GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
About this week and next... Time for a Daybreak break! But not quite yet. It'll be off starting Friday this week and all the following week, through Monday, June 20. Back as usual on Tuesday, June 21. Vordlers, I know what you're thinking and don't worry, we've got you covered. Kevin McCurdy will keep it going for those 11 days, using a word that's in the local news, and you can sign up to get a reminder and link in your inbox each day. Do that here.What is this, California? No, of course not: There's a low pressure system approaching tomorrow night. But for today? Clear, sunny, and warm. Highs bumping up toward 80, breezes from the northwest this afternoon, along with maybe a few more clouds. Down into the mid-50s tonight.A fine fern backdrop.... For an Eastern Swallowtail in Hartland, by Zooey Zullo.Cyanobacteria warnings for Mascoma Lake, Goose Pond. On Friday, NH's Dept. of Environmental Services warned that "possible toxin-producing cyanobacteria (blue-green algae)" blooms have been spotted on both water bodies, appearing as thick green clouds in Mascoma Lake and as green streaks along portions of the Goose Pond shoreline. "Lake users should avoid contact with the water in areas experiencing cyanobacteria bloom conditions" DES says, "and keep children and pets out."Just a couple of Hartford selectboard members standing around talking... about Dan & Whit's. Ever wondered what the basement looks like, with all that firewood? Or how old the nail-weighing scale is? Or where the wine cellar is? Or why there's an old oxen yoke in the painting supplies passageway? Or what the store doesn't sell? Rocket, one of the selectboard's newest members, takes a tour with D&W owner Dan Fraser, who's also vice-chair of the board, for his "Rocket in Vermont" video series."Leaks, sneaks, and other assorted spy stories." That's a panel featuring a trio of prominent espionage experts at Bookstock, the much-loved celebration of all-things-book, which returns live to Woodstock this year after too long an absence. It's "a not-so-small mercy," Susan Apel writes in Artful. She talks to writer Joni Cole, who's taken over as Bookstock's director, about what's ahead and what's new (including a tent with poets for hire). It runs June 24-26.SPONSORED: Tomorrow and Wednesday, please help the Mascoma Community Healthcare Center through NHGives. Make your gift to the Center through NHGives.org from 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 7 until 5 p.m. June 8 and support the Center and its community-focused primary health and dental care. $50,000 from a generous donor will match your gift dollar for dollar and help the center provide care to Upper Valley residents from NH and VT, regardless of their ability to pay. Thank you! Sponsored by a friend of the Mascoma Community Healthcare Center.“Backyard eggs is how we do it here." Last week, 14 bike riders showed up in Thetford on the fifth day of their 69-day, 4,295-mile trek from Bar Harbor to Seattle for Bike the US for MS. As she's done since 2013, Thetford Center's Meg Darrow Williams, who has MS, hosted the group and organized her neighbors to help out—with food, laundry, and whatever else the riders needed. “I want to live here now," one of the group's riders said, impressed by the community response. And this year, writes LA Wetzel in the Valley News, the ride's organizers funded new equipment for Williams that will help her walking.And speaking of covering some distance... It's not quite transcontinental, but the Covered Bridges Half Marathon through Pomfret, Woodstock, and Quechee was yesterday, the first time it's been in-person since the pandemic. WCAX was there. "One thing I love about running," says a participant: "You see a lot more than when you're driving in a car.""We need Act 250...to be in top form." That, says VPR's Abagael Giles, is the sense among policy makers in Vermont who've been eyeing the development pressure brought about by the pandemic and the expected influx of newcomers moving due to climate change. With colleague Mitch Wertlieb, she unpacks the legislative maneuvering around housing and Act 250 reform—delving, for instance, into why policy makers want to make it easier to build new housing in downtown flood plains.How VT became "New England's Natural Wine Destination." Travel + Leisure's Valerie Stivers and Hank Zona don't quite answer that question, but they point out that, "as climate change redraws the wine-making map, many believe the industry's future will be in cooler regions like this, where a 'use what you have' ethos is producing exquisite results." They give quick descriptions of four "producers to know," including Barnard's La Garagista, all growing hardy varietals in vineyards up north.Oh, okay: One more video. Just because it's so... satisfying. Omozoc "that's their nom-de-YouTube) is a stop-motion animator who specializes (these days) in woodworking—but not quite as you'd imagine it. Case in point: making a fine-looking wooden butter case. It's short and captivating.The Monday Vordle. Just a reminder, in case you blithely skipped over the first item today: There'll be no Daybreak this Friday or next week. But never fear! You can sign up to get a daily email while it's gone with a link to the Vordle. One key thing: Use the email address you use for Daybreak or once the newsletter returns you'll be getting two of them.
Heads Up
Want to make a lasting impression? Lebanon ArtWays is running a "sidewalk poetry contest" for anyone who lives, works, or plays there: You can submit up to two poems, and judges will be choosing winners that will be stamped into the city's sidewalks. There are some constraints: a max of 275 characters including spaces that will be broken into roughly 30 characters per line. You've got until the end of the month to submit your fine work. Oh, and as they say: "Poems should be appropriate for a general audience."
Today at 5:30, Dartmouth history prof Matthew Delmont will give an online talk on the role Black troops played during World War II as part of NH Humanities' A More Perfect Union initiative. Delmont explores the vital role they played—from Normandy to the Battle of the Bulge as well as behind the front lines—as well as the discrimination they faced on their return and how both experiences fed the Civil Rights movement.
And in history of a different sort, there's a new documentary out about Leonard Cohen that tells the story of his life (did you know he was pressured to change his last name as a performer? To Leonard September?). But it's also the story of a single song—"Hallelujah"—and its extremely winding road, from Cohen's original to John Cale's version for
Shrek
to its near-anthem status in the wake of Jeff Buckley's death. The official premiere is this Sunday at the Beacon in NYC, with tribute performances by Judy Collins and others. Meanwhile, though,
See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson
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