2/4/12: Duane Merrill and his son Ethan are antique dealers who have a deep appreciation for all things old. Last Saturday, Eva headed to Merrill's Auction Gallery in Williston to see them in action.

Music: Kevin MacLeod, "Fig Leaf Rag - distressed", Rick & The Ramblers Western Swing Band, What Goes Around, "You Got What I Want"... Read more

Every 10 years, as lawmakers consider how to redraw the boundaries of Vermont’s state senate districts, the same old question arises: What to do with the juggernaut that is Chittenden County?

Since it was created in 1836, the 30-member Vermont Senate has been divvied up, more or less, along county lines. But since 1965, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state legislative districts had to closely reflect population, the decennial redistricting dance has grown more challenging.... Read more

According to conventional wisdom, the hardest part of beating an addiction is admitting that you have a problem. But for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Vermont addicts who are hooked on heroin or prescription painkillers, the hardest part is finding someone to treat their dependency.... Read more

How does fracking work? Click on the diagram above for a visual explainer.

Want a piece of neighborly advice?

Keep the frack out.

That’s the word from Québecois residents who support Vermont’s possible three-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing — a controversial method of drilling for natural gas more colloquially known as fracking. ... Read more

You don’t realize how hard it is to make a scary haunted-house film till you see one that isn’t. The problem with the genre is that horrors confined to particular domiciles or environs are, in theory, easy to evade, as Eddie Murphy pointed out in his famously succinct critique of Poltergeist: “There’s a ghost in the house? Get the fuck out.”... Read more

If there’s one thing we’ve learned at the cineplex, it’s that hell hath no fury like a teenage outcast with telekinetic powers. First-time director Josh Trank brings us this variation on the Carrie theme updated for the age of faux found footage. Working from a smarter-than-average script by Max (son of John) Landis, he tells the story of three high school students who pretty much become their own science projects.... Read more

It’s tough to spend a Vermont winter single. These cold, dark nights seem made for cuddle buddies and crackling fires, and just when the daylight hours begin to make their slow comeback, February brings one last, cruel wallop: Valentine’s Day. ... Read more

If matchmaker Nicole Leclerc could offer only one piece of dating advice, it would be this: Whatever you do, do not talk about your ex on the first date. Seems easy, right? Wrong. Leclerc watches people self-destruct on the topic all the time.

The bubbly, blond 44-year-old, who uses phrases such as “that’s wack” and makes them sound endearing, has run the dating service Compatibles since 2004. She’s guided close to a thousand men and women, she says, through the emotional minefields of searching for love.... Read more

Recently, Seven Days partnered with local TV station WCAX in order to cross-pollinate coverage via the station’s numerous news broadcast platforms. A few times a week, you can catch our reporters shooting the shit with WCAX anchors about various topics. (And yes, the gratuitous swear was intentional, since we can’t say any of them on the TV. So frustrating.) One evening, Ken Picard or Andy Bromage might be on talking about hard news or politics.... Read more

(State & Main Records, CD)... Read more