THANKS FOR DROPPING BY, FRIDAY!
And bringing some nice weather today, too. High pressure's building in, leading to warmer temps over the weekend—but not yet. For today, we get some patchy frost in the usual spots to start, mostly clear and sunny skies, but highs climbing only to the low 50s. Winds from the west, and clouds will start filtering in late in the day. Down to the mid-40s tonight. That magical fall light. From her house in Hartland, Jennifer Hannux caught the fading-but-still-colorful trees, the early-evening pink on the clouds, and Mt. Ascutney off in the distance.Two cases in Lebanon schools; schools and in-person activities closed through long weekend. In separate emails to the school community yesterday, superintendent Joanne Roberts first announced a case involving a student at the middle school, then another involving a high school student. All four schools in the city will go to remote instruction today. The district is working with NH's health department to trace close contacts and instruct families on how to get tested and to quarantine. This is the third time, after Hartford High and Sunapee Middle High School, that UV schools have reported cases. (VN)"It’s not a stretch to say that Hanover students are putting the entire Hanover community at risk." And yet, Chelsea Moore continues in The Dartmouth, "we don’t hear town officials decrying them like they decry Dartmouth students." Moore, an athlete and columnist for the paper, thinks there's a double standard at work. Dartmouth athletes are adhering to strict rules limiting their ability to practice as a team, classes are mostly online, and students can't travel. Meanwhile, she says, "The town of Hanover is not holding itself to any of the same safety standards.""Car Wash Closed. Robbed 3X. Thanks Losers." That's the sign outside South End Auto in Randolph this week, after a vandal or vandals destroyed the coin-operated machines in its self-operated car-wash bays. "The minimal amount of quarters that have been stolen have caused thousands of dollars in damage to our machines and car wash," the business wrote on its FB page.“You couldn’t travel anywhere in the Upper Valley where he wasn’t known. His trucks were everywhere and he was everywhere." That's Bart Daley, a friend of William Grizzaffi, the Lebanon man and owner of Grizzaffi Towing who was hit by a train in Maine last weekend. Grizzaffi's wife, Lori, tells the VN's Anna Merriman, “My heart is crushed." Tow truck drivers from around the region plan a parade in his honor on Sunday. That Western Kingbird hasn't been seen for a few days, but "none of us should give up hope." "A sharp cold front may have caused it to move on," writes the Vermont Center for Ecostudies' Chris Rimmer, "though East Coast records of the species in November and December lend hope that it might resurface." Rimmer details the backstory on Upper Valley birders' discovery of the rare migrant on Campbell Flats Road in Norwich—only the fourth sighting of one on record in VT. Photos by Marc Beerman and Jim Block.SPONSORED: In a changing climate, northern New England is the best place to be. That’s the finding of a 50-state analysis by the highly respected Rhodium Group. All of Vermont’s 14 counties are in the top counties in the U.S. ranked to withstand heat waves, drought, wildfires and other climate risks. Eight neighboring counties in New Hampshire aren’t far behind. To find out where your county ranks, hit the maroon link or visit www.solaflect.com. Sponsored by Solaflect Energy.Hartford SB members question pool. During a meeting Tuesday, reports the VN's Merriman, several selectboard members spoke in favor of asking voters whether they want to revisit the $3.3 million bond they passed in March to replace the shuttered Sherman Manning Pool. However, board chair Dan Fraser noted, "I don’t feel like there has been an uproar from the public.” In the end, the board decided to look into the implications of postponing construction and bringing the bond up for another vote, but took no concrete action.Mascoma Community Health Center struggling, waiting for state relief. The Canaan center, which serves over 4,000 patients from Dorchester, Canaan, Enfield, Grafton, and Orange, is facing a $447K operating loss and has turned to the state for help. The Legislative Advisory Board to the governor's relief office met Tuesday to discuss the center's plight, but put off any decision about funding until next week. Even so, writes InDepthNH's Paula Tracy, there's sentiment to help. “We’ve got to find a way to save this place,” said state Sen. Lou D’Allesandro. “Who else is going to serve them?""What if theatre became just a staple in all of our social lives on every level?" Lulu Fairclough-Stewart is one-third of Covid Commedia, the trio of commedia dell'arte performers (she and Seamus Good are from Hanover; Cameron Silliman from NJ) who've been doing live, outdoor performances at venues and at people's homes. Junction mag's Colleen Goodhue talks to them about the challenges of performing for an audience of mask-wearers in a style of theater that largely died out a few centuries ago. "We haven't had anyone who's been like, 'Nope. Too strange for me. I’m out,'" says Seamus.With hammers, mallets, and common hardware you, too, could build your own at-home plastics impact tester. That, at least, is what a class of Dartmouth engineering students did this year, in place of the $10K piece of equipment they'd normally have used. Alexis Abramson, dean of the Thayer School, writes in Inside Higher Ed about how to do hands-on learning virtually. Focus on what students really need to learn, she writes. Use materials that are available. And ask students to get creative. "In one materials science course, our students made rock candy to study crystal structure."Louise Glück, VT's former state poet, wins Nobel in literature. She was honored “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal,” Nobel Prize officials announced yesterday. Convinced she wasn't cut out to write, Glück took a job teaching at Goddard College in 1971, "and the minute I started teaching—the minute I had obligations in the world—I started to write again," she recalled a few years ago. She now teaches at Yale and lives in Cambridge, MA. VPR sets out to boost "diverse voices." Its new initiative, a year in the making, establishes a fellowship for early-career journalists who can "contribute to a broader understanding of the diverse communities VPR serves"; give the mic to "diverse storytellers"; create new internships; and change its recruitment and hiring practices. "We must do more than check off a proverbial box," says president and CEO Scott Finn. Every bit of penicillin made since WWII is descended from the mold on a cantaloupe bought in Peoria, IL in 1943. That choice bit of medical trivia comes from Bill Bryson's book, The Body, which Delancey Place just excerpted. Bryson digs into the winding course that got lab assistant Mary Hunt to that Peoria grocery store, starting with Arthur Fleming's petri-dish discovery after he returned from vacation in 1928, passing through Oxford in the 1930s, and winding up at the US Government research facility where Hunt worked."Official Food Taster's not a job." Nor, sadly, is Bed Quality Examiner. BBC sportscaster Andrew Cotter's after his loyal dogs Olive and Mabel to be a little more helpful around the house. They seem perplexed... but game.
Last numbers for the week...
In 50 seconds, the Brown School of Public Health and Harvard's Global Health Institute graphically encapsulate the spread of Covid cases throughout the US since the first non-travel-related cases were confirmed at the end of February. "A pandemic, untamed," they call it: It's like a spreading wildfire, with spiking phases and an alarming spread of red through the heartland after Labor Day.
Dartmouth now reports 3 active cases among its students, while faculty and staff have dropped to 2. In all, 5 students and 2 faculty/staff are now in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 7 students and 12 faculty/staff are in isolation as they await results or because they tested positive.
NH reported 79 new positive test results yesterday, bringing its official total to 8,878. There was 1 new death, which now stand at 449. The state has 531 current cases in all (up 24), including 13 in Grafton County (down 1), 4 in Sullivan (down 2), and 42 in Merrimack (up 3). There are between 1 and 4 active cases each in Lyme, Hanover, Lebanon, Canaan, Grantham, Unity, Newport, New London, and Newbury. Claremont, Plainfield, Sunapee, and Haverhill are off the list.
VT reported 11 new cases yesterday, bringing its official total to 1,838, with 142 of those still active (up 8). Deaths remain at 58 total, and no people with confirmed cases are hospitalized. Windsor County gained 2 cases and now stands at 97 over the course of the pandemic, with 13 cases in the past 14 days. Orange County remains at 25 cumulative cases, with 1 of those in the past 14 days.
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Today, from 2-6 pm on the patio in front of the Nugget Theater in Hanover, the Hanover Improvement Society is holding a "sidewalk sale" on movie posters and ice cream bars. A buck apiece, with posters for everything from Wonder Woman to Frozen 2 to Joker.
You could also head over to the fence outside the Norwich Historical Society from 3-6 to check out the results of the "community circles" project. Over the last few months, community members have painted over 175 individual circles—whatever they've been thinking about or doing or that's moved them over the months of the pandemic. They'll be unveiled as separate panels on the fence, then be joined into a mural to hang at Dan & Whit's.
And this evening at 7:30, the Chandler in Randolph presents its 12th annual Next Generation concert, both in-person and live-streamed. Twelve young classical musicians from towns in VT and NH, including Randolph, Hanover, and Meriden, will showcase their talents, performing works from the 15th century to the present. Just a handful of in-person tix left, no limit on live-stream.
Meanwhile, tomorrow the Hartford Tree Board is holding its annual Tree Identification Walk from 10 am to noon. They'll meet up in the parking lot of the Hartford Library next to the former Elks Club, then stroll around town talking over the trees you can find there.
Also tomorrow, from noon until 5 pm, Polyculture Brewing in Croydon is holding its final, "sweater weather" beer garden for the season. They're debuting this year’s fresh hop ale with hops picked in Lebanon, plus some other surprises. They're also holding a food drive to benefit the Claremont Soup Kitchen, so if you show up with some non-perishable food items to donate, they'll discount your beer.
On Sunday from 9-11 am, you can join naturalists Micki Colbeck and Tii McLane for a walk through the Ashley Community Forest, on the boundary of Sharon and Strafford, to take a look at the ferns, mosses, flowering plants, and birds as they prep for winter. There are still a few spots available: To register, get in touch with Michael Sacca at [email protected] or 802.889.3210.
Also Sunday, at 1 pm Covid Commedia and Valley Improv are doing a joint performance for an afternoon of commedia dell'arte and improvisation. At 208 Passumpsic Ave. in Wilder, free but reservations required.
Meanwhile, on no set date, the Royal Frog Ballet has gone snail mail. And print. And video. And audio. The landscape-based performance collective can't do its annual Surrealist Cabaret in person this year, so instead they've put together a book "filled with writing, imagery and recipes for delight" that they're mailing out; it includes "portals to video components to enjoy with popcorn, an audio file to take a sunset walk with, and more mysterious invitations." Ticket orders (sliding scale) are open until Oct. 19.
Finally, this month is your last chance for the season to borrow an e-bike from the UV E-Bike Lending Library. They rotated towns through the summer, setting up shop in Norwich, Thetford, Plainfield/Cornish, and Hartland/Windsor, and now they've moved on to Hanover (though you can be from anywhere to borrow). You can borrow either overnight or for an hour's demo. You'll need to reserve, and spots are going fast (alas, the step-thru Turbo Como—"feels like a rocket ship"—is already booked out). They're planning to expand to more towns next year.
Somehow, it seems just right to step into the weekend with Keb' Mo' and a bunch of Playing for Change regulars from around the world
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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