HAPPY MLK DAY, UPPER VALLEY!
It's going to be nice and sunny out there. There's high pressure moving in, and whatever clouds we wake up to should be gone soon. Temps topping out in the high teens today, winds from the northwest and strong enough to produce wind chills in the single digits or lower. Down into the minuses tonight.Skinny Pancake in Hanover to move. "Immediate availability. Occupancy June 1, 2020. Currently occupied by Skinny Pancake, lease expiring as of 6/1." This Craigslist Boston listing went up Saturday from Jim Rubens, owner of Hanover Park, the building where The Skinny Pancake moved in 2016 and which it tried unsuccessfully to acquire in a three-year legal battle. "We gave notice," confirms Michael Cyr, the Skinny P's brand director. "We’re committed to trying to stay in Hanover and are looking at another place in town. We'd be excited to have that work out." (Thanks for the tip, JM!)Simon Pearce acquires Parker House Inn. The bed & breakfast/restaurant next to Simon Pearce's flagship on Quechee Main Street becomes the seventh piece of property owned by the Pearce family in the village. The VN's John Lippman reports that the company hasn't revealed its plans for Parker House "but hinted that its function might change, noting that the historic building had 'previously operated as a small inn and restaurant' and 'will remain closed while the company determines how best to use the property.'”"It is an inconvenient truth that anything Vermont does regarding climate change is literally symbolic at best." That's how Strafford's John Freitag leads off a VTDigger commentary drawing attention to two very-much not symbolic efforts by the Thetford and Strafford energy committees. The first was to team up recently to assemble 246 custom-measured interior storm windows for people seeking to tighten up their homes and save heating fuel. The second is a new, joint community solar project.
SPONSORED: Don’t stop saying “Happy New Year.” At least, not until after this Saturday, the start of the 2020 Asian Lunar New Year. To welcome the Year of the Rat, the Hopkins Center holds two events that day: a 10 am free HopStop featuring Asian music, dance and pageantry, and a 7:30 pm concert by Wu Man, a virtuoso on the lute-like pipa and a longtime member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble. Wu is joined by several renowned musicians on various Chinese woodwinds for a concert of music relating to China’s Tang Dynasty (618 to 907), a cultural golden age. Sponsored by the Hop.
Those dang crosswalk signs are determined to stay in the public eye. If you passed through Norwich this weekend, you might have noticed this subtle little tribute to Saturday's Women's March adorning the much-discussed flashing crosswalk signs in the center of town. (Thanks, mystery photographer!)Enfield gets a second "pet resort" and a deli. The former Great View Roller Rink has, as of last week, become the Chosen Valley Pet Resort, a pet day care and boarding facility. It joins Mountain View Pet Resort in town. Meanwhile, Pellegrino's Farmers Market, which has become a popular stop along the Route 4 commuting corridor, is moving 100 yards east and opening a sit-down counter and tables and offering "chicken cutlets, eggplant, meatball sandwiches — a real Italian deli,” owner Joey Pellegrino tells Lippman. “Students can still vote in New Hampshire, the problem is that all the rhetoric surrounding the bill has caused mass disinformation." That's Dartmouth Democrats head Michael Parsons, talking to NBC News. Confusion over New Hampshire's new voter laws still reigns. The challenge, says Hanover Town Clerk Betsy McClain — who's become something of a go-to for out-of-town reporters seeking comment on the issue: “We can clarify it for the people who present themselves, but maybe this confusion has dissuaded people.”Sharon, Strafford eye sharing Ashley Community Forest. The 256-acre parcel is owned by the Alliance for Vermont Communities, the nonprofit formed in the wake of Utah developer David Hall's failed NewVista bid. It straddles both towns and the Orange/Windsor county line. The Alliance is proposing that the two towns take ownership while it continues to manage the forest and the network of trails that have quickly become a magnet for locals. The towns will vote later this spring. (VN)Holcombe kicks off VT gubernatorial campaign. Though she announced back in the summer, Norwich's Rebecca Holcombe officially launched her campaign over the weekend, with events in WRJ and Burlington. “People can’t live if we aren’t going to turn in to some of those big problems like the cost of healthcare, the cost of housing, making sure everybody has access to good education,” she told WCAX. “We have an economy right now that doesn’t work for far too many Vermonters." Holcombe faces Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman in the Democratic primary.So how do you explain this to a visitor? The temperature was a mere 1 degree above zero Saturday morning. Out and about in Thetford Center, Doug Miller looked up, and there, above the Village Store, he saw... "Oh that?" you could say, casually. "We have this madcap balloonist over at the Post Mills Airport, and, uh..." (Thanks, Doug!)If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
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Hosted by Kevin McTaggart, it's your chance to hear standup artists trying out new material or dreamers giving it their best... or to go try for yourself and see just how long five minutes can actually be. Signup at 8:45, the talking starts at 9:00.
The restaurant at Burdick's is hosting its 16th annual celebration of the birth of Robert Burns, the National Bard, the Bard of Ayrshire, the Ploughman Poet... and the writer of "Auld Lang Syne." An array of beer, wine, food, bagpipes, and, of course, scotch. You'll want to make reservations.
Antigua, originally from the Dominican Republic, teaches Spanish at the college, but is also a prolific translator and fiction writer, with ten books of children's literature, four of short stories, two collection of poems, a novel, an anthology and a book of microfiction to her name. Moore Theater, 7 pm.
Let's start the week
: "We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
See you tomorrow.
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