GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Back to autumn. The cold front that came through late yesterday produced a 20-degree temperature drop in just a few hours and it's not rebounding much today: Highs will be in the upper 50s, maybe 60. Still, we'll see cloud cover disappear over the course of the morning, with plenty of sunshine all through the afternoon. And mostly clear skies at night. Which means we'll also be back to lows right around or just above the freezing mark.Back to autumn in photos, too. Thank you to everyone who's sent them in! Here's a taste:
Indian summer sunrise over Quechee yesterday morning, from Lisa Lacasse;
Sunrise over Mascoma Lake, from Pam Havener;
From atop French's Ledges in Meriden, by Marie McCormick;
And the autumn light on Lake Fairlee, from Sherry Merrick.
In this week's reader-submitted vignettes and short items about life in or related to the Upper Valley: a story from a quarter-century ago about a white horse, a pickup, and the difference made by a moment, from Karen Sheldon; a water-rocked poem by Rose Loving; a reflection on the changing light by Heidi Maurer; and an old photo of WRJ viewed from Lebanon discovered at a sale in Massachusetts by Steven Thomas.
The arrests of senior Greyson Xiao, 21, and Registrar’s Office specialist Emma Herndon, 22, came after the two disrupted a Filene Auditorium event with John Fetterman, the US senator from Pennsylvania. About 26 minutes in, reports
The Dartmouth
, Xiao and Herndon stood and chanted, “Fetterman, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide." They continued chanting after being asked several times either to leave or to stop interrupting, at which point HPD officers moved in. "According to a College official familiar with the matter, the College did not ask Hanover Police to make the arrests,"
The Dartmouth
writes.
With NH organic certification gone, Upper Valley farmers turn to other states' programs. As Kate Oden writes in the VN, for years NH's organic certification was one of the most affordable in the country; then, in February, it was gone after legislators voted down more funding. The 66 fruit and vegetable farms in the program were left scrambling. But programs in other states—VT, ME, MA—quickly came calling, and as Oden writes, for some farms the transition has been easy. She talks to Sarah Herr and Seth Bent of Mink Meadow Farm in Etna and Jonathan Hayden of Claremont's Winter St. Farm.Bellows Falls health clinic to close, move services to Springfield VT, Charlestown. North Star Health, which split off from Springfield Hospital when the hospital was going through bankruptcy, runs clinics in Chester and Ludlow as well as the Rockingham Health Center in Bellows Falls and the Springfield and Charlestown clinics. The move, reports VT Public's Howard Weiss-Tisman, is aimed at cutting costs. “For us it’s unsustainable to continue to have the footprint that we once did,” says CEO Josh Dufresne. The clinic serves about 2,300 patients, down 50 percent since 2020. It will close Jan. 1.SPONSORED: Grammy-nominated jazz musician Joshua Redman comes to Lebanon Opera House on Thursday, Nov. 7. For his latest project, the acclaimed saxophonist wrote lyrics and recorded with a vocalist for the first time. That singer is the dynamic Gabrielle Cavassa, winner of the 2021 International Sarah Vaughan Jazz Vocal Competition. The resulting album is a meditation on the power of place—and includes arrangements of Bruce Springsteen’s Streets of Philadelphia, Woody Guthrie’s After Minneapolis, and John Coltrane’s Alabama. Sponsored by Lebanon Opera House.“I don’t get in and out of the car as fast as I used to.” That's how Orange County state Sen. Mark MacDonald, who's 81, explains to VTDigger's Peter D'Auria why he only knocked on 86 doors in Corinth the other day. MacDonald, a Democrat, is being challenged this year by Republican Larry Hart, a former Topsham selectboard member, in a contest that's among the state GOP's top Senate priorities this year. They're betting that frustration over taxes and affordability will be enough to unseat MacDonald, who's held the district for over two decades. D'Auria looks at what both candidates are saying.On housing, NH gubernatorial candidates try to "thread a needle." That's how NH Bulletin's Ethan DeWitt describes the Joyce Craig's and Kelly Ayotte's careful balancing act between upholding local control and getting new housing built to address the state's shortage. Both have expressed support for steps to make it easier for homeowners to build ADUs—but both also favor "offering 'carrots' to towns to encourage them to build housing rather than 'sticks' to force them to change zoning codes," DeWitt writes. He delves into the different proposals from the two candidates. With one last trip to the ARPA well, NH legislative committee sends $500K to small towns to help them understand their cyanobacteria challenges. "The clock has run out" on using federal American Rescue Plan dollars, Gov. Chris Sununu told the legislature's Joint Fiscal Committee last week. In NH Bulletin, Claire Sullivan reports that the money approved by the committee will be funneled to small towns and local lake associations through the NH Lakes Association, allowing them to study "the extent of their cyanobacteria issues and how best to address them." With ticket resellers, customers "don't know that ticket they bought was four times the price it should have been." That's Eric Mallette, who runs the Paramount in Rutland, talking to Seven Days' Mary Ann Lickteig about the ever-expanding predatory reselling market. And it's not just fans who lose out, says the director of the National Independent Venue Association: "That money is leaving the community and going into the pocket of somebody who is not contributing to the ecosystem and not contributing to a show." Lickteig talks to VT venue operators, who say Rule #1 is to start at the venue's own website.In VT and ME, researchers look into whether reducing invasive plants will also reduce tick populations. For years, reports VT Public's Lexi Krupp, "research has shown that ticks are more abundant on certain [invasive] understory plants like Japanese barberry, bush honeysuckles and common buckthorn." No one's quite certain why—maybe humidity levels, maybe they provide more cover for mice—but now, a $1.8 million NSF grant is helping them look into best practices for reducing invasives. And maybe ticks. And maybe Lyme disease. “We're looking for win-wins," says one researcher.From a date gone wrong to 2,878,326 vertical feet and counting. It's kind of like this whole quest that Noah Dines is on—ski 3 million vertical feet in a year—was just meant to be, in a particularly Vermont-y way. From hanging out in Stowe with the guy who set the previous record to going to dinner ahead of a Noah Kahan concert and hearing about a friend of a friend who worked at eventual sponsor Fischer skis... In Backcountry mag, Ethan Daly dives into the backstory and catches up with Dines as he closes in on his goal. Even now, Dines says, "If someone asked me to go skiing right now, I’d say yes."Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
We may be the middle of nowhere to everyone else in VT and NH, but
we
know what's good! Strong Rabbit's Morgan Brophy has come up with the perfect design for "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Plus you'll find the Daybreak jigsaw puzzle, as well as sweatshirts, tees, a fleece hoodie, and, as always, the fits-every-hand-perfectly Daybreak mug. Check it all out at the link!
"
All members of the Upper Valley community are invited to join the circle and share an unrehearsed 5-minute true story from their own life. 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." 6 pm.
Her sweeping and deeply intimate portrait of Vermonters who are struggling with food and housing insecurity will be at the Town Hall Theater, sponsored by Sustainable Woodstock and Pentangle Arts, at 6 pm. Followed by a Q&A with O’Brien herself, along with Willing Hands director Gabe Zoerheide and representatives from LISTEN and the Upper Valley Haven.
Meg Pokrass and Jeff Friedman keep their micro-fiction presentation moving, this time with a reading from their recent books and a discussion of "this very dynamic genre," in the Howe's words. 6:30 pm, in-person in the Meyer Room or online via Zoom.
Shakespeare's comedy about love, deception, trickery, misunderstanding all ends well. Directed by Terry Samwick, text/acting coaching by Kate Kenney, and a large, boisterous cast. At Hanover High, 7 pm today and tomorrow, 3 pm Saturday.
Winner of the jury prize for documentary direction at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the film by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie takes a restrained but unflinching look at the forced separation and abuse inflicted on indigenous kids at the now-closed St. Joseph’s Mission residential school in British Columbia. The score is by Dartmouth grad Mali Obomsawin.
An effort by Vital Communities, Mascoma Bank, and Upper Valley residents Conicia “CJ” Jackson and Julius Turner, the project aims to "advance home ownership, business ownership, and a sense of belonging in the Upper Valley for BIPOC community members." The meeting's open to anyone interested: 8:30-11 tomorrow morning at the Hilton Garden Inn in Lebanon.
: The conversation and debate between former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway and Democratic political strategist and journalist Donna Brazile at a Dartmouth Political Union/Dartmouth Dialogues event Oct. 11; former VT state Rep. Kiah Morris on the connection between music and activism at the Main Street Museum's recent "What Doth Rumble" Festival; and a
1984/Project 2025
mashup in stop-motion animation by Thetford filmmakers Amy and Terry Lawrence.
And for today...
Ayo, whose full name is Joy Olasunmibo Ogunmakin, grew up in Germany, the daughter of a Nigerian DJ father and a Roma mother who divorced when she was young. In and out of the German foster-care system, she taught herself piano and guitar, and began writing songs after she moved in with her father at 14. "When I released my first record my dad said, ‘You cannot say Joy, you have to use the name Ayo,’ [which means 'Joy' in Yoruba]. So I became Ayo. He said he wants the world to know that this is a Nigerian girl,” she told an interviewer a few years ago. Jazz, pop, neo-soul—she easily crosses genres.
.
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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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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