GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
A brisk day out there. We start out maybe a tad above freezing and climb all the way into the low 50s. But it'll also be mostly sunny, winds from the south getting up to about 10 mph. Temps in the lower 30s overnight.One more day of scenery! Tomorrow it's back to fauna. But there's still so much to see out there, from a vibrant Lake Pinneo in Quechee to a fog-shrouded road in Croydon to stop-and-stare foliage in Lebanon and Hartford to a field-tree-sky extravaganza in E. Thetford to...Randolph postpones second community forum after threats. The week before last, some 350 people attended a mostly civil forum on a transgender student's use of the girls' locker room at Randolph Union High School. The school had planned a second, but yesterday, reports VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein, Supt. Layne Millington called it off after threatening phone calls. "It’s extremely hard for the district to create a school environment free from bullying, harassment, and intimidation, when these are the very behaviors our students witness from adults both locally and abroad," he wrote in a community email.Schedule set for new DHMC building's opening. You know that grand addition to the main hospital that's been taking shape since the summer of 2020? Well, the hospital yesterday announced it's due to open next spring, adding 64 patient rooms. Two floors will be occupied immediately by cardiac and vascular units, and by the hospital's Medical Special Care Unit—opening up room in the existing building for a reshuffling of space to allow for a new surgical unit, the consolidation of neuroscience care units, and other changes.Dartmouth's proposed Lyme Road apartment complex heading to Hanover Planning Board. The board is scheduled to take up the controversial "North End" project at a public session on Nov. 1, writes the college's Office of Communications. The complex at the north end of the former golf course would initially serve as housing for undergrads and anchor Dartmouth's future expansion beyond the medical school. Since its announcement, residents of the neighborhoods nearby have organized to oppose it. The Nov. 1 hearing is the start of a long road through the town planning process.Claremont agency cancels fall sex education classes amid uncertainty over funding. For years, the TLC Family Resource Center has held a contract from the state to teach teens about abstinence, reproduction, sexually transmitted diseases, and contraception. Yesterday, GOP members of the NH Exec Council voted for the third time to hold off voting on renewing the contract. In an email to NH Bulletin's Annmarie Timmins, TLC's director says that since the program began in 2012, Sullivan County's teen birth rate has dropped from 20.27 per 1,000 teens to 11.86 in 2021—still twice the state average.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 employees love what they do — and it shows in every step of a patient’s healthcare journey. Open positions include full-time cook, waitstaff, sleep tech, OR nurse, Lifecare controller, senior accountant, and more. Join our friendly community hospital today! Sponsored by APD.So, what are you having for breakfast at the Red Wagon Bakery? That's the question for Nellie Smith Kondi, who opened the breakfast/lunch spot on Route 4 in Canaan back in 2019—a year before the pandemic forced her to launch a "community-supported baking" effort. Things are back to normal now, though the bakery's going to shut down for a bit after the birth of the Kondis' first child—and, if everything goes as hoped, it will expand next year with a new kitchen and small general store next door. Meanwhile, Kondi talks about her favorite breakfast and baked good at the link.A glimpse of those vintage lobby cards. Remember the news recently that Dwight Cleveland, a collector of the cards that used to line movie theater lobbies during the silent film era, has teamed up with Dartmouth prof Mark Williams and the Media Ecology Project to digitize them? Now, in an article for Smithsonian online, Ella Feldman recaps their importance at the time and how they're helping to build nuance into our understanding of the early film era... but just as important, she lards the post with examples from Dartmouth's work.Two projects suggest that "public art can be a catalyst for community action." That's what the Valley News's Alex Hanson finds himself thinking after the recent unveiling of a refurbished Newport (NH) Heritage Mural and of Passage, an art installation on either side of a gritty railroad underpass in S. Royalton. The Newport mural project engaged hundreds of people both to fund it and to remake the massive 1997 painting of the arrival of the railroad in town. Passage, Hanson writes, "is a little art-bomb that has completely rearranged a piece of the landscape" and could catalyze further public interest in public art."Person of interest" in Concord killings now charged with murder. In a press release last night, the NH AG's office announced that an arrest warrant had been issued for Logan Clegg, the 26-year-old drifter arrested in South Burlington VT last week on an unrelated charge. Clegg is now formally accused of the murders of Stephen and Djeswende “Wendy” Reid in April. Based on the warrant, VT authorities charged Clegg with being a fugitive from justice. He's scheduled to be arraigned today in St. Albans, as NH seeks extradition.NH sets out to get a grip on PFAS contamination of soil. The challenge, reports NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian, is to understand both the concentrations of the chemicals in the state's soils, and then to figure out their impact on groundwater. For years, the sludge byproduct from wastewater treatment has been turned into "biosolids," which are then spread on farms and fields as a replacement for fertilizer. And that sludge can concentrated PFAS. Maine has banned biosolid spreading; NH wants to set standards for PFAS in soil that would protect groundwater.In NH, looks like the fall Covid surge has started. As you know, Covid case numbers have been an unreliable indicator for months. However, the NH Hospital Association tracks inpatients with confirmed Covid cases, and their time-chart (scroll down past the daily numbers), which had been holding in the 70-90 cases/day through the summer, began climbing above 100 at the end of September. It hit 143 on Sunday and 162 yesterday.And yep, VT too. For the first time since June, the state health department ranks Covid levels as "medium" statewide, rather than the "low" it's been reporting for months. That, too, is based on hospitalization figures: 73 admissions for the disease, or 11.7 per 100,000 people, in the past week. That's the highest level since May, reports VTDigger's Erin Petenko. The department reported 662 cases in the past week, compared to 623 the week before. The CDC continues to rate community levels in Windsor and Orange counties as "low."Health tech startups are springing up all over VT. The health tech sector is booming everywhere, and VT is no exception. Seven Days’ Colin Flanders profiles five new companies working on solutions to improve health care and save lives. In Stowe, Vernal Biosciences only months ago began producing mRNA, a primary component in the Covid-19 vaccine. App-makers in Shelburne are helping people better manage panic attacks. And Rick Johnson of Hanover, with Dartmouth prof Bill Hudenko, created Springfield VT-based Voi, whose algorithm-based products support people at high risk of suicide.Downhill ski areas in VT start to schedule opening days. There are still plenty that haven't set a date, writes the Burlington Free Press's April Barton, but among those that have, Saskadena Six in S. Pomfret hopes to open Dec. 14, Ski Quechee Dec. 21, and Killington, which has already started making snow, on Nov. 25 (with reservations open Nov. 5). Elsewhere, Jay's set Nov. 5, Mad River Glen Dec. 10, Mt. Snow Nov. 11, Okemo Nov. 19, Stratton Nov. 19, and Stowe Nov. 18.Now the understory gets a starring role. The leaves from taller trees have mostly made their way to the ground, UVM's Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne tweets—so from a drone's-eye view, all that color below comes from shorter trees. 14 seconds give you a sense of what he's talking about.Swan Lake’s “Dance of the Cygnets” turns amphibious, and it’s awesome. If you can set aside any personal aversion to reinterpretations of well-known classics, check out this nine-year-old video of four male dancers from China’s Guangzhou Military Performance Group performing an iconic routine like you’ve never seen it. To begin with, they’re frogs, not swans. And what you might expect to be a graceless rendition is instead a synchronized display of jaw-dropping athleticism, elegance, and playfulness. The handstands alone are worth giving this minute and a half of your morning to.The Thursday Vordle. With a word ripped from yesterday's Daybreak. Seriously. You can do this.Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. 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At 5 pm today, Dartmouth's Dickey Center brings in two internationally prominent dissidents: Garry Kasparov—chess champion, human rights advocate, and founder of the Renew Democracy Initiative; and Evan Mawarire, creator of the #ThisFlag movement and trainer on nonviolent citizen-driven change and human rights, from Zimbabwe. They'll be talking about what it means to be a dissident today. In-person only, in the Hanover Inn's Grand Ballroom—first come, first seated.
At 5:30 today, online, Sustainable Woodstock presents a conversation about the Upper Valley's Window Dressers effort. You may have heard of this: Volunteers get together to build window inserts for insulating homes during the winter—joined by recipients, who either help build them or help feed the builders. Jessica Williams, who runs Window Dressers, the Maine-based nonprofit that helps communities put builds together, and Sustainable Woodstock's Jenevra Wetmore, talk about what's involved, why the effort matters, an upcoming Woodstock build, and more.
This evening at 6 in WRJ, JAM hosts the inaugural session of a new bi-monthly "storytelling circle." Anyone in the Upper Valley, seasoned storyteller or outright beginner, introvert or extrovert, is invited to join to share a five-minute true personal story: "No competition, no judgment, no lecturing, no ranting… Just share a story about something that happened to you and listen to other people’s stories," write moderators Judith Hertog and Michelle Rogge. In the Junction Arts & Media space in the former Newberry Market.
At 7 this evening, both in-person and via Zoom, the Howe Library hosts a set of readings from Bloodroot, the literary magazine that features writers from the Upper Valley. Emceed by Left Bank Books' Rena Mosteirin, the evening will include poet Lauren Hilger, author of the recent collection Morality Play; Erika Nichols-Frazer, a staff writer at the (Mad River) Valley Reporter and author most recently of the memoir, Feed Me; and others.
Also at 7, Grantham's Dunbar Free Library hosts Hopkinton NH writer, actor, tradesman, former NHPR producer, and stone-wall builder Kevin Gardner. He'll be talking about how and why New England came to acquire its thousands of miles of stone walls and how their styles emerged and changed over time—and busy himself with building a small one while he talks.
And also at 7, but online only, the Vermont Ski & Snowboard Museum brings in photographer Gary Land for "The Golden Era of East Coast Snowboarding." He'll be talking about and sharing photos from his new book, Easy Street Archives, which is filled with images he took of the '90s snowboarding scene—including Allen Iverson, Venus Williams, Tom Brady, 50 Cent, Jay-Z, and the era's snowboarding greats. He'll be joined by longtime Burton Snowboards team manager and US Open announcer Chris Copley.
And finally, check out all the stuff JAM's highlighting this week, including a timelapse of the street view outside the Masiello Group's offices in Hanover; a celebration of the magician, ventriloquist, and showman Richard Potter, "America's first Black celebrity," at Proctor Academy (Potter lived in Andover, NH for two decades); UV Yoga's Leslie Carleton leading a guided meditation; and former Dartmouth President Jim Wright's talk a year ago on "Veterans Today and the Wars in Which They Have Served."
And to start the day...
If you've paid any attention to the most recent generation of bluegrass musicians, odds are good you've encountered "Salt Spring," mandolin-master John Reischman's sweet, almost forlorn tune named for an island off the coast of British Columbia. That's because it's been picked up and spread all over the world since he and the Jaybirds first recorded it in 2001. "I went to Australia for the first time in 2018 and found it so interesting that a tune of mine got there before I did," he told an interviewer last year.
In a style "pitched somewhere between the Scottish Highlands and the Appalachians," as a Scottish reviewer put it, they improvise an intro that almost imperceptibly leads to Reischman's tune. This is one you can just sit back and let envelop you.
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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