Daybreak Monday, 12/1/25

The calm before the storm. Though, come to think of it, not that calm: On the one hand, we’ve got increasingly sunny skies today; on the other, it’ll be pretty blustery out there, with gusts this morning up into the 20 mph range. Highs today somewhere around 32, lows in the mid teens overnight. Also happening overnight: Clouds moving in ahead of this area’s first really measurable snowfall. More details tomorrow, but around here, the National Weather Service says we’re looking at 7-8”.

So maybe one last snow-free view? And a reminder that you can find idyllic scenes wherever you look: a mirror-like Mascoma River from the rail trail “near Price Chopper Miracle Mile in Lebanon,” writes Don Burrell.

Norwich Farmers Market gets okay to move forward with Route 5 development plan. The town’s Development Review Board, reports Clare Shanahan in the Valley News, signed off last month on the market’s bid—through a nonprofit it’s formed—to build a 7,500-square-foot building, parking lot, and outdoor vendor area on a 35-acre parcel across Route 5 from its current location. The nonprofit, the Upper Valley Agricultural Assn., has a purchase-and-sale agreement with the land’s out-of-state owner. Sheep farmer and Junction Fiber Mill co-owner Peggy Allen, who’s been spearheading the effort, tells Shanahan the sale will close “soon.”

Dartmouth reports data breach affecting 31,742 Granite Staters. The breach happened back in August; the notice to the NH AG’s office went out last week, reports Alex Nuti-de Biasi in the Journal-Opinion newsletter. The college also said 1,500 Mainers were affected, and has filed notice with the VT AG’s office, though it’s unclear how many Vermonters were affected. The breach is part of a widespread incident affecting Oracle E-Business Suite customers across the country, including Harvard, Tulane, and other universities. The files contain personal and financial information, including Social Security numbers. Here’s the filing with the NH AG’s office.

“It’s kind of like going to church for me”: In Thetford, the Rice’s Mills community potluck is still going strong after six decades. And just maybe, writes Vershire’s Matt Hongoltz-Hetling in The New York Times (gift link), the monthly gathering can “provide a road map for the rest of us in our polarized, isolated, doomscrolling age.” Hongoltz-Hetling is working on a series of writing projects in the “potlucksphere,” as he calls it, and finds a sparkling, all-ages example in Rice’s Mills: “Whether a vibrant community created the potluck or the potluck created a vibrant community is like asking which came first, the fried chicken or the deviled egg.”

SPONSORED: Want to learn about the experiences of your neighbors in the Upper Valley? The new book, Homesick, by Dartmouth sociologist Emily Walton, considers the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities trying to make a home in the Upper Valley and the mental health consequences of being excluded from doing so. You are invited to stop by the book launch, chat with Emily, and pick up a signed copy. Saturday, December 6th, 1-2pm, at Barnes and Noble in West Lebanon. Sponsored by Emily Walton.

Hartland man found dead many hours after Woodstock car crash. The body of 19-year-old Benjamin Johnsen was found along the banks of the Ottauquechee River late Saturday afternoon, 17 hours after Woodstock police said they’d gotten word about a Friday night car crash on East Woodstock Road. “Investigation revealed Johnsen was the driver, and he had left the crash scene prior to the arrival of law enforcement,” reports Mike Donoghue in the VT Standard. “Woodstock Police said it was unable to locate Johnsen as the overnight temperature dropped below freezing.” After his father reported him missing Saturday, police began an investigation; the body was found around 4 pm. Press release on their FB page, along with a raft of comments.

New Leb charter school gets a building. The new Cornerstone Charter School, which aims to open next fall with grades K-3 and then expand by a grade each year until it’s K-8, has signed a lease to rent 12,000 square feet on Mount Support Road, reports Alex Hanson in the VN. The building used to house a telecom firm. The school is shaping its curriculum around an approach to literacy that has its roots in reading training first developed for students with dyslexia. “Our goal is to improve public education by offering a tuition-free, public school option for families who need an alternative approach,” co-founder and executive director Lynne Howard tells Hanson.

SPONSORED: It’s dark out there: Help us share the light. Experience the heart-warming joy of the Upper Valley’s Sankta Lucia Festival of Light. Join us at St. Thomas in Hanover this Sunday at 10:30am for this service of illumination, led by the Children’s Choir of St. Thomas and followed by a smorgasbord of Scandinavian delicacies. Find out more at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by St. Thomas Episcopal Church.

Enfield woman reports car hit by piece of bridge on I-89. All Sarah George and her husband, Justin, know for sure is that their sunroof shattered as they were driving under the Route 120 overpass, just after Exit 18. "At first, it kind of just sounded like the roof exploded a little bit," Sarah George tells WMUR’s Maria Wilson. They took the next exit, and drove to the police station. In a separate FB post, George writes, “I originally thought someone may have thrown something from the bridge, but both my husband and the officer we made the report with believe it was a piece of the bridge. You can clearly see the areas on the roof where the object bounced before falling off the car.”

“Basically, if you’re in my family and you don’t drive a school bus, then what are you doing with your life, apparently.” That was Sarah Murchie joking with the VN’s Clare Shanahan about the long bus-driving history of the Townsend family in Lebanon. At 38, Murchie was, until she moved out of state last month, the youngest of a line that began in the mid-1960s with dairy farmer Bob Townsend, who drive for 40 years and whose family ran Tadmore Dairy Farm atop Storrs Hill until 2003; Murchie’s parents, Heidi and Dennis Bundy, run Tomapo Farm down the road. Shanahan traces the various family branches that have plied Leb’s roads for the last six decades.

The Monday Jigsaw: An 1880s view of WRJ and West Leb. A rocky outcropping, not many trees, and lots of farmland in the albumen print taken from a hilltop by Howard Henry Harrison Langill, Dartmouth’s college photographer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On his Curioustorian blog, the Norwich Historical Society’s Cam Cross has more about Langill, and a challenge: Use a hi-res version of the photo to see which landmarks you can identify.

Today's Wordbreak. With a word from last Wednesday’s Daybreak. And hey, word game lovers: There’s a new Daybreak puzzle debuting tomorrow. Don’t miss it!

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And let’s ease back into things…

With guitarist Antoine Boyer giving a classical/jazz gloss to Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed”, which was originally on his 1985 In Square Circle.

See you tomorrow.

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