GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Relief! A fast-moving cold front is bringing us this morning's much-needed rain (and slight chance of thunder), but it should be exiting east by early afternoon. In its wake: drier air, temps nicely in the mid-to-upper 70s, mid- or lower 50s tonight.The charismatic moths are out...
Like this luna moth in Strafford, from Amber Wylie (and thanks to all of you who sent in other luna moths!);
And this bumblebee moth, from Mike Zwikelmaier;
And this resplendent cecropia moth in Hartland, from Zooey Zullo, who writes that its wingspan "is wider than my hand's width."
That's Hanover town manager Julia Griffin, who steps down this week after a quarter-century in the post, reflecting on Dartmouth's reaction to her insistence that the college be held to strict standards in planning and zoning. In the
Valley News
, Alex Hanson takes a look back at Griffin's impact, in particular her strides in professionalizing what had been an informal town government when she arrived. He also looks ahead to issues facing new town manager Alex Torpey, from housing to declining civic participation.
"I did not ask for the flags to be taken down, but there needed to be an acknowledgment that it’s not a welcoming symbol for everyone.” That's Hartford Selectboard member and Revolution owner Kim Souza, explaining to the VN's Jim Kenyon why, at a mid-June board meeting, she questioned the decision to let American Legion Post 84 to put 28 American flags on light poles down Route 5 and into town; they're scheduled to remain through Veterans Day in November. Souza's move has sparked "social media fireworks," Kenyon writes. Souza's accepted an invitation to meet with Post 84 members.SPONSORED: Do something special this week! Come swing dancing! It’s a very special SWING DANCE this Wednesday night, 8-11 PM, at Kimball Union Academy. We’ll take you back to the heyday of swing dancing in Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom, when nightly dances attracted the best dancers in the New York area. Interplay’s wonderful faculty band will feature vocals from faculty and students. Tickets are $20, and benefit the Interplay Jazz Camp scholarship fund. Purchase online at the link, or at the door, 7 Campus Center Drive in Meriden, NH. Sponsored by Interplay Jazz & Arts.Getting you up to speed on Sondheim. Of course, if you're already a fan, writes Susan Apel in Artful, "you know." But if you need an introduction to how he proved that "a musical can be just as complex as a play, that lyrics can be as nuanced as dialogue, and that songs can express emotions that are perhaps even deeper than words," as Northern Stage's Carol Dunne puts it, then NS's Side by Side by Sondheim will get you there, Susan writes. Intriguingly, it also turns out that Sondheim worked with local puzzle-maker Stave Puzzles to create keepsake mementos for cast and crew members.Behind the scenes at Here in the Valley. In Sidenote, Li Shen details the collaboration between Thetford guitarist Chris Billiau and Wilder musicians Jakob Breitbach and Jes Raymond to "increase opportunities for artists and bring a greater sense of community to the many performers in our area." There's the Tuesday Jukebox, of course, and, Li writes, HitV has created a portable way for musicians to livestream shows and create performance footage (working with CATV/JAM). And they've hatched the RiverFolk Music Festival next month, using Northern Stage's Courtyard Theater.A budget-busting expense Upper Valley towns didn't anticipate: July 4 fireworks. Costs have soared, Liz Sauchelli reports in the VN, with towns that used to spend $5,000 or $7,000 now being charged at least $10,000—thanks to shipping costs for fireworks that have risen from $5K for a container from China five years ago to $45K now. Canaan has cancelled its show. Other towns are finding ways to meet the additional cost: Lebanon is shifting revenues from events like the Shamrock Shuffle; Claremont got a grant from Walmart; Fairlee got a gift from an anonymous donor; Hartford absorbed the jump."Uniquely exposed to a global market and global prices." Talk about budget-busters... With electricity prices in NH looking like they're going to jump some 50 percent, there's lots of finger-pointing going around, writes NH Bulletin's Amanda Gokee. Solutions? They're going to take time. Cheaper rates at night and boosting energy efficiency are two approaches favored by consumer advocate Don Kreis—who also notes that NH Electric Co-op makes a priority of finding good deals. That's also the approach community power towns might take, once regs are set. At home? Shop around, advocates say."Healing is not linear. I am going to have good days, I'm going to have bad days." A new Ken Burns documentary on youth mental health, directed by brothers Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers, premieres tonight across the country. One of the people featured in it is Brattleboro's Samantha Fisher, who talks to Vermont Public's (yep, the name change is now official) Mitch Wertlieb about dealing with her daily waves of trauma-induced depression, what it was like to participate in the documentary, and her craving for "a little bit of calm and mundane and simple things.""Call me Ishmael." Yeah, yeah, you've read it. But have you typed it? Or the next line, starting, "Some years ago—never mind how long precisely..."? There's this site, Typelit.io, that helps you buff up your typing skills by going at not just Moby Dick, but Anna Karenina, The Art of War, Leaves of Grass, Lupin, The Souls of Black Folk, The Wizard of Oz, The Elements of Style, and a host of other books in the public domain. You just click into a text and start re-typing what you see. Typelit gives you typing speed and accuracy rate. It's a little humbling, but by gum... "CHAPTER I. Down the Rabbit-Hole."The Monday Vordle. For all you newcomers out there: It's Wordle for the Upper Valley, with the word related to an item in yesterday's Daybreak (or, in this case, Friday's).
It's a rainy Monday morning. So let's see if we can't get a little spring in our step for the rest of the day. Please welcome The Heimatdamisch, a Bavarian oompah band that covers the rock classics,
You're welcome.
(Oh, if you want more you could also check out
from a few years back).
See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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