforts to advance intersectional racial justice within our sexual harm prevention initiatives.

Training Support Specialist

The Vermont Network seeks a detail oriented, systems thinker with a desire to use their skills to support building a world where all people can thrive. The Training Support Specialist will provide logistics, technical and administrative support of the Vermont Network’s new Center for Learning and Leadership on Gender-Based Violence. The Training Support Specialist will work closely with the Director of Finance, Center Director and other staff in supporting the creation, design and implementation of multiple learning and leadership initiatives from the ground up. The ideal candidate for this position is highly self-motivated, energized by building new systems, has impeccable collaboration skills and thrives in a highly collaborative environment working with others toward common goals.

Operating Room Registered Nurse (RN) NORTHEASTERN VERMONT REGIONAL HOSPITAL (NVRH): Fun, fabulous, well-oiled, OR team seeks RN who’s organized, a great communicator, has excellent attention to detail - and can tell a joke or two! NVRH offers competitive wages, loan repayment, generous paid time off, career advancement and an exceptional benefits package. But, we also offer a thriving, fast-paced environment with co-workers who bring the fun, while providing exceptional care of our patients.

Apply now and experience the rewards of being in a supportive and thriving environment at NVRH.

NVRH.ORG/CAREERS.

Director of Policy

The Vermont Network is seeking a skilled advocate who is passionate about creating a violence-free Vermont to join our organization as our next Director of Policy. The Director of Policy will work in collaboration with a policy team to develop a long-term, agile, and responsive legislative and policy change agenda to uproot the causes of violence so that every Vermonter thrives. The Policy Director will develop best practice public policy that centers marginalized survivors, advance proposals through the legislative process through lobbying and help ensure effective implementation of public policy. Our ideal candidate is an impeccable communicator with a deep and abiding commitment to building excellent relationships with policymakers and fellow advocates. Minimum of 5 years’ direct experience in public policy.

The Vermont Network is a purpose driven organization working to uproot the causes of violence to support all people to thrive and we welcome candidates who share this horizon and encourage people from marginalized groups and communities to apply. We prioritize the wellbeing of our staff, take our culture seriously, think big and orient towards what is possible. All positions are hybrid - Waterbury and Home Office.

For more information and the full job descriptions, visit vtnetwork.org. Send cover letter and resume with job title to Jamie Carroll at jamie@vtnetwork.org by January 22, 2024.

We offer competitive wages & a full benefits package for full time employees. No auction experience necessary.

OPEN POSITIONS: Auto Auction Yard Crew (WILLISTON, VT)

Full time - Monday – Friday 8:00 to 5:00 + 2 Saturdays a month.

Tasks include; filling out forms when customers bring in cars for auction, jump starting cars, driving auto/manual cars, taking pictures, assigning lot numbers, uploading vehicles to online auction platform, and more.

Email eric@thcauction.com

Auction Site Tech (MORRISVILLE, VT)

Director of Organizing & Engagement

Are you a passionate about building a community of change-makers?

The Vermont Network is seeking an enthusiastic community organizer who is passionate about creating a violence-free Vermont to be our Director of Organizing and Engagement. This role will execute and grow public campaigns (including our Uplift VT campaign) and build and sustain our network of supporters and activists. This role will also work collaboratively with others to execute the organization’s public communications strategies. Our ideal candidate has infectious enthusiasm, skills in relational organizing and is an impeccable communicator. Minimum of 3-5 years’ campaign or organizing experience.

We’re Hiring!

WE’RE HIRING! • Program Clinicians • Residential Counselors & Mental Health Workers • Clinical & Therapeutic Case Managers • Teachers and Special Educators

We’re seeking an energetic & motivated individual to join our auction team. Techs work an average of 40 hours per week.

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Thomas Hirchak Company is an at will employer. See more jobs at:

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LOOKING FOR A COOLER OPPORTUNITY?

• Classroom Counselors & One to One Staff • Family Engagement Specialists • Administrative NFI VT is a private, nonprofit, specialized service agency within the Vermont statewide mental health system. We are a healing organization, grounded in trauma-informed care. We are hiring for Full-Time, Part-Time and Relief positions. Regular positions of 30+ hours per week are eligible for our generous benefits package, which includes competitive salary and tuition reimbursement. Please apply online at: nfivermont. org/careers.

NFI VT is an E.O.E. and, as such, prohibits discrimination against any employee or applicant based on race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, ethnic background, disability, or other non-work-related personal trait or characteristic to the extent protected by law.

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JOB TRAINING. WELL DONE. Join the Community Kitchen Academy!

Community Kitchen Academy (CKA) is a 9-week job training program featuring: Hands on learning, national ServSafe certification, job placement support and meaningful connections to community. Plus... the tuition is FREE and weekly stipends are provided for income eligible students!

At CKA you’ll learn from professional chefs in modern commercial kitchens and graduate with the skills and knowledge to build a career in food service, food systems and other related fields. Throughout the 9-week course, you’ll develop and apply new skills by preparing food that would otherwise be wasted. The food you cook is then distributed through food shelves and meal sites throughout the community. CKA is a program of the Vermont Foodbank, operated in partnership with Capstone Community Action in Barre and Feeding Chittenden in Burlington. Next session starts January 22nd in Burlington.

WE’RE HIRING! Administrative Asst.

Investment Desk Assoc.

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Experienced Residential Carpenter

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Silver Maple Construction is seeking a fulltime, benefits-eligible Carpenter focused on high-level customer service & the execution of exceptional quality work.Here at Silver Maple, we want everyone to feel valued and do the work that inspires you while maintaining a work-life balance better than many others in this field.

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision Plans • Paid Parental Leave • 15 days Paid Time Off

Art Editor!

What is that, exactly? The art editor independently manages the visual art content in print and online.

Responsibilities may include • Planning weekly and long-term visual art coverage • Writing or assigning visual art content • Editing other visual art writers • Compiling/editing user-submitted art listings in a timely manner • Communicating and coordinating with other editors The ideal candidate:

APPLY ONLINE: vtfoodbank.org/cka.

• Competitive Weekly Pay (based on experience)

12/18/23 6:13 PM

• 7 Paid Holidays • 401k Retirement Plan + Company Match • Commuter + Mileage Reimbursement • Life, Disability And Accident Insurance & MORE!

To learn more, please visit silvermapleconstruction.com, email hr@silvermapleconstruction.com, or call our office at (802) 989-7677.

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Finance &

Operations Full Circle Coordinator Preschool Director Preschool Teacher

Preschool AV Support Teacher Thrift Store Sales Staff For full details and to apply go to: bit.ly/OhaviJobs.

•Enjoys seeing and thinking about art and talking with artists •Has baseline knowledge of Vermont’s art communities •Can write creatively and critically for a general reader •Has access to a car and can visit art venues around the state •Is organized and detail-oriented •Can meet weekly deadlines without fail

Traveling to art venues is a must, but other duties can be handled remotely. This may be a part- or full-time position, depending on how your qualifications fit our needs. Please specify your availability in your application.

Think you and this career move are the perfect fit?

Then email a résumé, cover letter and three writing samples (links to published works are fine) to arteditorjob@sevendaysvt.com by January 12.

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZSNY REAL DECEMBER 28-JANUARY 3

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19)

Capricorn-born LeBron James is one of the greatest players in basketball history. Even more interesting from my perspective is that he is an exuberant activist and philanthropist.

His list of magnificent contributions is too long to detail here. Here are a few examples: his bountiful support for charities such as After-School AllStars, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Children’s Defense Fund, and his own LeBron James Family Foundation. I suggest that you make LeBron one of your role models in 2024. It will be a time when you can have more potent and far-reaching effects than ever before through the power of your compassion, generosity and beneficence.

ARIES (Mar. 21-Apr. 19): Among couples who share their finances, 39 percent lie to their partners about money. If you have been among that 39 percent, please don’t be in 2024. In fact, I hope you will be as candid as possible about most matters with every key ally in your life. It will be a time when the more honest and forthcoming you are, the more resources you will have at your disposal. Your commitment to telling the truth as kindly but completely as possible will earn you interesting rewards.

TAURUS (Apr. 20-May 20): According to tradition in ancient Israel, a Jubilee year happened every half-century. It was a “trumpet blast of liberty,” in the words of the Old Testa-

ment book Leviticus. During this grace period, enslaved people were supposed to be freed.

Debts were forgiven, taxes canceled and prisoners released. People were encouraged to work less and engage in more revelry. I boldly proclaim that 2024 should be a Jubilee year for you Bulls. To launch the fun, make a list of the alleviations and emancipations you will claim in the months ahead.

GEMINI (May 21-Jun. 20): “Make peace

with their devils, and you will do the same with yours.” The magazine Dark’s Art Parlour provides us with this essential wisdom about how to conduct vibrant relationships. I invite you to make liberal use of it in 2024. Why? Because I suspect you will come to deeply appreciate how all your worthwhile bonds inevitably require you to engage with each other’s wounds, shadows and unripeness. To say it another way, healthy alliances require you to deal respectfully and compassionately with each other’s darkness. The disagreements and misunderstandings the two of you face are not flaws that discolor perfect intimacy. They are often rich opportunities to enrich togetherness.

CANCER (Jun. 21-Jul. 22): Cancerian author Franz Kafka wrote more than 500 letters to his love interest Felice Bauer. Her outpouring of affection wasn’t as voluminous but was still very warm. At one point, Kafka wryly communicated to her, “Please suggest a remedy to stop me trembling with joy like a lunatic when I receive and read your letters.” He added, “You have given me a gift such as I never even dreamt of finding in this life.” I will be outrageous here and predict that 2024 will bring you, too, a gift such as you never dreamt of finding in this life.

It may or may not involve romantic love, but it will feel like an ultimate blessing.

LEO (Jul. 23-Aug. 22): Renowned inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) felt an extraordinary closeness with sparrows, finches, pigeons and other wild birds. He loved feeding them, conversing with them and inviting them into his home through open windows. He even fell in love with a special pigeon he called White Dove. He said, “I loved her as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had

her, there was a purpose to my life.” I bring this to your attention because I suspect 2024 will be an excellent time to upgrade your relationship with birds, Leo. Your power to employ and enjoy the metaphorical power of flight will be at a maximum.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22): “All the world’s a stage,” wrote William Shakespeare. He was comparing life to a theatrical drama, suggesting we are all performers attached to playing roles. In response, a band called the Kingpins released the song “All the World’s a Cage.” The lyrics include these lines: “You promised that the world was mine / You chained me to the borderline / Now I’m just sitting here doing time / All the world’s a cage.” These thoughts are the prelude to my advice for you. I believe that in 2024, you are poised to live your life in a world that is neither like a stage nor a cage.

You will have unusually ample freedom from expectations, artificial constraints and the inertia of the past. It will be an excellent time to break free from outdated self-images and your habitual persona.

LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22): At age 10, an American girl named Becky Schroeder launched her career as an inventor. Two years later, she got her first of many patents for a product that enables people to read and write in the dark. I propose we make her one of your role models for 2024. No matter how old you are, I suspect you will be doing precocious things. You will understand life like a person at least ten years older than you. You will master abilities that a casual observer might think you learned improbably fast. You may even have seemingly supernatural conversations with Future You. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Here are excellent questions for you to meditate on throughout 2024. 1) Who and what do you love? Who and what make you spill over with adoration, caring and longing? 2) How often do you feel deep waves of love? Would you like to feel more of them? If so, how could you? 3) What are the most practical and beautiful ways you express love for whom and what you love? Would you like to enhance the ways you express love and if so, how? 4) Is there anything you can or should do to intensify your love for yourself?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Like

the rest of the planet, Scotland used to be a wild land. It had vast swaths of virgin forests and undomesticated animals. Then humans came. They cut the trees, dug up charcoal and brought agriculture. Many native species died, and most forests disappeared. In recent years, though, a rewilding movement has arisen. Now Scotland is on the way to restoring the ancient health of the land. Native flora and fauna are returning. In accordance with astrological omens, I propose that you launch your own personal rewilding project in 2024.

What would that look like? How might you accomplish it?

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I propose

we make the shark your soul creature in 2024. Not because some shark species are apex predators at the top of the food chain.

Rather, I propose you embrace the shark as an inspirational role model because it is a stalwart, steadfast champion with spectacular endurance. Its lineage goes back 400 million years. Sharks were on Earth before there were dinosaurs, mammals and grass. Saturn’s rings didn’t exist yet when the first sharks swam in the oceans. Here are the adjectives I expect you to specialize in during the coming months: resolute, staunch, indomitable, sturdy, resilient.

PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20): In the 19th century, many scientists believed in the bogus theory of eugenics, which proposed that we could upgrade the genetic quality of the human race through selective breeding. Here’s a further example of experts’ ignorance: Until the 1800s, most scientists dismissed the notion that stones fell from the sky, even though meteorites had been seen by countless people since ancient times. Scientists also rejected the idea that large reptiles once roamed the Earth, at least until the 19th century, when it became clear that dinosaurs had existed and had become extinct. The moral of the story is that even the smartest among us can be addicted to delusional beliefs and theories. I hope this inspires you to engage in a purge of your own outmoded dogmas in 2024. A beginner’s mind can be your superpower! Discover a slew of new ways to think and see.

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LAID-BACK, MELLOW GUY I’m not sure what to say, so here goes: I get asked why I’m single a lot, and the answer is me. I haven’t put myself out there, and I’m trying to change that. I’m a good guy, got a job and a good car to get around in. If you want to know more, you just have to ask. mellowguy, 44, seeking: W, l LAID-BACK Nice guy. drew, 59, seeking: W RELAXED, OPEN-MINDED EXPLORER Came to the state for education, and looking to learn more about the people and the local area. Looking for some good conversation and to be engaged as a whole person. I am open to new experiences and looking for someone who is open to them, too. cornixcuror, 46, seeking: M, l

SPONTANEOUS, ADVENTUROUS BUT MOSTLY QUIET I’m in pretty good shape physically and act younger than I am and plan on staying that way as long as I can. Like to go out to dinner but don’t mind staying in and cooking. I ride my motorcycle some, snowmobile, fish. Not bad-looking. Give me a shot. widower66, 66, seeking: W FRIEND FOR CULTURE, COOKING, MORE Quick wit, info omnivore, biz experience and creative, rugged individualist, chef, handyman. Lifelong award winner in “other” category.

N3Kxplorer, 64, seeking: W, l COMING BACK TO LIFE Awakening from suspended animation after a disastrous relationship. Usually outdoors growing vegetables or working on pollinator habitat. Retired from the USPS and financially secure. Lead a modest, frugal lifestyle. Would like someone to travel and explore with. I’m looking for a woman who is financially secure, compassionate and happy with herself. A supportive, nurturing person and would like the same in return. SleeplessInSouthHero47, 76, seeking: W, l QUIET GAMER/STONER SEEKS COMPANY! Just putting myself out there. I’m looking for solid companionship, nothing complicated. I tend to shop when I’m bored. Hope you cook! I just pay my bills and sit on my PS5. That being said, I love to go out and find fun activities still left in this nature-based state! You can bring me outside ... during the summer.

Doober2023, 33, seeking: W, TW, NBP, l

OUTGOING, FUNNY, ATHLETIC, COMPASSIONATE, ROMANTIC Down-to-earth, funny, outgoing, compassionate, romantic, athletic, warm guy. Looking for fun, sweet lady to enjoy life’s adventures. Someone who enjoys a healthy lifestyle, nature and animals, and doing things on the spur of the moment to enjoy life and all it has to offer. Biker56, 67, seeking: W, l SEEKING BENEFICIAL FUN Calm, no-drama man wanting FWB with down-to-earth woman. I am respectful, kind and very grounded. Seeking a woman for dalliances with slenderto-average-looking man. I am curious, open-minded, a good listener with a healthy sense of humor. I’m attracted to intellect, kindheartedness, curiosity, compassion and enlightenment. Reply to this ad and receive a free complimentary massage. Thunderbolt, 50, seeking: W, l KINDNESS, LAUGHTER, FAMILY AND FRIENDS Wanting to share life is good; adventures and paths less traveled. Have gathered together a simple life filled with passionate pursuits; always aware they can become deeper in meaning with a cherished companion. I believe that wisdom and understanding are more noble than knowledge and reason. Hoping for company walking and stumbling through life and loving.

Empathy is a beginning and ending.

AbrahamGryphon, 56, seeking: W, Cp, l SEXY OLDER GUY DESIRES FRIENDS I am a retired engineer/manager looking to meet some new friends. Moved back to Vermont four years ago. I hope to meet someone and meet regularly for casual and hot times together. I am 69, white, with gray hair, in decent condition and fairly good-looking.

Photoman506, 68, seeking: M, TW

GENDER NONCONFORMISTS

seeking...

OPEN BI GUY Looking for a FWB. Can be kinky with the right guy. Like some quiet time, relaxing and getting to have a good time.

Very open but can also be a control guy, too. Biguy24, 50, seeking: M, TM, l

PLAYMATE WANTED, CROSS-DRESSER I love to dress, and I am looking for someone who can accept that side of me. I love the outdoors and fish and hunt. Love cars. paula69269, 73, seeking: W, TW, Q, NC, NBP, Cp, Gp

MAN WITH DOG FOR LOVE Shy, soft-spoken, mutable man. Heartfocused. Feeling centered. Alive and haunted. Lover of chores and work. Into ritual. Sensitive, subtle, woke to the karmic light. Quiet. The best things in life are shared. Looking for a dynamic partner in love. A lady Justice. Where we respect and honor the tender, delicate threads that weave us together.

Mysticworks, 35, seeking: W, l

NONBINARY PEOPLE seeking...

SOFT-SPOKEN, HUMOROUS OLD SOUL Do you like to laugh and be goofy, or would describe yourself as having “gremlin” energy? Then maybe I can get some laughs out of you with bad dad jokes and puns. Or maybe talk about something more intellectual/ philosophical? I like to be authentic and not put on airs, and I’d prefer you do, too!

Meat_and_Mince, 31, seeking: W, l MINX AND BOY NAMED SUE I am just this guy, ya know, although I am searching for a certain Minx with a golden voice and a gleam in her eye.

Lost touch ages ago and would love to reconnect. If you know her, please pass on the message. Oh, and Phoenix says hi and misses you, too. GRIMSTOCK, 51, seeking: W, TM, TW, Q, NC, NBP, Cp, Gp, l

TRANSFEMININE PERSON LOOKING FOR FUN! Open-minded person with a good sense of humor seeks same for exploring.

Hoping to meet someone who loves me for who I am. VTPyzon, 62, seeking: W, TM, TW, Q, NC, NBP, Cp, Gp

COUPLES seeking...

LOVERS OF LIFE We are a 40s couple, M/F, looking for adventurous encounters with openminded, respectful M/F or couples.

Looking to enjoy sexy encounters, FWBs, short term or long term. sunshines, 43, seeking: M, W, Q, Cp EXPLORING THREESOMES AND FOURSOMES We are an older and wiser couple discovering that our sexuality is amazingly hot! Our interest is another male for threesomes or a couple. We’d like to go slowly, massage you with a happy ending. She’d love to be massaged with a happy ending or a dozen. Would you be interested in exploring sexuality with a hot older couple? DandNformen, 67, seeking: M, TM, NC, Cp, l

i SPY

If you’ve been spied, go online to contact your admirer!

dating.sevendaysvt.com

THANK YOU FOR YOU I love the Douglas “wrong way” Corrigan poster in your dining room and your sweet dogs, too. One Houdini-ed his way right into my heart, and the other one stole it like the little bandit he is.

I am grateful for your presence in my life — thank you for being exactly who you are. When: Saturday, November 11, 2023. Where: Colchester. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915906 BRAD THE CARPET INSTALLER! It was at least seven years ago you installed carpet in the upstairs apartment. I let you in because my landlord was old and never showed up. When I had to come back, you asked if I was single and said I was “pretty.” I wasn’t then, but I am now.

Clearly, I haven’t forgotten you. When: Sunday, July 17, 2022. Where: Barre.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915905 FOR MY TWIN FLAME You will forever be held in my heart.

You had me at the long kiss in the misty rain. Those moments of warm embrace, soul connection ... I knew you in another life. Maybe you will realize my feelings are genuine and true. Maybe not in this lifetime. I only want for you to be safe and happy and know that you are loved. When: Friday, October 22, 2021. Where: staring into your eyes.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915904 UNITED FLIGHT, NOVEMBER 29 Without going into detail: You knew about Kwik Stop in Wisconsin. Love to hear some of your stories. Tea or coffee, of course. Any time of day or night. Your body symmetry... When: Wednesday, November 29, 2023. Where: airport.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915902

CAMEL’S HUMP SLEDDER You: tall, bearded. Me: short, holding a sled! Chatted on the Burrows Trail about hiking sleds. You mentioned one I should buy, and I can’t remember the brand! Something with a Y? The future of my winter sledding capabilities hangs in the air! When: Sunday, December 17, 2023. Where: Camel’s Hump.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915903 MY BELOVED (1/4) Adam? Darling? Light of my life! Happy 20th! You and me; forever us against the world. I love you so, I’ll eat you up!

I do believe. When: Friday, December 15, 2023. Where: [REDACTED]. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915898 MY BELOVED (2/4) How I’ve waited for you to come. I’ve been here all alone. Now that you’ve arrived, please stay a while. And I promise I won’t keep you long. I’ll keep you forever. When: Friday, December 15, 2023. Where: [REDACTED]. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915899 MY BELOVED (3/4) Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love. When you love, you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.” When: Friday, December 15, 2023. Where: [REDACTED]. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915900 MY BELOVED (4/4) Grow old with me; the best is yet to be! Not a lesson, just a reminder, from all the sentimentalists — in the Twilight Zone. When: Friday, December 15, 2023. Where: [REDACTED]. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915901

Ask REVEREND 

I am a 72-year-old man who has now been divorced three times.

I don’t like being alone and lonely at this age.

I miss having a woman with whom I can talk, have fun, do things, go to church and just have a meaningful relationship.

I don’t like dating sites, as most of them are scams, and I am too old for scams. I have not been in this situation of trying to find someone who just

WRITE! RIGHT? I spied you in my yard, restocking my wood pile. I don’t tell you thank you enough. Keep writing, my friend. Your words are good ones.

When: Sunday, December 3, 2023.

Where: South Suburbington. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915896 HEALTHY LIVING You complimented my bag, and you seemed very sweet. IDK if you were just interested in fabric and stitching, but your words really brightened my day. When: Sunday, December 3, 2023. Where: Healthy Living.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915895 BIG POTATOES, 11/25, SHELBURNE MARKET 2 p.m. Regarding your produce, I said, “Them’s some big potatoes!” and we shared a moment of amusement. I liked you and wished to talk with you. You: black sweatshirt, white and red lettering, straw basket, white GMC truck. I waved when you brought your cart back and picked up a Seven Days. You waved back.

Please write to me! When: Saturday, November 25, 2023. Where: Shelburne Market. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915894 TAKE ME INTO CUSTODY To the beautiful police officer who T-boned my car that night: I wish I got your badge number (I guess I can check the insurance papers)! The only whiplash I felt was when you came up to my window asking me if I was OK. Maybe after the claims, we could grab a bite to eat When: Friday, November 24, 2023. Where: Route 7. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915893 RE: TRUCK AROUND TOWN If it is my “truck” you are talking about, it is definitely unique. It fits me! Stop me next time and have a chat! When: Friday, December 1, 2023. Where: on the sidewalk.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915892

Dear Al Owen,

Irreverent counsel on life’s conundrums

Dear Reverend,

SPIKEY Z You are the West Coast laughs for my East Coat afternoon, the warm sunshine on my cool bald head, and our friendship is the sweetener in my bitter coffee. I can’t imagine life without you, or coffee. When: Saturday, December 16, 2023. Where: solstice party. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915897

wants me for me, and not what I can afford to give. I am a God-fearing man, so bars and nightclubs are out. I have no idea where to start. I have a lot of love to give some deserving lady! (Didn’t say sex!)

Younger women want a sugar daddy. Most older women don’t like change.

I am really tired of being alone and miserable.

Al Owen

(MAN, 72)

CURLY GIRL, OP Beautiful, curly red-haired girl: Noticed you sitting at the bar sipping on your drink. I think your boyfriend is a pool player there. I just have to say you are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.

I lust from a distance. PS: Cute overalls.

You: woman. Me: thunderbolted. When: Sunday, November 26, 2023. Where: OP bar. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915891 SPICY MERMAID UNDER THE STARS Seen wandering the woods. Your dirty blond hair and stunning smile had me from the first moment I saw you. Vibes for days I have received from you. Crossing paths many times over different lifetimes and timelines. You saw right through me from the first moment we met. If you know, you know. If not, so be it! When: Monday, December 25, 2023. Where: Calais. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915890

ST. ALBANS STORE, SEPTEMBER 2022 You were chatting with a guy at Mac’s Quik Stop. I had to cross in between to get food, then came to stand next to you. You looked me up and down and said “Hi!” in a really flirtatious way. I’ve never felt energy like that from anyone, and I’d love to give you my number at the very least. When: Thursday, September 1, 2022. Where: St. Albans.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915883

MIDDLEBURY CO-OP LOOK-ALIKE You: brother from another mother of my now-ex boyfriend. Me: shameless middle-aged woman, unapologetic about my type (charming, Italian). A little more conversation? When: Wednesday, November 29, 2023. Where: Middlebury co-op. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915889

HANNAFORD ICE CREAM AISLE REPLY Besides my love of ice cream, I read past issues and finally saw your iSpy. TBH, I thought it might be someone else.

Cherry Garcia is one of my favorites any time of year. (Why do people stop in winter? Do they still put ice in drinks?)

Even if now restocked, happy to take you up on your offer. When: Friday, September 8, 2023. Where: ice cream aisle, Hannaford, North Avenue.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915882

TOOK MY PICTURE AT KRU We were sitting by a window, and you took a picture of me. I lost your email address somehow! Please get in touch. When: Monday, November 27, 2023. Where: Kru Coffee shop.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915888

UVM MEDICAL CENTER, WEDNESDAY, 11/22 You: total bombshell babe who drove me home and gave me snacks. Me: dark, curly hair, drooling in my hospital bed (anesthesia). I’d love to buy you a drink. I was too shy to ask if you’re married. If so, hopefully Sean doesn’t mind if I take you out. P.S. Check this box if you like “Moesha” [ ]. When: Wednesday, November 22, 2023.

Where: post-op, UVM Medical Center.

You: Woman. Me: Woman. #915881

ATTRACTIVE, ACTIVE TRACEY ON MATCH! Let’s ski! And hike and travel and paddle.

We have lots in common, though I haven’t been to Croatia yet. Please say hello. Drinks or coffee or stroll?

When: Monday, November 27, 2023.

Where: scrolling through match.com.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915887 H P. When: Monday, November 27, 2023. Where: G. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915886 TRUCK AROUND TOWN I see you driving around town in your very unique truck. Sometimes we wave, since we already sort of know each other. I’d like to get to know you better. When: Monday, September 25, 2023. Where: central Vermont. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915885

To find a new partner, you might have to try some new things — and what better time to do that than heading into a new year!

First off, refrain from making generalizations about people based on their age. Everyone is different, and you should keep an open mind. Holding on to old-fashioned stereotypes just narrows your possibilities.

I know a lot of people who have had good luck on dating sites, but I can understand your hesitation.

If you prefer interacting in real life, there are plenty of places to meet people besides bars and nightclubs.

Speaking of clubs, how about joining one? Walking, golf, gardening, you name it — if there’s something you enjoy, there’s likely a club out there full of people with the

VIVID PINK HAIR, BURLINGTON BOUND With neon pink hair and your starry black yoga pants, you strode toward gray-haired me and my son at the bus stop Saturday morning. You said hello.

It was friendly. Perhaps that’s all it was, and that’s fine. Nevertheless, I’d like to know about you, and so, maybe coffee and a brisk winter walk? When: Saturday, November 25, 2023. Where: Middlebury College link bus stop. You: Woman. Me: Trans woman. #915884

GAS STATION IN BENNINGTON, 11/18 It was early and cold. Winter hat on; going to work maybe? You grabbed coffee. I was pumping gas in a green sweatshirt.

You were cute. When: Saturday, November 18, 2023. Where: Bennington.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915880

same interest. If you do a little research online or in this very newspaper, I’m sure you can find a few.

Beyond that, look for places where people gather. Almost every town has a senior center with fun programming. Libraries host all sorts of events.

Does your church have activities you can take part in? How about paying a visit to a different parish nearby? Join a gym. Take a class. Again, this newspaper has a whole list of classes and a big ol’ calendar full of events you could check out.

What I’m trying to say is: There’s no need to feel miserable and alone. You just have to take the first step. If you get out and enjoy life, you might run into someone who wants to enjoy it with you.

Good luck and God bless,

The Reverend What’s your problem?

Send it to asktherev@sevendaysvt.com.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

93

I’m a male “man” seeking a female. I am a 68-y/o man seeking a woman for friendship and companionship. Age appropriate. Would like to play and spend time together. #L1713 I’m a 72-y/o man seeking a woman for friendship and companionship. Age not important. Looking for a woman who is satisfied with one special man in her life and young at heart. #L1710

I’m a single female, 47, 5’6, red hair, blue eyes, 206 pounds, looking for the one who will marry me and is very well off financially wealthy to fulfill my dreams with. #L1716 For 55-y/o M wannabe geek: I’m your huckleberry. Intense discussions and companionship are my game. Say when. My fave character. Demure, not exactly; yes, down to earth. You said intense — I’m your girl! I’m 55 also. Hope to hear back. #L1715 I’m a GWM looking for some man-to-man interaction in Rutland County. Age/race not important; just be you. Call/ text. #L1712

I’m a male, early 60s, seeking a female, 21 to 50ish. Married in nonsexual relationship. Seeking sex — safe, discreet, disease-free.

I’m told I’m good-looking and don’t look my age. Passionate about performing oral. Looking for goomah in Chittenden County. No computer. I have never strayed before. #L1714 55 M — tall, educated, wannabe hippie geek who’s into science fiction, creative writing and autumn in Vermont — desires to make the acquaintance of a sophisticated, demure, down-toearth female comrade between the ages of 50 and 64 for intense discussions and companionship. #L1711

HOW TO REPLY TO THESE LOVE LETTERS: Seal your reply — including your preferred contact info — inside an envelope. Write your pen pal’s box number on the outside of that envelope and place it inside another envelope with payment. Responses for Love Letters must begin with the #L box number.

MAIL TO: Seven Days Love Letters

PO Box 1164, Burlington, VT 05402

PAYMENT: $5/response. Include cash or check

(made out to “Seven Days”) in the outer envelope. To send unlimited replies for only $15/month, call us at 802-865-1020, ext. 161 for a membership (credit accepted).

PUBLISH YOUR MESSAGE ON THIS PAGE!

1

Submit your FREE message at sevendaysvt.com/loveletters or use the handy form at right.

2

We’ll publish as many messages as we can in the Love Letters section above.

3

Interested readers will send you letters in the mail. No internet required!

94

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 27, 2023-JANUARY 10, 2024

64-y/o GWM seeking new friendships with other GMs. (This is not an ad looking for sex!) Seeking in-depth conversations and sincere and real connections. Caring and fun-loving describe myself.

Looking forward to hearing from you! #L1709

Internet-Free Dating!

Reply to these messages with real, honest-to-goodness letters. DETAILS BELOW. I’m a 64-y/o male seeking Sammijo, 59. I am a lifelong Vermonter. I am a sugar maker and retired. I like to hunt and fish and go for rides. I have a dog and a cat. No internet. #L1704 I’m a GM looking for fun. Nice guy likes everything. Age/race not important. Also interested in a three-way. Any M/M or bi couples out there? Call/text.

Rutland County. #L1700

I’m a female in my 60s seeking a male, 57 to 73. I’m a very outgoing lady. I like to be treated like a queen! I want a man who likes to get out and about and do things together.

Honest, kind, adventurous. #L1706

I’m a 43-y/o SWM seeking a 20- to 50- y/o F. My Juliet, I will be your Romeo. I am 6’1, 220 pounds with baby blue eyes that will melt your soul.

Tattooed up and built for fun.

Are you my baby girl? I can’t wait to love you. Write me, Angel. #L1705

Seeking kinky individuals.

Deviant desires? Yes, please!

Only raunchiness needed.

Have perverted tales? Hot confessions? Anything goes!

No judgment. I only want your forbidden fantasies, openminded. I dare you to shock me. Replies upon request. Not looking to hook up. #L1707

70s sensual couple seeking other couples who enjoy convivial get-togethers over wine and fun conversation to see what possibilities of sensual pleasures might develop between us. BTV meetup? In Vermont through January, then off to follow the sun. #L1701

I’m imagining a sacred sex club dedicated to magnifying our collective orgasms to focus energetic healing to our beloved Gaia and speed transformational ascension in humanity. Goddess, 52, seeking cocreators. Desire to join? Send love letters to Gaia now. #L1703 I’m a class of ’84 SMC graduate seeking a true connection. I’m a local resident. Tall, attractive man who loves to swim, walk and go slow. Nondemanding, optimistic and smiling. Like to meet you. Closeness and trust are most important. #L1698 I’m a 72-y/o M who admires very mature women. I find myself sexually attracted to these ladies of distinction. I would love to meet one in her upper 70s or 80s. #L1696 I’m a 73-y/o woman seeking a man, 68 to 78. I am a Christian woman (look younger than I am) wanting a male companion to just live life with. Conversation, movies, dinners in or out.

Someone to enjoy life with again. #L1695

Describe yourself and who you’re looking for in 40 words below:

Required confidential info:

(OR, ATTACH A SEPARATE PIECE OF PAPER.)

__________________________________________

I’m a _________________________________________________ __ ____

NAME

AGE + GENDER (OPTIONAL)

seeking a____________________________________________ ___________ AGE + GENDER (OPTIONAL)

_______________________________________________________

__________________________________________ ADDRESS

__________________________________________ ADDRESS (MORE)

_______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

__________________________________________ CITY/STATE

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_______________________________________________________ MAIL TO: SEVEN DAYS LOVE LETTERS • PO BOX 1164, BURLINGTON, VT 05402 OPTIONAL WEB FORM: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LOVELETTERS HELP: 802-865-1020, EXT. 161, LOVELETTERS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

THIS FORM IS FOR LOVE LETTERS ONLY. Messages for the Personals and I-Spy sections must be submitted online at dating.sevendaysvt.com.

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