GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Partly sunny, chance of showers (but drier air ahead). That low pressure's on the move, so there'll still be plenty of clouds around, but we should also see sun around the region—though there's a chance of afternoon showers and, toward the east, a slight chance of a thunderstorm. Highs again in the upper 50s or low 60s, lows around 40.You've gotta give fungi credit for creativity!
Like, say, this northern tooth fungus that looks, vaguely, like a beehive, from Rebecca Lafave. Its formal name is Climacodon septentrionalis, which is worth mentioning only because septentrionale means "from the direction of the north wind." They like maples.
Or these Hymenochaetaceae on a tree on the Strafford Town House knoll, from Carin Pratt—who writes, "Pretty cool, for the name alone!" Though they're not so good for the trees they inhabit.
NH regulators bar New London financial adviser from operating. The move by the Bureau of Securities Regulation, reports John Lippman in the Valley News, alleges that Merryfield Investment Management and its principal, Peter Field, violated conflict-of-interest regulations by soliciting clients to buy stock in the firm and to lend him money; Field argued the loan requests were personal and not in a business capacity, a contention regulators rejected. Back in August, regulators ordered New London financial adviser Thomas Chadwick to repay clients after a high-risk fund they'd invested in collapsed.Hartford monument project for Veterans Park lands state support, turns to public for help. The effort is aimed at erecting a monument to honor town residents who fought in World Wars I and II in the park alongside Railroad Row. As organizers write, "Some of the names on the monument will be familiar to you as buildings, streets and parks in town are named after some of them: Abbott, Briggs, Bugbee, Clifford, Lyman and Wright" among them. On Tuesday, VT's Better Places Program agreed to boost the $73K project with a $28K grant—if organizers can raise $14K by Nov. 22. That effort launched yesterday."I've seen it a lot: Kids who are afraid to leave home, who don't know what they're going home to." That's National Book Award finalist Ken Cadow, talking to VT Public's Mary Engisch about why addiction is a key thread in Gather, the YA novel for which the Oxbow High co-principal is garnering national attention. In their interview, Cadow talks about the book's genesis as he listened to young and old hunters for an oral history project two decades ago, the struggles some Vermonters face holding onto family land—and his confusion when he first heard the book had been "long-listed" for the award.SPONSORED: Join Kimball Union Academy for an Admission Open House. What does it feel like to be known, valued, and understood by teachers and friends? Join KUA for an Open House on October 21 or December 9 and learn how we intentionally design a robust educational experience for students to develop knowledge, find their voice, and build their character. Register today to discover how all students can find a deep sense of belonging here in the Upper Valley. Sponsored by KUA.In NH, "Undeclared" rules the voter registration roost. Secretary of State David Scanlan updated the numbers on Tuesday, reports Dan Tuohy in yesterday's NHPR newsletter (scroll down). They now stand at: 344,212 Undeclared; 269,766 Republican (a drop from August); 265,159 Democratic. Of particular note: The deadline to switch party affiliation was Oct. 7, and 3,542 Democrats opted to switch to Undeclared while another 408 moved into the Republican column. This is likely presidential primary maneuvering, but on a minor scale. Scanlan still hasn't set a date for the primary.In NH House, a move to require AG's office to let legislators know if it's investigating members for living outside their districts. The effort comes in the wake of GOP Rep. Troy Merner's resignation for that infraction. Democrats argue that in several instances this year, Merner's vote made a difference to the course of legislation—before the AG's office alerted the House Speaker that it was investigating him. Tuesday, writes NH Bulletin's Ethan DeWitt, the rules committee voted to allow the idea to be submitted as a bill, though some GOP members who went along say they might oppose it on the floor.In NH, Education Freedom Account enrollment continues to grow. In fact, reports Amanda Gokee in the Globe (paywall), it's jumped 40 percent this year, with 4,211 students enrolled, up from 3,025 in 2022; costs have kept pace, rising from $14.7 million to around $20 million now. In all, according to Kate Baker Demers, who runs the outside organization that administers the program, about 2.5 percent of the state's students now take part in it; about 44 percent of them qualify for free and reduced lunch.SPONSORED: Free trove of books (120 titles) about industrialization in 19th-century America. Historians, machinists, engineers, blacksmiths, 19th-C eggheads, general readers: Take note! Books on metalworking, labor, coal, and technological innovation were source material for 500-page The Metalworkers. How Robert Poole pioneered casting columns for U.S. Capitol dome and built infrastructure for the nation. Knowledge in the collection underlay the U.S. Industrial Revolution. 20 Rip Road, Hanover, Saturday & Sunday (Oct. 14 & 15), 8AM to 3PM. Full list here. Sponsored by Steven Swett.VT State Police release sketch of "person of interest" in Castleton shooting. At a press conference yesterday, the commander of the VSP's major crimes unit told reporters that several witnesses had seen the man "acting very strangely" on the rail trail where Honoree Fleming's body was found. A police sketch artist from Maine met an interviewed them this week. He's described as a white man in his 20s with short red hair, about 5 feet 10 inches tall; he was last seen wearing a dark gray T-shirt and carrying a black backpack.As VT revises last week's Covid hospitalizations downward, numbers fall. You may remember that last week, the state reported a hospitalization jump to 64. But an unnamed hospital later notified the state health department that it had made a mistake and updated its data, reports VTDigger's Erin Petenko; last week's number, for the week of Sept. 24-30, now stands at 47—still the highest since February, Petenko notes. This week's report, for the first week of October, pegs the number of hospital admissions at 31.VT State U will offer buyouts to up to 33 faculty members, most in the humanities; faculty union objects. In particular, reports VTDigger's Peter D'Auria, nine of those buyout offers are going to literature and writing faculty, and another eight in design and the social sciences. Linda Olson, who teaches sociology and heads the faculty union, says the administration hasn't released the data it used to decide where faculty should be cut; the union is pressing for cuts to administrative positions. Faculty have until Oct. 27 to choose a buyout.After nearly four-year pandemic absence, coffee returning to VT rest stops. It's thanks to Jenna's Promise, a nonprofit based in Johnson that works with people recovering from addiction; one of its enterprises, Jenna's Promise Roasting Company, won the state contract to provide rest-area coffee, reports the Free Press's Dan D'Ambrosio. The state's welcome and information centers, he notes, attract more than 2.5 million visitors each year. The ribbon-cutting was yesterday in Williston.Just as you'd imagine, a little cold and slimy. Steve Kueny likes being on the water, and he likes growing pumpkins, so obviously… The Missouri man, writes Amaris Encinas in USA Today, is aiming to beat the Guinness World Record for the longest voyage by pumpkin boat. He’ll need to submit evidence from witnesses, GPS data, video footage, and photographs, but for now, it looks like his 11-hour paddle down the Missouri River in a Dill’s Atlantic Giant named Huckle Berry did indeed break the record. "We test floated it before we carved it so we would know which end wanted to be up,” says Kueny.In the wee hours of St. Patrick's Day, an overweight, out-of-shape, untrained 61-year-old Irishman decided to paddle the length of the Yukon River. He made it. Despite a bare minimum of equipment, a bipolar diagnosis, a black bear encounter in which the repellant he used knocked him unconscious, an unexpected dunking that forced him to tow his canoe a mile and a half to shore... But also, writes the Globe & Mail's Nancy MacDonald in about as unlikely a story as you'll encounter this year, deep reserves of grit and an affability that won him friends in tiny villages all along the way to the Bering Sea—farther than five teams of younger, fitter paddlers managed this summer.The Thursday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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Today at noon, Upper Valley Music Center kicks off its monthly faculty concert series, "A Little Lunch Music," with traditional Scottish music and original compositions by harpist Rachel Clemente. Among other accomplishments, Clemente was the US National Scottish Harp Champion in 2016, and in 2021 won the US version of the Princess Margaret of the Isles Clàrsach Competition (clàrsach is the Scottish name for the Celtic harp). In the Bach Room at UVMC in Lebanon, no charge.
And at 12:15, Dartmouth's Dickey Center hosts University of Auckland anthropologist Marama-Muru Lanning for "Hongi (pressing of noses), Harirū (handshakes) and Hau (sharing breath): How the Covid-19 pandemic impacted sociality and wellbeing of the Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand." "Aotearoa" is the current Māori name for New Zealand, and Lanning will talk about how that community responded to the pandemic and earlier public health threats. In-person in Haldeman Hall and online.
Today at 4:30, Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center hosts the governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, who's running for the GOP presidential nomination. In-person in Hinman Forum as well as online.
At 5 pm today, the Jewish and Middle Eastern studies departments at Dartmouth hold a second forum on events in Israel and Gaza, with faculty members—each of them steeped in the history and politics of the region—on hand to talk about the ongoing crisis and to take questions. Given the huge interest for Tuesday's session, the in-person version has been moved to Filene Auditorium; it will be livestreamed here. Many participants are likely to follow that up by attending a 7 pm public vigil on the Dartmouth Green, organized by Dartmouth Hillel, Chabad, and the Upper Valley Jewish Community.
Also at 7, JAM is hosting a broadcast premiere screening of Passion in a Pandemic, filmmaker Nora Jacobson's documentary about choral director Jennifer Chambers' project to teach Hanover High students opera as the pandemic roiled—with the help of renowned Dartmouth conductor Filippo Ciabatti. It's now on PBS, and there'll be a live music performance, filmmaker & participants Q&A, and overall hoopla at the Briggs Opera House in WRJ.
At 8 pm, the Hood Museum hosts the annual Indigenous People's Fashion Show—a "celebration of Indigenous fashion, creativity, expression, and design." Also livestreamed on the Hood's FB page.
And anytime, you can check out JAM's highlights for the week, including last week's first-ever JAMMY Awards bash, with music by Allison Fay Brown and close-in circus by Liam & Ripley; Jerusalem musician Inbar Heyman's appearance at JAM a month ago; and historian Neil Silberman's talk on Hartford's performing arts heritage.
And for today...
Hania Rani grew up in Gdansk, Poland, studied classical piano for years in Warsaw and Berlin, and eventually began composing her own work. She came to international attention in 2019 with her first album, and has built a rapturous following in the years since. Icelandic composer and pianist Ólafur Arnalds, meanwhile, has built his own international audience on the back of what NPR once called his "profound and passionate" composing. On Tuesday,
, with both on piano and Rani's ethereal voice behind. Those scenes are in Latvia.
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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