GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Still sunny, definitely warmer. High pressure remains in control, at least today, though it'll be breezier than yesterday—and maybe a lot windier if you happen to be on any mountain slopes. Overall, though, we're in for highs reaching into the 60s and crystal-clear skies all day. Tonight, on the other hand, moisture from Tropical Storm Nicole starts making its way into the region, and things will cloud up ahead of tomorrow's late-day rain. Low tonight around 40.It's always worth looking up...
Jed Williamson may only have caught a sliver of eclipsed moon on Tuesday morning, but the atmospherics!
Rounding up the legislative results. The Valley News's politics page covers Tuesday's events on both sides of the river, from Democrat Hope Damon and Republican Jon Stone's apparent wins in the 2-seat 9-town Sullivan 8 House district to Democrat Monique Priestley's romp in the district anchored by Bradford, to... well, races all over.Meanwhile, voters ousted sheriffs in both Windsor and Orange counties. In preliminary numbers from Orange County, part-time deputy George Contois beat his boss, longtime incumbent Bill Bohnyak, who is also president of the National Sheriffs’ Association, by just 102 votes. And in Windsor County, Ludlow police officer and Windor Selectboard chair Ryan Palmer, running as a reform-minded Democrat, took 15,629 votes to really longtime Republican incumbent Michael Chamberlain's 9,824. Chamberlain hadn't faced a general election opponent in two decades. John Lippman recaps in the VN.So, what are you having at... Wait. The DHMC cafeteria??!! Yep, that's where Susan Apel headed for the joint Artful-Daybreak series on local eateries. She met up with registered dietician Katie Bradford, who's run it for the past two years, to talk salmon and pot roast, local sources (including Robie Farms in Piermont and Edgewater Farm in Plainfield), the more than 5,000 pounds of tofu the cafeteria now uses annually (up from 400 lbs. in 2016)... Oh, and the supply-chain issues besetting Jell-O. Plus, of course, what Katie eats.Those tiny greenhouse gas-producing dots by the NH/VT border? The Leb landfill and Leb Airport. Climate Trace, a global nonprofit, has just released a map that uses satellite imagery and other techniques to track greenhouse gas emissions from 79,815 "physical assets" around the world. Around here, they're mostly landfills—the Lebanon landfill ranks 14,559th; up in Moretown VT, a big emitter is the landfill there. By comparison with Logan Airport, the biggest emitter in New England, Manchester-Boston is a piker and Leb Airport barely rates mention. (h/t to David Brooks & Granite Geek for noticing it.)Greenland ice sheet may be thinning more rapidly and extensively than current models predict. That's according to a new study co-led by Dartmouth Earth Sciences prof Mathieu Morlighem, reports Dartmouth News's Morgan Kelly. The study found that changes along the coast may be affecting ice nearly 200 miles inland. As a result, says UC Irvine co-author Eric Rignot, "We foresee profound changes in global sea levels, more than currently projected by existing models"—producing up to six times more global sea-level rise by 2100 than currently predicted, Kelly writes."When I was unable to stand on my own two feet here for a while, there was an army out there doing the legwork for me." That was newly re-elected Orange County state Sen. Mark MacDonald yesterday, talking to VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein. As you remember, MacDonald had a stroke last month and spent the last weeks of the campaign in rehab. He moved out of acute rehab Tuesday, and hopes to be home around Dec. 1. Weinstein follows up with MacDonald on his plans and details the campaigning—much organized by Windsor state Sen. Alison Clarkson—that went on without him.
"Trench warfare" in the NH House? The Senate and Exec Council may have kept their GOP majorities, but as some results were still being counted yesterday and recounts loom in close races, Democrats made enough gains that House Clerk Paul Smith yesterday said a 200-200 House is possible—though late in the day he posted an unofficial count of 203 Republican seats to 197 for Democrats. In NH Bulletin, Ethan DeWitt writes that "lawmakers, lobbyists, and observers are struggling to process the tightly divided reality." Short version: Anything is possible, and all of it will be interesting.
Meanwhile, in VT both houses of the legislature have a Democratic super-majority. As of yesterday afternoon, Vermont Public's Peter Hirschfeld reports, Democrats appeared to have picked up 12 seats in the House, giving them 104; along with the five Progressives, that creates a 109-38 body, which is nine seats more than the coalition needs to override any vetoes by GOP Gov. Phil Scott. Same deal in the Senate, which didn't see any numeric change from last session's 23-7 Democratic majority (Dems lost a seat in Rutland County but picked one up in Chittenden County).Rising heat fuel prices send many VTers in search of alternatives. As people top up their tanks heading into the cold season, they’re finding out just how much more it’s going to cost to stay warm. A gallon of oil averages $5.18, up from $3.59 last winter, reports Kevin McCallum for Seven Days, equating to about $1K more in heating costs for many homeowners. As a result, wood stove and heat pump sales are soaring. For families that don’t enjoy the luxury, the state has added more funds to its energy assistance program. “No family should have to choose between ‘heat or eat.’” says Sen. Patrick Leahy."I'm not looking forward to finding out how much a hot chocolate costs in the lodge"—some suggestions for skiing cheaper. Seven Days' Kirk Kardashian charts the rising cost of downhill skiing, from higher prices for season passes to the cost of gas and travel. And then offers some ideas for coping, from the "deals" section of the Ski Vermont website to off-peak times to smaller areas like Ascutney to Mad River Glen's inexpensive advance-purchase day ticket. When it comes to food, though, he offers this succinct advice: "Bring your own."Would you live in any of these incredible houses built into cliffs? Not that cliff-side dwellings are anything new. See: Mesa Verde, Scottish castles, the Greek island of Santorini. Civilizations have been erecting fabulous structures on sheer precipices for centuries, often to create seclusion or protection from enemies. Today’s visionary architects may not have the same motivations, but their locations are no less daunting. Architectural Digest spotlights a few jaw-dropping, modern-day cliff homes (featured in a new book), though some are still just concepts. Cliff House by Modscape definitely isn’t for everyone.Oh, Tuesday morning's lunar eclipse? Here's how it looked around the world, thanks to Natalie Neysa Alund and USA Today.The Thursday Vordle. Just five letters. Piece of cake.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
At 12:15 today, Dartmouth's Dickey Center hosts Norwich University President and Major General Mark Anarumo for a conversation on "character, leadership, service, and the unique challenges of our time" with government prof Ben Valentino and the president and VP of the college's Student Veterans Association. In Haldeman 041 and livestreamed.
And at 1:15 pm, Dartmouth's Friends of the Library brings in Caroline Cook ’21, to talk about her new novel, Tell Them to Be Quiet and Wait. It's a fictionalized version of the experiences of biologist Hannah Croasdale, who began as a technical assistant in 1938 and, with considerable struggle, eventually became Dartmouth’s first tenured female professor in 1964. “She knew what she was going to face at Dartmouth, and she chose to do it anyway, not because she wanted to be the first woman, but because she wanted to be the best scientist that she could be,” Cook tells Matt Golec for this VN article about her work.
And at 6:30, the Norwich Historical Preservation Commission offers up an online-only talk on "Old House Do's and Don'ts." Historic New England's Elizabeth Paglia will give an illustrated talk with tips about how to approach projects commonly needed in older homes, as well as how to apply historic preservation best practices. Followed by a Q&A.
This evening at 7, Hop Film presents a free advance screening of Steven Spielberg's new semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film, The Fablemans. Co-written with Tony Kushner, it charts both its hero and his raucous family, starting in the early 1950s, when Sammy Fabelman’s parents take him to see his first movie, Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth—whose show-stopping train wreck scene he recreates on his toy train set. At the Loew.
Also at 7, Hanover's Howe Library hosts Left Bank Books' Rena Mosteirin interviewing Bennington College dean Brian Michael Murphy about Murphy's new book, We The Dead: Preserving Data At The End of The World. Murphy's book traces the rise of what he calls the "data complex" and Americans' obsession with preserving data, from time capsules to bombproof bunkers to the country's 2,700 data centers to the heavily guarded 150-acre Iron Mountain National Data Center in Pennsylvania. Both in-person and online.
And also at 7, Grantham's Dunbar Free Library presents a Zoom talk on “The Ecology and Behavior of Wild Turkeys In New Hampshire." Veteran wildlife biologist Mark Ellingwood will cover not just the history of wild turkeys in the state, but their social behavior, habitat needs, flock dynamics, and ability to adapt to and survive northern New England winters.
And this evening at 8 (as well as tomorrow and Friday at the same time and Sunday at 2 pm) Dartmouth's theater department stages its surrealist version of Pippin, in the Hop's Moore Theater. The popular musical follows the heir to Charlemagne's throne as, in the Hop's words, "he strives to find a place to belong by experimenting with art, war, religion, power, love and revolution."
And to start the day...
Well, the
music
is beautiful (“Spiegel im Spiegel” by Arvo Pärt), but
She's a former U.S. Figure Skating double gold medalist, and this was in NYC's Bryant Park back in January. The part you
don't
see is former competitive figure skater Jordan Cowan, who's creating his own skating-immersive art form by filming as he skates alongside, capturing the scrape of blades on ice and the fluency and grace of the skater and doing his best, as he once put it, to "show off what it really feels like to skate." Check out his "On Ice Perspectives" YouTube channel for much more.
See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson
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!