WELL HEY, FRIDAY!
Change is coming, but not quite yet. The high pressure that's controlled the region all week is retreating eastward, making way for a storm tomorrow. For now, though, it's another mostly sunny day (until the clouds get here late in the day), starting in the teens, rising to the high 30s. Wind from the southeast, lows tonight only in the mid-20s, chance of freezing drizzle, presaging what could be some ugly weather starting tomorrow afternoon.Leb City Council opts to let voters decide on "Welcoming Ordinance." After a civil but deeply emotional three-hour discussion Wednesday night, council members decided to put the measure, which would keep police from sharing immigration-related information with federal immigration authorities, on the March 10 ballot. Voters in Hartford and Norwich will be considering similar ordinances at town meeting. (VN)The Wasp to reopen in Woodstock. The popular but tiny 10-stool diner and snack bar on Pleasant Street closed in 2013, but Bridgewater resident John Worth bought it last July and hopes to open in late spring or early summer. Worth, who will be the cook, will offer food from scratch, including egg dishes, burgers, pancakes, sandwiches, fresh fruit, and corned beef hash, reports Virginia Dean in the Mountain Times. And, she writes, "portions will be sizable."Former SoRo principal gets 5 years for secretly taping teenage girls. Dean Stearns, former principal of South Royalton School, pled guilty in 2018 to surreptitiously taping five girls who'd stayed in his Sharon home. The case began in November, 2017 after one of the victims found a fake cellphone charger with a camera embedded in it in the bathroom she used. Stearns' actions robbed the girls of their “innocence and trust,” Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Mann said in handing down the sentence."The rumors of my demise..." Nancy Hanger, owner of Bradford's Star Cat Books for the last seven years, decided not to use the classic Mark Twain line last night when she took to FB to say that rumors notwithstanding, she's not dead. "Um, no," she wrote. "I’m not even sick... We’re open for business, alive and well. No wonder I’ve had slow sales the last month." "I'd run with it," a commenter encouraged, "seems like a good reason to avoid paying taxes."
“That was wild, dynamic and terrifying." So says Dartmouth grad student Ian Raphael with a "gleeful" smile, just after a fissure suddenly appears in the thin sheet of Arctic ice on which he's standing. If you've been wondering what Raphael, Dartmouth prof Don Perovich, and other ice scientists on that ice breaker up at the top of the world have been up to, writer Shannon Hall goes deep — with some pretty stunning pics — in Quanta. “It isn’t just an intellectual exercise,” says Perovich. “We’re trying to understand things that are having consequences on people today.”State, college calling students and community members in for TB testing. The Dartmouth's got an interesting piece on the protocol since last week's announcement that a Dartmouth community member has tuberculosis. The first round involves people who "shared airspace" with the patient. If there are "conversions," says deputy state epidemiologist Elizabeth Talbot, then they'll expand the pool. If not, "there is no reason to go further," she says. The restaurant that straddles the VT/NH line and more fun facts about the border. Yesterday's item about the VT/NH boundary brought a question about the water behind say, the Wilder Dam. Turns out the Supreme Court in its decree following its decision in Vermont v. New Hampshire said that the boundary as surveyed then would be “unaffected by improvements on the river.” IE, the points surveyed in 1934 are still the border, even if they're now out in the river. That and more at the link. (Thanks for the pointer, MS!)VLS launches "legal food hub." Working with the Conservation Law Foundation, the South Royalton law school will match volunteer lawyers with income-eligible farmers and food-industry business owners to offer free legal services. The idea was pioneered in MA by Jennifer Rushlow, who now serves as director of VLS’s Environmental Law Center.Dartmouth Theater Department to mount US premiere of sold-out UK play about Victorian women boxers. Just to get on your calendar... The Sweet Science of Bruising is by Joy Wilkinson, who's also written for the new, female-driven Doctor Who. The play follows four women drawn by "the dark underground world" of female boxing in 1869 London. Despite strong reviews and packed houses, it had no US takers when director Peter Hackett heard about it, found a Kindle copy, and reached out to Wilkinson's team for the rights. Opens Feb. 21.Vermonters drive more than New Hampshirites. In fact, per capita they drive more than residents of any other New England state. Vermonters logged on average 11,766 miles per person in 2018, compared to 11,040 for Maineiacs and 10,179 for Granite Staters. That number put VT 12th in the country, just behind Montana, and well behind Wyoming's 18,072 miles per person. You catching the trend here? Low population density and no mass transit matter. Trump trolls Democrats in NH, schedules Manchester rally for day before primary. The event will be at the 10-000 seat SNHU Arena on Feb. 10.Well, it's about time: A presidential candidate comes to Vermont. Looks like Michael Bloomberg will be up in Burlington on Monday, at the ECHO Center from noon to 1:30. Maybe elsewhere, too. Vermont House passes paid family/medical leave bill, but without enough votes to withstand veto. The measure had been a sticking point between the House and Senate last year, but the two bodies came to agreement last week, and it passed the Senate with a strong majority. However, the House vote of 89-58 puts support for the bill shy of the 100 needed to override an expected veto from Gov. Phil Scott. The bill would allow up to 12 weeks of paid leave for a newborn child and 8 weeks to care for a sick family member.Whew, man... Moose rescued from active railroad trestle. This happened on Wednesday down around Ludlow/Cavendish, after a 700-pound male moose got stuck on a rail bridge. Game wardens and wildlife biologists were able to sedate him and bundle him into a sling before he was picked up with a railroad crane truck, carried miles down the tracks, and placed gently back on the ground. He eventually got back on his feet — looking a bit dazed — and wandered off. Video at the link.
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IT'S FRIDAY! GOT PLANS?
The Manchester, NH-based band started off banging on plastic buckets for a high school talent show. But that was decades ago, and now it tours the world (along with a long-running show on the Vegas strip and multiple America's Got Talent appearances), turning power tools, ladders, buckets and trash cans into a high-energy, pyrotechnic rock show. Tonight at 7: 30, plus two shows tomorrow.
Tuttle, who lives in Tunbridge, spent eight years as associate director of the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman, Jordan, and since his doctoral work at Brown has made a specialty of the Nabatean site, Petra. These days, he's field director for a team surveying around Hegra (Mada’in Saleh), a Nabatean site in Saudi Arabia. 7 pm, Tunbridge Public Library.
Or you could do some film catching-up at the Hop:
Or if you just want to head to a pub for some music:
The Conniption Fits are at Salt Hill Lebanon, 9 pm sharp!
Michael McNaughton's at Margarita's, 9 pm
Central Mass. singer/songwriter/guitarist Ken Macy's at Salt Hill West Leb., 8 pm
Evelyn Cormier returns from LA for a gig at REMIX in Claremont, 7 pm
And, hey, if you're looking for stuff to do this weekend, give Susan Apel's
(from
Fleabag
to Gamelan, with lots of letters in between) or David Corriveau's
a read.
Want to see
as that icebreaker cuts through the Arctic ice sheet? Figured. See you Monday.
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