SO NICE TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
That was not the day we were expecting yesterday, was it? Though I loved the occasional snow-pelting-through-sunshine effect. Today, nothing's scheduled to fall from the sky until tonight. But hey, maybe we'll get a monsoon. Or a blizzard. If we don't, though, we'll have mostly clear skies in the morning with temps rising into the mid-40s by mid-afternoon, along with increasing cloud cover. Chance of rain in the evening, then rain and snow likely after midnight, with the snow, at least, lasting until morning."Even the yard art is keeping safe." Skip Stanger sends along this pic from Hanover. But has anyone told the guitarist about covering your nose?This is cool. Drone artist William Daugherty was in Leb yesterday. He starts out flying down the Mascoma River rapids and the old mill buildings, then eventually pans out to survey the city from above. There was a kayaker in the river while Daugherty was filming; I can't find the kayak in the video, but here it is in a still.Last numbers for the week...
NH added 71 new positive test results yesterday, bringing its total to 1,211. Meanwhile, 455 have recovered (up 90) and 34 have died (up 2). Grafton County remains at 44 reported cases, while Sullivan has gained one, to 8 in all. Merrimack County is up to 85.
VT saw 9 new cases yesterday, the same as the day before. The total of known cases is now 768. Of the total, 33 are hospitalized (no change), with 35 deaths (up 5: four of those in Burlington, one a Vermonter out of state, spread out over the past week). Windsor County is at 31 cases, Orange remains at 5.
You can follow along yourself over the weekend with these dashboards:
There's a New Hampshire-specific one put together by an Exeter-based company called Stratus Mobile GIS. It's much easier to read than the official version, and they try to update it within minutes of when the state posts its daily numbers. You can sign up for an alert when they do (click "Links" at the bottom right). (Thanks, MT!)
It's been weeks since I linked to the Johns Hopkins dashboard. It's evolved into a remarkably robust site. If you want to get specific, follow JW's advice: In the left-hand column, click on the US, then on the bottom right click on either the Logarithmic tab (to see the curve) or the Daily Cases tab to see the trend. Then over on the left again, where you see "Admin0" at the bottom, click the little right-arrow to get to "Admin1" for the states. Scroll down to VT or NH, and click on it to see the state-specific numbers and the graphs over on the right. (Thanks, JW!)
Finally, NPR has a state-by-state graphic of expected peaks, based on the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's work. Ignore the dateline; they're updating as new data comes in. Scroll down, click "Show All," and you'll see it's laid out from earliest to latest projected peaks. If this is right, then VT was the third state to hit its peak (April 4) and NH was 10th (April 9). Maine's was this past Monday. But MA, CT and RI have harrowing roads ahead. (Thanks, TR!)
Norwich Lions cancel this summer's Norwich Fair. "Given that the pandemic may be with us well into the summer, we cannot in good conscious even think about holding a fair this year and we want to make sure the community stays safe," writes Lions Club member Demo Sofronas on his About Norwich blog. "We will try to organize a community-wide event later in the year, perhaps involving other organizations in town in an effort to re kindle the kind of community spirit that Norwich is known for."The Quechee Balloon Festival is being postponed. Festival organizers have rescheduled it for September 11-13. "While we are disappointed that we have to reschedule," they say on their site, "we are looking forward with great anticipation to a modified version of this fun-filled annual event."Just drop by your local hardware store and you, too, can disinfect N95 masks. A few weeks ago, a doc at DHMC asked the health-tech engineering firm Simbex, which is based in Leb, if they could come up with a way to disinfect the masks using commonly available materials. The answer, it turns out, is yes. They just went up with a DIY video, featuring a plastic container, a timer, some UV lights, and a bunch of tin foil. Or, well, it's a little more complex than that, but it's surprisingly doable. Technical specs, background science, testing regimens, and more in the PDF at the link. Meanwhile, D-H needs more cloth masks. "Now that guidance has been issued for those going out in public to wear masks, D-H is running through our fabric mask supply quickly," writes Kristin Roth, director of volunteer services on FB. "We are giving out masks at our entrances for patients and visitors which they may elect to keep when they leave, our staff at non-clinical sites are wearing fabric masks, and we have been helping supply community organizations when they request masks." She's looking for sewers to help out. Instructions at the link.Got plans on Sunday? Yeah, I didn't either. But now we do! Sisters Georgia, Sophie, and Amelia Lubrano, all three of them Hanover High grads, have gotten together with Positive Tracks to organize a virtual run—5K, 10K, half marathon, whatever you want—to start at noon on Sunday. You join for $10, and the money goes to the Covid-19 Response Fund launched by the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. The response has been so enthusiastic—not just here, but across the country—that they keep raising their goal. It started at $10K. Now it's $17,000, and they've raised $15,809 of it (as of this morning). The link takes you to their GoFundMe page; here's a VN story about it.WriterSpace online is expanding. Thanks to a grant from the Couch Family Foundation, Sparrow Alden's effort to bring writers together—in a different life, it's housed at River Valley Community College—can now meet three times a week via Zoom. If you want to write poetry, work on a novel, craft your next blog post, sketch, jot down a few thoughts memorably, and do it all with company, it's now meeting Mondays and Wednesdays at 6 pm and Fridays at 9 am. In the stay-at-home era, post offices become lifelines. Though mail volume overall is down drastically, writes the VN's Anna Merriman, "many people are turning to local post offices as one remaining connection to the outside world — to send packages to family members and friends in isolation and to buy or sell items online." Among them: the Norwich Bookstore's Liza Bernard, who's been sending out textbooks to Dartmouth students and a dozen books a day to homebound readers around the region.And speaking of lifelines, local small businesses are starting to land their federal relief loans. Watson's Automotive, in E. Thetford, was just approved for a $70,000 SBA loan, reports WCAX. It's still open, but its seven mechanics have been working reduced hours. In Leb, Pim's Thai Orchid has been approved for a $90,000 loan."You can still say a lot with your eyes. You can say a lot with your hands." Mary Coonradt is a nurse at Springfield Health and Rehabilitation Center, a nursing home with about 60 residents. She's talking to VPR's Nina Keck about a resident who's almost deaf and relies on lip-reading—which is impossible when caregivers are wearing face masks. Coonradt describes what it's like to care for residents who don't understand why their loved ones have suddenly stopped visiting, or to serve as the emotional go-between for those on the outside and those inside.Sununu announces: Schools to remain closed through the end of the school year. "This was not a decision reached lightly," the governor wrote in a letter to education leaders. "In the end, we determined that there is no model available at the present time to responsibly ensure the safety of our students, educators, faculty, and staff." The closure involves all K-12 schools, public and private. Sununu also urged schools to move to pass-fail grading for the spring term, noting, "“some students thrive in distance learning, but some do not.”Petition, planned Saturday rally, protest NH emergency orders. The petition, organized by a group called ReopenNH, urges Sununu to “allow free adults to make their own decisions about whether they want to open their businesses or other organizations, seek gainful employment, or patronize businesses and other organizations, as is their right.” The rally, "promoted but not organized by ReopenNH," will be at the Statehouse in Concord. "You can demonstrate in your vehicles or on foot. You can wear a mask or not wear a mask. You can stand six feet apart, or give each other hugs. It’s your choice," read instructions from the organizers.NH has paid out $31.7 million in unemployment claims over the past month. That includes $9.8 million to 35,000 people on Tuesday, the highest single-day number of unemployment payments ever, reports NH Business Review's Bob Sanders. Meanwhile the U.S. Department of Labor reported yesterday that 24,000 claims were filed in NH the week ending April 10, down from the previous week’s 39,000. In all, 124,000 claims have been filed in the state.Meanwhile, VT's claims fell, too. The state's labor department says it processed 9,662 initial claims last week, compared to 16,474 the week before. That's in addition to 31,000 continuing claims this past week, bringing the total number of claims the department's processed (in other words, not counting the backlog) to some 40,000 for the week. Last year at this time, the figure was 5,000.Federal small business programs may have run out of money, but get your application ready anyway. That's the message that Chris D’Elia, president of the Vermont Bankers Association, delivered in a VT House committee hearing yesterday. “Don’t wait until Congress takes action,” he said. “Get that material together and get it in to your lender.” The point is that the Paycheck Protection Program and Emergency Injury Disaster Loan funds will no doubt be slammed again if Congress authorizes more money for them. One tidbit: Dan & Whit's Dan Fraser also testified, and said the store is as busy now as it was when customers were able to come inside.Dartmouth researchers dig into NC Sen. Richard Burr's stock trades. You may remember that the Senate Intelligence Committee chair is in the spotlight for selling up to $1.7 million in stocks shortly before the recent market crash. Now, reports NPR, economics prof Bruce Sacerdote and two of his students have analyzed the trades. Since 2012, Sacerdote says, Burr "has a relatively lousy performance" as a stock picker. But this particular set of trades? They were suspiciously outstanding. "He had both excellent market timing, and he sold stocks in sectors that did very poorly," says Sacerdote.
Gas leak at West Leb Hannaford's forces evacuation. It happened late yesterday morning, and the store was closed for a couple of hours while technicians worked on the problem. Leb Fire Chief Chris Christopoulos told the VN that the problem was determined to be a Freon leak in the cooling system for the store’s produce area.
Royalton sees second shooting in a month. A 23-year-old Arizona man, was shot in the leg Wednesday evening, VT state police said. He was treated at DHMC and released yesterday. Police are investigating. Back in March, two men were shot and one killed after an argument; the suspect in that case has pled not guilty. (VN) "Wines from Vermont that challenge expectations." I don't know... Is that high praise? Sniffily delivered praise? Whatever, it's NYT wine writer Eric Asimov's take on Barnard-based La Garagista's natural wines. Mostly, read this for Asimov's glossary of natural-wine talk, which includes this definition of mousiness: "A flaw specific to some wines made without added sulfur dioxide, a preservative. It can be sensed only retronasally (after swallowing) and is reminiscent of the smell of a mouse cage."A history of red. Or, to be more precise, a history of how we make red. Phillip Ball, a British science writer and one of the editors of the journal Nature, wrote three essays on colors (okay, colours) that were supposed to be included in a Musée d'Orsay exhibition catalog later this year. The show's cancelled, so he's putting them online, starting with red. It begins with a cave painting at the southern tip of Africa from 100,000 years ago, moves on to lead and mercury, diverts into the difference between fabric dyes (cochineal) and paint pigments... A pleasure to read from beginning to end.News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
#UVTogether
Staying Sane
Remember the Decameron Online, the project that Wilder writer Courtney Cook Williamson started up as "an act of storytelling resistance" against pandemic-isolation gloom? It's gaining steam and collecting works that people send in. So far, though, they're mostly poetry, and she's hoping for short stories, letters, musings and, especially, photos. You can read what's been sent in at the link, then get started on your own in-your-face-coronavirus! project.
This afternoon at 4:30, Upper Valley Music Center cello teacher Ben Kulp will be livestreaming Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 on the school's FB page. You don't need an account to watch.
Seven Days has this weekend's installment of livestream performances by Vermont artists and performers, including singer-songwriter Lily James, the Transcendental Comedy Experience, and, on Saturday, AliT.
Meanwhile, once a week, Andrew Lloyd Webber is releasing a streaming, full-on version of one of his musicals. He started two weeks ago with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Last week it was Jesus Christ, Superstar. And today, at 2 pm eastern, it's The Phantom of the Opera. It'll be available for 48 hours.
I'm late to the game on this, but every week since mid-March, a New-York-theater-world-based group called The 24 Hour Plays has put up a round of short plays, usually monologues, collaborations between great actors and great writers, who get together (virtually) at 6 pm on a Monday, come up with the play, and release it at 6 pm on Tuesday. They're up to Round 5, which includes Tony Shalhoub, David Hyde Pierce, Stephanie Hsu and a pile of others. You could lose yourself for the weekend in there, and there are a lot of gems (like Ethan Hawke in Round 4).
Helping Out
If you're an essential worker looking for child care, Upper Valley Strong's Operation UV Child Care can help. It's staffed by workers at Fit Kids in Lebanon, and is there to walk you through options and resources.
The NH state liquor stores have launched a raffle to raise $125,000 for displaced restaurant workers. The prize? Bottles of rare whiskies and bourbons, including a 1994 Buffalo Trace, a Sazerac 18-year Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey, and others. Oh, and also, an all-expenses-paid trip to New Hampshire! Plus $500 for meals, whenever restaurants reopen.
Grandstand Apparel, the Hartford-based specialty shirt company, is still working on its fundraiser for local small businesses. The deal: You buy a $20 "Here for Good" t-shirt, and $10 of it goes to the small business of your choice.
Reading Deeper
There's a new study out of China, just published in Nature Medicine, that estimates that a full 44 percent of secondary Covid cases were infected during the primary cases’ pre-symptomatic stage. In other words, before people knew they were sick. Heavy science, but the gist is clear. As they write, "Disease control measures should be adjusted to account for probable substantial pre-symptomatic transmission."
"I think people haven’t understood that this isn’t about the next couple of weeks. This is about the next two years.” That's an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota in Ed Yong's look ahead in The Atlantic. Yong talked to a lot of people about what "re-opening" will look like, and does a thorough roundup of the debate. "The only viable endgame," he writes, "is to play whack-a-mole with the coronavirus, suppressing it until a vaccine can be produced." Or as another doc says, "Everyone wants to know when this will end. That’s not the right question. The right question is: How do we continue?”
The problem is, as curves flatten, government overreach—especially restrictions that strike ordinary Americans as picayune and inane—threatens to become a match to dry tinder. You don't have to be a New Hampshire libertarian or Michigan protester to bristle. In a charmingly barbed rant in Wednesday's NYT, writer Matt Labash (Fly-fishing with Darth Vader) took on Maryland's ban on catch-and-release fishing. "Never mind," he wrote, "that most fly fishers, nearly all catch-and-releasers, need at least 50 feet of space to ply their craft...unless they want to bury a zug bug in someone’s cornea on the backcast."
Let's just mellow our way into the weekend. Here's Herbie Mann on flute, 1994 in Bern, Switzerland,
: Cornell Dupree on guitar; Les McCann on piano; Chuck Rainey playing bass; and Ricky Sebastian on drums.
(Thanks, DG!)
Have a lovely weekend! See you Monday.
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