• A memorial service for Katherine Barratt will be conducted at All Souls Unitarian Church on South Street in Brattleboro on Saturday, Feb. 1, at 1 p.m. Ms. Barratt, 76, died peacefully on Dec. 23, 2019 at her home. To view her full obituary and send messages of condolence, visit www.atamaniuk.com.
...Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present New England's acclaimed roots, rhythm and harmony quartet Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem with special guest Anna Patton at Next Stage on Friday, Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m. The five musicians will perform “Wintersong,” a collection of celebratory, poetic, reflective seasonal...
Smith College professor Ellen W. Kaplan will tell how she brought the experiences of Syrian refugees to the theater stage in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St., on Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. Her free talk, “Refugee Theater: Kurdish and Yazidi Women Speak Out,” is...
Not since the Vietnam War have I felt such anger and despair at the behavior of our governing bodies. The Republicans have completely abandoned their principles, especially fiscal conservatism, and they have caved in to the agenda of the ultra-right faction of their party, whose main desire seems to be the creation of a permanent partisan advantage, regardless of the effects on our democracy. They seek to rule, rather than govern. In states where they are the legislative majority, they...
Workshop looks at home-DNA tests BRATTLEBORO - Slots remain available for free DNA consultations with genealogists Wayne Blanchard and Jerry Carbone on Saturday, Feb. 1, at Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St. Blanchard and Carbone are teaming up to help family researchers who have taken genetic DNA tests to find out how they are related to the people with whom they match on home-DNA tests. DNA testing doesn't replace traditional genealogy, but it can be another tool to be used...
The fifth annual Bratt LUV Crawl - the time each year where the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance invites everyone to head downtown for a night of fun in the name of love - is set for Thursday, Feb. 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. This year's event will feature 18 of Brattleboro's unique shops as well as 18 local tastemakers who will each be serving samples of drinks or food. How do you join in with the fun? Buy your $8...
Main Street Arts is offering a series of community classes to provide a place for the whole family to explore and discover creativity. In Re-Form Arted Boxes Design, participants will learn to make a decoupage art box in which to store treasures or as a gift. The $45 class will meet Saturday, Feb. 15, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., under the direction of MSA director and artist Heather Geoffrey. All that is needed for the class are favorite images...
Hello and good day to you, fine citizens of southeastern Vermont! We've got a calm and fair end to our work week in Windham County, which will be pleasant indeed. However, the weekend holds the potential for inclement conditions. As of this writing, a coastal storm looks to either graze us or miss completely to the southeast with a light, northern stream system moving through with some light snow Saturday evening. However, uncertainty remains and we could see a bigger...
Revolutions rarely are fomented by the people at the bottom. They're fomented by people who sense that things could be different. And that is true whether the revolution is forward looking or backward. What President Donald Trump has shrewdly fueled is a backward revolution, rallying people who vividly sense how things used to be different. They are neither the down-and-out nor minorities. The angry people at Trump rallies are largely white, blue-collar men with little college education, supported by wives...
Turning a beloved childhood home into a bed-and-breakfast isn't unusual. But there is a lot more to the story of how Claudia Williams renovated and restored her family homestead - a hideaway on a 60-acre farm in the woods - that was bought by a fashion model with her earnings and where one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball fell in love with that model, got married, and got divorced in a tempestuous relationship that ultimately lasted...
Composer and digital Mellotronist Ross Goldstein fashions himself an amateur. This might seem odd, as Goldstein has been an active musician for more than 20 years and Birdwatcher Records has produced four albums of his music, including his most recent, Timoka, a new cinematic instrumental work that will be released on Jan. 31. In addition, on Saturday, Feb. 8, at Epsilon Spires, Goldstein will play his Mellotron as he joins in concert Brian Dewan on the historic building's 115-year-old Estey...
Maple syrup and songbirds have something in common: They rely on healthy forests. A pilot program is helping farmers who harvest sap from the maple trees create and maintain these “bird-friendly” habitats. The Bird-Friendly Maple Project operates through Audubon Vermont and is a collaboration among that organization, the state Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation, and the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association (VMSMA). “Without the forested landscape that we have out there so prominently in northern New England, we really...
Celebrate the magic and diversity of “crankies” at New England Youth Theatre on Saturday, Feb. 1, at 7:30 p.m., when a consortium of artists in the midst of a revival of this centuries-old medium will present their work at the fifth annual Vermont Crankie Festival. This show will assemble artists from far and wide, with crankies - illustrated scrolls that are hand-cranked within a small wooden theater, accompanying songs and stories - that accompany traditional and original songs, as well...
Audience members clutched cups of coffee as weak, pre-storm sunlight shone through the tall windows of the Town Hall. Despite short notice and the early-Saturday meeting time, more than 20 people traveled from towns such as Dummerston, Newfane, Wilmington, Stratton, and Townshend to discuss a report on education funding. According to recommendations in the 150-page Pupil Weighting Factors Report, issued Dec. 24, 2019 by Secretary of Education Daniel M. French, the state needs to adjust how it calculates the cost...
After three decades here in Windham County, there are times for me when high school games are a trip down memory lane. A trip to Townshend on Jan. 25 to see a boys' basketball game between Leland & Gray and Bellows Falls was one of those times. I hadn't seen Bellows Falls varsity coach John Hollar in about 20 years, and it took a few moments for us to recognize each other, but we quickly stirred up memories of the...
When the late Dr. C. Everett Koop issued his first surgeon general's report about the dangers of smoking in 1982 the media reported it widely. As a result, Koop realized that publicity and persuasion were effective tools in promoting healthier behavior. In 1984, on the 20th anniversary of an earlier Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health, Koop launched the Campaign for a Smoke-Free America by 2000. That campaign against cigarette smoking built on the momentum started by the earlier...
While numerous newspaper articles and radio and television news stories have recently appeared about the financial situation at the Brattleboro Retreat, the members of the United Nurses and Allied Professionals, the Retreat's employee union, feel that the majority of these articles have missed the root cause of most of the Retreat's financial problems. To state the Union's view directly, the mismanagement of funds, low patient census, high contract-labor rates and high staff turnover at the Retreat are a direct result...
Visitors to Main Street can't help but notice the wooden barrels filled with flowers, or the flower boxes that surround Pliny Park, or the sparkling white lights and wreaths during the holiday season. Dick DeGray and Missy Galanes would have earned their Persons of the Year award from the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce just for their downtown beautification efforts. But that only scratches the surface of the many ways they've contributed to the community over the years. In saluting...
What exactly is a Mellotron? According to a 2005 article from Today's Engineer by Kim Breitfelder, the electromechanical musical keyboard instrument was based on a 1946 invention by American inventor Henry Chamberlain. “Outside, it looked like an ordinary electronic organ. Inside, however, were 35 separate tape players, each equipped with a short loop of tape. Pressing a key caused a tape 'head' to touch the surface of the tape, causing whatever sound was recorded on that tape to be amplified...