WELCOME TO THE WEEK, UPPER VALLEY!
And thanks to Christopher Ivanyi for the GIF, which may visit occasionally.
Snow this afternoon. There's a low pressure system headed our way from the west, bringing a chance of light snow late morning and a near certainty of an inch or more this afternoon. It could get windy out there, as well. Temps up to around freezing, meaning it might be a wet snow, too. With all those clouds up there it'll only drop into the mid-20s overnight. It may be a new week, but there are still plenty of daybreaks to go...
Here's dawn in W. Newbury, VT, with Mt. Moosilauke in the distance, from Susan Goodell;
And here it is clear on the other side of the country, looking out at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, from Nancy Brown.
And, well, this isn't daybreak, but it's horses in the snow in Strafford, VT, who clearly knew that Annemieke McLane needed them to pose for her elegantly.
Oh, also: The Connecticut's in its winter finest... and drone artist William Daugherty was out in Saturday's fine weather by the Cornish-Windsor bridge, the sky bright over Ascutney, doing some flying around.Differing visions for Hartford bring out 14 candidates for 5 selectboard seats. Generally speaking, writes the Valley News's Anna Merriman, they fall into two camps: candidates focused on tackling the town's systemic issues, from racism to WRJ gentrification to mental health services; and those who argue that the selectboard's attention to larger-scale problems has come at the expense of addressing infrastructure and other nuts-and-bolts challenges. Then there are a handful who straddle the two, arguing that the town can both repair Fairview Terrace, for instance, and address systemic challenges.Two empty Hanover restaurant spaces to be filled by local restaurateurs. One is the spot in back of 44 S. Main Street, where Market Table used to be. That will be taken by Murphy's owner Nigel Leeming's new impasto, offering “traditional Italian food with a culinary twist,” Leeming tells the VN's John Lippman. The other is Dunk's, a sports bar and grill going into the former Salt Hill Hanover spot just across the way. Dunk's is the brainchild of Tony Barnett, whose Blue Sky Group owns Molly's, Jesse's, and other Upper Valley spots. Both are hoping for May openings.NH's new "Every Voice" law bears strong local imprint. The measure, which passed the legislature with bipartisan support last year and went into effect in January, tightens up how colleges and universities deal with sexual assault, requiring them to work with local crisis centers and law enforcement, provide anti-retaliation protections for reporting parties, and launch fair and timely investigations. A lot of the groundwork pushing it was done by Dartmouth students, and the measure was sponsored by former state Sen. Martha Hennessey. The Monitor's Eileen O'Grady details its history.Which doesn't mean sexual assault cases won't still be complicated. Dartmouth responded promptly after a female student alleged last year she was sexually assaulted by a Black friend. But, writes the VN's Jim Kenyon, the college's decision to suspend the accused for two years came after a review mostly by white officials: the lawyer hired to investigate; the office overseeing the investigation; and the three administrators originally tasked with serving as the jury. Last month, the suspended student sued over an “improper, inadequate, and biased investigation and hearing process” in federal court."I know they’re just robots but at the same time, it’s hard not to think of them as more.” Dartmouth prof Marisa Palucis celebrated alone in her office last week when the Perseverance rover landed successfully on Mars. She's a geomorphologist, studying how landscapes evolve over eons, and was part of an international community that helped NASA choose the rover's landing site in what she tells the Union Leader's Shawn Wickham "was clearly an ancient lake." “Mars is a whole other laboratory," she says. “The more we understand about that, the more we understand about our planet and how it works.”59 below, wind gusts up to 120 mph. Those measurements were taken atop Mt. Washington in the winter of 1870-71, the first time people are known to have spent a winter on the summit. Making arrangements was almost as tough as being there: Dartmouth prof Charles Hitchcock and his geological survey colleague Joshua Huntington were rebuffed by the Summit House when they asked to camp out there for the winter; Huntington spent Jan-Feb of 1870 atop Moosilauke instead. But then the cog railway depot was finished, telegraph wire was strung... The Conway Daily Sun's Tom Eastman tells the story.People who've been fully vaccinated can travel to and from Vermont without quarantining. They have to be two weeks out from their second dose, but when the new regs—announced Friday—kick in tomorrow, about 30,100 Vermont residents will qualify, reports Seven Days' Derek Brouwer. Both residents and out-of-staters will have to be able to prove they were vaccinated. At his press conference Friday, Gov. Phil Scott also said the state will soon begin relaxing visitation restrictions at long-term care homes.Mergers seem to be the thing in twin-state higher ed. In NH, Gov. Sununu proposes blending the state's two- and four-year public systems. And in VT, reports VTDigger's Lola Duffort, trustees of the state college system are expected today to approve merging Northern Vermont U, Castleton U, and VT Technical College into a single state university. It's part of their bid to put the system on firmer footing after last spring's near-insolvency and brouhaha over a proposal to close three campuses, including VTC's in Randolph.Blurred vision and hallucinations. A near-miss with a drilling ship. A capsize. Not to mention weather so bad that she covered just 11 km rowing for 12 hours—then slept and drifted back to where she'd started. Even so, Jasmine Harrison on Saturday became the youngest woman—21—to row solo across the Atlantic, covering the ocean from Tenerife to Antigua in 70 days, 3 hours, and 48 minutes. You don't have to row solo in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, and plenty of rowers didn't. Harrison tells Explorers Web she opted to go it alone because “I haven’t met anyone I could row across an ocean with.”Marsh. Spring. Bay. Beach. Haddock. Salmon. Seal.... All ordinary words that happen to be names that also happen to be the names on gravestones in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. Alex Thurman is lead archivist with the International Internet Preservation Consortium and an amateur photographer (and the son-in-law of former Dresden supt. Wayne Gersen). He started walking through the historic cemetery's 478 acres last year, and one day took some pics of gravestones with names that were also words... and then found a lot more and launched "Green-Wood Glossary: a wording expedition."
Let's catch up...
NH reported 379 new cases Friday, 396 on Saturday, and 267 yesterday for a cumulative total of 73,413. There were 4 new deaths over the weekend, bringing the total to 1,154. Meanwhile, 109 people are hospitalized (down 17). The current active caseload stands at 2,940 (down 108). The state reports 258 active cases in Grafton County (up 32), 67 in Sullivan (no change), and 235 in Merrimack (up 10). In town-by-town numbers, the state says Claremont has 42 active cases (up 3), Enfield has 10 (up at least 6), Lebanon has 9 (down 3), Newport has 8 (down 2), Charlestown has 6 (down 1), New London has 6 (up 1), and Canaan has 5 (up at least 1). Haverhill, Piermont, Warren, Lyme, Hanover, Plainfield, Grantham, Springfield, and Sunapee have 1-4 each. Rumney and Orford are off the list.
VT reported 106 new cases Friday, 123 on Saturday, and 129 yesterday, bringing it to a total case count of 14,493. There were 4 deaths over the weekend, which now stand at 197 all told. Meanwhile, 38 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (no change). Windsor County gained 10 cases to stand at 1,012 for the pandemic, with 82 over the past 14 days. Orange County had 11 additional cases and stands at 492 cumulatively, with 31 cases over the past 14 days. In town-by-town numbers reported late last week, Springfield added 20 new cases over the week before, Norwich gained 6, Killington and Chelsea each added 5, Bethel and Newbury gained 4, Hartford and Randolph each gained 3, Woodstock, Cavendish, and Royalton each added 2, and Thetford, Vershire, and Sharon gained 1 apiece.
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At 1 pm today, Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine concludes its three-part public series of webinars on Covid-19 vaccines. Moderated by former Dartmouth board chair and health policy expert Susan Dentzer, today's presentation, "Eye on Equity: COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution in the U.S. and Worldwide,"will feature Dartmouth's Lisa Adams, who directs the Center on Global Health Equity; former Rwandan health minister Agnes Binagwaho, who is currently chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda; Niranjan Bose, managing director of health & life sciences at Gates Ventures; and Dartmouth economist Christopher Snyder.
At 4 pm, Dartmouth's Dickey Center hosts a panel on "New Opportunities for Arctic Science, Policy, and Diplomacy in the Biden Administration." It includes Mark Brzezinski, former executive director of the White House Arctic Executive Steering Committee; Dickey Center associate director Melody Burkins; Michael Sfraga, director of the Polar Institute and Global Risk and Resilience Program at the Wilson Center in DC; and is moderated by Ross Virginia, who directs the Dickey Center's Institute of Arctic Studies.
At 7 pm, the Howe's Ciné Salon hosts film historian Susan Delson talking about the Soundies—three-minute films made in the first half of the last century for a short-lived movie jukebox experiment. She'll focus in particular on one of their most intriguing innovators, director Dudley Murphy. You'll see Ellington, Bessie Smith, Hoagy Carmichael, and others, filmed between 1929 and 1941.
This evening at 8, the Hop hosts the world premiere of "24 Caprices," a virtual dance project it co-commissioned, by NYC's Dance Heginbotham in collaboration with violinist Colin Jacobsen. Based on Paganini's 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, the work creates 24 miniature dances filmed throughout NYC "capturing a moment in this unprecedented time." Free, but you'll need a ticket.
Starting today and lasting through Friday, UVM's Lane Series offers a free streaming concert by pianist Anne-Marie McDermott and members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. They'll be performing Mozart's Concerto in D minor for Piano and Strings and Smetana's Trio in G minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello. In addition to performing with the Society, McDermott is the artistic director of the Bravo! Vail Music and Ocean Reef Music festivals.
Finally, VerShare last week launched its annual fundraising Snowshoe-a-thon, which raises money for its Children's Activity Fund. This year it's virtual, and is open to participants from all over the Upper Valley. They've joined up with the Cross Rivendell Trails Association and are asking people to snowshoe, bike, walk, build a snowman, or even just send in photos of your surroundings. More info at the link.
Now. How to slip into the week? Ewa Jabłczyńska and Dariusz Kupiński are classically trained guitarists who met at the Polish Academy of Music and a few years after getting married decided to create the Kupiński Guitar Duo. They're known in Europe for expanding the classical guitar repertoire to take in orchestral works and pieces composed for piano or, as in this case, for piano and jazz band.
It runs 16 minutes, longer than most music in this spot, but just turn it on and go about your morning—except here's betting you keep checking back.
(Thanks, DW!)
See you tomorrow.
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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Banner by Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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