GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
A word about using Daybreak. You know how sometimes, something you've done for years seems so obvious to you that you forget not everyone's in on it? It became clear yesterday that some number of you hadn't realized that almost every headline in Daybreak, the one in burgundy, is a link to content: an article, a video, a sponsor's webpage. If you want to learn more about a particular item, click on that burgundy headline and you'll get whooshed right there. From time to time the text will contain an underlined link, as well.Now then... Today's weather is actually thanks to a different low pressure system from yesterday's, and a lot will depend on surface temps where you are. Higher terrain is likely to see snow showers today. It'll be warmer in the valleys, and highs around here will be in the mid 30s, so a decent part of this region could get rain showers, as well—some roads are slick or slushy out there right now. Winds today from the south, switching eventually to come from the northwest, gusty this afternoon. Mid or upper teens tonight.Atmospherics. As the light begins to fail on a quiet afternoon, a view of Bridge Street in WRJ (with the Main Street Museum in the background) from the banks of the White River, by Casey Carney.Crews rescue man from atop car floating in Connecticut River. Details are scanty, but firefighters from Plainfield, Lebanon, Hartford, Hanover, Windsor and Hartland headed to the scene off River Road in Plainfield after the call came in around 6:30 last night. Using cold water rescue equipment and boats, it took them about 40 minutes to bring the man to shore. Link goes to Hanover Fire Department video of the rescue. No word as of last night on how the car got there or how the man is doing.Hartford hires new police chief from Rutland. The town announced yesterday that Rutland Police Commander Gregory Sheldon will start Feb. 6. As the Valley News's Patrick Adrian reports, Sheldon replaces acting chief Connie Kelley, who had strong support from rank-and-file members. “I think he will do a great job here, and I think the Selectboard made a very good choice,” Kelley tells Adrian, while local union pres. Daniel Solomita adds that Sheldon's "credentials are impressive and his values align with our department’s.” In Rutland, Sheldon also ran a coalition on social and health issues.
Valley Regional Hospital orthopedic surgeon charged with sexual assault. Claremont police arrested Dr. Thomas Marks at his office on Tuesday, according to a police press release (here via InDepthNH ), after an investigation that began last month following a sexual assault allegation by a patient. Marks was scheduled for arraignment yesterday in Sullivan County Superior Court. The release adds that Valley Regional "is cooperating with the investigation, and an official report to the New Hampshire Board of Medicine is expected without delay."SPONSORED: Crossroad Farm's CSA is now open for the 2023 season. Sign up now to take advantage of the early 7 percent discount. Farm Shares are available through discounted, pre-purchased credit and can be redeemed at the Norwich farmstand and the farm in Post Mills. Shares don't expire and can be used to purchase everything Crossroad carries, including hanging baskets, vegetable starts, fresh fruits and vegetables, and a wide assortment of products from other local farms. Sponsored by Crossroad Farm.In WRJ, an oasis opens. With wine. Putnam's vine/yard set up in the old Freight House and opened its doors three weeks ago, and it's "an oasis of plants, comfortable chairs, chair swings, an indoor pergola, funky wall-paper, and dozens of tables surrounded by greenery," writes Allegra Lubrano in a Daybreak story. Kelsey Rush, a Dartmouth grad who returned to the region in 2021 with her kids and fellow-grad husband, is serious about wine and plants, and wants to pass her delight on through classes, an extensive wine bar, and a lush spot to sit and enjoy it all.AVA's cats and dogs: "Art for the sheer delight of it." Susan Apel's been hanging out at the gallery's exhibit, Unconditional, An Exhibition About Dogs and Other Beloved Pets—which, in her latest Artful post, she calls "an homage to the companions of our heart." There are dogs, of course, including Travis Paige's soulful Penny and Marcie Scudder's "Sonny and Cher," but also cats—on the page and in 3D—and a cow, and more. In all, 32 artists are represented in the show.And in Hanover—and Brattleboro—bioplastics that transform light. Bioplastics, writes Eric Sutphin in the Valley News, are non-toxic and renewable "plant or animal-based materials that function much like traditional plastics." And Hanover artist Lia Rothstein, who is this year's Climate Change Artist in Residence at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, uses them to create sculptures that play with texture, color, and how light is transmitted. Sutphin talks to her about what she's after. Meanwhile, Alex Hanson highlights the Main Street Museum's search for its next under-16 "One Case Curation" curator and for contributors who want to make a paint-by-number cow unique. Or not.SPONSORED: Join the Dartmouth Cancer Center’s study about health and cancer-related topics. You’ll read information, watch a video, and answer survey questions. You may receive a gift card for your time. You’ll find the survey at the burgundy link or you can click here. Please email [email protected] for more information. Sponsored by the Dartmouth Cancer Center.And in Covid news...
In NH, the state yesterday reported 171 new cases, with an average now of 145 cases per day for the week between Jan. 19 and Jan. 25. That's down 13 percent from the week before. Meanwhile, the state hospital association reported 97 people hospitalized with Covid yesterday, down from 144 a week ago.
And in VT, writes VTDigger's Erin Petenko, the state continues to report "low" community levels of Covid, though several metrics are rising. Hospitalizations are back to where they were two weeks ago, at 41 over the past week, compared to 31 last week. Positive test results have also bumped up, from 423 in last week's state report to 455 this week. Two wastewater testing sites, in Burlington and Brighton, reported spikes, though the rest of the state's testing sites (none of which are around here) showed minor changes.
As childhood vaccination rates drop in NH, public health officials fret. It's not a huge drop, reports Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin: from 95 percent of students in public and private schools who are up to date on vaccines against such diseases as diphtheria, mumps, and measles, to 93 percent. The biggest contributor: Staff shortages and the pandemic made annual physicals scarcer, and that's where vaccines tend to happen; medical practices are still playing catch-up. Vaccine skepticism also plays a role, Timmins writes, but interestingly, religious exemptions in the state have actually dropped.Maybe Saap started something? Four VT chefs and bakers and a brewery are on the James Beard Award semifinalist list. None of them are in this part of the state, but you can bet they've got Nisachon "Rung" Morgan of Randolph's Saap restaurant on their minds. In Seven Days, Jordan Barry reports that a S. Burlington Eritrean/Ethiopian caterer and pop-up restaurateur and the chef at Burlington neighborhood spot May Day are up for best in the Northeast, while Burlington pastry chef Amanda Wildermuth and Middlebury bakery Haymaker Bun are up in different baking categories. Foam Brewers also gets a nod.“We’re getting buried in our own trash." It's been 10 years since VT's Universal Recycling Law passed, with its goal of recycling and composting half its waste. But, says a new report from the state's Dept of Environmental Conservation, Vermonters still create about the same amount of waste as they did a decade ago. And that's not the only bad news. PFAS chemicals "are threatening recycling, composting and waste disposal," writes VTDigger's Fred Thys, municipalities are struggling with the cost of collecting household hazardous waste, lithium-ion batteries are setting facilities on fire, and more.“Anything can happen in pinball. People have off days.” That’s Jody Stahlman, coordinator of the Vermont pinball competition, describing the twists and turns along the road to determining which Vermont players will head to the North American pinball championship series. Seven Days' Steve Goldstein was there and captures the competition in all its pinging, dinging glory, writing about the players, the lingo, and the culture. “Pinball humor: The Lord of the Rings pinball machine doesn't take quarters. It only accepts Tolkiens.”Another reason to limit screen time. Apparently, this is a thing: Motion-detecting software can pick up the movements of fish as they swim and trigger inputs to a video game. Wait, that’s not the weird part. A Japanese YouTuber was live-streaming his finny friends playing Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. He left them alone (big mistake), the game crashed, the fish kept swimming, and, as luck would have it, hit just the right spots to authorize charges to the guy’s credit card—and share it with everyone watching the live stream.The Thursday Vordle. With an intriguing word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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Today at 5:30, Still North Books & Bar hosts novelist and non-fiction writer Kimberly Olson Fakih. Born in Iowa, raised in Minnesota, now living in New York, she sets her new novel, Little Miseries, in Iowa and Minnesota in the '60s and '70s, a linked set of stories narrated by the middle child of a family that's come down a bit in life. The throughline of its vignettes, Kirkus writes, show "how catastrophic the secret world of grown-ups can truly be on the delicate web that is a family."
This evening at 6:30, the Norwich Historical Society kicks off a series of Zoomed presentations that are focused on Norwich but are also of broader interest. Tonight, historical society director Sarah Rooker tells the story of an 1840s bible that had been vandalized "by rogues," as a Congregational Church deacon wrote on the back cover in 1848. There was unrest in town and regionally, and Rooker will explore the tensions and personalities. Register at the Zoom link; there's a suggested contribution, with 20 percent of it going to Health Care & Rehabilitation Services.
"Are You Smarter Than a Bird Nerd?" That's VINS's question, and there's only one way to find out. From 6:30-8:30 this evening at the Public House in Quechee, VINS is hosting a night of nature-themed trivia (plus classic categories like music, history, and sports) with a team of VINS educators ready to take on all comers. No need to register in advance.
At 7 this evening, the Dunbar Free Library in Grantham is presenting an online talk by writer, farmer, former NH Ag Commissioner, and what-he-doesn't-know-probably-isn't-worth-knowing NH historian Steve Taylor, "New Hampshire Roads Taken or Not." He'll be talking about the development of the highway system in the state, how choices on route, exits, and everything else about them got made, and the economic, social, and cultural changes that followed.
Also at 7 and also online, the Green Mountain Club hosts Liz Derstine, who set a self-supported Fastest Known Time for the Long Trail last August, for "A Woman Alone in the Woods at Night." She'll be talking about going from novice to confident nighttime solo hiker, and how to prepare similar adventures.
Finally, whenever it suits you, JAM's got some highlights for the week, including Hanover Town Manager talking about the strengths and trend-setting possibilities of local government at the Rockefeller Center a few weeks back; writer Donald Yacovone talking at the Norwich Bookstore last fall about his book Teaching White Supremacy on the history of white supremacist ideas in US education; and music from Root 5 Jive to chamber music for flute and piano to Jaden Gladstone performing upstairs at Dan & Whit's on clawhammer banjo and fiddle.
And to start the day...
Hard as this may be to believe, Jethro Tull (well, Ian Anderson and bandmates) is not only still touring, but still producing new albums—the first in decades came out a year ago, and now
Rökflöte
is due in April.
and it's—well, it's Tull. Only, does anyone else think the video's animator is channeling Yes album art?
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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