SO GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN, UPPER VALLEY!
We start the week with partly sunny skies, though it'll be a little colder than normal. We're sitting in the wake of a cold front, and temps will struggle to reach freezing today after their start in the low teens. Skies should be pretty clear until noonish, when low pressure off to the northeast clouds things up a bit. Calm winds from the northwest, lows tonight in the mid teens, and there could be some flurries overnight as an upper-level disturbance slides through.And sunshine across the Connecticut to start the week: The rising sun striking the Thetford hills, as seen from Lyme, by Margaret Johnston.Quechee Gorge businesses hoping visitors will swing by this season. WPTZ's Jackson Stoever was at Quechee Gorge Village last Friday talking to business owners about the impact of construction on the Route 4 bridge over the gorge—and what he describes as "an underperforming fall tourism season." Says Lisa Mattei, owner of Living the Dream Alpaca Farm, "We had a decline in foot traffic coming through, which I believe is a direct effect of the bridge construction." Whisper Hill's Iris Angelani is equally direct: "I will do everything for this business...to succeed, but it's definitely a challenge for all of us."We get a New York Times double bill. Though it's maybe a stretch to call Walpole part of the Upper Valley. Still... (both are gift links).
In S. Strafford, the community trust-led effort to keep Coburns' General Store going caught reporter Jenna Russell's attention—especially given that one of the leaders of the group is Lauri Berkenkamp, Noah Kahan's mom. Russell's piece is mostly a tribute to the store itself—she calls it "a kind of communal hearth"—as well as its place in Kahan's music and the Coburns' role as "unofficial welcoming committee" for Kahan's fans. “They come in, we talk to them, and they always say they can’t believe how friendly we are,” says Melvin Coburn. “We get such a kick out of it.”
And down the highway in Walpole, reporter Rukmini Callimachi spent a half-day hanging out with filmmaker Ken Burns and one of his daughters to talk about the house and land that Burns tells her are "so central to who I am — to what I do every single day." To understand why, Callimachi delves into Burns's childhood, and especially his mother's death when he was 11, his uncertain footing as a young filmmaker trying to pitch "The Civil War", and the old white house's place in his family's life. Plenty of photos—including of his collection of rare quilts. (Thanks, CJ!)
For one local writer, a long-awaited longlist announcement finally goes public. You may remember Megan Baxter from Farm Girl, the Hanover native's debut memoir about re-finding herself in the fields and soil of Cedar Circle Farm. Last year, she published Twenty Square Feet of Skin, a series of essays exploring physicality and the body—from tattoos to hunger. Last week, PEN America announced that the book made its list of 10 "art of the essay" semi-finalists: an announcement that was supposed to come in April, but got waylaid by writers' Gaza protests. Ignore the date at the top of the page.SPONSORED: Look and feel like a million bucks, knowing you got a great deal! Indulgence—and gift-giving—have never felt so rewarding, thanks to William Smith’s Luxury Designer Brands & Jewelry Online Timed Auction. There's Tiffany and David Yurman, Louis Vuitton Chanel, Christian Louboutin, and Hermes! Stay warm with luxurious cashmere from Harrods or Garnet Hill, or dress your table with fine Irish hemstitched linens. There are hundreds of items: Be sure to check them out before the auction closes on Dec. 8. You're sure to find something fabulous! Sponsored by William Smith Auctions.VT State Police charge North Carolina man with animal cruelty after I-89 incident. On Saturday, traffic on the highway around the Mile 2 marker came to a "near standstill" after a German Shepherd leashed to the bed of a pickup slipped his collar, jumped into the roadway, and was struck by a car in the southbound lanes. The pickup continued heading north while drivers stopped to help the dog; one good Samaritan rushed the dog—named Ace—to SAVES in Lebanon, where Ace died. Troopers eventually tracked down the pickup's driver and cited him for tethering Ace "in a way that was detrimental to his welfare."Aiming to build electric bike charging stations, Lebanon teams up with Dartmouth engineering students. The four seniors, reports Clare Shanahan in the Valley News, are working with Energy and Facilities Manager Tad Montgomery to design—and create plans and cost estimates for—a set of solar-powered e-bike charging stations the city's hoping to install. They're looking at locations, whether solar panels should power the stations, whether to charge users, and other technical issues—including designing an e-bike fire prevention system.All about ditches. In Sidenote, Li Shen starts with a small mystery: Why is a new ditch along Tucker Hill Road in Thetford V-shaped and lined with broken rocks, while in a neighboring town a new ditch is U-shaped with "periodic small dams of stones"? The answer has to do with the slope of the road, but on her way there, Li delivers a quick lesson in ditch regulations in Vermont, which are focused on keeping stormwater runoff from flooding streams and polluting both streams and lakes. Among other things, towns must identify "hydrologically connected" road segments by 2027, and upgrade drainage by 2036.Atop Mt. Washington, "unprepared hiker" forces way into Sno-Cat and refuses to leave; he'll be billed for his rescue. The 27-year-old Virginia man hiked up last week with his dog—despite calling ahead and being advised not to do so because of bad weather. He made it to the summit but, NH Fish & Game says, was “woefully unprepared for summit conditions and had a large dog with him that had to be factored into the rescue situation.” Summit staff ultimately drove him to the mountain's base, reports the Monitor; Fish & Game officers met him but he stalked off while they tried to interview him.NH search and rescue: "It’s not like there’s a bat phone. There’s a limit to what we can do.” As Sophie Levenson writes in the Monitor (here via NHPR), search and rescue teams in the Whites "are about to enter the deadliest part of the year," when hikers lured by dreams of sunny summits and spectacular vistas "quickly discover the harsh realities of sub-zero temperatures and howling winds and then call 911 for help." She talks to the Mt. Washington Observatory's Jay Broccolo and search and rescue leaders about rescue missions and hikers' responsibilities. First up: the daily higher summits forecast.Facing labor shortages, VT recharges its apprenticeship programs. Increasingly, writes Frances Mize in a two-part series for VTDigger, "officials and employers are using the [work-based learning] model as a tool to rebuild the state’s severely hobbled workforce." Training in everything from water and wastewater systems to nursing to weatherization as the state gears up to expand its efforts to help employers recruit apprentices. One of those efforts, she writes in the second installment, is a first-of-its-kind educator apprenticeship in the Northeast Kingdom, a bid to help people who "have the right qualities, dispositions, interests" but not a BA get into the classroom.Smugglers Notch chicanes declared a success. Since 2009, the twisting roadway has seen an average of more than 8 tractor-trailers a year get stuck during the non-winter months. But this year was different. After the state installed "chicanes"—roadway barriers designed to make it difficult for a long vehicle to get through—just one vehicle, a tourist bus, had to be rescued. The barriers, writes Aaron Calvin in the News & Citizen, are down now, but VTrans will put them up again next year. “We’re super happy with all of the work that our engineers and our partners put in to make this happen,” says an official.The Monday jigsaw. Not a scene from the Norwich Historical Society's Cam Cross this week, but a card. You'll figure it out.
To start us off... a music box.
But, of course, not just any music box. This one's designed by Wintergatan's Martin Molin (you may remember the band's marble machine from some years back).
Quite impressively, too.
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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