Despite New England’s proud tradition of maple baked beans, Jeannette Johnson of Glover observed recently that cooking dried beans is “kind of like a lost…
A new year, another state has opened a regulated cannabis market for adults. That would be Illinois, where dispensaries opened their doors January 1 to…
Middlebury native loved working at Autumn Harp and creating stained-glass art
Longtime Stowe Mountain “host” also volunteered at Burlington’s ECHO and Flynn centers
Everyone in Orwell had the same question for me: “Who called you?” No one had. But that answer was about as convincing as my explanation, which was too boring to be true. I just happened to visit the Town of Orwell website, decided to peruse selectboard meeting minutes, noticed the local history museum was closed…
My job is to look for sets of data that tell interesting stories about Vermont. Earlier this year I found one in the state’s Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living. After negotiations that spanned three months and nearly $2,000 in fees, I wrangled five and a half years’ worth of complaints made against local…
Happy at Bradley I am writing in support of Bradley House, a residential care home in Brattleboro mentioned in your series on eldercare [Worse for…
Seven Days reporters are fortunate to work with photographers who are not only talented but enthusiastic — artists who are often as excited to shoot a subject as we are to tell their tales. Luke Awtry is one such photog who always seems invested in the story. That’s especially apparent when he tags along during…
The story of how my family and I left behind our life in California to make a fresh start in Vermont begins with an image: a photograph I took shortly after dawn on October 8, 2017. In the foreground are my kids, Emma and Liam, perched on the roof of our home in Santa Rosa.…
On New Year’s Day 2019, Seven Days staff photographer Matthew Thorsen died from cancer — or, as we put it in our cover story tribute to him the following week, the disease “ushered” the beloved and brilliantly enigmatic artist “into his next great adventure.” Wherever it is we go once we depart this mortal plane,…
Once again we have to give a big shout-out to the multitude of artists in Vermont, to the curators who corral them into exhibitions, and…
In October, my editor handed me an envelope addressed to Seven Days’ post office box bearing the official Department of Corrections stamp indicating that it was inmate correspondence. Inside was a three-page letter written with purple ink and perfect penmanship. Its author, Mandy Conte, told a harrowing tale about the women’s prison in which she…
As a lifelong Vermonter, I take pride in knowing my home state. But every now and then, I learn about a place I never knew existed. In September, I was researching the connections between Sara Holbrook, the namesake of a Burlington community center, and the Vermont eugenics movement of the 1920s and ’30s. After visiting…
I knew my March story about a man who sends threatening messages to Jewish and nonwhite public officials would provoke a response. Journalists, including some at Seven Days, have been among Christopher Hayden’s go-to targets. Some readers might object to the publicity I was inevitably giving to a volatile white supremacist. I did not expect…
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Fifteenth-century Italian metalworker Lorenzo Ghiberti worked for 28 years to turn the Doors of the Florence Baptistry into a massive work…
So much of the physical drama of competitive sports plays out in the field of the imagination, no matter the caliber or stage. A Little League home run is as thrilling as any professional dinger. Football fans feel the euphoria of an end-zone celebration as truly as the dancing receiver. Story lines are as sacred…
Green Mountain College began the year by announcing it would cease operations at the end of the spring semester. By July, the Poultney campus was for sale. In September, I found myself covering a public auction of the private school’s buildings, artwork and furniture. Roaming the library during the “preview,” I encountered a man upstairs…
My editors call it a “door knock.” But the simplicity of that term belies the courage it takes to walk up to a stranger’s front door and rap on it — in hopes of getting a face-to-face interview with a subject who hangs up or doesn’t answer the phone. I found myself on a two-day “door…
A couple of Seven Days reporters tracked down seven ex-priests accused of sexual molestation — and knocked on their doors. Another questioned an impeachment hearing…
After a mass shooting in New Zealand in March, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) remarked on Twitter that it had taken the Kiwis “less than a week to ban military-style weapons.” He noted that it had been 405 days since the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., and 2,294 days since the one in Newtown, Conn. I…
In September, my editor heard that PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury had been banned from Instagram for posting a photo of a woman’s nipple. People get banned from social media all the time for all kinds of things, but it seemed like Instagram was an important component of PhotoPlace’s business, so I called up the owner…
Vermod is trying to remake the modular home business. But people who have purchased the Vermont-made zero-energy units have had some problems with them. Earlier this month I went to Waltham, where there’s a cluster of 14, in search of sagging floors and cracking walls. Roaming through the small affordable housing development, I met Michelle…
Dozens of talented people have cycled through Seven Days in the 24 years we’ve been covering Vermont news and culture. One of them was Kate O’Neill, a Burlington native who came to work for us as a proofreader in 2008. For four years, she led the team that pores over every word in the paper…
I was nervous when I called Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo in July for a story about social media abuse. So nervous, I went out to my car, where it was quiet, to conduct the phone interview in which I had to ask him whether he had set up a fake Twitter account in…
In journalism, as in filmmaking, sometimes the best lines end up on the cutting-room floor. This year, a source said something that, although astounding, I couldn’t use: “He shot me with a shotgun and blew my leg off … It was the best thing that ever happened to me.” First, some background: In October, I…
Reporters are used to dealing with cagey sources. It’s annoyingly common for public officials to dodge us, and it’s understandable when the random person we approach on the street would rather not be quoted in the newspaper. But some interviews we expect to go well, particularly when your source has just issued a press release.…
When it comes to burning wood, I may be a flaming hypocrite. Even as I was reporting on the climate impacts of biomass energy in Vermont, I was looking forward to firing up my woodstove at the first sign of frost. Earlier this year, my family and I moved to a Waterbury farmhouse equipped with…
When I signed on to the Seven Days Burlington beat in April, I knew I’d be spending a lot of time at city hall. The Queen City reporter has the honor of covering city council meetings almost every other Monday night. And, let me tell you, there’s nothing quite like spending the final third of…
Most reporters would relish the chance to ditch the office for a day and go ride a bike around Montréal. I’m not most reporters. Back in October, my editor pitched me a story that involved tagging along with city officials on a two-wheeled “learning journey” north of the border. The idea, the trip organizers said,…
Hey, remember this time last year when I ranted about how the way in which Americans view movies was about to undergo a seismic change…
How do reporters come up with story ideas? More often than not, I learn about my next story while reporting the one before it. In the course of an interview, a source might mention something that’s off-topic but really interesting. I’ll file it away in a list I keep and return to it soon. That…
When I traveled to Capitol Hill in November for the first day of the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment hearings, I was hoping to find some color to liven up my report. I didn’t expect to find it in a bathroom. My goal for the day was to shadow U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who found…
After a full year spent highlighting the works of local singer-songwriters, musicians, club promoters and producers, we thought it would be enlightening to learn what…
Huntington Open Women’s Land, or HOWL, was established in 1985 as a women’s community — a refuge from men, machismo and phallocentrism in all its forms. Until about six years ago, trans women were only tentatively considered in the collective’s definition of “women”; more recently, HOWL has been grappling with the inclusion of people who…
Every year, Seven Days reviews approximately 100 records from local bands and artists. They reflect the vast diversity of sounds and styles found in the…
I could’ve written an entire story about stargazing in the Adirondacks without seeing any stars. After all, I’ve seen plenty of night skies in my life and know how to describe one. What difference would it make if I were describing the heavens over Tupper Lake, Tahoe or Topeka? Don’t tell my editors, but I…
In February, I was reporting on the innards of Vermont’s dairy industry — the bewildering matrix of humans, cows and economics from which those eight-ounce bars of Cabot cheddar mysteriously emerge. In an attempt to understand it all, I decided to spend a week at Vorsteveld Farm in Panton, a 1,300-cow operation that seemed to…
The end of the decade is nigh. In just a few days, we’ll enter the new roaring twenties. But will it bear any similarity to…
Dear Reverend, My girlfriend and I broke up last month, and I’m going to be alone on New Year’s Eve. All of my friends are…
In a year in which “trending” has often meant climate disasters and #ImpeachmentVote, being a food writer has brought us a lot of joy. Sure,…
