Daybreak Monday 11/22/21

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Just a note about this week: Daybreak will publish through Wednesday, then take Thursday and Friday off.Chance of showers to start, eventually becoming sunny. Last night's and this morning's weather is thanks to a low pressure system and cold front coming through. The good news: The clouds will eventually (mostly) disappear. The bad news: Today's high in the low 40s will be at around noon, and after that temps will begin to fall, with blustery winds later this morning and afternoon. Temps down to the mid-20s overnight.So many different colors! Even in November, when Etna photographer Jim Block was wandering around the region pretty much every day. The setting sun over Mascoma Lake, the former greens at the Hanover golf course, birches in a snow squall, pumpkins still out, the Baltic Mill's windows reflected in the water, golden tamaracks, the "Great Cut" along the rail trail in Orange, red barns, Ascutney blue in the early-morning light..."We know some of you do not need the money, but imagine the stories!" Back in October, Dan Fraser of Dan & Whit's challenged Norwich residents: Come work in the store. "We are at a crossroads," he wrote on the listserv about Main Street businesses. "Many of us are on the verge of locking the doors and closing because we have NO help!" Well, people responded. VPR's Lexi Krupp profiles the effort and talks to some of the new workers. "My biggest challenge is to get those foolish eggs to crack without having the shell fall in there,” says one, of prepping McWhits sandwiches. “I got to get better at that.”“We’re making this into the kind of luxury theater that people will want to come to.” Or as the Valley News's John Lippman paraphrases it, "Don't call it the Sticky Six anymore." Leb's Entertainment Cinemas on the Miracle Mile has refurbished itself with better seats, larger screens, a better sound system, upgraded food and snacks... and it's applying for a beer and wine license. "Attendance is 50 percent to 70 percent of what it used to be,” owner Bill Hanney tells Lippman. “We expect it to get better but it will never be what it once was." Still, he says, “Give people a decent theater and they will come.”SPONSORED: Deck your pantry with JAMMY goodies....FaLaLaLaLa...lala la la! That Meyer-Lemon-colored jam shop in Windsor, VT is literally jam packed with gifts for all. You'll find preserves that are Gluten Free, Nut Free, Non-GMO, Vegan and Kosher, and over 20 different artisan foods that pair perfectly with a jar of jam. Then there are the gifting add-ons, like punny tea towels, cheese boards, gift cards, and the tiniest, cutest jam spoon around! Visit the shop any day between 10 am and 5 pm for free tastings, and for FREE JAM on Small Business Saturday! Sponsored by Blake Hill Preserves.

Rubs, scrapes... but also ticks and, maybe, Covid. It's deer-hunting season, and in Sidenote, Li Shen reports on what's been happening in Thetford. More bucks have been reported so far than in previous years, and in general their weight and antler points are up. But she also offers quick primers on the ticks that are infesting deer, the testing in other states that has found Covid in deer (not thought to be a risk to humans, but precautions are advised), and what rubbed sections of bark and scrapes in the ground can tell you about what's going on in the deer world.Lyme man charged with murder in Orford shooting. Saturday afternoon, Hanover police responded to a report of a shooting on Route 10 in Orford, where 25-year-old Brooke Goodrich had been shot and killed. Investigators zeroed in on her cousin, 35-year-old Lance Goodrich, and tracked him to Newport, where after nearby residents were asked to stay in their homes, he was arrested. According to NH AG John Formella's office, he's been charged with two counts of second-degree murder. Via WMUR.Tunbridge dairy farmers sue ECFiber, Eustis Cable, others over sickened cows. You may remember that back in 2020, farmers Amber and Scott Hoyt found pieces of chopped-up wire in their cows' feed; three have died, many others have fallen ill. They discovered the wire, used in telecommunications projects, after ECFiber hired Eustis as a subcontractor to expand broadband in Tunbridge. The various parties have been working for months to come to an agreement, ECFiber chair F. X. Flinn said in a statement Friday, reports VTDigger's Emma Cotton.Scott administration will appeal Newbury DRB rejection of youth facility. "We still believe this is the right location for this facility and this program,” state Dept. of Children and Families commissioner Sean Brown told lawmakers Friday, reports VTDigger's Alan J. Keays. The town's Development Review Board last week nixed the proposed transformation of a former inn into a juvenile facility to replace the shuttered Woodside juvenile rehab facility, arguing that there aren't enough emergency services to handle the facility, and that it would be out of place on a Class IV road.Cases strain Sullivan County hospitals, schools, institutions. Covid rates in Claremont, Newport, Charlestown, and—across the river—Springfield VT are "among the highest in the Twin States," writes the VN's Nora Doyle-Burr. Physicians at Valley Regional express "a degree of burnout," says the medical director of the hospital's emergency department, and long-term care facilities continue to see outbreaks. The Claremont Opera House, reports Doyle-Burr, is caught in the middle of the vax wars, with half its patrons in a survey rejecting proof of vaccination to see shows, the other half refusing to go without it.NH Fish & Game says: Hold off on those bird feeders. The department is asking homeowners to wait at least until Dec. 1 or until bear activity slows, whichever is later. "Bringing birdfeeders in at night is not sufficient," they add. Bears are stocking up on high-fat, protein-rich food right now, not infrequently in residential areas. "There has been an uptick in bear activity and sightings, most of which occurred at bird feeders, during late October and early November,” says Andy Timmins, the state's Bear Project leader. "Bears have an excellent sense of smell and good memories.”Afghan refugees begin arriving in VT. The first family landed in Montpelier last Thursday, reports Fred Thys in VTDigger, and 35 more people are expected to get to the state over the next week. Tracy Dolan, director of the Vermont Refugee Office, says that the military bases where refugees first arrived have proven a difficult environment, and their transfer to communities around the country is being sped up. In Vermont, most will wind up in Chittenden County, though Afghan refugees and asylum seekers are also being sent to other parts of the state, including the Upper Valley."A wedge with an edge." Brett McLeod teaches forestry at Paul Smith's College in the Adirondacks, and he's set out to reclaim some of the esteem in which Americans once held the axe. "We replaced axes with power saws, chain saws, and so the axe became relegated to a spot in the corner of the garage and pulled out when you needed to hit something hard," he tells North Country Public Radio's David Sommerstein. McLeod, who has a new book out about "the tool that shaped a continent," collects axes, including Vermont racing axes, which are used in lumberjack contests.Ninja prairie dog! Remember the finalists in this year's Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards from back in September? Of course you do! Well, the winners have been announced. That prairie dog startled a bald eagle long enough to escape into a burrow. Then there's an otter teaching its kid to swim (you'll recognize the expression), a raccoon with larcenous intent, an elephant's blissed-out mud bath, a pigeon encountering an autumn leaf at the wrong moment... Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:

Back before she got her big break, Sharon Jones worked as a corrections officer at Rikers Island. "I just took a lot of tests and that's the one that came through," she told the

NY Daily News

years later. "The police said I was too old — you had to be under 30. With the court officer test, I thought I could just go in there and get it, but I had to answer law questions. I ain't no lawyer. What did they think?...The corrections test was the only one I passed." In the meantime, she was also pursuing her first love, singing gospel in church and doing occasional pickup work in studios. In 1996, two other backup singers failed to show up at a session; she recorded all three of the backing parts herself. The producers were so impressed they did a solo track with her... which eventually led to a solo album, a band—the Dap-Kings—and a scorching, celebrated soul career, even through a long battle with pancreatic cancer. In 2016, the night of the presidential election, she suffered a stroke, then another a day later. She was just 60 when she died, with the Dap-Kings at her bedside.

(Thanks, DL!)

See you tomorrow.

Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.

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