GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Rain again, but not as much. A disturbance passing through the region today will likely produce widespread showers. There's also a coastal low, which apparently will bump up rainfall totals the farther east you go... though even then, the weather folks aren't expecting much more than a half inch. The day may start foggy before the rain arrives and whatever happens it'll be cloudy; temps won't get much out of the mid-50s. Down to around 40 tonight.More Dartmouth layoffs. The college this week announced a handful of staff cuts and reduced hours for workers in its Campus Services division, though it didn't specify the seven employees who'd be affected. The division includes finance, communications, IT services, the Skiway, the dining halls, and other operations. Chris Peck, president of the SEIU local that represents service-job workers, tells the VN's John Gregg that he had not heard of any cuts to union jobs.Fairlee's Lunchbox to close. After nearly four years, the deli and café on Route 5 will be shutting its doors at the end of this month or early in November. "The property has been sold. The future of restaurants is extremely uncertain during this time so, we have decided not to reopen in a new location. It’s time for a new beginning!" owners Amber Sharon and Shawn Nelson posted on Facebook last night. They did not say what will become of the property, which was a Subway before they opened in January, 2017.$165 million. That's what a new study estimates the four core Upper Valley counties (Windsor, Orange, Grafton, Sullivan) sent off to Amazon in 2019. The study, for Vital Communities' Local First initiative, calculates that 55.5 percent of the money spent at locally owned retailers stays in the Upper Valley, vs. 13.6 percent for chain stores and almost nothing for Amazon. Local restaurants funnel even more into the local economy. A shift of just 10 percent to local spending would keep $90 million more around here, Susan Apel notes.“My whole world is shattered." On August 1, passersby came across the body of Gavin Farnsworth at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in WRJ. The 21-year-old former Hartford High quarterback and football standout had—according to a later coroner's report—shot himself in the head. On his Octopus Athletics blog, writer Tris Wykes details Gavin's story: the son of a single mom (his dad appeared only once, when Gavin was three months old); growing up with his grandmother and uncle; his exuberance as a friend, athlete, and, most recently, masonry laborer. “He was just a beautiful soul,” says Hartford High athletic director Jeff Moreno."Food insecurity in the Upper Valley is not going away...COVID has just exacerbated it." That's Carolyn Frye, vice chair of the Willing Hands board. The organization has just launched the public phase of a $1.8 million capital campaign to expand operations, adding coolers and storage space, buying equipment to allow it to handle food more efficiently, and adding a vegetable sorting and washing facility. Its goal is to "grow, glean, and recover an additional 100,000 pounds of food per year" while cutting its carbon footprint.SPONSORED: The leaves are falling. So is the tax break on a solar installation. Only three months remain to claim the 26 percent savings for residential solar installations completed this year. The tax credit drops to 22 percent next year and disappears in 2022. For those who want to combat climate change right in their own backyards AND reap the greatest benefit from their solar investment, Solaflect Energy can still get it done this year! Learn more at www.solaflect.com. Sponsored by Solaflect Energy.As the leaves fall, look up. That's what writer and naturalist Ted Levin did the other day, discovering hornets nests hanging from branches "like Christmas tree ornaments," no longer hidden. A few years back, another one caught his eye; once cold settled in, he wanted to take it apart to show his boys, but it was too high. Then one day a couple of crows dug in, dismantling it to get to the frozen hornets inside...Stone, everywhere you look. Including a carved face peering out of a wall of granite blocks. Lebanon photographer Travis Paige has been hiking and mountain biking around Millstone Hill in Barre, where multiple granite quarries used to operate. Nature "has reclaimed most of the hill," he writes, and three trail networks—Barre Town Forest, Gnome Man’s Land, and Canyonlands—now span the site. It's a great biking playground, but to see its quirkiness in all its glory, you have to get out on foot. Or just check out Travis's pics.The VN's out with its voting guide. Info on how to get an absentee ballot in NH (if you live in VT and are registered, yours has either arrived or just got mailed), how to register, and how to vote in person. Daybreak's town-by-town info guide will be out on Monday.In the 2018 elections, 40 absentee ballots were rejected in Hanover. Also, 13 in Lebanon, 13 in Grantham, and a handful in other Upper Valley NH towns. That info's in an extremely useful guide NHPR's Casey McDermott just put up to not getting your ballot rejected. With more NH voters than ever before expected to vote absentee this year, she looks at past trends and offers advice: sign the affidavit, make sure you use both envelopes provided, and don't forget postage if you're mailing it (VT provides it; NH does not). Chem prof at UNH draws scrutiny, protests for anonymous Twitter account. The account purportedly belonged to an immigrant woman of color, who compared Black Lives Matter to terrorism, suggested ways for faculty members to undermine diversity efforts, and upbraided "wokinistas" on campus. Tuesday night, the chair of the department emailed faculty revealing that one of their white, male colleagues was behind the account. The university is investigating; students are demanding he be fired."Entire valleys can stink like a badly ventilated garage due to all the gas fumes." Those would be valleys in New Hampshire (and Vermont) in winter, when the snowmobile trails are packed. Which is why David Brooks writes on his Granite Geek blog that while electric cars are nice, "electric off-roading would be really nice." And there's hope, he says: Polaris, the off-road-vehicle-making colossus, has just partnered with electric motorbike maker Zero to start producing all-electric ATVs and snowmobiles.VT selectboards struggle to weigh anti-racism, free-speech concerns. In Putney, a request to paint a Black Lives Matter mural in town kicked off a two-month debate. Monkton pulled down a BLM sign by town hall after someone requested an All Lives Matter sign, as well. The Dover selectboard got embroiled in the issue after someone painted "MAGA" on a town road during a GOP event. And there will be difficult discussions to come, Maura Carroll, the director of the VT League of Cities and Towns, tells VPR. "It seems as though people are much more engaged,” she says.Fairbanks Museum plans 6,000-square-foot addition. The three-story mass timber building, expected to cost between $2.25 and $2.5 million, will house hands-on meteorology and astronomy exhibits and boost the museum's accessibility. It may also boost the state's forest industry, writes VTDigger's Justin Trombly: it will be the first building in the state made entirely of mass timber, "a wood building material that’s been on the rise recently in the U.S." that advocates believe produces less waste than typical construction projects.Those bears munching on apples? They're not from Kashmir! They're from Lyme! So... Apparently, there's a photo that's gone viral in India of a group of bears chowing down on a pile of apples in the middle of a Kashmir jungle. But now, India Today's crack Anti Fake News War Room has gotten on the case. After searching the internet, they verified that the pic's a still from a video made by Morrisville screenwriter (Marco Polo and The Highwaymen among many others), novelist, and bluesman John Fusco of cubs at the Kilham Bear Center in Lyme. That Ben Kilham: His fame goes far.Otters, man! They juggle rocks. Well, not "juggle" juggle as in keeping a three-rock cascade going indefinitely. But they shift them, and sometimes more than one, from paw to paw. Maybe it's play. Maybe it serves some evolutionary purpose. No one's quite sure. There are theories, but mostly it's just fun to watch. You don't suppose it's an otter circ... Nah.
Last numbers for the week...
Dartmouth now has 2 active cases among faculty/staff, and 1 among its students. In all, 3 students and 1 faculty/staff are in quarantine (because of travel or exposure), and 4 students and 11 faculty/staff are in isolation as they await results or because they tested positive.
NH reported 52 new positive test results yesterday, bringing its official total to 8,317. There were two new deaths, which now stand at 441. The state has 305 current cases in all (up 37), including 7 in Grafton County (up 1), 6 in Sullivan (no change), and 34 in Merrimack (up 2). There are between 1 and 4 active cases each in Lyme, Hanover, Lebanon, Plainfield, Grafton, Grantham, Claremont, New London, Newbury, Sunapee, and, now, Haverhill.
VT reported 3 new cases yesterday, bringing its official total to 1,755, with 88 of those still active (no change). Deaths remain at 58 total, and 1 person with a confirmed case is hospitalized. Windsor County gained 2 of those new cases, bringing its total to 89 cases over the course of the pandemic; it's had 6 cases in the past 14 days. Orange County remains at 25 cumulative cases, with 3 of those in the past 14 days.
News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
Today at 5 pm, NH Humanities tackles the Connecticut River. Adair Mulligan, director of the Hanover Conservancy, will lead an armchair tour of the river through the seasons, then delve into the issues involved in managing its health and shaping its future. Via Zoom.
Meanwhile, at 6 pm, the Lake Sunapee Center for the Arts is hosting a Zoomed "sneak peek" at Northern Stage's upcoming festival of plays, Tiny Necessary Theater. NS's associate artistic director, Jess Chayes, will be talking with playwright Marisa Smith about the festival and theater in challenging times.
You should also know that this Sunday is the annual Lake Fairlee Crop Hunger Walk sponsored by the United Church of Thetford. Funds raised go to food shelves in Thetford and W. Fairlee, as well as to Church World Service's anti-hunger efforts. This year, they're asking people to walk at home, on their favorite trail, or along the two-mile walk starting at the Post Mills Congregational Church at 2 pm (masks required).
Reading Deeper
It's been a while since there was a "Reading Deeper" item, but it's looking like this Atlantic article by Zeynep Tufekci may be a conversation-changer out in the pandemic world. She argues that by focusing on the average contagiousness of the coronavirus, we've missed a key point: "Multiple studies from the beginning have suggested that as few as 10 to 20 percent of infected people may be responsible for as much as 80 to 90 percent of transmission, and that many people barely transmit it." The result, she says, is that policy makers should be focused on stopping super-spreading events—"many people, especially in a poorly ventilated indoor setting, and especially not wearing masks"—and shifting contact-tracing protocols to investigate not whom an infected person's been in contact with, but who might have infected them. (Thanks, RM!)
Let's end the week with "badass virtuoso" Jean Rondeau, the French harpsichordist who, over the last decade, has managed to make his instrument hip. Here he is with
. Just go with it; your heart will have plenty of time to slow down afterward.
See you Monday.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Banner by Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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