Daybreak Friday 10/7/22

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

A transition day. Remember that cold front? Well, it's on its way, bringing a chance of rain all day and a slight chance of thunder this afternoon—though we'll also see sun, especially in the afternoon. Still, that front's living up to its name: Temps get up to the low 70s in the early afternoon today, then drop toward the 30s overnight. Much cooler days over the weekend."More than one skunk is a surfeit; more than two is trouble," writes Ted Levin about Erin Donahue's latest trail cam star. "Musk travels ten feet; odor a mile-and-a-half. Ernest Thompson Seton, naturalist/author and one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America, described skunk spray as a blend of crushed garlic, musk, sewer gas, and burning sulfur magnified a thousand times. The Cree/Ojibwe called skunk shee-gawk, the derivation of the word 'Chicago.' Loudon Wainwright III's (1972) song "Dead Skunk" interprets that never-to-be-forgotten smell, late-night driving, windows open."Meanwhile, if it's not officially peak weekend, it ought to be. Because is it going to get any better than this? Here's the view from Tunbridge at first light yesterday, looking south toward Killington, from Kevin Rose."Huckleberrying isn't a very practical way to make a living." But for Henry, it's a perfectly fine way to pass the time in Lost Woods. As he does every week in this spot, Lebanon writer and illustrator DB Johnson chronicles the doings in his favorite patch of forest—and on his blog he gives a glimpse of some upcoming wordplay.Then there was the time David Fairbanks Ford wandered into WRJ's Filling Station with a sketchbook when it was still a biker bar... Angela Evancie and the Brave Little State team have just gone up with an impossible-to-encapsulate, richly layered episode about the revitalization of White River Junction—starting with an old-timer and disagreement over whether it was ever "bleak," and moving on to talk with the Main Street Museum's Ford, developer Matt Bucy, Revolution's Kim Souza, JAG's Jarvis Green, and others about Gory Daze, chaos, fun, the mysterious Rio Blanco Social Club, and so much else.SPONSORED: Artistree's Music Theatre Festival presents Nunsense at the Grange Theater, Oct. 13-30. "The non-stop nonsense in Nunsense is what makes it such a fun musical. Chock full of diverse and witty song and dance numbers, satire and physical comedy, it prepares a course which satiates nearly every comedic taste." RESERVE EARLY! Sponsored by Artistree.A feral hog in Plainfield? That's what WMUR's Hannah Cotter reports, after a homeowner in town got video one in her backyard Wednesday night. USDA's David Allaben asks anyone who sees it to get in touch with his office so it can be tracked down. "They eat native wildlife, young fawns, anything they can get a hold of. Turkey nests, bird nests, nesting birds on the ground, turtles, you name it," Allaben says. "They're opportunistic feeders -- they eat anything."Chandler director to step down... sort of. Karen Dillon, who took over the venerable Randolph performance venue in 2019, is leaving the role "for personal reasons," reports The Herald's Darren Marcy, but she's not going far: She'll become the part-time development director. This will lift some of the burden from her replacement—for whom the board plans to start looking in the next week or two. The Chandler has seen four directors over the past eight years, but under Dillon it has solidified its finances, boosted staff, and "is moving toward a more contemporary programming model," Marcy writes.Lebanon names new fire chief. And the city's hiring from within: captain and paramedic James Wheatley will replace retiring chief Chris Christopoulos on Oct. 28, reports Patrick Adrian in the Valley News. Wheatley, who's been with the department since 2011, worked for the Hartford Fire Department for four years before that.All that's left of most movies of the silent-film era is the lobby cards that advertised them. And now Dartmouth's got them. Well, at least temporarily. The college's Media Ecology Project is digitizing the vast lobby-card collection of Chicago real estate developer David Cleveland, who got into them when he was in high school. "Ninety percent of all silent films have been lost because they were made on nitrate film, which is flammable and explodable,” he tells the AP's Kathy McCormack. “What that means is that these lobby cards are the only tangible example that these films even existed.”“I would like for this to be a book store where people fall in love with each other.” That’s Rena Mosterin, owner of Hanover’s Left Bank Books, extolling her shop’s potential for surprise encounters, whether with a rare first edition or your life partner. For The Dartmouth, Adrienne Murr pens a love letter to the second-story, secondhand stalwart, admired for its “whimsical atmosphere and excellent customer service” along with what one employee calls the “serendipity and adventure” in its quirky, eclectic book selection—a store more interested in sparking curiosity (and romance) than making a buck.SPONSORED: Join Kimball Union Academy on October 15 for an on-campus Admission open house. Engage with our faculty and students; experience our breathtaking campus in Meriden; and see the wide-ranging opportunities available for students in grades 9-12 or a post-graduate year. Register today to learn how your student can find a deep sense of belonging right here in the Upper Valley. Sponsored by KUA.Hiking Close to Home: Burke Mountain Hiking Trails. This week, the Upper Valley Trails Alliance brings you to the Burke trails in Darling State Park. These moderate trails offer an almost 4-mile network on the south side of the mountain and include spectacular foliage, beautiful woods, rustic lean-tos for an overnight option, and excellent views from the summit and fire tower. Directions to trailhead parking in the "Directions" tab at the link. The trail departs from the farthest (southern) edge of the lot from behind the gate. Now, here's a job that didn't exist a few years ago. The NH Exec Council has just approved a $210K/year contract with a Portsmouth NH firm that will negotiate with Chinese and Russian cyber-ransomers who hack into a state-owned system and hold its data hostage, reports Paula Tracy in InDepthNH. The ATOM Group will also stand ready to pay ransom in cryptocurrency—but try to avoid it. Negotiating in ransomers' native tongue, state IT commissioner Denis Goulet told the Council, "you have a much better chance of getting your ransom negotiated down, and in some cases, down to nothing."NH utilities commission starts—slowly—looking into whether changing regs could reduce energy prices. The PUC wants to know, writes Amanda Gokee in NH Bulletin, whether the NH Electric Cooperative's approach of buying energy more frequently than the three regulated utilities do would help cut consumers' costs. Its prices are the lowest in the state. At a hearing Wednesday, the utilities pooh-poohed the idea, consumer advocate Don Kreis wondered why the state's new energy dept isn't in front on the issue, and the PUC's chair said the query will continue in December.Funding for after-school sex ed in Claremont, Manchester held up. Three GOP executive councilors have paused funding for the long-standing Get Real after-school program in the two cities, which have the highest teen birth rates in the state. All three have previously voted to approve it, reports Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin. The councilors tell Timmins they're concerned about ensuring parental involvement and, in at least one case, about a "permissive" view of teen sexual activity. An advocate says delaying funding will "exacerbate" the cities' rates of teen births and sexually transmitted infections.Been paying attention to Daybreak this week? Because the Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions for you. Like, what's the name of that building that just got torn down in Post Mills? And whose "blatant disregard for human safety" was a New Hampshire state official talking about recently? And which Upper Valley weekly newspaper just got bought by an employee? You'll find those and other questions at the burgundy link.But wait! How closely were you following VT and NH?

Guy doodles over every square inch of his house. Like, literally every surface, inside and out, is covered in squiggles, smiles, and googly eyes. Sam Cox of Kent, England, spent two years—and hundreds of liters of paint—creating the ultimate immersive art installation, a display of unraveling madness that he brilliantly documented in this stop-motion video. Room after room is consumed by doodles, like an invasive Keith Haring-esque weed. It’s spectacular, really. So far, according to the Guardian, Cox’s neighbors haven’t complained, though the last owner’s only request was: “Please don’t doodle.” The Friday Vordle. If you're new to Vordle, you should know that fresh ones appear on weekends using words from the Friday Daybreak, and you can get a reminder email each weekend morning. If you'd like that, sign up here.

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