Daybreak Friday 5/15/20

HEY FRIDAY, COULD YOU BE MORE LIKE THURSDAY?

I mean, really. First, there's a warm front moving in with, and I'm quoting, "waves of low pressure rid[ing] up and along the front." It will be followed by a low pressure system tracking this way later in the day. The upshot: cloudy all day, with a slight chance of rain through the morning rising to a chance through the afternoon rising to a certainty tonight, with a slight chance of thunderstorms late in the day (more likely to the south). Temps, at least, will reach into the high 60s. Everything will clear out tonight.

Last numbers for the week...

Easy-to-visualize chart of cases by state.

It's the number of cases reported each week, as of Sunday, through May 10, with each state in its approximate geographic location in the US. Makes things extremely plain. Remember that the sheer number of cases is just a blunt instrument, dependent in part on how much testing is going on. Still, it highlights a striking difference between VT and NH (and ME). 

King Arthur café in Baker-Berry Library closed for good, not just for pandemic. The Dartmouth's Abigail Mihaly reports that according to John Tunnicliffe, one of KAF's co-directors, the company has decided to close its library location and consolidate operations in Norwich. "Challenges in storage, delivery and maintaining staff have made the cafe location a challenge for the company," Mihaly writes. The college intends to expand KAF products at its dining locations and is looking for another operator for the library site.W. Leb's Anytime Fitness defies state's policies and opens. It announced on May 4 that it was reopening its doors to members—even though the state has yet to okay the move for gyms. “Being closed for a certain amount of time, yes, that’s an inconvenience,” Sean Kuit, the owner, tells NHPR. “Being closed and not being told when you will be allowed to reopen? That’s just a travesty.” It's not alone, and state enforcement is lax, though local officials in some towns have come down on scofflaw businesses.Camp Coniston, Orford camps to be closed for summer. Camp Moosilauke for boys and Camp Merriwood for girls, affiliated camps on Orford's Upper Baker Pond, announced this week that they will be unable to open. Coniston, the popular YMCA camp in Croydon, had already spent $1.1 million ordering supplies, improving the facility and making other preparations for the summer.Dartmouth arctic researcher returns to a changed world, heads back to Arctic. Ian Raphael is a Thayer graduate student who spent the fall and winter on the German research vessel Polarstern, locked in the arctic ice studying ice growth and how "large atmospheric events" are affecting the region. He'd been imagining being able to spend time with friends and family on his return; instead, he spent two weeks in quarantine in NYC with his sister. Now he's prepping to go back on board... and it's complicated. The VN's Liz Sauchelli spoke with him about it all.SPONSORED: The season is in full swing at Crossroad Farm! Crossroad Farm, a Thetford-based vegetable farm, is up and running for the 2020 season. With 40 acres of seasonal veggies as well as multiple greenhouses of flowers and bedding plants, Crossroad is open to in-person shopping! This week they harvested their first greens: arugula, mesclun, spinach and "lazy lettuce" (a pre-cut pre-washed mix of baby romaine and Boston lettuce). You'll find all this, along with a full selection of annuals, herbs and veggie starts, at their Post Mills greenhouses and Norwich farm stand. They're open every day, 10AM - 6PM.As things reopen in NH, how do workers navigate their rights and obligations? The NH News Collaborative's Kelly Burch runs through the state of play: when you can stay home, under which conditions your job's protected, and what workplace conditions to expect. As she writes, "Normally, it would be illegal for an employer to ask health-related questions, let alone take employees' temperatures daily."Auto dealers in NH revamp the buying experience. They're moving as much as possible online. Lambert Auto in Claremont, for instance, has created what it calls a "virtual acquisition," including a video with a 360-degree walk-around and interior look at any vehicle, home delivery for a test drive, and if a customer's interested, financing and all paperwork also delivered to the home. Even so, the head of the state auto dealers association tells NH Business Review, he expects "there could be 20,000 to 50,000 less cars that are sold" in the next few years.VT child care providers fret about new state guidance. It requires, for instance, that all staff wear face coverings and recommends them for children. "Some children are terrified of people with masks,” one center director tells Seven Days. “How do you have something on a child’s face and tell them not to touch it?” Enforcing social distancing will be tough, she points out—"We can't put them each in a hula hoop"—as will the recommendation that if a child drools on a staff member, he or she should change. “This is insane,” wrote one mom, a nurse, who was sent the new guidelines.Scott administration says all VT school districts should re-vote budgets this summer. They're not just talking about the ones that haven't voted yet, but all of them. This, finance commissioner Adam Greshin told state legislators yesterday, would give districts a chance to appraise their financial health and let voters get a fresh look at coronavirus-related budget issues. The idea got a cool reception: It's “the first genuinely dumb idea that the administration has put forward during the Covid emergency," said Democrat Philip Baruth, who chairs the Senate Education Committee.

Liquor sales are up in Vermont, but some craft beers and spirits are doing better than others. Seven Days' Paul Heintz reports that sales of larger bottles and mass-market brands are up, while overall, smaller Vermont producers are struggling—though some well-known ones, like Lawson's Finest Liquids and Barr Hill, are holding their own. Liquor stores in the "Connecticut River Valley" are doing better than elsewhere in VT. Dan King of Norwich Wines' theory: "The state liquor stores in New Hampshire are often crowded, especially in the evening. Maybe it's reassuring to the average customer that we're not letting anyone into the store."One of the world's few memorials to the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic is in Barre. The NYT's David Segal takes a look at "mass amnesia" about the flu and its impact, and talks to Brian Zecchinelli, who with his wife Karen owns the Wayside Restaurant (and serious pie mecca). Zecchinelli's grandfather was one of scores of Barre granite workers who died during the pandemic, and in 2018 Zecchinelli and his wife decided to commemorate the flu with a memorial in Hope Cemetery. "I thought, ‘This is crazy. This flu changed America forever. It changed the world forever. I’ve got to do something,’” he says.

Woodstock startup lands accelerator help. Nutty Life, which makes handcrafted oatmilks, cashew milks, and cashew shakes, is one of seven VT companies chosen for this year's LaunchVT acceleration program. They'll work (virtually) with a coach and strategic advisors to refine business models, tackle pressing challenges, and hone their messaging. Leb pols have no intention of letting Hanover/Lyme pols waltz into senate seat. The VN's John Gregg reports that as jockeying gets underway for the state Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Martha Hennessy, Leb city councillor (and former mayor) Sue Prentiss, current mayor Tim McNamara, and longtime city councillor (and former mayor) Karen Liot Hill are all considering runs. Former state Rep. Beatriz Pastor of Lyme and two Hanover figures, psychologist Steven Atkins and retired surgeon Jim Murphy, are also interested. “That seat has been held by Hanover folks,” McNamara says. “There hasn’t been anyone from Lebanon for a long time, and maybe it’s our turn.”Want to take a drive this weekend? AT&T is prepping for its proposed 190-foot cell tower in Thetford Center, and is going to do a "balloon test" from 9 am to 1 pm on Saturday, flying a balloon at 190 feet so people can get a sense of the visual impact of the tower. 

VT opioid-related death toll drops, but Brattleboro notches biggest monthly jump ever. The town's police thought the year was off to a good start, with declining overdoses and no deaths in January-March. But April brought four separate deaths; in all of last year, Brattleboro saw 10. "Brattleboro leaders can’t pinpoint whether the local deaths were triggered by a 'bad batch' of heroin or fentanyl, or whether people were trying to escape the pandemic, were alone and without help, or [the spike] was related to the recent federal stimulus payments," writes VTDigger's Kevin O'Connor.Now it's really spring! VTrans announced yesterday that the Notch Road, Route 108 through Smuggler's Notch, has opened for the season. Great view! Now if only that bear would get out of the way. Up in Sugar Hill, NH, near Franconia, a bear climbed up on Ed Cenerizio and Deb Corey's porch, then turned around, maybe to get a look out at the view of Franconia Notch and the mountains in the distance. Before it turned around, though: Yikes!"Mycelium is a living, growing, opportunistic investigation—speculation in bodily form." Biologist Merlin Sheldrake has a new book out, Entangled Life, about fungi—from yeast to psychedelics to the "Wood Wide Web"—and their place in the world. In a long, discursive, never less than interesting conversation, he talks about it with the gifted nature writer Robert Macfarlane. "Fungi form literal connections between organisms and in doing so remind us that all life forms, humans included, are bound up within seething networks of relationships, some visible and some less so," he says."Basically, it’s the kind of content you can watch for hours while stoned, but also show your grandparents. Or a design class. Or a baby. Really anyone, to be honest." That's one writer's description of the Swedish 3D artist Andreas Wannerstedt, whose infinite-loop contraptions started going viral a few years ago. They're highly inventive, mesmerizing, and oddly calming. A perfect diversion for the weekend! Here's more on how he works. (Thanks, CLF!)Andrew Cotter branches out. The BBC sportscaster's not just narrating Olive and Mabel any more. Here he is, commentating the nightly walk of the fairy penguins of Phillip Island, off Victoria, Australia. "Some resorting to shortcuts," he announces in his now globally recognizable brogue as one penguin ducks under a boat. "Sad, that cheating has crept into this beautiful sport. The judges will have a look at that!" News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:

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I really just thought of Sammy Davis, Jr., as a crooner and Rat Pack member, but that's because I was ignorant. Not long ago, Don Glasgo sent along

of Davis and the German bandleader Rolf Hans Müller in 1972, and I'll just let him set it up: "Sammy Davis, Jr. is playing an outstanding drum solo. Around 2:20, Davis sets a faster tempo and Muller brings the rhythm section in.  At 2:43, Davis says 'Fours,' indicating to Muller that he wants to 'trade fours' (4 bars) w. drums & piano.  Everything's going fine until around 3:30, when Muller starts a four-bar break by playing 'Dixie.'"  Sammy Davis Jr. responds politely, but he's having none of it. 

Have a fine weekend. See you Monday. 

Daybreak is written and published by Rob Gurwitt                     Banner by Tom HaushalterAbout Rob                                                                                   About Tom

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