GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Daybreak is brought to you this week with help from Good Neighbor Health Clinic & Red Logan Dental Clinic, celebrating the 34th year caring for the Upper Valley! If you need care or want to make care possible for your neighbors, visit our website here. Access to care is changing, but Good Neighbor is always here to help.
Sunny, warm. There’s high pressure in place, and with barely any clouds and calm winds, we’re looking at a dry, pleasant day, with highs around 70 or even above, then clear skies tonight with lows either side of 40.
Welcome to the week! With a riot of color in Boscawen, NH, from Janice Fischel.
100,000. That’s the estimate for how many people visited the Revo Casino and Social House on Lebanon’s Miracle Mile. In all, reports Clare Shanahan in the Valley News, the casino (which has 137 electronic slot machines, 10 gaming tables, five poker tables, a stage, a radio studio, and a bar and restaurant) took in $26.13 million last year; with state law requiring that casino revenues be shared with charities and the state itself, Revo sent $3.72 million to charities (about $1.4 million of that stayed local) and $3.96 million to the state. The casino’s largest local grants went to City Center Ballet and Spark! Community Center, each of which took in about $67,000.
Gumbo in W. Woodstock? At tomorrow night’s Woodstock Development Review Board meeting, reports Marion Umpleby in the VN, Robinson Farm—which also operates an inn and events business—plans to seek approval for Green Mountain Gumbo, a food truck on the site run by Jared Bourgeois, a Louisiana-born chef who has been running a Northern Virginia food truck called Jambalaya Bros. and is husband of farm operations manager Heather Ingegneri. Assuming the board approves the request, he’ll concentrate on the Woodstock business, which will operate both on the farm and as a mobile truck and would improve “the abysmal lack of places to eat in this area of Woodstock,” Ingegneri tells Umpleby.
Evidently, the USA Today folks didn’t check in with her. “Her” being Heather Ingegneri. Otherwise, Woodstock might not have wound up as No. 8 on USA Today’s list of Ten Best Small Town Food Scenes in the US, right between Solvang, CA and Sewickley, PA. The town, writes the paper, sports “a fantastic food scene focused on local ingredients, artisanal breads, and farm-to-table cuisine. Locals and guests enjoy weekly farmers markets; fine dining in restored inns; and sampling delicious chocolate, cheese, and craft cider from nearby producers.” Which, let’s be honest, could describe any number of towns in these parts. Tops in the country? Lewisburg, WV.
SPONSORED: Mother’s Day is May 10! Celebrate her with something as meaningful as she is. At Dutille’s Jewelry, discover beautifully crafted pieces, from timeless diamond studs to custom designs made just for her. Our expert team is here to help you find a gift she’ll treasure for years to come. Shop in-store or explore more at the burgundy link or at dutilles.com. Sponsored by Dutille’s Jewelry.
Looking ahead to farmers market season. The Norwich outdoor market opens this coming Saturday, followed quickly by Lebanon on May 14, Canaan on May 17, then Chelsea on May 22 and the Mt. Tom market May 23. In the Standard, Justin Bigos checks in with a few markets to lay out what’s on tap: “a few new young, up-and-coming farmers,” Norwich manager Nica Mieloch-Blinn says, plus a vendor selling concha, a Mexican bread pastry; a new harvest-season chili cook-off at the Hartland market (opening May 29); and new farms plus new prepared-food vendors Ravioli Ravioli and Double U Dough at Woodstock’s Market on the Green (opening June 3).
There’ll also be a lot of music in the air. The Standard’s Emma Stanton lays out what’s ahead, and it’s a busy, remarkable summer. Artistree’s Music on the Hill starts up June 24, with acts including Evan Panzer, Rose Hip Jam, and the Ben Kogan Band; Hartford’s Summer Concerts in the Park also begin June 24, while Pentangle’s Music by the River series returns July 3. There are summer concert series in Hartland and at Killington, plus, of course, Feast & Field in Barnard and a three-concert Ascutney Mountain Music Series. There are one-offs like “Riverfolk” at Northern Stage (July 17) and the VSO at Saskadena Six. And though Stanton doesn’t mention it, don’t forget the Lake Morey Resort (including Guster, The Revivalists, and Walk Off the Earth).
SPONSORED: Mark your calendars and don't miss out on what's arguably the Upper Valley's Best Pancake Breakfast! Blueberries, OJ, sausage, and REAL maple syrup! Saturday, May 2nd 7:30 - 9:00AM. Hanover Fire Station where kids of all ages can see the fire trucks up close. Park at 45 Lyme Road. Family friendly! $5.00 Adults. $3.00 youngsters 5 to 16. Children under 5 are FREE. Sponsored by Hanover Rotary Club to fund our local and international service projects.
In Strafford, what goes around. As VT Public’s Mikaela Lefrak told it last week on NPR’s All Things Considered, it all began with a raffle for the local Lions Club. Michael Curtis, a WRJ urologist, wanted to donate something. “I make maple syrup, but so does practically everybody else in Strafford,” he tells Lefrak. So he offered up a vasectomy. Which was won by Brooke Wilkinson, a music teacher who, as Lefrak puts it, “does not need a vasectomy.” But a few days later, a co-worker sidles up during music class at the nursery school. Among other things, she and her husband raise beef cattle. You can guess the rest. “They all make plans to grill burgers together at the farm this summer,” reports Lefrak.
From Lake Winnipesaukee’s depths: a pickup truck. The Honda Ridgeline went into the lake on March 13, after its ice fisherman owner drove over a thin patch of ice. Attempts to remove it in the days afterward—including towing it underwater to ¾ mile off Gilford town beach and creating a “canal” with a chainsaw, were not just unsuccessful, but sent alarms rippling among local officials worried about environmental hazards. Eventually, reports the Laconia Daily Sun’s Bob Martin, the recovery wound up in the hands of the state. And so, last week, in a complex operation, crews pulled the vehicle from about 50 feet of water to a flatbed at the town docks. Martin describes the whole effort.
From a bear’s den, chuckles and a squawk you can’t ignore. The chuckles, writes VT Fish & Wildlife on a new video recorded by researchers studying black bear reproduction, are “almost like a cat's pur turned up to 11. Bear cubs make this sound when they are content, such as when they're getting a good meal.” The squawk? It’s “the shrill punctuation you hear every few seconds in this clip, from the cub who is trying to get back to nursing. Bear cubs make this sound to express displeasure or get attention... and we're pretty confident it works!” Volume up (but not too far)…
The Monday Jigsaw: Maxfield Parrish’s “Daybreak”. Don’t you just love getting meta? As Cam Cross writes on his Curioustorian blog, Parrish “created dream-like idyllic worlds. He often began with a photograph of a staged scene using family and friends”—and did a lot of his work at the Cornish Colony in Plainfield. Here’s Wikipedia on the painting; prints of it, apparently, have outsold Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans and Leonardo's Last Supper.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from Friday’s Daybreak.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
THERE'S SOME GREAT DAYBREAK SWAG! Like Daybreak tote bags, sweatshirts, head-warming beanies, t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
HEADS UP
Dartmouth’s Rockefeller Center hosts “Women, the Law, and a Better Democracy” with Mimi Rocah, Joyce White Vance, and Dahlia Lithwick. Rocah’s the former DA for Westchester County and now teaches law at Fordham; Vance is a former US attorney who now teaches law at the U of Alabama and is a legal analyst for MSNOW; and Lithwick is a lawyer, journalist, podcast host, and MSNOW analyst. They’ll be in Rocky 003 at 1 pm as well as livestreamed here.
Dartmouth’s Climate Collaborative hosts Ayana Elizabeth Johnson for “What If We Get It Right?” Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, writer, scholar at Bowdoin and founder of the Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for the future of coastal cities. Her book on climate solutions—it ”reads more like a curiously helpful map than the usual doom-esque climate texts,” wrote Rolling Stone—just came out in paperback. She’ll be talking with earth sciences prof Erich Osterberg in Wilder 104 at 4:30 pm.
And for today...
Well, heck, since we were just talking about The Revivalists…
See you tomorrow.
Looking for all of the hikes, Enthusiasms, daybreak photos, or music that Daybreak has published over the years? Go here!
And always, if you’re not a subscriber yet:
Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on Daybreak’s homepage.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editors: Jonea Gurwitt, Sam Gurwitt
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to visit daybreak.news to sign up.
Thank you!
