GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
A quiet start to the day, but don't be fooled. It'll be mostly if not entirely cloudy with calm winds this morning and into the early afternoon, but then what the weather folks call a "poorly timed" burst of snow (with a little rain at first) will arrive, southwest to northeast, just in time for the evening commute, maybe an inch or two. Then, after midnight, a chance of freezing rain/drizzle—especially at higher elevations, but possibly in the valleys, too—just in time for tomorrow morning's commute. Fun, eh? Highs today in the mid 30s, lows upper 20s.We're definitely into winter. And nothing says it quite like this photo from Dona Meltzer, looking out at sunset over the Braintree Range.Except, well, there's also this drone video of Lebanon's downtown holiday celebration Saturday. Master videographer William Daugherty's drone was over Colburn Park Saturday evening to capture the new holiday light and music display by Devon Blanchard. Via YouTube.Canaan police chief: “There’s just no place for Facebook vigilantism." What's got Chief Ryan Porter exercised, Christina Dolan reported in the Valley News over the weekend, is the theft of a 10-month-old dog from his kennel on Goose Pond Road—after a resident took to Facebook to allege two dogs on the property were being mistreated by being left out in the cold. The dog was dropped off at the police station. A police investigation had found the dogs' living conditions didn't violate animal cruelty laws. The owner says he understands the public kerfuffle, but says his dog's breed is highly cold tolerant.As VT gears up for hearing on wakesports, Lake Fairlee Association joins in. Associations on 10 lakes around the state will be making their cases in Montpelier Thursday evening that the state's new rules on wake boats are too lenient, and the sport should be prohibited entirely on those 10 lakes. In Fairlee's case, writes Li Shen in Sidenote, the argument focuses not just on the threat to the lakeshore from bigger wakes, but the threat to the area's economy: Five summer camps ring the 97-acre "wakesport zone" allowed on Fairlee by current state regs, and wake boats create a safety issue, they argue.In a converted three-bay garage by Lebanon High School, 50,000 parts get turned, piece by piece, into an airplane. Specifically, a Van’s Aircraft RV-12iS—a 20-foot-long two-seater—with, Christina Dolan points out in the VN, every one of its 15,000 rivets installed according to FAA specs. The students and their volunteer aviation mentors are learning as they go—"I didn’t even know what a rivet was at first,” says one student—in the school's first foray into a national program run by a Texas-based nonprofit. Eventually, they plan to sell the plane. Dolan lays out the background and the scene in the "hangar."SPONSORED: Save your pennies and the planet! Shop at the COVER Store and Cover to COVER Books for unique, pre-loved books, housewares, holiday decorations and much more. Buy local, take a chance on thrift, and reduce landfill waste through reuse. 158 South Main Street, White River Junction. Store hours at the burgundy link or here. Store proceeds support no-cost home repairs for neighbors-in-need. Sponsored by Mascoma Bank, “committed to being a force for positive change.”"Some of the best food I’ve had in recent memory." But no, you're not going to be able to try it. Remember that article back in October about Woodstock's Jacob Chalif, who was headed off to Antarctica to study ancient ice? Well, he's there now, in a small tent encampment in the area known as Allan Hills, and WCAX's Adam Sullivan just caught up with him (remotely). The footage—of the tents hunkered down amid whipping winds and blowing snow—is impressive. So's what's getting turned out of "that tiny tent kitchen that they have," says Chalif: "Things like stir fries, curries, pasta. Last night we had a polenta.”Poems by letterpress: "the time it takes is the whole point." Each month, Hartland's Kate Gibbel heads to Dartmouth's Book Arts Workshop and painstakingly prints off a poem by a different poet—sometimes a few words, sometimes more. She then mails them on two cards (one to keep, one to pass along) to subscribers of her Send Me Press. On Friday, in The Paris Review, Nora Claire Miller highlighted Gibbel and her work. "I like to place the postcards situationally," she writes. "I put a poem by Liam O’Brien on the kitchen table. 'cold salt hot little hand,' I say to myself every time I grab the salt."SPONSORED: Support Hanover Rotary's Bell Ringing Campaign! Hanover Rotary has launched its annual Bell Ringing campaign for LISTEN's Heating Helpers program and Hanover Rotary Charities. Heating Helpers assists neighbors in need with fuel, electricity, and emergency repair costs. Hanover Rotary Charities supports local nonprofits and Hanover High college scholarships and exchange students. The Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation will match your donation up to $25,000! Donate by clicking the burgundy link or see us on Main Street! Sponsored by Hanover NH Rotary Charities, Inc.Dog rescue in Dublin NH a reminder that the ice is still thin. The unnamed dog fell through the ice on Thorndike Pond in Dublin yesterday morning—and crews from the town fire and police departments converged on the pond. Two rescuers using an inflatable raft got out to the water's edge and brought the dog to safety. The Dublin PD's got photos of the whole rescue on its FB page.NH expects record winter tourism this season. Yeah, sure, we're getting rain on Wednesday. But with the Thanksgiving storm and a bunch of ski areas opening for the season in early December, the state's Division of Travel and Tourism is projecting 3 million visitors this winter—spending $1.6 billion, compared to $1.5 billion last winter. Guess we'll find out. WMUR reports.In VT House, Democrats back current speaker as their candidate. The speakership fight between current Speaker Jill Krowinski and independent challenger Laura Sibilia isn't over yet—the entire House will vote next month. But Saturday morning, reports VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein, Krowinski got her caucus's nod after members voted to allow only Dems to be nominated—thus excluding Sibilia. Still, Sibilia had some vociferous support. “We’ve become the party that raised property taxes 14 percent. We’ve become the party that’s synonymous with unaffordability,” said Tunbridge Democrat John O'Brien.The Monday jigsaw. Turns out, there was an actual seminary on West Leb's Seminary Hill. The Norwich Historical Society's Cam Cross writes, "What many of us know as the Seminary Hill School began as the Tilden Female Seminary in 1855. Later renamed as the Tilden Ladies' Seminary, it housed The New Hampshire Military Academy in 1890, and was the West Lebanon High School from 1915 to 1961. From 1961 to 2012 it was an elementary school. The building is now used as administrative offices for the Lebanon School District, although not much of the original building remains."
And to start us off on both feet this week:Locals Jaden Gladstone, Tii McClane, and Sarah Gibson, upstairs at Dan & Whit's, playing the popular bluegrass/American reel "Billy in the Lowground"—filmed back in February, but just put up last week by Upper Valley music chronicler Chad Finer.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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