WELL HEY, FRIDAY, WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?
Remember that warm front? Well, it's passing through today and definitely mixing things up. The weather models are hemming and hawing about how warm it'll get, which will in turn affect cloud cover and thunder. But right now, we're looking at rain or a chance of it all day, temps well into the 60s, gusty winds, and a very slight chance of a thunderstorm. Let's see what actually happens... Back into the high 20s overnight, cold and sunny tomorrow.
Gov. Phil Scott and Health Commissioner Mark Levine announced them at a press conference last evening. One was the Windsor County man who'd been hospitalized at the VA; the other was a female resident of a Burlington elder care facility; neither had traveled. At the same press conference, Scott announced a state of emergency in Vermont.
Shortages — both of protective gear and of testing supplies — have “strained” testing capacity and forced the state to limit who can be tested, state epidemiologist Benjamin Chan said yesterday. "People experiencing symptoms that can be managed at home — fever, dry cough and fatigue — are being instructed to self-isolate until at least 7 days after symptoms first appeared and another 72 hours after they’ve passed," the
VN
writes.
The idea is to help shore up their finances as they prepare for a surge in cases.
They grew by three yesterday, including women in Orange County and Bennington (neither is hospitalized), and a third Vermonter with no home county identified, tested at another state's lab.
The bottom half is Norwich-specific, but up top is a list of links to everything from a Vermont unemployment insurance application to CDC advice on how to talk to children about the virus.
That's a Hannaford's spokesperson telling NHPR's Daniela Allee that the issue in supermarkets is not supply, it's the logistics of getting it on the shelves. Allee talks to the Co-op's director of operations as its stores try to keep up with panic buying, and with the Haven's Michael Redmond, who's seen a bump in food-pantry use but thinks they're in good shape with suppliers.
The
VN
's Alex Hanson and David Corriveau take a long look at the region's arts sector. Venues and galleries are closed, theaters have lost ticket revenue, staff are taking pay cuts, performing artists are on hold, graphic artists have lost teaching income... “The biggest question mark is the duration of this thing,” says Lebanon Opera House director Joe Clifford.
"We'll take any business we can get at this point (even if it's just a gift card for a later time)."
That's Lou's owner Jarrett Berke in an email, noting that the restaurant will deliver within a ten-minute radius, that its full menu is available, and it's producing its normal selection of pies, cakes, cookies (I'm getting hungry, here), muffins, and donuts. And it's just started up a family-style dinner to go, for 4-6 people (available until 6, three hours' notice requested). "Our goal is to avoid laying off our employees and support our local community," he writes.
Wildwood Smokehouse in Sunapee, Carpenter & Main in Norwich, the Tuckerbox in WRJ, Gusanoz in Leb, Chef Brad's in Quechee, Latham House Tavern and Ariana's in Lyme... you'll find them and a whole lot of others.
The bookstores all go to takeout, too.
The
,
, and
are closed to customers but taking orders and offering different arrangements for pickup or, in the case of Norwich and Yankee, delivery or shipping. Details for each at their links.
And how to reach them.
Three New Hampshirites will appear in Merrimack County District Court today to challenge the statewide ban on gatherings of over 50 people. They filed suit Tuesday, the day after Gov. Chris Sununu issued his order, contending there is no emergency and their rights are being violated. "We can choose to assemble if that is our desire," one wrote in a press release. "What cannot occur is one man in a position of power deciding to strip us of our rights in the name of safety and without due process.”
Just as sewing and quilting clubs are stepping up to make face masks, David Brooks reports there's a move afoot at makerspaces and elsewhere to make needed medical devices. There are issues with the plastics and with intellectual property, but if nothing else, this is a determined group. “I don’t think the solution then is to not do it. … We’re working with what’s allowed and aligns with the best interest of society," says the spokesman for the group called OSCMS, or Open Source COVID-19 Medical Supplies.
. Advertising income is in free-fall, so they're furloughing staff and cutting back on print pages. The
VN
has suspended two part-time production staffers, frozen freelance spending, kept an open newsroom job vacant, writes
Seven Days
' Paul Heintz. His own paper, which relies heavily on restaurant and events advertising, is struggling, too. Yet all are making extraordinary efforts to cover their communities and the crisis as a whole. "Now is not the time to be concerned about what it costs," VPR president Scott Finn says. "We just need to do what we need to do, and we have faith that the community will come through for us in the end."
The
Addison County Independent
spends some time with Silas Doyle-Burr, who runs Last Resort Farm in Monkton, VT. “We’ve seen a significant increase in demand in the past four to five days that’s making me think that we’re going to run out of supply pretty soon," he says, but doesn't know whether it will last and how it might affect his growing plans. The article also notes that the regional organic farmers association has put out a call for people with milking experience who might be able to step in if any dairy farmers get sick.
It's "Pie to the World," baked yesterday and offered up by Dean Whitlock and Sally Duston.
William Daugherty was out with his drone yesterday, flying above Blow-Me-Down Brook in Meriden. Just as sinewy as his flight the other day over the same brook in Plainfield, but a very different landscape.
That's just a tidbit from a
Union Leader
profile of the sugaring operation in Plainfield. Many years ago, the McNamaras tapped a maples on the family farm just for family purposes; back then, they used the boiling sap to cook hot dogs and eggs. Now, says Liz McNamara, "We have an actual sugarhouse — no more eggs and hot dogs in the sap.”
So it's not a submarine. But it
is
yellow, and it sails the seas (and lakes). It's BEN (for Bathymetric Explorer and Navigator), UNH's self-driving boat. It's used to map the ocean floor, and has been brought in for everything from searching for wrecks in Michigan's Thunder Bay to poking around the western Pacific island of Nikumaroro looking for the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane (to no avail). The maroon link takes you to a nice
Verge
profile, and here's a
with more pics.
That's
Paste
mag, explaining that the Stowe brewer has emerged as one of the country's leading specialists in German-style lagers.
Paste
is out with a list of "10 Great 'Intro to Craft' Beers for the Hop Averse." Also on the list, speaking of wrecks, is Great Lakes Brewing's Edmund Fitzgerald. And surely you want to get your hands on some Moose Drool Brown Ale from Montana.
Katie Weeman has a dive-right-in piece up on
Scientific American
's blog about the oddities of time as far north as you can go. Ship captains basically choose their own times. Last October, when the research icebreaker
Polarstern
sat trapped and a Russian resupply icebreaker approached it, she writes, "Scientists and crew lined the balconies of each ship, gripping the ice-crusted banisters as they peered across the void. They could see the smiling faces of their colleagues just feet away—but they were two time zones apart."
News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
#UVTogether
The "Keeping Up" section now lives on its own page. Go there for a list of links to local and regional sources with pandemic news.
Staying Sane
Seven Days has launched a weekly list of live-streamed concerts by Vermont-based musicians. We missed Pete's Posse last night, but there are plenty more.
Here's a lovely piece of work by the Alvin Ailey dancers, each dancing separately, a stretch of "Buked" from Ailey's Revelations.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a set of live cams: jellies, coral reef, kelp forest, and, of course, penguins. (Thanks, BT!)
Or if you want more live cams than you can shake a stick at, explore.org has... well, it's unbelievable, actually. Pandas, eagles, ospreys, puppies, spoonbills, a Squam Lake fox den, a NASA space cam... "I find a lot of joy watching the African Cams, but I also find peace and tranquillity watching the manatee. And the eagles are brooding right now, with multiple eggs in their nest," writes CM.
"I’m knitting (a lot) to keep my brain focused on something productive. Scratch Supply Co in Lebanon is offering curbside pick up and local delivery for anyone in need of yarn, needles, hooks, embroidery kits, etc.," writes LW.
Helping Out
There's a new
being put together by the Upper Valley Response Team, a collection of shelter workers, food bank directors, grassroots organizers, and other volunteers. Link takes you to their very organized survey.
Deeper Reading
And you thought you knew how to wash your hands.
Like, you really need to scrub: "You are using soap and water to physically dislodge germs from your skin and then rinse them away."
(Thanks, BB!)
Okaaaay, then. Let's let Fred take us into the weekend. Astaire and Oscar Peterson in 1952, with a kickin' set of Verve studio musicians doing
It's been a week. Go recover. See you Monday.
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