

Cover Story
Who Wants to Work on a Vermont Dairy Farm? A Reporter Spent a Week Finding Out
There is no clock in the milking parlor at Vorsteveld Farm. There are no windows, either, but a couple of hours into my first shift,…
The Parmelee Post: Lobbyists Urge Lawmakers to Ban Single-Use Planets
Lobbyists from the fossil fuel, chemical and plastic industries have called on local lawmakers to prohibit planets that serve only a single purpose: supporting life…
Obituary: Susan Green, 1943-2019
Susan L. Green, age 76, passed away at her home in Burlington, Vt., on Friday, March 1. She was born in 1943 in Manhattan to…
Obituary: John Bowles, 1970-2019
John Patrick Bowles (“Johnny Bowles”) moved on from this life on February 26, 2019. Although Burlington, Vt., was his longtime home, he was living outside…
Obituary: Marcia L. Mason, 1932-2019
“You wake up in the morning with an emotional and physical bank account. Ask yourself, ‘How do I want to spend it?'” This is the…
Two Grants Support Vermont Folklife Center Cartooning and Digitizing
From hardscrabble images of disappearing hill farmers to genteel portraits of Vermont’s Colonial Dames, from the rustic majesty of windswept ice shanties to the cheap…
Footloose and Car-Free: Curt McCormack Drives State Transportation Policy
Just above the tree line on Camel’s Hump last week, Curt McCormack considered turning back. The Burlington lawmaker had snowshoed up the mountain to within…
Quick Lit: Hope A.C. Bentley Turns Out YA Novels and a Publishing Company
In late 2018, East Burke writer Hope A.C. Bentley started her own small publishing company: Golden Light Factory. She’s put out five books — four…
Opera Singer Helen Lyons Adds Radio DJ to Her Résumé
When soprano Helen Lyons decided to move back home to Vermont in June 2016, the state gained an internationally experienced singer. Lyons, a Williston native,…
Album Review: Roost, ‘Self-Titled’
(Self-released, CD, cassette, digital) Writing for British online music mag the Quietus, author Alex Ogg concluded that the term post-punk was a “hopelessly inadequate umbrella…
Album Review: Thomas L. Read, ‘What Story?’
(Self-released, CD, digital) Thomas L. (“Larry”) Read’s chamber compositions on What Story? evoke a kaleidoscopic range of emotion from one moment to the next. Not…
Free Will Astrology (3/13/19)
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 2014, NASA managed to place its MAVEN spacecraft into orbit around Mars. The cost of the mission was $671 million….
Theater Review: ‘The Roommate,’ Vermont Stage
Jen Silverman’s two-character play The Roommate starts by mining the comedy in a pair of fiftysomething women of opposite temperaments sharing a house. Then it…
I Want to Ask This Girl Out, But She’s Just 16
Dear Scarlett, I’ve been working full time in a tire shop since high school and really like my job. About three or four months ago,…
John Daly’s Matthew Lyon Concept Album Parallels Current Events
As the old chestnut goes, history repeats itself. Or, in the oft-misquoted words of Spanish American philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past…
Letters to the Editor (3/13/19)
Wither Free Press? [Re Fair Game, February 20]: In 1995 and 1996, I worked in the composing room at the Burlington Free Press. Back then,…
People’s Republic: Is Burlington Moving Leftward?
Last week’s Burlington City Council elections produced an apparent political shift, as two young Progressives and a young Democrat were elected in place of older,…
Taking Names: Vermont Builds Dossier on Firms That Sell Our Data
Most Vermonters haven’t heard of Datastream Group, a Naples, Fla., company with 68 Facebook “likes” and a nondescript office on a street called Business Lane….
A Middlebury Bookstore Creates a Reusable Bag Share
A Middlebury bookstore has implemented a novel concept. In an effort to reduce waste, patrons at the Vermont Book Shop can now take — or…
Soundbites: Now Entering the Green Zone
Green Zone St. Patrick’s Day is a-coming, and that means Irish music is popping up all over this week — particularly on the day in…
Movie Review: Documentary ‘Apollo 11’ Brings the Moon Mission to Life With Lost NASA Footage
Whenever I see footage of a rocket launch with a close-up of that sudden, thunderous inferno blasting from its base, I’m filled with wonder. I…
Miss Weinerz Launches Neighborhood Food Club
Got the munchies? Look local. In Burlington, Miss Weinerz baker Ren Weiner’s new Neighborhood Food Club seeks to offer a tasty, eco-friendly alternative to that…
Art Review: ‘Rebecca Weisman: Skin Ego,’ at BCA Center
It’s not often that you get to watch videos from inside the belly of a whale. For the Old Testament’s Jonah, the stomach of the…
Eat This Week, March 13 to 19, 2019: πBeer²
Richmond’s friendly downtown pub celebrates math’s favorite irrational number with handmade pastries and world-famous beer. With Grassroots Distribution taking over the tap lines, visitors can…
Movie Review: Brie Larson Gears Up to Save the World in the Middling Origin Story ‘Captain Marvel’
Captain Marvel has been widely touted as the first female-fronted film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the movie is perhaps even rarer in the…
Winooski Restaurateur Brings Back Italian Classics at Jrs Original
One night last July, Bogdan Andreescu lay awake in his bed in Winooski and planned a restaurant. He saw where the eight-burner stove and hood…
An Expert Climber’s Devastating Fall Leads to His Toughest Challenge
Steve Charest checked the rope securing him to a tree at the top of a 40-foot wall of ice in Smugglers’ Notch last December, then…
UVM Researchers Sow Seeds for World’s Most Lucrative Spice: Saffron
Three years ago, Steve Leach was looking for a way to supplement his family’s income and learn a new trade that he could eventually continue…
WTF: Do Vermont Schools Call More Snow Days Than in the Past?
Nothing compares to a snow day off from school: the anticipation the night before as the flakes start to fly; the excitement when the phone…
Sampling Two-Day Tagines and Hummus at Little Morocco Café
Pasty, basic hummus is easy enough for anyone with a food processor to serve as a starter — or, worse, roll into a burrito —…
Dutch Deli to Replace Happy Belly in Winooski
When a Dutch expat takes over a deli, things go the way of the windmill. In Winooski, the Happy Belly Deli & Grill at 65…






