GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Fog in spots and then, finally, some sun. Though we don't get much of a window for it, so enjoy it while you can. Today's high pressure, winds from the south, and mix of sun and clouds will bring us temps getting into the low or mid 60s.Tonight, though, things start to cloud up ahead of an approaching system. Lows tonight in the upper 40s.It's all in how you look at it...
Case in point: It may not draw pilgrims eager to see a miracle, but even so, to those of us around here this slice of dill havarti Suzanne Stofflet tore for her morning bagel has a certain something;
As does this small slice of the fall vistas along the Northern Rail Trail in Enfield, from Janice Fischel;
And this luminous autumn fern by Lake Fairlee, from John Pietkiewicz.
Bringing Brian Boland back to us, just for a bit. When the legendary balloonist died two years ago, Thetford's Malcolm Quinn Silver-van Meter and Yueyao Wang were in the midst of making a film about him, his exploits, the Post Mills Airport and its museum, his expansive spirit, and his place in the community's imagination. After Boland's death, they set it aside: "It wasn't until last fall that I sort of felt removed enough from his death to feel like I could responsibly re-approach the subject," Silver-van Meter tells VT Public's Mary Engisch. The Balloonist premieres tonight on tv; film and interview at the link.In Randolph, the Herald stands apart as it explores ways to use AI. Seven Days' Anne Wallace Allen had no trouble rounding up quotes from Vermont editors who take a dim view of using the tool to help with coverage. But Herald publisher Tim Calabro—who doubles both as reporter and delivery driver—has an unconventional streak, and has been using ChatGPT to summarize the minutes of public board meetings in the White River Valley that the paper can't cover with a reporter or stringer. "The information is important either way," he says. "It should be in people's hands." Allen chronicles the issues.SPONSORED: At Alice Peck Day, you’ll have more than a happy first day—you’ll have a happy and rewarding career. From the front lines to the back offices, Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital employees love what they do—and it shows in every step of a patient’s healthcare journey. Open positions include LPN and Medical Assistant in Primary Care, Emergency Department Night Shift RN, and more. Join our friendly community hospital today! Sponsored by APD."We're just grateful to be able to grow our company here in the Upper Valley." That's Jack O'Toole, co-founder of FreshAir Sensor, which makes its home in the Dartmouth Regional Tech Center in Centerra. Earlier this month, BusinessNH mag named it one of the best companies to work for in the state. Now, fudging a tad on geography, Seven Days has labeled it one of "Seven Vermont Tech Startups to Watch." The company began by making sensors for hotels to detect cigarette and marijuana smoke in real time; now it's set its sights on schools looking to detect vaping, reports Seven Days' Hannah Feuer.“This was maybe the dumbest question I could ever ask.” When the Center for Cartoon Studies' James Sturm was tapped to do a graphic novel version of Watership Down, already one of his favorite books, he wondered if he could just “take pictures" of the woods around here and set it in Vermont. “No,” the publisher told him. He understood why when he and illustrator Joe Sutphin trekked across author Richard Adams’s landscape in England. VT Public's Jenn Jarecki speaks with Sturm about how he decided when to use words and when pictures, and how a story about rabbits moving to a new home “explores the struggle between freedom and tyranny.”"Joseph Saladino, who operates what is known as the Houghton stock farm at Orford, has had an experience with grasshoppers this season." And all in all, that 1915 article reports, it was a good one: He collected 65 bushels of them from his hay fields and earned a state-sponsored bounty of $65, more than the hay would have fetched. But all in all, Marshall Hudson writes in NH Magazine, Saladino's time at the farm created by department store magnate SS Houghton, a Fairlee native, was ill-starred: the huge barn known as "Houghton's Folly" collapsed, and eventually the town seized the property.SPONSORED: Support Pennies for Change at the Coop Food Stores. Did you know you can help end hunger in the Upper Valley by rounding up at the register? Just ask the cashier to round up, and you'll be supporting community organizations making free, fresh food available to families who need it, including the Upper Valley Haven, LISTEN, and Willing Hands. All three groups will have tables outside the Coop Food Stores in Lebanon, Hanover, and WRJ between 2 pm and 6 pm today—stop by to learn more about the program or sign a thank-you card to the cashiers! Sponsored by Willing Hands. Over seven hours in rain, wind, and cold Tuesday night, rescuers carry injured hiker off steepest part of Huntington Ravine Trail. The trail, says NH Fish & Game in yesterday's press release about the rescue, "is considered the toughest" in the Whites—and the 31-year-old hiker from Oakland, CA who slipped and fell, injuring his head and leg, was unprepared and without the gear the trail demands, like ropes and technical gear. The first rescuers reached him at 9 Tuesday night, set up ropes and gear to lower him, and around 11:15 pm started down the trail, navigating freezing temps, steep and icy terrain, and other hazards. They reached an ATV at 6:15 yesterday morning.A glimmer of good news for NH's child care system. Yesterday, reports Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin, the Exec Council approved $3.6 million in federal money—adding to the $100 million in pandemic aid the state has already invested—to help day care providers recoup operating expenses. The money, for which they'll need to apply, can be used for repairs, mortgage or lease payments, expanding outdoor space, and other enhancements.And more than a glimmer of good news for Black Mountain enthusiasts. Last week, the Jackson, NH ski slope—the oldest in NH—announced it would not open for the season, due to staffing shortages and lack of funds. Now, reports Outside's Samantha Berman, the founder and the CEO of Indy Pass have announced they'll help Black Mountain's owners, the Fichera family, keep things running, even as the resort goes on the market. “John Fichera was one of the first owners to believe in the Indy Pass," says founder Doug Fish. “We encourage all Indy Pass holders to visit this gem of a ski area this season.”Police arrest man in theft of state police cruiser. Rifle still missing. After identifying 29-year-old Timothy Gabriel as a suspect in the early-morning theft of the cruiser from outside a home in Rutland, VSP officers yesterday afternoon found him walking on Cherry Street in Burlington. "He ignored commands directing him to surrender and had to be subdued by troopers," according to the agency's press release. "The stolen patrol rifle remains unaccounted for." Four years ago, Gabriel was charged with armed robbery of a restaurant in Rutland.A look ahead at VT legislators' environmental priorities: from boosting EVs to beefing up rural internet. Over the course of the fall, students in UVM's Community News Service—overseen by veteran VT journalist Mark Johnson—talked to 16 Democratic and Republican state legislators about their priorities for the upcoming session. Concerns run the gamut from reducing reliance on gas-fueled autos to supporting energy efficiency to finding ways of reducing—or at least mitigating—major flooding. The team expands on it all.“They’re like Susan Lucci was to the Emmy Awards, or Steve Tasker to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.” Perennial nominees that seem never to win, that is. But for some lucky toy, this year's going to be different: the National Toy Hall of Fame, writes the AP's Carolyn Thompson, is letting fans and nostalgia lovers vote for one of five consistently passed-over classics: the pogo stick, the Fisher-Price Corn Popper, My Little Pony, PEZ dispensers, or Transformers. The historians, educators, and experts who usually determine inductees will choose from another shortlist, including baseball cards, Battleship, and Bingo. The Thursday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
Today at 4:30, Dartmouth's English and Creative Writing Department hosts poet Kaveh Akbar for a reading as part of the Cleopatra Mathis Poetry and Prose Series. Akbar, born in Tehran, is poetry editor of The Nation and teaches at the University of Iowa. In the Sanborn Library.
At 6:30, the college's Dickey Center hosts Georgetown government and foreign service prof Keir Lieber for a talk on the potential nuclear threats facing the US from Russia and China, and how to untangle what's real and what's rhetoric. In-person in Haldeman 041 and online.
This evening at 7, Artistree kicks off its run of Little Shop of Horrors at the Grange Theatre in S. Pomfret. Yep, the long-running off-Broadway comedy rock musical (and film): Meek floral assistant Seymour Krelborn; a foul-mouthed, R&B-singing, carmivorous—and we're not just talking flies—plant named Audrey II who's willing to help him achieve his dreams; and the plentiful complications that ensue. Runs Thurs-Sun this week and Wed-Sun next week.
Also at 7, the Norwich Bookstore hosts longtime Savoy Theater owner Rick Winston, in conversation with cartoonist Steve R. Bissette about Winston's new memoir, Save Me a Seat! A Life With Movies. Over the years he co-owned the Montpelier film-buff mecca, Winston helped to build a vibrant film culture in VT—and was among a generation of visionaries who created key artistic touchpoints in the state.
Also at 7, the Howe Library in Hanover hosts Craig Layne of the Linking Lands Alliance, Adair Mulligan of the Hanover Conservancy, and forest ecologist John Roe for "Landscapes, Connectivity, and Climate Change." They'll talk about work to map and then protect wildlife corridors, and about the broader challenge of thinking on a "landscape scale" when it comes to wildlife and biodiversity. Both in-person in the Mayer Room and online.
And also at 7, Hop Film gives you a chance to relive the... well, call it what you will: folk-horror, pagan horror, Scottish musical horror... classic The Wicker Man. It's the film's 50th anniversary, and Edward Woodward, iconic '60s actress Britt Ekland, and a whole assemblage of unsettling Scottish villagers can still out-freak its more recent imitators. At the Loew.
And any time you like, you can check out JAM's highlights for the week: an ode to cross-country skiing, last month's "Reclaim Tomorrow" performances at JAM, and last week's second Dartmouth panel discussion and audience give-and-take after Hamas's attack on Israeli and the initial Israeli response.
And to take us into the day...
Pianist, composer, and all-around jazz master Carla Bley died on Tuesday at the age of 87. She was omnivorous, performing with and covered by an astounding array of fellow musicians, writing songs that became jazz standards, sprawling and almost cinematic big-band pieces, one jazz-rock opera, and almost uncountable pieces that were often labeled avant-garde—more for her "slyly subversive attitude than [for] the formal character of her music," the
NYT
's Nate Chinen wrote Tuesday. One thing that made Bley popular with both her peers and audiences was that she could be wickedly funny—as here, with bassist Steve Swallow (her frequent collaborator and longtime partner),
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.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music?
Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on the Daybreak Facebook page
, or if you're a committed non-FB user,
.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! Subscribe at no cost at:
Thank you!