Issue #743

Around the Towns

DUMMERSTON - Evening Star Grange and Senior Solutions present their second Wednesday Lunch on Wednesday, Dec. 13 with take-outs available from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and in-house seating at noon. This will be their Christmas luncheon and the only meal served this month at the Grange.

The menu will be roast loin of pork, cabbage casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, and beets, with gingerbread for dessert. The vegetarian main course option will be quiche.

Reservations are strongly suggested and can be made by calling the Grange at 802-254-1138. Leave name, phone number, number of meals, and whether eating in or taking out. This will help them prepare enough food for everyone. A donation of $3 for those 60 and above and $4 for those under 60 is suggested. The next senior meal will be on Wednesday, Jan. 10, with a menu to be decided.

This Town and Village item was submitted to The Commons.

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Lewis celebrates season in Grafton concert

Spencer Lewis will help welcome Christmas in Grafton with a free concert at the Grafton Brick Meeting House on Saturday, Dec. 9, from 1 to 4 p.m. Lewis will play solo guitar and violin, reprising songs from his Calling in the Winter album, which includes traditional Christmas songs and...

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Sculptor Art Costa discusses his BMAC exhibit ‘Sounds Deep’ on Dec. 14

When Vermont sculptor Art Costa first read The Soul of an Octopus, he says, he was fascinated by author Sy Montgomery's description of her friendship with an eight-legged "extraterrestrial." Curious about other organisms living far below the surface of the ocean, Costa dove into research that became his most...

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Special Christmas Breakfast to honor memory of fire victim

Organizers are accepting reservations for a Special Christmas Breakfast fundraiser to honor the memory of Deirdre Baker, a local cancer survivor and community volunteer who recently died in a fire. The Dec. 25 event at the Marina Restaurant will feature 100-person seatings at 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. for those who call 802-257-7563 no later than Wednesday, Dec. 20. Baker's friends are set to offer a by-donation buffet of scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausage, biscuits, gravy, fruit, coffee, tea, and juice.

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Measuring hunger

Some examples of questions used by U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service to assess the food security of households in the U.S, in 2022: • "We worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more." Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months? • "The food that we bought just didn't last, and we didn't have money to get more." Was that often, sometimes, or never true for...

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Milestones

Obituaries • Deirdre Lucreatia Baker, 61, of Brattleboro. Died unexpectedly Nov. 25, 2023 in a fire at her home on Lexington Avenue. Deirdre was born in Brattleboro on March 30, 1962, the daughter of Owen and Adrienne (Naeve) Baker. She attended local schools and graduated from Brattleboro Union High School with the Class of 1980. For a majority of her working career, Deirdre worked in the hospitality and restaurant business. For several years, she owned and operated her own catering...

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Latchis Theatre unveils new sound system

On Saturday, Dec. 9, Latchis Arts will host Loud & Clear, a celebration of the Latchis's brand new, state-of-the-art cinema sound system and other improvements to the projection in the main theater. Admission is free, but donations are always welcome at the door. The event starts at 5 p.m., with a reception including free popcorn, beer and wine for sale, a "before and after" presentation by Latchis Arts Board member Tony Bacon about the new technology, and a preview of...

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Brattleboro Camerata presents ‘Treasure Hidden Within’ on Dec. 10

The Brattleboro Camerata presents "Treasure Hidden Within," a program exploring how composers hide pre-existing music within the structure of a new piece, infusing the latter with the essence of the older work. The concert is scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 10, at 4 p.m. at the Brattleboro Music Center. The "hidden treasures" in the Dec. 10 concert include a popular secular Medieval tune embedded in Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's "Missa L'homme armé a 4," sacred Gregorian chant melodies hidden in Maurice...

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The Soubrettes present a pair of concerts this month

The Soubrettes, a vocal ensemble led by Anna Patton under the umbrella of the Vermont Jazz Center, has two upcoming concerts featuring Patton's arrangements of original Patton family songs. This 20-member ensemble sings contemporary songs in Swing Era style on Dec. 9, at 7 p.m., at West Village Meetinghouse in West Brattleboro, and on Dec, 10, at 6 p.m., at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Songs by Anna Patton's brother Ben have long been a mainstay of The...

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Lohman to speak online on ‘endangered eating’

"Endangered eating" is the theme for the December edition of Literary Cocktail Hour, which takes place online with author Sarah Lohman on Friday, Dec. 8, at 5 p.m. Register at bit.ly/LitCocktail34. Lohman says American food traditions are in danger of being lost. How do we save them? Apples, a common New England crop, have been called the United States' "most endangered food." The iconic Texas Longhorn cattle is categorized at "critical risk" for extinction. Unique date palms, found nowhere else...

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Arnowitt and ImproVisions Jazz performs in Guilford

Pianist Michael Arnowitt and ImproVisions Jazz perform in Wendy's Jazz Soiree series in Guilford on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 7 p.m. Arnowitt is joined by Clyde Stats on upright bass and (1)Keith Gibson on drums in a program of jazz past and present. They will perform jazz classics by Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, and Bill Evans, along with Michael Arnowitt's versions of jazz standards such as "There Will Never Be Another You" and "Autumn Leaves." Their program also features selections...

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We must be prepared to save our democracy

Elayne Clift (elayne-clift.com) has written this column about women, politics, and social issues from the earliest days of this newspaper. Let's get real about the most vital issue Americans face as we slowly march toward our dubious future as a nation. It's not about President Biden's age, which is - annoyingly - center stage. After all, Donald Trump is only three years younger than the president, morbidly obese, and an obvious psychopath. The 2024 race is about one issue and...

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‘We’re all strong’

Thelma Sharlow, who has lived in town for 77 of her 94 years, says that her life "has been complicated." Her story started in the hills of West Virginia where her father cared for Sharlow and her two sisters, Kitty and Eva Ann, after their mother walked away from the family when Sharlow - then Thelma Colleen Facemire - was 5 years old. "My dad was a West Virginia hillbilly. Once, he took me into the mines on his shoulder...

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Concussions and young athletes: a growing concern

Soccer is thought of as a safer alternative to football, with a seemingly lower risk of injury compared to the violent collisions that are common in football. But concussions are not uncommon in soccer and, with them, the increase risk to athletes of developing conditions like chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease that can develop from repeated head impacts. Over time, it can cause behavioral, mood, and cognitive changes even if the patient has no new head trauma.

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New owners of Mocha Joe’s see themselves part of a ‘transition to new generation’

As business owners, husband-and-wife team Kate Barry and Bruce Hunt know all about the challenges facing the downtown area. Barry co-owns the Collective Lounge & Bar on Elliot Street, and together, she and Hunt operate a property management company. Barry also runs the local office of a real estate brokerage, eXp Realty, from the Hooker-Dunham Building on Main Street. But Barry and Hunt also know all about what makes Brattleboro a place where people want to live and work and...

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NAACP Vermont chapters deplore ‘senseless act of violence’ against Palestinian American students

In light of the recent tragic incident in Burlington, Vermont, the Vermont branches of the NAACP express our heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families. The violent shooting of three Palestinian American students is deeply distressing, and we stand in solidarity with the affected community during this difficult time. Our hearts go out to Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid, Tahseen Ahmed, and their loved ones. This senseless act of violence has not only caused them physical harm, but it has...

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Happy retirement, Lester

I have known Lester Dunklee since high school. I was a senior, and he was a shy freshman whom I would meet occasionally in the hallway, walking along with his head down and a determined look on his face, headed for his next class. Little did I know then that many years later I would meet him again, as an adult, when somehow we got him to come help us one night at Evening Star Grange in Dummerston. I can...

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What Friends of Putney oppose and propose — and the consequences

Friends of Putney clearly believe that they have rightly appealed thrice to Vermont Environmental and Supreme Courts in opposition to Windham & Windsor Housing Trust's Alice Holway Drive affordable-housing project. Let's consider what is already approved, what Friends of Putney oppose and propose, why they lost two appeals, how they are paying their attorney, and the financial and social impacts of their appeals. Of 3.96 acres: 0.91 acre will be developed as affordable housing (23%); 1.03 acres will remain as...

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Making the rounds

On a tour of southern Vermont arts sites, Susan Evans McClure, newly appointed executive director of the Vermont Arts Council (VAC), addressed about 40 area artists and arts leaders at Brattleboro's Epsilon Spires on the evening of Nov. 27. Leading Vermont's primary provider of funding, advocacy, and information for the arts, Evans McClure intends to hit each region in the state within the year to listen to its arts communities, to invite their success stories, and to hear their challenges...

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‘Just three musicians together, playing for each other’

Known locally in several circles from restorative justice trainings to fine cabinetmaking, Dan DeWalt is, at the core, a musician: a solo and ensemble player on piano and trombone, an accompanist, and a composer. Heard on other artists' albums and having produced a couple of his own in recent years, DeWalt is in a prolific season, now working on four new recordings simultaneously, the recently released Time to Face the Music among them. "I'm excited about it," says DeWalt. "It...

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‘We cannot let this tragedy and violence be a stopping point’

We were horrified, along with all Vermonters, to learn of the shooting of three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont. As a refugee resettlement agency working to help those displaced by violence in their home countries start new lives here in the United States, this violence so close to home is jarring. We condemn these horrific attacks and, as an agency, we commit to working with local, state, and national partners to continue our work to make Vermont a safe place...

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Horrified and appalled by shooting of Palestinian students

Jewish Voice For Peace Vermont/New Hampshire is horrified and appalled by the shooting of three Palestinian students that occurred on the evening of Nov. 25 in Burlington. We are in solidarity with the students, their families, and all those affected by this clear act of hate. We are in solidarity with all Palestinian people in occupied Palestine, around the world, and here in Vermont - and we are committed to creating a Vermont that is safe and welcoming for all.

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Keeping spore

Michelle Bos-Lun is a second-term member of the Vermont House of Representatives, co-representing the Windham-3 district, which includes her hometown of Westminster as well as Rockingham and Brookline. She is a secondary school teacher who also works with individuals experiencing homelessness. Last year, her photo in the "Happy Places" photography project that hung in the State House cafeteria showed her in the woods holding puffball mushrooms. I recently submitted a bill after consultation with some important stakeholders: the elementary students...

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All for impure, brutal, savage, horrific, racist vengeance

Richard Evers describes himself as "of Jewish heritage but not of faith or belief." On Nov. 26, in The New York Times, the headline for the lead story on the front page reads, "Gaza Civilians, Under Israeli Barrage, Are Being Killed at Historic Pace." The article goes on to state that "Israel's liberal use of very large weapons in dense urban areas, including U.S.-made 2,000-pound bombs that can flatten an apartment tower, is surprising, some experts say. "'It's beyond anything...

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No mediation in Putney housing challenge

Despite a suggestion by Environmental Court Superior Judge Thomas Durkin that mediation might resolve the issues in the dispute over the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust's (WWHT) proposed $11.7 million Alice Holway Drive housing project, neither party in the case agreed. "We offered to mediate, but the Trust wasn't interested and they filed a motion for summary judgement, so we'll be doing that," said Attorney Harold B. Stevens III after an about-20-minute teleconference hearing that took place on Nov. 27...

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Carrrving out space to belong

The arts industry is no different from any other industry when it comes to gender equity. In the traditionally male-dominated fields of music production, engineering, lights and sound, tour management, and stage management, still only a small percentage of women end up in these roles. In 2022, 30% of artists on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End chart were women, an increase over 2021's 23.3%. That's according to a 2023 study by Stacy L. Smith, an associate professor of communication at...

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In support of pro-life/pro-America Trump

Editor's note: A technology error inaccurately appended the name of another letter writer to the signature of this letter on the website. It was submitted only by Danielle Miller. Our apologies to both contributors and to our readers. ----- Nancy Braus writes, "In Ohio, the tremendous margin of passage for the amendment enshrining abortion, birth control, and other good things into the state constitution did not seem to percolate down to the state legislature." So abortion is a "good thing"?

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Memories of the Dunklees and their machine shop

I want to express my appreciation to Fran Lynggaard Hansen for such a great tribute to Lester Dunklee. My earliest remembrance of the R.E. Dunklee and Sons Machine Shop was in the 1940s, when I needed a push lawn mower repaired. In the shop I was quite fascinated by the long shaft overhead that powered the machines. There were various size pulleys along the shaft that were belted to power the machines below. I had been used to seeing belt...

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A ceasefire requires both parties to participate

A ceasefire requires the participation of at least two parties. The demand for an immediate permanent ceasefire in the current Hamas war is a demand that Israel unilaterally surrender to Hamas. Hamas broke the ceasefire in existence on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas's stated mission is to destroy Israel and Jewish people. Israel must stop indiscriminate bombing, allow safe passage of innocents from the war zone, oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cronies, elect a democratic government that will respect...

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For Vermonters, a cascade of crises lead to food insecurity

Two in five Vermonters are experiencing food insecurity, reported Hunger Free Vermont in a recent virtual briefing on the hunger in the state. The federal government defines food insecurity as households being, at times, unable to acquire adequate food for one or more household members because they have insufficient money and other resources for food (see sidebar). Nationally, 12.8% of all U.S. households were food insecure in 2022, up from 10.2% in 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture...

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