GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, warm. There's high pressure overhead and it's going to be with us for a few days, so not only are we looking at sunny skies, now that the fog's cleared, but a warming trend, with temps today reaching the high 70s and into the low 80s tomorrow. Calm winds, clear skies tonight with lows around 50. "Enjoy this stretch of gorgeous weather while it lasts," says the Weather Service, "before we are reminded that it is October in North Country."Another reminder that it's October: The bursting pumpkin patch at Riverview Farm in Plainfield, from Irina Burnina."He wasn’t going to hurt anybody. It was hurt himself I was worried about." That's Strafford's longtime town constable, Ed Eastman, talking to the Valley News's John Lippman about Eddie Gallagher, the man who last month set his cabin on fire then made his way to Coburn's General Store to ask for help. In an empathetic piece of followup reporting, Lippman writes about what happened that day and about the informal Strafford safety net that had kept watch over Gallagher, who struggles with mental health challenges, filling in the picture through conversations with neighbors and Gallagher's dad.Northern Stage creates new "pop-up" café for WRJ. The Ghost Light Coffee Bar will open Oct. 9 and run Mondays-Fridays from noon until 5 pm through early November. Inspired by similar efforts at theaters elsewhere, says Associate Artistic Director Sarah Wansley, it also aims to fill a void in town: "With the closure of Juel and Piecemeal Pies, we hope to offer folks a place to sit down for a cup of coffee after 3 pm," she says. There'll be live music from musician and actor Tommy Crawford on opening day, and the theater hopes the space can host live music in the future, as well as just a spot to hang out.Meanwhile, in Windsor, a restaurant closes. Bistro Midva, which in its two years of French and Slovenian-inflected cooking inspired a devoted following from around the Upper Valley, shut its doors this weekend, reports Christina Dolan in the VN. The decision to close, she writes, stems from disagreements between owners Chad Lumbra and Arlanda Erzen, and the owner of the restaurant's building. "We just have different standards, and his are just not sustainable for us," Lumbra says. The two already have a new Windsor venture "on the horizon," they say.Norwich gets the "tax bomb" attention, but Thetford faces one, too. As you may remember, VT has shifted its school funding formula to give additional weight to students who are living in poverty or are learning English as a second language, and the result is that some towns will face additional taxes: up to 32 percent in Norwich, writes Nick Clark in Sidenote, and a not-much-smaller 26.5 percent in Thetford. Other area towns are likely to see a drop in education taxes. Clark dives into the issue, as well as other factors affecting Thetford's property taxes: a townwide reappraisal and potential spending increases. A comment on the piece by state Rep. Rebecca Holcombe is well worth reading.As La Salette shrine closes, Enfield Shaker Museum steps in. The museum officially bought the shrine's property on Friday, reports NHPR's Dan Tuohy, gaining five historic Shaker buildings and two structures from the La Salette Catholic order. The shrine itself, with the stations of the cross and the rosary walk, will remain, museum president Carolyn Smith tells him. "The museum and the town of Enfield feel very fortunate to have this location of national importance," she says. "There were only ever 17 Shaker villages in the whole world, and one of them happens to be here in Enfield."Norwich's town manager can drop the "acting." Last week, the town's selectboard voted 3-2 to give Brennan Duffy, who'd stepped into the role as acting manager last December, a three-year contract, reports the VN's Patrick Adrian. The move came after two closed-door emergency meetings and a closed-door executive session—and without a search committee or input by community members. The move drew questions from the public; a selectboard press release said the board had received “time-sensitive information” that required moving quickly.Single-plane crash into Lake Winnipesaukee claims pilot's life. The accident near Gilford occurred Saturday night, and a Fish & Game dive team found the pilot's body late yesterday morning. A man who identified himself as the victim's brother, reports WMUR's Hannah Cotton, said the pilot had flown from Rhode Island and was trying to land at Laconia Airport. Witnesses reported the plane had throttled up, died down, then tried throttling up one more time before disappearing. Responders found the wreckage that night.And speaking of Winnipesaukee, it's now joined lakes Champlain and George in hosting the spiny water flea. The tiny invasive, reports Alex Nuti-de Biasi in today's Journal Opinion newsletter, is native to Europe and Asia, and is pretty much impossible to control once it's established; the only management option, he writes, "is preventing introduction into uninfected waterbodies by cleaning, draining, and drying all vessels and recreational gear after leaving a waterbody." It was first found in the Broads in Gilford a couple of weeks ago, and has since been confirmed near Alton and Wolfeboro.VT State Police report bomb hoax "campaign." The emailed threats to college campuses, houses of worship, regional airports, and other sites, they reported in a news release yesterday, are part of a national scheme originating from "skiff.com" accounts. "Affected groups are encouraged to report these incidents to local law enforcement in their area," the VSP says. "No suspicious items or authentic threats have been discovered at this time."Neurons develop, cells die, pond creatures go about their business in a drop of water... Nikon just announced the winners of its 2023 "Small World in Motion" competition—videos shot through a microscope. First prize went to Zurich-based molecular biologist Alexandre Dumoulin for his time-lapse of nerve fibers traversing the central nervous system in chick embryos. It's a tiny, sometimes beautiful world out there—check out #7 for a view of what happens at the microscopic level when sauce thickens. At the link, click into any video then use the right and left arrows at the top to navigate.The Monday Vordle. With a word from Friday's Daybreak.
Heads Up
This evening at 6, Pentangle Arts and the Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock host former cold case investigator Paul Holes and author and journalist Robin Gaby Fisher. Holes spent decades pursuing the man eventually known as the Golden State Killer, as well as other cases; Fisher is a two-time Pulitzer finalist and was part of a Pulitzer-winning Newark Star Ledger team. At the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre: reception at 6, conversation at 7.Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases for a conversation about Holes' memoir,
At 7 this evening, the Center Meeting House in Newbury, NH hosts UNH archivist Elizabeth Slomba talking about "The Betty and Barney Hill Story." If those names are familiar, it's because of their 1961 drive home to Portsmouth through the Whites one night and their claim that they were abducted by aliens after they saw a cigar-shaped craft hovering over their car... and woke up 35 miles and two hours later. Slomba oversees the collection of Hill artifacts, research, and memorabilia housed at UNH.
Also at 7, the Norwich Bookstore brings in novelist and former federal prosecutor Michele Campbell, in conversation with celebrated mystery writer Sarah Stewart Taylor. Campbell's got a new legal thriller out, The Intern, about a a judicial intern, her tangled relationship with the judge and mentor she works for, and a case involving her younger brother, whose trial the judge is overseeing.
And also at 7 this evening—and each first and third Monday this month and next—musician and teacher Taylor Ho Bynum will lead a "music appreciation hour" for the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts (at Union Church and livestreamed), during which he'll introduce attendees to jazz and improvisational music in general: an hour of listening (with commentary), an hour of discussion. This evening's session is devoted to "And His Mother Called Him Bill", Duke Ellington's tribute to his compositional partner Billy Strayhorn.
And just a reminder: Yesterday was the start of deer archery season in Vermont—New Hampshire got going in mid-September—and if you're out in the woods these days, it's very much time to be wearing blaze orange.
And to take us into the week...We'll turn to The White Horse Guitar Club, the group of 11 guys in Ballincollig, a suburb of Cork, Ireland, who get together, usually outdoors, to play guitar and sing Americana. Here they are with a new release, "Wide River to Cross."See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Jonea Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Michael
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