The Times Argus/Rutland Herald

Books & Authors

Barre’s real-life whodunit murder of 1919

“One Less Woman - A Vermont Murder: 1919,” by Patricia W. Belding, illustrated 184 pages, Potash Brook Publishing, $16.95.
Barre history buffs are no doubt familiar with the city’s three B’s: Broadwell, Baker and Brown, an alliterative trio of murders that sent shockwaves through the Granite Center of the World in 1919, 1958 and 1982. The latter two murders remain unsolved.
The first, however, the 1919 strangulation-murder of Lucina Broadwell, a 29-year-old mother of three, was wrapped up that very year, its cast of characters long dead, buried, and forgotten largely for years - until Patricia Belding came along to do some literary exhuming. (Click link below for complete article.)

http://vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070107/FEATURES/70112001/1002/vsmbooks

Essays

My father, the philatelist

To the phalanx of philatelists whose idea of a good time is soaking cancelled stamps from envelopes or counting the days until some prized first-day cover is to be released, I understand your avocation/addiction. To their families, my sympathy.
When I was growing up my friends’ fathers hunted, or they tinkered in their garages and workshops. My father fettered away a good portion of his day with his stamp collection.
His was no mere hobby but a passion, an obsession. Looking back, it was probably an excuse to hole himself away from his family and a world that was evolving into something increasingly unfamiliar and contrary to his way of thinking. It was his attempt to restore order to a chaotic world. (Click link below for complete article.)

http://vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070617/FEATURES/706170303/1002/FEATURES02

Spare the Rod Serling and spoil the child

Sometimes I like to fantasize that I’m on my deathbed, surrounded by keening family members. In the corner of the room lurks a shadowy figure in a sharkskin suit, cigarette in hand, speaking through clenched teeth into the big eye of a CBS-TV camera.
“”Witness a sorry little man during his final hours. Throughout his life he’s cowered at the site of mannequins, fortune-telling machines, ventriloquist dummies, talking dolls and pig-nosed people. Tonight, we hear the sad tale of this pitiful specimen of humankind, a lifelong victim of . . . ‘The Twilight Zone.’” Theme music. (Click link below for complete article.)

http://vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070225/FEATURES/70223002/1002/FEATURES02

The Liberace Museum is a sure bet

have a confession to make – and it's a big one. I've visited the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas not once but twice. My first visit was the weekend preceding Sept. 11, 2001. My second, by pure coincidence, was the weekend preceding the fifth anniversary of September 11. Both visits were diversions from my real Las Vegas agenda: Blackjack.

(Click link below for complete article.)

http://vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/FEATURES/610220307/1002/FEATURES02

Making the grade, awkwardly

Since time immemorial, and for students of all ages, returning to school after summer vacation will forever be a mixed school bag of emotions.
For males, boyhood ends abruptly at the end sixth grade, and the transition to manhood begins, sheepishly and gingerly, on the first day of seventh grade. My own transition began 41 years ago in the fall of 1965, swathed in swinging

couture, weighing 100 pounds and standing 5 feet tall. (Click link below for complete article.)

http://vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060820/FEATURES/60817002/1002/FEATURES02

In my father’s slippered footsteps

Everybody works but father. He sits around all day. Feet in front of the fireplace, smokes his pipe of clay. Mother takes in washing. So does sister Ann. Everybody works at our house, but my old man.
Whenever I hear this silly old song sung by Groucho Marx I think of my father, Willard Everett Mullikin Jr., who was a ripe-and-retired 45-year-old when I was born. (Click link below for complete article.)

http://vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/FEATURES/606180302/1002/FEATURES02

Gallery Reviews

Hair, T-shirts and stuff from the coast

Sue Higby, executive director of Barre's Studio Place Arts, says she got her hair cut recently in honor of SPA's current exhibit — "Hair: A show of art made from or inspired by hair." The unusual exhibit runs through Sept. 23. An opening reception is scheduled at 5:30 p.m., Friday.
"You can see landscape painting anywhere (right upstairs, it turns out). We offer the alternative," she says, pointing to the first-floor gallery. (Click link below for complete article.)

http://vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060827/FEATURES/608270308/1002/FEATURES02

Vermont Fare

Pan de muerto

A sweet must for a Day of the Dead celebration

At first blush this may seem just a little too creepy: a round loaf of bread topped with crossed bones. Sometimes it's even baked in the shape of a skull. But it's always part of a homemade altar and is often brought to the cemetery as an offering to dead relatives on Nov. 2. (Click link below for complete article.)

http://vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061029/FEATURES/610290302/1002/FEATURES02

Miscellaneous Profiles

Not just another face in the crowd

Jason Sand?
The name may not be recognizable, yet, but there’s no mistaking him for anyone else.
He’s a piece of work — in progress — who leaves a lasting impression. A friendly, hard-working family guy with kind eyes and whose face is tattooed completely. (Click link below for complete article.)
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070226/NEWS02/702260354/1003/NEWS02

She’s keeping the faith for patients
New interfaith chaplain at CVMC brings varied background to job

BERLIN – Don’t expect a pat on the head, a pinch on the cheek and a “Jesus loves you” from Miriam Buchanan, the new interfaith chaplain at Central Vermont Medical Center.
That’s not her style.
What you will get, however, is a compassionate and empathetic listener, a chaplain who’ll most likely tell you to “have fun” rather than “God bless you.” (Click link below for complete article.)

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070109/NEWS02/701090335/1003/NEWS02

The ins and outs of the chromatic harmonica
East Calais’ John LaRouche is a musician of note

Harmonicas and mustaches don’t mix. Mustachioed John LaRouche, 48, knows this firsthand; after all, he’s been playing harmonica for more than 30 years.

A stray mustache hair in a reed hole means a dead note. One caught on the reed plate and yanked out - ouch! - brings tears to a player’s eyes.

LaRouche’s first harmonica, an old beat-up Hohner Echo Harp, was given to him by his father. “I think probably that my grandfather got it for him. It cut your lips to play it,” says LaRouche, whose deep baritone voice would be the envy of any late-night FM disc jockey. “But I kind of liked it.” (Click link below for complete article.)

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?Dato=20070108&Kategori=NEWS&Lopenr=70112003&Ref=AR

Tackling Bach takes a lot of nerve

Deborah Black, elegant in black slacks and a gold long-sleeve top, sits facing an audience of some 30 people who’ve gathered in the lower lobby of Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin to hear the 53-year-old perform.
The afternoon’s fare, Bach’s Sixth Suite for Unaccompanied Cello, is a favorite of cellists worldwide. It’s also a tough nut to crack. While the last few stragglers take their seats, Black tells the audience all about the piece and its composer, summing it up nicely: “It’s infused with Bach’s genius,” she says, using the cello bow for a pointer, then adds, parenthetically, “It’s also one hell of a hard piece.” (Click link below for complete article.)

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061228/NEWS02/612280319/1003/NEWS02

Carl of the wild
Neither rain nor sleet nor snow keeps him from his rounds

About the only thing East Montpelier bicyclist Carl Etnier can't do is float on his back. He says he'd sink like a rock. It takes some fat to stay afloat, and Carl's legs are fat-free. Not just fat-free, they're like tree trunks: petrified tree trunks attached to his 155-pound, 5-6 frame. Legs notwithstanding, Etnier describes himself as being both "fit and fat," pointing to just a hint of a belly. (Click link below for complete article.)

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060327/NEWS/60327001/1002/NEWS01

The golden sage of radio

Like curious cats they peer out from atop shelves, beneath shelves and from dark corners of his basement. Others bask in warm, sunshine-filled upstairs rooms of his East Montpelier home. By Sherwood Morse's own estimate he has around 200. They're antique radios from the 1920s and '30s, and they've taken over his house. (Click link below for complete article.)

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060314/NEWS/603140334/1003

Locksmith finds key to success

Peek through a keyhole into the future: Chances are good that the locksmith's trade will still be a part of the picture. At least locksmith Mark Keahey likes to think so. (Click link below for complete article.)

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060207/NEWS/602070323/1003

Appalachian, sweet Sugarblue

Roots music with soul

Appalachian music has come full circle, traveling its namesake trail from north to south and back again. Somewhere along the way it captured the hearts and souls of two Vermont musicians. (Click link below for complete article.)

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050708/NEWS/507080310/1011/FEATURES02