GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
So, that high pressure overhead is Canadian high pressure... Maybe that's why it's a tad on the chilly side this morning. Plenty of sunshine, though there may be some high clouds later in the day. Away from the CT River, temps getting up into the mid-to-high 20s; a bit higher right in the river valley, maybe as high as 30. Mostly clear tonight, back down into the single digits."I do believe innovation is the key." Woodstock writer Virginia Dean's landed the first interview with new town manager William Kerbin, who's moving there from Virginia and takes office March 25. "The town has a great small-town quality that is becoming quite rare in the country, including New England," he says. So one of the challenges he sees: evolving to remain vibrant in ways "that still reflect Woodstock’s traditions and values." Oh, also crucial to know: His dog's name is Otto.Judge gives preliminary approval to Dartmouth sexual misconduct settlement. The Dartmouth reports that US District Court Judge Landya McCafferty, in a 43-page order, says the court will likely approve the proposed settlement, and set a June hearing on final approval of the terms. The settlement class includes the original nine plaintiffs who alleged sexual misbehavior in the Psychology and Brain Sciences Department, as well as current or former female students who "can attest they experienced harm as a result of the professors’ actions."It's becoming a thing: Seven Days checks in with King Lear rave. "The secret of conveying Shakespeare's language to an audience is finding actors who convey its meaning to each other," writes contributing writer (and sometime theater director) Alex Brown. "This company's exchanges blaze with emotional clarity and dramatic surprise." The play's essence, she writes, "is loss and the flicker of understanding that follows it. This superb production kindles that flame in a windswept world."Strafford's school board opts to keep 7th, 8th grades in town. You may remember that the board last year hired an independent consultant to look into discontent among middle-school parents and students. In the fall, 7th and 8th graders began traveling to Thetford Academy in the afternoon for electives. But at its meeting Tuesday, the board decided to keep the students at the Newton School at least for another year, to end the TA arrangement, and to create a planning committee to look at options down the road. (VN)Mount Monadnock Sunday. Taken from the top of Miller State Park by Reddit user mattbert. A layer of golden light, shadows above to the summit, snow, granite....Also Sunday, there was a five-car pileup on I-89 in Hartford. On the northbound exit ramp for Quechee/Woodstock after a car hit an icy patch and slid into the median. WCAX went up yesterday with the pic. I know, it's shameless rubber-necking... but also a reminder to take it easy out there.Woodstock's Ward Goodenough named new Windsor County States Attorney. Goodenough, a VLS graduate, takes over from David Cahill, who stepped down last week. Goodenough, who's also a volunteer firefighter in Woodstock, currently prosecutes cases in the northern half of the county, and handled the case of Amanda Zanis, the woman who stabbed her boyfriend in Norwich. "More and more kinds of retail establishments are looking to create an experience, it’s something that bookstores have been doing all along." That's Ally Levy talking to Junction Mag's Taylor Long. Levy's the creative mind behind Still North Books in Hanover, and Long is up with a wide-ranging, entertaining interview. A definite moment: "I was over at Lou’s... I had just ordered and I got a text...saying hey, come back, Lauren Groff is here. And she’s one of my three favorite authors, and I was like, 'I’m so sorry, I have to leave' and I ran back across the street."Grandmother. Sunapee school bus driver. Five-time world arm wrestling champion. That would be Cathy Merrill, profiled by CBS Boston. First time ever was at a county fair, with her friend Jim. "I was like ‘I don’t really know if I want to.’ So Jim said, ‘I’ll pay the entry fee and if you win I’ll buy you some fries.’ Well you’re not going to not do it for fries.” She won, was hooked, and started training with a team in Manchester called.... Granite Arms.Haverhill school pulls out of deal to acquire former Southern Vermont College campus. You may juuust remember that last fall the Oliverian School, which sits along the Moosilauke Highway in Pike, agreed to buy the 371-acre Bennington campus for $4.9 million, intending to move there. On Friday, though, the trustees decided the economics — especially maintenance and repair costs — wouldn't work out. Vermont's growing "Second Amendment Sanctuary" movement: symbolic protest or bid to defy state law? Frustrated with gun control moves in Montpelier, gun rights advocates are pushing towns to declare federal and state regulations "null and void." Seven Days' Derek Brouwer writes that backers insist they're just trying to send a message. The AG's office sees things differently. "Cities and towns passing resolutions purporting to opt-out of compliance with state laws," it says in a statement, "are not valid."If you're a cheese grader, best to do it on an empty stomach. That, according to this Modern Farmer profile of Cabot Creamery grader Gina Accorsi, is when your taste buds are at their most sensitive. Accorsi, 28, is one of the co-op's three graders, who taste, feel, and smell cheese as it ages and decide when it's ready to be cut into smaller blocks. "Whenever I tell somebody what I do, they look at me as if I have two heads," she says. "They always think I'm the one who is physically grating the cheese."Today's example of why the internet can be a Force for Good. So, last night, this guy in Wisconsin, Zach, somehow managed to order a pizza in Essex Junction, VT. That's 1000 miles away, in case you're keeping track. Hard to pick up. So he put the receipt up on Reddit and invited any local user to grab it, on him. Someone did... and donated $10 in Zach's name to the Humane Society. "This was the most exciting thing to happen in Vermont since last winter when the lake froze over and you could drive to Plattsburgh," another user commented.No annoying GIFs, just news that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
SO HOW DO YOU CHOOSE, TONIGHT?
She runs the creative writing program at Fordham and cofounded Kundiman, a nonprofit organization that promotes and serves Asian American writers and writing. Gambito's most recent volume of poetry is
Loves You
, made up both of poems and recipes. "I love the imperative command of a recipe–which is a way to move forward....The recipe as a poetic form is all hope," she said in an interview last year. 4:30 pm at the Sanborn Library.
To honor the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Footlighters have made their winter play the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama based on the diary kept by young Anne Frank during the 25 months she and her family hid from the Nazis in an annex of rooms above her father’s office in Amsterdam. 7 pm tonight, tomorrow and Saturday.
Sure, there's no script — you have to make it up as you go along. But as they write, "[I]mprov is about exploring a shared reality, deriving entertainment and humor from what is odd about it and what is odd in it." No previous improv experience needed. 7:30 pm at Tracy Hall in Norwich.
Vermont Law School, the Nature Conservancy, and the Alliance for Vermont Communities are hosting Mark Anderson, the Conservancy's director of conservation science for the eastern US. He and his team have developed a map of "natural strongholds" across the US, places that can tolerate climate impacts and continue supporting both people and nature. He'll be talking about how to safeguard natural diversity and wildlife in the northeast in the face of climate change. 5:30 pm at VLS in S. Royalton.
Joseph Stallsmith and Phyllis Shea, who like to play around with folkabilly, blues, and rock tunes on guitar and cello, will be joined tonight by bodhrán drummer Robin Weisburger. Peyton Place in Orford, 6-9 pm.
My sister was sweet and followed me doing things. She had a doll with wondrous skin. The doll was careful like a honeysuckle and artless like a honeysuckle. I liked to hold her near. She was closemouthed and did not cry and it pleased me immensely and I was ashamed to be pleased. Children should never be quiet. Like the quiet daughters we were. We quiet. Our crayons. Quiet.
— From "Duty," by Sarah Gambito
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