GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Quiet days, quiet nights. There's still high pressure in place and our air continues to arrive from the south, and any remaining clouds should be clearing out soon. So temps this afternoon will likely warm into the low or mid 70s. Calm winds tonight, lows in the upper 40s.A fine day for ballooning! Saturday was, anyway, over in Quechee.
Which produced this scene of balloons rising from the gorge, from Nicole Vecchi. When you're a balloon, you get right of way no matter what the stop lights at the bridge say...
And this scene over (and reflected in) Dewey's Pond, from Judith Randall.
Telling stories, two ways.
Though you have to define "stories" loosely, in the case of the Lebanon Middle School podcasting club. Each week, writes Christina Dolan in the Valley News, about 15 students sit down behind mics in the school’s computer lab to record "the lively and wide-ranging 'LMS Podcast.'" Topics are wide-ranging: last week it was book/movie reviews and favorite superhero costumes, earlier this month it was summer activities and "a look at school work"... The club, dreamed up by band director Christian Terry, is “a good way to connect with more people at school," says eighth-grader Mara Jordan, Dolan describes a recording session.
Over at JAM, though, the stories are stories. Remember last Thursday's "Dear Daybreak" and the DHMC nurse who reconnected with a woman she'd helped in the early, bewildering days of new motherhood? Well, the VN's Liz Sauchelli has the backstory—part of her profile of the bi-monthly Story Jams hosted by Judith Hertog and Michelle Rogge. “Personal stories can bring people together,” Rogge says, and though not every story produces a teary reunion, “It’s just about getting to know people through stories," says JAM director Samantha Davidson Green. "It’s a very beautiful group.”
With Language Warrior Hoodie and more, this isn't your typical fashion show. Last Thursday, the Hood Museum hosted the annual Indigenous Arts and Fashion Show, and VT Public's Elodie Reed was there to produce a "postcard" from the event. "Our main goal is reconnecting through crafts and traditional practices," Yaz Azure, a senior who belongs to the Turtle Mountain Anishinaabe in North Dakota, tells her. Many of the outfits were created by students—"creating just really amazing things...that have hints of tradition, but are also really cool and really fun and really new," says Abby Burgess, from the Mi’kmaq First Nations in Nova Scotia. Video of the event here.And speaking of really cool and really new, Dartmouth has a new "Sonic Practice" studio and a new MFA program to go with it. The Warehouse, a 2500-square foot "laboratory for sonic art," opened last month on Currier Street in Hanover, reports Dartmouth News' Aimee Minbiole. Sonic arts prof and digital composer Ash Fure, the moving force behind the project, tells Minbiole it's "a playground" for sound and light. “My hope is that The Warehouse helps open people up to the visceral richness of sonic experience and the simple, profound power of listening together in our fractured age," Fure says.Vermont man arrested after weekend larceny spree. David Gilmore, who's lived in Corinth and Newbury but whom state police now list as homeless, was arrested early yesterday morning after allegedly stealing a trailer in Wells River, a Chevy Silverado in Bradford, lumber from Oakes Brothers and merchandise from Farmway in Bradford, and more. Police found the Silverado at Bradford Elementary, the trailer—crashed—over in NH. As Alex Nuti-de Biasi notes in today's JO newsletter, Gilmore pled guilty last year to an array of charges, including resisting arrest after fleeing police by diving into a beaver pond.New mental health hospital for NH on hold after Londonderry town council nixes agreement with state. The 144-bed facility, reports NHPR's Paul Cuno-Booth, was slated to be built by a private hospital network and was a centerpiece of the state's plan for ending its backlog of patients in crisis being held in ERs. But on Friday, speaking to the legislature's Fiscal Committee, Gov. Chris Sununu announced the Londonderry council had rejected a memorandum of understanding with the state. “I don't mind saying I think it was a completely foolish decision by the town of Londonderry,” Sununu said.In NH (and elsewhere), "one of the heaviest things that goes into landfills...is food." New London Democratic Rep. Karen Ebel was one of the forces behind a law going into effect next year that seeks to rein in the amount of food waste that goes into the state's landfills. Unlike VT's version, which affects individual households as well as restaurants, retailers, and others, the NH law is aimed at “any person” generating one ton or more of food waste per week. In NH Bulletin, Claire Sullivan looks at who might be affected—the state plans to study that—and what it'll take to be successful.Tips for hikers during hunting season, from NH Fish & Game. They're good for VT too, of course. "All outdoor enthusiasts, no matter where they venture, must be committed to ensuring their own personal safety," the agency writes. Wearing blaze orange comes first, but there's more: Be aware of your surroundings (and know hunting-season dates: here's NH, and here's VT); it's safest to stick to established hiking trails, which hunters tend to avoid; mid-day and mid-week are better than dawn/dusk and weekends; make noise; and, whether it's hunting season or not, "hike safe."In VT, education funding is on everyone's minds this election season. "Our spending continues to go up, even as our number of students decreases,” former state Rep. Charlie Kimball, who's running for a Woodstock-area seat, tells the VN's Alex Hanson. Hanson looks at how candidates from both parties are approaching funding the state's education system—including taxing second homes at the same rate as primary residences; reining in state funding for private schools; and re-doing the entire funding formula. “We really need to look at the big picture of our schools," says former GOP state Sen. John Carroll.The Monday jigsaw. This week, it's a postcard of the old roundhouse at the Westboro rail yard in West Leb. As the NH Div. of Historical Resources writes, "The West Lebanon rail yard was the western terminus of the Northern Railroad... At its peak in the early 20th century the yard also included a machine shop, sand house, heating plant, freight houses, section house, bunk house, tenements, garage, fan room, shanty and storehouse." The Norwich Historical Society's Cam Cross also includes this old photo.
Heads Up
Former Treasury Secretary (and Harvard president) Lawrence Summers at the Rockefeller Center. Summers will be talking about an array of issues, including the economic challenges facing U.S. policymakers, the geopolitical rivalry with China, the coming disruption caused by AI, the recent debate about intellectual diversity in the academy, and more. 12:30 pm today in Rockefeller Center Room 003, as well as online.
Yuliia Iliukha and My Women at Dartmouth. Iliukha is a writer from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and her new collection collection contains 40 stories about women confronted by "the countless brutalities of war." She'll be at Haldeman 041 at 4:30 pm alongside her translator, Hanna Leliv, talking not only about the collection, but about bringing Ukrainian voices to US audiences.
Speaking of education funding in VT, the Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont is holding a public input session this evening from 5-7 pm at the Randolph Union Middle/High School Theater. There's also an online option. And tomorrow evening, the Agency of Education is bringing its "Listen and Learn Tour" to Woodstock Union from 6-8 pm. Both are chances for the public to weigh in and to learn more about how education financing works.
At the Orford Social Library, "Bats in New Hampshire". Wildlife biologist Jesse Mohr will talk about the status of NH's eight bat species, bat ecology, and practices to protect and enhance bat habitat. 6:30 pm, 573 NH Route 10. No link.
And bringing us into the week...
Two fine electric guitarists with big YouTube followings—bass player Charles Berthoud and Austrian metal guy Bernth—
See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Associate writer: Jonea Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Michael
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