Daybreak Friday, 3/13/26

Sunny to start, then snow and maybe a little rain. There’s a clipper coming through today and into tomorrow from west to east, and it looks like it could arrive as soon as late afternoon, though it’s more likely sometime this evening. Clouds will build in ahead of it, while temps will rise into the mid 30s before gradually falling to an overnight low around 30. Whatever snow does come down overnight, we’re not talking much: 1-2 inches. Wind gusts up to 30 mph as the system arrives late today.

Hard at work. Because what better way to start out the day than with ragtime and a pair of pileateds doing some excavating? Thanks to WRJ video producer Roy Hatch.

Did you catch Dear Daybreak yesterday? If not, you missed Herb Swanson’s sublime photo of a Jacob’s Ladder—beams of sunlight streaming through a break in the clouds—and Beth Hilgartner’s tale of a visitor trying to make her way to Orford who ended up, remarkably, in Plymouth; Sheldon Novick’s history lesson on why the Norwich Post Office is still in the center of town and not out on Route 5; and Christine Hoskin’s defiant gesture honoring the arrival of spring—whenever it actually gets here.

After 50 years, Woodstock’s The Prince & the Pauper says goodbye tomorrow. “I’m feeling a lot of mixed emotions,” owner Liz Schwenk told the Standard’s Emma Stanton. “A lot of gratitude, a lot of sadness. I say to our customers all the time that I am not the person who came up with this lovely restaurant, but I do feel like the steward of it.” Stanton talks to the staff about working there—they all have good things to say—and about the customers. “I have seen young children grow into adults and still come back with their parents or their grandparents,” says veteran Liz Steinrisser. With the building sold out from under her, Schwenk tells Stanton she’s not sure what’s next.

Just in time for the season to end, Whaleback’s chairlift is back in business. It ran for the first time last Saturday and will be extremely busy tomorrow and Sunday, as the nonprofit mountain celebrates its closing weekend. The lift broke last February, and though Whaleback’s managers didn’t expect it to be fixed until this summer, “a team of engineers and other workers persisted through the fall and winter,” reports the Valley News’s Liz Sauchelli. “We just kept working at it,” says general manager Khara Benoit. Sauchelli details what it took. Up next: the mountain’s air compressor, key to snowmaking, which broke in January—though the snowy season made it unnecessary.

SPONSORED: Don’t miss an extraordinary afternoon of international folk music with O’Jizo + Matt & Shannon Heaton at Artistree! Join us on Sunday, March 15 at 3:00pm for this unique collaboration combining Tokyo’s premier Irish traditional trio, O’Jizo, with Boston’s beloved duo Matt & Shannon Heaton for a dynamic performance of old and new Irish tunes. Tickets are just $30 for this intimate, world-class event—reserve your seats today to experience this masterful blend of flute, guitar, and accordion live in South Pomfret! Reserve your tickets now! Sponsored by Artistree.

Three Upper Valley writers in the running for Vermont Book Awards. Awards director Miciah Bay Gault announced the 14 finalists on VT Public yesterday, with short lists of authors and books in four categories. Vershire writer Makenna Goodman made the list of four in the Fiction category for her novel, Helen of Nowhere. Poet and Dartmouth English Dept. administrator Carlene Kucharczyk is there for her first poetry collection, Strange Hymn. And Norwich’s Angelica del Campo is in the Children’s Lit category for her joint effort with her husband, the cartoonist Liniers, The Ghost of Wreckers Cove. You can see the full list at the link.

Things are going to get crowded at the Salt Hills on Tuesday. This will be the 23rd time that Lebanon location hosts a St. Patrick’s Day celebration, writes the VN’s Marion Umpleby; Newport’s “not far behind,” and the Shanty in Newbury, NH will mark its 12th go-round next week. Last year, co-owner Josh Tuohy tells Umpleby, between 750 and 1,000 people showed up at the three locations, “with some lining up at 7:30 a.m. to get a good seat, then staying long into the day. ‘It’s absolutely 100 percent for the fun of it. It’s a party.’” Umpleby outlines the bands and bagpipers who’ll be showing up, too.

SPONSORED: High-energy, interactive, bilingual fun for kids and families! The popular Grammy-winning duo, 123 Andrés, favorites on PBS and YouTube, bring their original songs in English and Spanish to the Hop on March 21. With an eclectic mix of sounds from all corners of Latin America, they will have the whole family moving, singing, and learning together. Get tickets today! Sponsored by the Hop.

Some ice jam flooding in St. J. As of yesterday afternoon, reports Adam Sullivan for WCAX, only one home had had to be evacuated—via bucket loader—after an ice jam in the Moose River caused the water to jump its banks, but authorities were keeping an eye on other nearby properties. “Things started to rapidly deteriorate once the ice started backing up,” said St. Johnsbury Fire Chief Bradley Reed. “We’ve also contacted a river engineer to try to determine if there is anything we can do proactively to try to get the jam released. And, unfortunately, there is not a whole lot we can do right now.” Video at the link.

Snow fleas (not fleas), winter fireflies (not fireflies), and snow scorpionflies (not scorpions or flies) make an appearance. Also—and so much fun to say—the subshrub pipsissewa. That last one, writes Jack Saul in Northern Woodlands, with its “lance-shaped, glossy, sharp-toothed leaves,” has been lingering under the snow, and is visible now in this week two of March, along with all those misnamed critters. One, the winter firefly, emerges early and converges on trees where sap is present, near cracks and taps, hence the nickname sapbucket beetle. As for snowfleas, they’re not even insects; instead, they’re in a class of their own: Collembola.

Hiking and Backcountry Close to Home: Braintree Mountain Forest Backcountry Trails and Glades, Braintree/Rochester, VT. Before mud season arrives, says the UVTA, there’s serious skiing on Braintree Ridge. This 17.2-mile network of trails offers moderate to advanced ungroomed skiing and snowshoeing through remote wilderness. Two backcountry zones on Twin Peaks and Skidoo Mountains provide a true backcountry experience. This is unpatrolled terrain: go prepared with a map, extra clothing, and a partner. The window for winter conditions is closing, so now is the time. Check their website for snow conditions and potential closing! 

Daybreak’s Upper Valley News Quiz. Were you paying attention this week? Because we’ve got questions! Like, which road in Fairlee got shut down by a rock slide this week? And which restaurant won the UV Burger Battle? Meanwhile, you’ll find NHPR’s New Hampshire quiz here, and Seven Days’ Vermont quiz here.

Sure, we’ve had lots of snow this winter. But NH is still in a drought. In fact, 80 percent of the state is still seeing drought conditions (with northern Sullivan and southern Grafton in severe drought). Ted Diers, who leads the state’s water division, tells NHPR’s Kate Dario that conditions have been “locked in place” since winter began, and a National Weather Service hydrologist tells her that at best, the snowpack holds a couple of inches of water, while “we have deficits of a foot to a foot and a half that have carried over from the summer.” The best hope: a slow and steady slow melt and then consistent, moderate rain that doesn’t just run off.

Dean Kamen resigns from FIRST Robotics board. The prominent NH inventor had taken a leave from the board after he showed up in several email exchanges with Jeffrey Epstein, and is now stepping off it voluntarily, though a FIRST review found no evidence of wrongdoing. "Founding FIRST and building the FIRST community are among the proudest achievements of my life,” he wrote in a statement. “Given the current situation, it is in the best interest of FIRST for me to resign.” He will return to the boards of two other companies he founded, ARMI and Sequel Med Tech. The Union Leader’s Jonathan Phelps details the findings of their reviews.

Man sought by ICE warrant wasn’t in the S. Burlington house officers raided. As you’ll remember, at the end of Wednesday’s day-long standoff outside the home, federal agents got a warrant to arrest an undocumented Mexican man they believed had fled in a car when they tried to arrest him Wednesday morning. After banging in the door of the home activists had surrounded, they emerged with three people—two Ecuadorean sisters and a Honduran man, report VT Public’s Peter Hirschfeld and Derek Brouwer. In a statement yesterday, Gov. Phil Scott criticized the feds’ “lack of training, coordination, leadership, and outdated tactics” that “put both peaceful protesters and Vermont law enforcement in a difficult situation.”

Honey, I’m sure we can find a spot for this… Bastien Dausse is a French acrobat who likes to play with the illusion of weightlessness. So, what with one thing and another, he and his circus company invented an apparatus designed to let an acrobat simulate lunar gravity…

Oliver Twit? The Lion, The Itch, and the Wardrobe? Eat, Pry, Love? The instructions: Ruin a book by removing one letter. Such brilliance out there!

Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.

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HEADS UP

There’s plenty going on this weekend, from the Anonymous Coffeehouse’s Celtic Night to closing weekend at Whaleback to Upper Valley Baroque—and lots more. If you didn’t see yesterday afternoon’s email, you’ll find it all here.

Meanwhile, there’s also plenty to see in JAM’s highlights for the week: the March 1 celebration of Chris McKinley’s life at the Amtrak station in WRJ; former Pentagon official Michael Rubin’s talk on Iran at Dartmouth; and the community sing with Jes Raymond that closed out WRIF.

And for today...

Also on tap this weekend (Sunday at Artistree): The Japanese Irish music band, O’Jizo. The country, it turns out, has a thriving Celtic music scene, and Kozo Toyota and his bandmates, Hirofumi Nakamura and Koji Nagao are one big reason why. “Seeing the scene over there, it's kind of like how we build it over here. You get into the music, you spend some time learning the tunes and making trips to Ireland,” guitarist and Irish musician Matt Heaton—who’ll also be at Artistree—told WBUR on Wednesday. “It’s kind of the same story as we have.”

See you Monday for CoffeeBreak.

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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt      Poetry editor: Michael Lipson    Associate Editors: Jonea Gurwitt, Sam Gurwitt

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