GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Just a quick note: On Friday, a software glitch at a vendor for the platform I use to send out Daybreak caused about 2,000 of you not to get the newsletter until mid-afternoon—if then. Sorry about that. Beehiiv, my sending platform, says the issue’s fixed, so here’s hoping. If ever you don’t get Daybreak when you’re expecting it, just go to daybreak.news and you should find that day’s post right there.
Mostly sunny (eventually), but chance of showers this afternoon. Things remain unsettled today and tomorrow, with a chance of occasional showers. Highs today in the mid 70s, lows in the low or mid 50s.
Transcendent ‘shroom. You wouldn’t want to eat it without thoroughly identifying it, but you sure can admire its round and delicate beauty from above. From Carin Pratt.
Midnight rescue in WRJ from banks of the Connecticut. Last night’s heavy rain loosened the ground beneath a tent where a couple was sleeping, reports Eric Francis for Daybreak, sending them tumbling down an embankment onto the rocks beside the river and injuring the woman’s ankle. Hartford police and firefighters, along with a rope rescue crew from Hanover fire, hiked in along the railroad tracks that parallel the river and, finding that the woman wasn’t badly injured, put her in a harness and helped her walk up to the railroad embankment. The couple, originally from Maine, made their own way from the scene. Story and photos at the link.
Facing criticism, exasperated Putnam’s vine/yard owner in WRJ pulls down explicit video, but larger issue remains. In the Valley News over the weekend, Marion Umpleby describes the aftermath of Kelsey Rush’s decision to post security cam footage of a couple engaging in sex on Putnam’s outdoor patio: “I was definitely triggered by the idea that this gentleman and his partner were…trespassing, being lewd, leaving behind fluids on places customers sit…,” Rush tells Umpleby—and that other incidents, from drug use to theft, have become daily occurrences. In her piece, Umpleby details the blowback that led Rush to apologize—but also what Stephanie Waterman of Putnam’s neighbor GrowPro calls “this incredible degradation downtown.”
Speaking of downtown WRJ, today’s the day parking enforcement begins. Just a reminder that paid parking in certain lots and areas began as of 9 this morning. The cost at the kiosks (or by text-to-pay or parking apps) is $1 an hour from 9-5. At the link, the town’s information page, including parking-meter zones.
SPONSORED: Add art to your home! On Friday, August 28th you are invited to 10X10=AVA Benefit & Silent Auction in Lebanon. The exhibition runs through this Thursday, followed by a silent auction on the 28th where you can bid on over 100 works of art. There’s a 5-6 PM Collector Preview Hour: celebrate with hors d’oeuvres and champagne toast! $100 per person; then 6-8 PM General Admission, $25 per person. Click the burgundy link or here to buy tickets! Dress to impress: wear AVA's signature red, yellow, and blue palette! Sponsored by AVA Gallery.
For Parish Players’ production of Ghosts, “We are getting rid of the stiff collars and ballroom gowns.” As Susan Apel writes in Artful, Henrik Ibsen’s 1881 play (first staged in Chicago the following year) “seldom makes a reappearance,” but it was staged at Lincoln Center last year and comes to the Grange Theater on Thetford Hill next month, with its treatment of incest, syphilis, euthanasia, and other touchy subjects. “There’s an element of raw fear that permeates this play. Every character is desperately trying to control the circumstances surrounding their lives,” director Aaron Hodge tells Susan. Also at the link: rePlay Arts’ “Fabric of Community” is heading to DC.
Claremont’s MakerSpace hosts startup guitar business. Donald Franks II, who started 22 Frets LLC a year ago, has become the MakerSpace’s inaugural Entrepreneur in Residence, reports Patrick O’Grady in the VN. The electric guitar maker, a disabled Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and a substitute teacher at Fall Mountain High School, gets not only studio space, but everyday use of the MakerSpace’s laser cutter and other shop tools. “I think this will be fantastic for the business,” he tells O’Grady. “Already it has helped me with the two biggest things: a space to work and exposure for the business.”
Longtime Laconia Bike Week organizer and NH state rep dies after motorcycle accident. Charlie St. Clair was on his way to the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD on Aug. 4 when he crashed in Ohio “due to a tire issue,” reports NHPR’s Dan Tuohy. He died on Saturday of what the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association called “catastrophic injuries.” St. Clair, a Democrat, represented Laconia in the state House, but his longest official tenure was as chair of Laconia Motorcycle Week, a position he held for 35 years. "Millions of people have been coming here because of Charlie and his efforts. He single-handedly kept this going,” his cousin tells WMUR.
VT will be sending out mail-in ballots soon. The Secy of State’s office wants you to be sure your current address is on file. The office will be sending out general-election ballots to all registered voters starting late next month, using whatever address is on file as of Sept. 1, reports VTDigger’s Shaun Robinson. This is especially an issue if you’ve moved since the 2024 general election. “We want to make sure that ballots are going exactly where the voter lives,” Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas tells Robinson. He details the various ways voters can cast their ballots—and the steps the state and town clerks have taken to be certain they’re accurate and secure.
The Monday Jigsaw: The Hanover Boat Association on the Connecticut in 1889. That’s the old Ledyard Free Bridge at the right, and “women in long dresses with hats and parasols, men in a mix of three-piece suits and more relaxed outfits, many in straw boaters, and a crowd of spectators gathered along the far bank, writes the Norwich Historical Society’s Cam Cross on his Curioustorian Substack. He notes that the Wilder Dam began operating in 1950, raising water levels, so “the low shoreline here, the little landing, the steps cut down to the water where those boats were put in, all of it is under the river now.”
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from Friday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
At the New London Barn Playhouse: CeCe Teneal's Divas of Soul. The powerhouse vocalist brings chart-toppers from artists like Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, and others to the Barn stage for one day and night only. Performances today at 4 pm and 8 pm.
And for today...
Sure! Here’s the “sizzle reel” from CeCe Teneal’s Divas of Soul (this afternoon and tonight at the New London Barn Playhouse) just to get you up and moving to start the week…
See you tomorrow.
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