GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Amazingly enough... we're due to get into the low 70s today. High pressure, warm air moving in on a south wind, that poignant autumn light pretty much all day (once early clouds clear out). Definitely a day to be outside. Winds will be noticeable and it'll be gusty in the middle of the day ahead of an approaching cold front, but let's not worry about that until tomorrow. Down only to the low 50s tonight.Ah yes, fall. This photo's actually a couple of weeks old, but Hartland photographer Tammy Willens just finished up her new website and this is on it, and it's striking. She took it near Mt. Tabor in the Greens. "The ominous clouds were amazing looking; especially against the backdrop of the beautifully colored trees on the mountain," she writes. Last of Mink's cubs found safe. Around 7 yesterday morning, Lebanon Fire Chief Chris Christopoulos went to check a trap he'd set near the Tractor Supply off the Miracle Mile. Two jelly and two maple-frosted doughnuts seem to have done the trick. Hanover's deputy chief, Michael Hinsley, confirmed that the cub's facial markings "conform with what was known of Mink’s three cubs," reports the Valley News's John Gregg. Hinsley took the cub to Ben Kilham's in Lyme, where one of his brothers is; the other was hit by a bus last month.Outdoor heaters through the winter? New drive-thru locations? Hanover restaurants mull end of street dining. The town's move to help eateries by closing parking spaces to make way for tables is due to expire Oct. 31, depending on the weather. It's looking at ways of making takeout more accessible, The Dartmouth's Eliza Durbin and Beatrice Cappio report, while restaurateurs consider their options. Lou's will have to “figure out ways [it] can survive,” says owner Jarrett Berke. Boloco's being either “laz[y] or strategic,” says owner John Pepper, by keeping patio seating through the winter.Montshire, Fairlee land cultural facilities grants. The money comes from the Vermont Arts Council; it's aimed at helping venues upgrade their buildings. The Montshire got $30K to install accessible gender-neutral bathrooms and renovate its community room; $17K is going to the town of Fairlee to help with a new lighting system in its town hall auditorium; Royalton's Historical Society and Seven Stars Arts in Sharon got money to restore stage curtains.VT delegation presses USPS on broken mail processing machine in WRJ. In July, the postal service removed one of the facility's two mail-processing machines to make way for a newer version that has yet to arrive. And in a a joint letter to the postmaster general, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch write, "We just heard from workers at the facility that [the remaining] machine broke down, forcing them to process the mail by hand. That is outrageous and requires the immediate delivery of the new cancellation machine."
Oops. The Hanover-Lyme Democrats left the word "Sample" off 5,500 sample ballots they mailed out to voters this week, leaving officials concerned voters might confuse them for actual absentee ballots. Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin tells the VN's Nora Doyle-Burr that should someone mail a ballot in using the sample envelope, town officials can work to alert the voter to their mistake; if for some reason they use an official absentee ballot envelope, the mistake won't be discovered until Election Day."Last Saturday I returned from Lincoln [NH] where I spent twenty-three days under the operation of small-pox.” That was Nathan Noyes, Dartmouth Class of 1796, writing two years later to his parents during another big disease outbreak in the Upper Valley. In The Dartmouth, Mia Seymour takes a look at the smallpox epidemic of the late 1700s and the controversy over inoculation that roiled the campus—Eleazar Wheelock was dead-set against it. Seymour writes, "If we got through it then, we’ll get through it now.""Cartooning for the greater good." That's what James Sturm, co-founder of WRJ's Center for Cartoon Studies, calls "applied cartooning." The latest example came out last week: CCS partnered with cartoonist Cara Bean, a former MA high school art teacher, and an Ohio mental health group to create Let's Talk About It: A Graphic Guide to Mental Health, which is aimed at middle school students. "Bean's approach," writes Seven Days' Melissa Pasanen, "is accessible and compelling; the book neither patronizes nor lectures." Bean did a CCS fellowship last year in cartoonist Harry Bliss's studio in Cornish.So just how do you stage a play with the actors in NY and MD and the director in Houston? You bring them to WRJ and go slowly. Right now, Northern Stage actually has two plays running: It's Fine, I'm Fine on the actual stage, and Dutch Masters online. It opened last night. The play about two young men—one white, one Black—who meet on an uptown D train in NYC on a summer day needs careful pacing, impossible to develop over Zoom. Jim Lowe writes about how they figured it out.“I always said ‘I’m never going to live in Vermont.’ Well, here I am.” Nara Moore grew up in Sharon, the youngest of six kids and a member of one of the first classes at the Sharon Academy—which her mom, Judy, helped found. Nara went off to college, then law school in New Orleans, then Cleveland... and then began to miss the quiet. Now here she is, working in the S. Royalton schools and prepping a yurt for the winter down the hill from where she grew up. The Randolph Herald's Zoë Newmarco details how it came about. This actually needed saying? Yes, apparently: "Fish and Game Conservation Officers would like to remind all riders that operating snowmobiles without adequate snow cover is dangerous." On Tuesday, an 18-year-old who wasn't wearing a helmet crashed his snowmobile into a tree. He was taken to Concord Hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries. The cause, NH Fish & Game said, was "operator inexperience, speed, and unfavorable riding conditions." And, umm...About half of Granite Staters want a mask mandate now. And most plan to vote in person, not by absentee. Those are some of the takeaways from a new poll by Suffolk University and The Boston Globe. NHPR's Peter Biello talks to David Paleologos, who directs Suffolk's survey research center. Among other things, pollsters found that voters will also split their tickets, with majorities intending to vote for Joe Biden and Jeanne Shaheen at the federal level and Chris Sununu for governor.Granite Outdoor Alliance launches, aims to showcase NH as "world-class" destination. The alliance brings together equipment manufacturers, nonprofits such as the Northern Forest Center and the Granite Backcountry Alliance, and others to work on issues important to the state's outdoor industry, which employs some 79,000 people, writes InDepthNH's Paula Tracy. It will tackle everything from workforce housing in the state to dealing with litterbugs to promoting NH's natural beauty.The odds could have been stacked against Vermont, says Politico. But in a profile of states that handled different aspects of the pandemic better than others, it notes that VT's quick closing, slow reopening, and determined lack of complacency among its residents have made a difference. The article also looks at WA's rapid data sharing and focus on protecting the elderly, MI's success narrowing racial disparities, CO's approach to unemployment, RI's state-led school reopening approach, and others.Okay, I think we've got to go check out Bristol, VT. Its Main Street "has always reminded me of Richard Scarry's Busytown — a place where people constantly seem to be waving at each other as they go about their errands," writes Chelsea Edgar in Seven Days' latest "Vermonting" travelogue. And it has a playground on the town green "whose architecture boasts some of the best tree house vibes this side of Lothlórien." She also checked out cafés and stores, then headed to Warren and the Warren Store, which "has utterly nailed the country store gestalt," she thinks. Get ready: Jetpack races coming next year. "We build 1,000 horsepower jet suits" is the slogan of Gravity, a British startup run by a former oil trader named Richard Browning. In 2016, Browning plunked down for a micro gas turbine, a mini jet engine. He built an arm housing, repurposed a power-drill trigger, and "soon he was standing in a country lane with what looked like a supercharged leaf blower on one arm, attached to a fuel tank in a mop bucket." It was, he told Wired UK, "a profound moment." Now, Gravity makes jet suits and is aiming for a global race series. Oliver Franklin-Wallis tells the whole story.I know. I'm a sucker for this stuff. But I'm constantly amazed by the lengths people go in order to get a ball in a cup.
And the numbers...
Dartmouth now has 4 active student cases, but has dropped to 1 among faculty/staff. In all, 1 student and 5 faculty/staff are in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 14 students and 18 faculty/staff are in isolation as they await results or because they tested positive.
NH reported 71 new positive test results yesterday, bringing its official total to 9,349. There were 2 new deaths, which now number 458. The state has 823 current cases (up 36), including 24 in Grafton County (up 2), 6 in Sullivan (no change), and 106 in Merrimack (up 6). There are 1-4 cases each in Lyme, Hanover, Lebanon, Canaan, Enfield, Grantham, Unity, Newport, New London, Sunapee, and Newbury.
VT reported 4 new cases yesterday, bringing its official total to 1,889, with 153 of those still active (down 2). Deaths remain at 58 total, and no people with confirmed cases are hospitalized. Windsor County remains at 104 over the course of the pandemic, with 17 cases in the past 14 days. Orange County remains at 27 cumulative cases, with 2 new cases in the past 14 days.
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From 11-1 today, the NH Food Bank will set up its mobile food pantry in Monadnock Park in Claremont. The event is open to anyone in need, and it's drive-thru: Stay in your car and they'll bring produce, non-perishable items, and other food to you.
And today at noon is the deadline to register for tomorrow's virtual fall forum hosted by the Eastman Charitable Foundation. They'll be talking about how climate change is affecting NH with Sherry Godlewski, resilience and adaptation specialist at the NH Dept. of Environmental Services.
At 6 pm, Lebanon is holding a virtual forum on whether it should create its own community center and what the benefits and drawbacks might look like. You'll need to register.
At 6:30, Sustainable Woodstock is holding the premiere screening in VT for Entangled, a film detailing efforts to protect North Atlantic right whales from extinction and the impact of those efforts on the lobster industry. Live Q&A afterward with the film's director. You'll need to register for the link.
This evening at 7, author, folklorist, and "Ghost-Master General" Joe Citro will give a backyard Halloween reading at his hometown Windsor Public Library. He'll also discuss his newest discoveries and talk about his adventures and research. Space is limited, so call: (802) 674-2556.
Also at 7, Bookstock and Woodstock's Norman Williams Public Library host graphic novelist Jason Lutes, author of the highly acclaimed epic Berlin, about Germany's slide toward Nazism in the Weimar era. Lutes will be talking about his development as a cartoonist, "touching on the various influences—from William Faulker to Dungeons & Dragons, Wim Wenders to Star Wars—that inspired his creative process." Register for access.
And anytime until Oct. 21, you can catch the streaming production of Dutch Masters from Northern Stage. "This thrilling new play by Greg Keller examines race, class, and responsibility in a world wracked with divisions," they write.
Well, heck, who knows when it's going to be this warm and sunny again? So here's Jacob Collier and dodie doing
And yes, those are all just the two of them.
See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Banner by Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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