Not everybody excels at gift giving, especially when the holidays are bearing down and every store is blasting The Nutcracker Suite. Seven Days aims to make it easier — fun, even — with the publication of our annual Gift Guide, a lovingly curated, local collection of recommendations for everyone on your list. For me, it’s a welcome reminder. Like Scrooge, I’m usually hating on the holidays right up until I’m apprised of potential perfect presents, such as a teepee cat bed or an Edgar Allan Poe-inspired Vermont rap album. After reading this week’s 40-page insert, I’m all in.
The secret Santa behind this ambitious project is Seven Days’ chief proofreader, Angela Simpson, an avid adherent of commerce with a conscience. When she came to work for us in 2022, her cover letter claimed that she could “hear” typos. That’s come in very handy, because her more-than-full-time job is to make sure that Seven Days is error-free.
On top of that, Angela keeps an eye out all year round for local gifts we might want to showcase in our holiday shopping guide, by visiting Vermont shops, craft fairs and farmers markets. Then, starting in September, she solicits our staff for additional ideas, winnows the collection down to 70 selections and assigns reporters to write about them. Angela, who spent two decades working her way to the top of the marketing department at Bruegger’s Enterprises, edits the gift descriptions and makes sure we have a compelling image of every item. The result is an array of eclectic, charming and useful gifts to get shoppers on their way.
“You’ve probably heard that old adage about how chopping wood warms you twice — once when you chop it and once when you burn it,” Angela writes in her editor’s introduction to the guide. “I propose that shopping locally has the potential to toast three times: It ignites a bright spark in you when you find the ideal present, made or sold by a fellow Vermonter. Your pal feels cozy and cherished as they open that package. And it surely warms the cockles of a small-business owner’s heart to know you resisted the allure of the online-monolith-that-shall-not-be-named. The need to support our downtowns is, well, evergreen.”
Bylines are rare for Angela, who toils quietly and tirelessly behind the scenes to make everything work at Seven Days. And I mean everything: She proofreads and fact-checks every story in the paper and online; scrutinizes the ads, including the legal notices, which often involve complicated formatting; edits the obituaries and composes the crucial sentence summing up the life of the deceased; and supervises and edits the calendar writer. Angela also writes the news quiz, the Notes on the Weekend and Wee-Mail newsletters, and the 5-by-5 news crossword.
One of our culture coeditors, Dan Bolles, accurately described her as a “Swiss Army knife.” Multitalented, indispensable and reliable, she improves almost everything we do. That includes showing up at Seven Days events, as well as her colleagues’ book launches and band gigs.
Crucially, Angela almost never says no. When I discovered she was a fan of Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny, I asked if she’d be willing to spend a day exploring the author’s hometown and write about it for our inaugural Québec Issue in June 2023. She agreed, on a very tight deadline, and filed a fabulous piece that improved the story mix.
Recognition is not what motivates her. “This is my dream job, literally: to be able to play with words all day,” Angela said.
Dan’s cohort, Carolyn Fox, called her former proofreading partner “everybody’s safety net.” She added: “I’m not one to call someone an angel, but in this case, I think it’s apt to say she is Seven Days’ Guardian Angela.”
Hallelujah.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2 2025.
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