GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Getting sunny. Last night’s clouds will linger a little, but they should clear out fairly quickly, and once again we’ll get up toward 60 under sunny skies today. Winds from the north will pick up somewhat, and together with the dry air and lots of dry leaf litter, they’ve got the weather folks starting to fret about fire danger. Lows tonight back to around or below freezing.
Have you managed to avoid I-89 hell? Wondering what you missed? Well, poor Stephanie Raymond has a photo for you from Tuesday evening. “My view while trying to get off I-89 at Exit 19 NB,” she writes. “It took 20 minutes just to get off the ramp and traffic was continuing to back up behind me along the highway. Miracle Mile was bumper to bumper as well. I heard the Dudley bridge was one lane for some reason. This is crazy.” And then there’s W. Leb’s Dry Bridge closure… Here’s WCAX’s Adam Sullivan with the video footage. “It looks like urban traffic,” says one motorcyclist.
But let’s not forget what else you can see around here. For instance, long after beavers are gone from a spot, they leave little signs they were there, like the remains of a long-ago civilization. “I don’t know the reasons why the beaver pond along Burton Woods Road in Norwich no longer exists,” writes Wilder’s Su Loskutoff. “The wetland area was a short distance from Bragg Hill Road. However, on my walk there the other day, there seemed to be a message left behind by those industrious creatures.”
In Hanover, EBAs scion tries to make … something … happen. Eddie Bogosian grew up in the restaurant, which his mother Maureen opened in 1979 and ran for decades, until she closed it in 2017. He washed dishes, served as manager and cook, and famously came up with the barbecue sauce known as Dragon Juice. Ever since it closed, reports Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News, he’s missed its vibe as a “melting pot” gathering place, and now he’s dipping his toe back in the EBAs pool—not with a restaurant, but with Dragon Juice, merch, and maybe a line of frozen pizzas.
For Dartmouth digital forensics expert, these are breathless times. Starting early each morning, computer science prof Hany Farid—who moved back to the Upper Valley from Berkeley recently—”fields requests from journalists, technology companies and others who want him to determine what’s real [online]. Some need answers within hours,” writes Hannah Bassett in a Seven Days profile. Farid was a pioneer in studying digital fingerprints and developing tools to help mitigate harm. Now the AI age has supercharged both fakery and, as Bassett puts it, “the consequences of technology that has outpaced efforts to control it.” She details Farid’s work.
SPONSORED: Get ready for a howling good night at VINS on 10/24! As the sun sets, join VINS for Hoots & Howls, a guided evening tour through the Nature Center. Catch a puppet show, hear spooky-sweet tales, test your bird smarts, wander the Forest Canopy Walk on a trail of glowing pumpkins, and end with tricky treats! Can't wait until dark? Halloween at VINS daytime fun runs 10 AM to 5 PM and is packed with special programming. Full program schedule and tickets at the burgundy link. Sponsored by VINS.
Nuts. In a misguided fit yesterday of trusting my memory more than, you know, plain print 🤦🏻♂️, I misattributed the Valley News story on the conflict in Fairlee over a proposed new apartment block. It’s by Sophie Levenson, not Sofia Langlois. You’ll find it (and the very obvious byline) at the link.
Nuts. This time the actual kind. On his Substack, Ted Levin writes about black walnuts and butternuts, both of which produce a compound “that seeps from roots, leaves, and husks and selectively poisons the plants around them. Darwinian competition, distilled: a quiet chemical warfare waged beneath the soil.” Neither is as common as they used to be—butternuts in particular, victims of an invasive fungus from an Asian walnut, now down some 90 percent, “a quiet vanishing, tree by sad tree.” But out on the road, Ted writes, he collected ten walnuts: “They smell sweet and outdoorsy.”
SPONSORED: Three events in one at Designer Gold. October 23, from 4:30-7:00, Designer Gold in Hanover celebrates Nelly Mendoza, Theodore Castellani, and Paul Gross, practicing goldsmiths who learned their craft as Dartmouth undergraduates. Come see their work. Also on Friday, DG will begin a week-long SALE to acknowledge Paul’s 49th year in business in Hanover. And a party to cheer Paul on to his 50th year. Join us for an exhibit of Nelly’s and Theo’s jewelry and a recognition of Paul’s amazing career – with refreshments! Sponsored by Designer Gold.
Less than two weeks from an election, fate of NH’s student voter ID law in limbo. Will high school and college students be able to use those IDs to vote on Nov. 3? As you may remember, back on Oct. 2 a federal judge temporarily halted the new law removing student IDs from the list of acceptable ways for voters to prove their identity. But last week, the AG’s office appealed that order to the US Supreme Court. As Ethan DeWitt writes in NH Bulletin, that appeal is for an emergency stay of the judge’s order: If the Supremes side with the state, the student ID ban will be in place Nov. 3. If not, or they don’t act, then the IDs will be acceptable while the larger case plays out.
Staring fate in the eye. On PetaPixel, Matt Growcoot has highlights of the OurNature photo and video awards. Audun Rikardsen, from Norway, snagged the overall winner’s title for his chilling photo “A Seal’s Nightmare.” Shot from underwater, the camera captures a seal’s-eye view of a polar bear’s head focused unflinchingly on the buffet below. Belgian photographer Alain Schroeder won the Best Photostory Award for his documentation of the dedication that goes into saving orangutans in Indonesia. And Pakistani Awais Ali Sheikh won the Pure Nature – Land category for a hidden gem—snow leopard cubs all but invisible in the Himalayas. The full slate of winners is here.
The Thursday Crossword. Your chance to match wits for a few minutes with Dartmouth librarian and puzzle constructor Laura Braunstein.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
Eliana Ramage reads at Dartmouth. The Dartmouth alum—who lives in Nashville and is a member of the Cherokee Nation—is author of To the Moon and Back, her 2025 coming-of-age novel about a young Cherokee woman obsessed with becoming an astronaut as she navigates a mom determined to steep her kids in Cherokee history and culture, being queer in a small Oklahoma town, and becoming an astronaut in training. 4:30 pm in Sanborn Library.
The Rumney Sessions at Fable Farm Fermentory in Barnard with Beatrice Anne and Odin Scott Coleman. Two musicians steeped in the history and sound of American folk tradition. 5:30 to 9 pm.
Jeweler Nelly Mendoza at Dartmouth. The NYC goldsmith learned her craft at Dartmouth as an undergrad. She’ll be talking in the Byrne Family Jewelry Studio in the basement of the Hopkins Center, Room 63, from 5:30-6:30, about her journey through that student jewelry studio, from her first introduction to jewelry creation to becoming a full-time goldsmith.
At the Howe Library in Hanover, “Nature Journaling with Robin Rice Voigt.” Voigt, co-founder of the Upper Valley Nature Journaling Group and instructor for both Osher and AVA, will do a half hour demo, illustrating both watercolor and colored pencil techniques, then leave time for participants to do their own work. Materials supplied for in-person participants. 5:30 pm in the Mayer Room and online.
Two events at AVA: A conversation between painters Jim Jordan and Rachel Jordan—”two different paths to the same devotion: painting from life, memory, and imagination”—at 5:30 pm; and “Surreal Cinema: From Maya Deren to the Quay Brothers, the Surrealist Movement's Influence On Cinema” with Rich Fedorchak, 7 pm.
Anxious Nation at Artistree in S. Pomfret. As they write, “The documentary explores the growing rates of anxiety among children and teens and the challenges families face in understanding and responding to it.” Followed by a panel discussion. 6 pm in the Grange Theater.
Myra Flynn at the Claremont Creative Center. The singer, performer, and public radio host in concert, presented by the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts. 6 pm.
At Lebanon Opera House, VT Public presents An Evening with Amna Nawaz of the PBS News Hour. The co-anchor of one of the longest running nightly news shows on TV will sit down with VT Public’s Mitch Wertlieb to talk about how the show works, what it’s preoccupied with now (from the midterms to the Middle East to Ukraine) and how evolving amid funding challenges. 7 pm.
Paul Winter and “This Glorious Earth” at the Chandler in Randolph. The legendary saxophonist and composer gives a duo concert performance with pianist Henrique Eisenmann “and the voices of Whale, Wolf, and Wood Thrush, and other members of what he calls ‘the greater symphony of the Earth.’” In conjunction with the Chandler’s exhibit about Marjorie Ryerson’s Water Music. 7 pm, and there are still tix left.
The Hanover High Footlighters’ production of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor opens. As they write, “The story follows Sir John Falstaff, a cash-strapped knight who attempts to solve his financial woes by simultaneously wooing two wealthy married women. Offering a rare glimpse into Elizabethan middle-class life, the play functioned much like the reality television of its day for contemporary audiences.” 7 pm tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday in the HHS auditorium, 3 pm Sunday.
Hop Film screens Maintenance Artist, with director Toby Freilich in person. Freilich’s documentary profiles Mierle Laderman Ukeles, NYC's first—and so far only—Sanitation Department artist-in-residence. She’s held the post for decades, and the film captures her both as she prepares for a major career retrospective and talks about manual labor and the evolution of her art. 7 pm in the Loew. Preceded at 6 pm in the Hood by a talk about the museum’s current “Division of Labor” exhibition.
And anytime, JAM’s highlights for the week: The storytellers of last month’s Mudroom at AVA, on the theme of “Once In a Blue Moon”; the VT Spirit of the ADA awards, with the Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce and Global Village Foods as recipients; and the fourth annual Labor Town Hall at Dartmouth.
And for today...
As you’re probably aware, Paul Winter (tonight at the Chandler) has done a lot since “Icarus.” Among other things, he and the Consort released Horn of Plenty last fall, just ahead of Thanksgiving. As our own woods grow quieter, here’s a reminder at the start of “The Well-Tempered Wood Thrush.”
See you tomorrow.
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