GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
A tad warmer under a mix of sun and clouds. There's surface high pressure passing through New England today, bringing somewhat calmer winds than the last few days—which will also turn to come from the south today. Temps won't rise much—low or mid 20s—but at least it won't feel quite as crispy, and today sets up the rest of the week to be warmer. Chance of snow showers late in the day and overnight, lows in the low teens.Ice again! What nature—and people—can do.
Along a stream feeding into the Ottauquechee in Woodstock, from Brooke Beaird;
A slab on the Ompompanoosuc, from Sally Duston;
And, well, what Bob Lewy calls "a winter scene," from a walk in Norwich.
Time for Dear Daybreak! This week's collection of readers' posts about life in the Upper Valley contains just two, since they're a tad longer than usual: Tori Holt stumbles on a family in trouble late at night on the Ledyard Bridge, which leads to some fast-thinking ingenuity by a pair of young CVS employees; and Skip Sturman takes us along as he ponders all the post-retirement advice he got—and where it led. And hey! Got a good story about life in these parts? Send it in!DH joins effort to connect Alzheimer’s disease patients with the latest treatments. In fact, writes the Union Leader's Dave Pierce, it's the only health care system on the East Coast and one of just six in the US to become part of the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative's worldwide effort, known as the Brain Health Navigator program. The idea is in part to help families and caregivers keep up with fast-changing research and resources, and in part to give primary care docs a single point of contact if they see cognitive changes in patients.In addition to apartments, Twin Pines pursues affordable housing one dwelling at a time. In the Valley News, Emma Roth-Wells looks at that effort, after a Woodstock board backed a plan to replace an existing single-family house with a new one—cheaper, Twin Pines director Andrew Winter tells her, than renovating the existing house. The new home will eventually be sold for $250-$275K, far below Windsor County's median home price of $322K. Roth-Wells also checks in with photographer Kata Sasvari about Norwich's Starlake Village, an affordable-home community there. “I wish there would be more programs like this in every other school district,” says Sasvari.SPONSORED: Want to manage pain or reduce stress? Integrative Medicine at APD combines holistic health with traditional medical care to help patients decrease stress, strengthen the immune system, reduce pain, and speed recovery. We offer massage, acupuncture, cupping, energy healing, naturopathic medicine, and craniosacral therapy. Contact information, providers, and more here. Sponsored by Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital."Apparently, real sword fighting involves less swashbuckling and more careful footwork. Who knew?" For Seven Days' health and wellness issue, Hannah Feuer decided to find a way of making exercise fun, and her first stop (well, actually, her first first stop was a hula-hooping class for kids; oops) was the Noble Science Academy in Lebanon, which offers medieval sword-fighting lessons (longsword, rapier, dagger, and falchion). "We're gaining a window into how people actually fought with swords," organizer Jonathan Helland tells her. "Every Hollywood movie gets it wrong." Feuer gamely gives it a go.What's a few decades among friends? Boy, you know, it's not like Thornton Wilder's Our Town is some unknown piece of writing that's been ignored by the entire theater world from middle school on over the past 80-odd years. Which makes my too-hastily-written reference yesterday to a '30s-'40s time setting (I was thinking about its 1938 first production) all the more gobsmacking. As reader JD courteously points out, Wilder was being nostalgic: The play begins in 1901 (May 7, to be precise) and ends in 1913. Though portraying “the life of a village against the life of the stars,” as Wilder put it, is timeless. Right?SPONSORED: Crossroad Farm's CSA is now open for the 2025 season! Sign up now to take advantage of the early 10 percent discount. Farm Shares are available through discounted, pre-purchased credit and can be redeemed at the Norwich stand and the farm in Post Mills. Shares don't expire and can be used to purchase everything Crossroad carries, including fresh fruits and vegetables, hanging baskets, vegetable starts, and a wide variety of products from other growers and food producers. Sponsored by Crossroad Farm.A Q&A with Hanover High's athletic director about the decision not to offer soccer coach Rob Grabill a new contract. For his Octopus Athletics blog, sportswriter Tris Wykes asked Megan Sobel some pointed questions about moving on from the longtime coach; her answers—via email—are careful. What was the justification? (It was "based on a thoughtful evaluation"). Did complaints from players or parents play a role? (There was "no single factor"). Is the matter closed? ("Yes"). Would she consider assistant coach Sam Farnham? ("We are committed to a fair and comprehensive search process").Out there in the woods: birch conk. Though you probably know it as chaga. As Northern Woodlands' Jack Saul writes in this week's "This Week in the Woods", the parasitic fungus grows on birches (and poplar, hophornbeam, and other hardwoods) all year, but it's especially visible now that the leaves are down. The conk (the part you see) "likely serves to keep the fungus supplied with oxygen and does not produce spores," he adds. Also out there: tree sparrows, which have among the highest metabolisms of any vertebrates; and common mergansers, which are remarkably cold-hardy.NH education commissioner reverses course, now wants state to cover unanticipated special ed costs. Not long ago, NHPR's Annmarie Timmins notes, Frank Edelblut was telling school districts they'd have to bear some $16 million in costs—their requests over and above what he'd budgeted—themselves. But there's been pushback from parents, students, and taxpayers alarmed by the tax implications. Now, Timmins reports, Edelblut is working with legislators on a way to allow Gov. Kelly Ayotte to draw money from the Education Trust Fund to cover the shortfall.CTRL-SALT-DELETE. For the first time late last fall, NHDOT joined neighboring states to launch a Name-a-Plow contest. This one was open to the general public (unlike Vermont's version, which enlists schools), and after 3,000 people voted on the options, the agency has just announced seven winners. In addition to the top vote-getter in the headline, you might see Tomie DePlowa, Live Free and Plow, Adam Sander, Snow 3, The Big Leplowski, or Fritz Plowerbee out there on the highways. VT announced its plow names—and the schools that named them—back in November. (Thanks, HHC!)How a Democratic electoral shellacking has led VT's legislative leaders to rethink some things. As David Goodman points out on his Vermont Conversation podcast, Democrats in the state lost more legislative seats than anywhere else in the country last November. So he sits down with Senate Pres. Phil Baruth and House Speaker Jill Krowinski to talk about it. Baruth tells him that for the first time, Gov. Phil Scott has offered a "detailed, complex" plan with "multiple moving parts" to deal with property taxes and education finance. “Everything’s on the table," says Krowinski. "It's gotta be bold."Following along in Montpelier: Website enlists AI to create transcripts of committee hearings, floor proceedings. Late last year, Stowe tech entrepreneur and former VT transportation secretary Tom Evslin went up with a beta version of GoldenDomeVT, which generates those transcripts based on the legislature's YouTube livestreams—and links the text to the video. As VTDigger's Shaun Robinson writes, it's a godsend for a press corps that "can only be in one — maybe two — places at once, when we’d often love to be in three, or five, or maybe 10." But it's pretty great for ordinary citizens, too. In VT, a statewide effort to upgrade electrical panels. VT Public's Abagael Giles has a handy analogy: Your home's electrical panel is like a highway that "keeps all the electrons that power your lights and home appliances moving consistently and at the right speed." And in VT, a lot of panels are inadequate and too outdated to keep up with heat pumps and other replacements for fossil-fuel-powered appliances. The problem is, they're expensive to replace. Now, Efficiency Vermont has opened up a subsidy program for low- and moderate-income Vermonters. Giles goes into the ins and outs—and other options.
A government agency with a sense of humor? About health? In Seven Days, Dan Bolles writes about how social media posts from VT's health department have become destination scrolling. Sadie Goldfarb is behind the feeds, and says the agency has to be “really, really thoughtful” about timing and topics. One that hit the target: Ways to brighten up the darkest day of the year, posted on—you guessed it—the winter solstice. On Halloween, a post picturing Elliott and ET cautions, “since kids (and extraterrestrials) are on the hunt for candy, be sure to keep cannabis edibles stored safely and out of reach.”Life in Another Light. The human eye can see wavelengths in the visible light spectrum, from purple to red. Kolari’s infrared photography competition focuses on the wavelengths beyond that, where infrared cameras and lenses reveal otherworldly details. Like the pinpoints in Olga Ivanova’s first-place winner, “Stairsteps.” And the three winners in the ultraviolet category almost shimmer, especially Troy Casswell’s “Luminous Growth.” Even in black and white, there’s a surreal quality, captured in Muhammad Amdad Hossain’s “Beginning of the Winter Day.” Scroll through for all the detail and color the medium brings to life.
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Fleece vests, sweatshirts, head-warming beanies... Strong Rabbit has updated the Daybreak page to keep up with the changing weather. Plus, of course, the usual: 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!
It's the monthly meeting of BS & Beer (the "BS" stands for "Building Science"), a loose collection of builders, architects, and others who gather to talk buildings and energy efficiency. Today at 5 pm, Matt Christie will talk about how, as homes rely more and more on electricity, people can
assess electric service capacity and options like
smart panels, circuit splitters, low-power appliances, and more. Fits very nicely with Abagael Giles' story above.
The VT Center for Ecostudies biologist and director of the state's Loon Conservation Project will talk about the recovery of loons in Vermont over the past 30 years, the threats they still face, and the conservation actions that have brought them back. Online at 6:30 pm thanks to the Green Mountain Audubon Society. Link to registration form at the link.
Catamount Arts brings filmmaker Jay Craven's latest to the Norwich Public Library: a Revolutionary War era action drama set in the upstart Republic of Vermont and featuring the unlikely pairing of protagonists Ethan Allen (Kevin Ryan) and Lucy Terry Prince (Eva Ndachi). 6:30 pm.
The Vermont Room has an upright piano, and that's where the monthly gathering will be: "Players and singers, bring your sheet music to pass around (6-8 copies), or play along with others' music. Bring your voice, your instrument, your fake books, your tablets, and have a ball!" 6:30 pm.
They'll be talking, in particular, about their own Holocaust-touched family histories: Romero about the box of letters from 1938 she discovered at her parents’ home that detailed her family's escape from Nazi Germany and resettlement here, told in her book,
All For You
; and Neugass about his father,
Herman, the ‘Human Bullet’—an American Jewish sprinter who famously chose to boycott the 1936 Olympic trials. 6:30 pm.
The Dartmouth Political Union hosts the eminent scholars—West is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary, George directs the James Madison Program at Princeton, and both have carved out roles as public intellectuals—as they "examine the merits and challenges of capitalism and democratic socialism, discussing their impacts on economic justice, individual freedom, and social responsibility." Filene Auditorium, 7 pm.
.
Zoë Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz power Jacques Audiard's 2024 crime musical about a Mexican drug-cartel boss who seeks transgender surgery—and winds up running a charity dedicated to finding victims of the drug wars. "Description on a page can’t do justice to the delirium onscreen,"
Rolling Stone
wrote last year. 7 pm in the Loew Auditorium.
The 2015 film, based on the 2007 novel by Lisa Genova, stars Julianne Moore as
a renowned linguistics professor forced—along with her family—to grapple with her early-onset Alzheimer's. It's running the night before Bookstock's conversation between Genova and neuroscientist Melodie Winawer (more on that tomorrow). 7:30 pm in the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre.
Led by
vocalist and rhythm guitarist Cecil Abels, the band "plays original songs and exceptional songs from a deep well of bluegrass and Americana," writes the Flying Goose. "It’s just a fun group to spend the evening with!
" 7:30 pm. You'll need to call for reservations.
And this morning...
What might get your attention about Swedish mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman is that she's climate activist Greta Thunberg's mom, but Ernman has had a long and illustrious career since well before Thunberg rose to fame—as a sought-after opera singer, a cabaret singer, even a Eurovision finalist. She's a singer of remarkable expressiveness and approachability, talents she puts to great use with the rock-star
European early music group L'Arpeggiata, led by Christina Pluhar. Here's "
,
with Ernman singing,
Elisabeth Champollion on recorder, and the entire ensemble having a fine time.
See you tomorrow.
The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers, writers, and librarians who think you should read. this. book. now!
Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.
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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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