GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Rain, mixing with snow tonight. Well, here we go. This particular system’s moving from southwest to northeast, and what falls will depend a lot on temps and elevation, since there’s not much cold air in place. Peaks in the Greens (not so much the Whites) should see snow even at the start, and by tomorrow morning snow levels may have reached 1,200 feet and above; valleys will see rain, then rain/snow after midnight tonight, but there won’t be much accumulation. Highs today in the upper 30s, lower 30s overnight. Here’s what the snow accumulation forecast looks like for both states.
Husks. Two different kinds, but both speak to the season we’re just about to leave. First, a monarch butterfly shortly after emerging from a chrysalis in Grantham, from Terri Munson. And then, looking ahead to next summer’s monarchs, milkweed seeds ready to take wing.
In Claremont, pizza and paneer fuse. Corin Hirsch’s opening paragraph for her Daybreak profile of the newly opened Mountain Pizza, Indian Cuisine and Bar on Washington Street pretty much sums things up: “It’s a safe bet that there aren’t many (if any) places in New England where you can dig into momos and Buffalo wings, segue to goat biryani or a pepperoni pizza, then wash it all down with a mango lassi, Switchback, or a dram of Indian whisky.” It’s the brainchild of Sachida and Manjila Rauniyar, a Nepali couple who live in Manchester. “I like to do things differently,” Sachida Rauniyer tells Corin. Whet your appetite at the link.
Most Hartford town offices have to move for a while. After years of living with HVAC problems in town hall, reports Sophie Levenson in the Valley News, Hartford officials have decided on an overhaul. It all stems from a heat pump system installed in 2017, which struggles in winter and has forced the town to pay for temporary heating; the offices’ relocation (north to 205 Billings Farm Road) will cost less than that temporary fix. All but the Town Clerk and Parks and Rec offices will move Dec. 4 (and reopen in the new location Dec. 7). The overhaul will depend on voters approving a bond at town meeting in March. Levenson details what went wrong, and what’s ahead.
Swastika scrawled on WRJ’s new veterans monument. As Alex Ebrahimi notes in the VN, the marker-wielding vandals struck just in time for Veterans Day, defacing the monument dedicated last Memorial Day to commemorate Hartford residents who served in the Korean and Vietnam wars, and after 1975. It’s reminiscent of September’s incidents in Lebanon, with spray-painted swastikas near Ledyard Charter School on the Lebanon Mall, a Water Street parking lot, and at a cemetery on Dulac Street. Leb police said they had surveillance footage of two juvenile suspects.
SPONSORED: Thank you for Giving Local Food with Willing Hands. Local food belongs on every table! We’re grateful to the 283 community members who joined Willing Hands to Give Local Food from their favorite farms so far in 2026. Together, they donated $27,828 worth of produce through CSA shares, additional online orders, and stockpile sales. This program supports our neighborhood farms and helps more local food reach more people. Learn more here or at the burgundy link. Sponsored by Willing Hands.
Soaring fuel costs are hurting—and one Vershire guy is trying to help. Nate Thames isn’t really the focus of Kevin McCallum’s Seven Days piece on how Vermonters are hoping to weather this upcoming winter without freezing, but he figures prominently because of something he’s done: started posting Upper Valley fuel dealers’ prices weekly on a website he created (you’ll find it here) so that people can shop around. Some people who’ve been in touch with him, he tells McCallum, can use 1,400 gallons of oil or more each winter. “For them, saving 20 or 30 cents a gallon, that’s real money,” Thames says. McCallum also looks at other oil alternatives.
About those new Hanover parking rates… Hanover businessman Jim Rubens (who heads the downtown committee’s parking efforts) writes about yesterday’s item: “As of Jan. 1 those higher Main Street hourly rates are accompanied by…what the parking world calls ‘progressive rate metering’. Rather than issuing parking tickets for customers wishing to stay in the same Main Street parking place for greater than 3 hours, hourly rates automatically switch to the higher hourly rate. This is a means to avoid the annoyance of parking tickets and at the same time incentivize space turnover.” Meanwhile, he notes that the first hour of parking in the town garage is free.
SPONSORED: LISTEN Community Services’ annual Holiday Thrift Store Event starts tomorrow! Get into the spirit of the season by browsing festive finds at LISTEN’s Thrift Stores in Lebanon, Canaan, and White River Junction. Shop decorations, attire, gifts, and more while giving back to your community. Every purchase helps LISTEN provide food, heating, and housing assistance to neighbors throughout the Upper Valley. Stop in starting this Friday, November 13th, to discover affordable holiday treasures and help other local families have a good winter! Sponsored by LISTEN Community Services.
At the Hood, a new director “fascinated by the idea of alternative exhibition spaces — even as she built her career in traditional museums.” That’s how the VN’s Sophie Levenson describes the approach taken by Kim Conaty, who took over recently after serving as chief curator at the Whitney Museum in NYC. Conaty went to Middlebury intending to be pre-med, but a sophomore-year art history class rerouted her. “My mind was blown,” she tells Levenson. “It was like there was a glitch happening … Color could mean a feeling, or a form could represent an emotion.” Levenson traces the arc of her career, and the questions she’s asking as she settles into the Hood.
A 10th Mountain Division vet who now oversees a mountain. Greg Cartier went to Norwich University, joined the US Army as a light infantry captain, deployed to Iraq, spent some time as a law clerk before realizing it wasn’t for him, and wound up working for Vail Resorts at Okemo, where he’s now Senior Manager of Snow Surfaces, overseeing snowmaking, grooming, terrain parks, and trail maintenance. SnowBrains writer Jacqui Davis met him last summer, was intrigued, and just went up with an interview. Cartier’s probably one of the rare guys who can draw a line from Ranger School to the ski industry: “I work with crews who are outside around the clock, often in freezing temperatures and challenging conditions,” he explains.
SPONSORED: Oak Hill Outdoor Center skiing is back and better than ever! Winter's coming and world-class skiing is right here in the Upper Valley. We made some great improvements this summer so get your season pass, or better yet, your Sustainer Pass now, for access to the full 25-kilometer trail system. Help support reliable, accessible skiing for the entire Upper Valley! Sponsored by the Oak Hill Outdoor Center.
New sensors will allow VT to understand its mountain snow better. The snow stake at the top of Mt. Mansfield “has been the gold standard for calculating snow depth for decades,” writes Seven Days’ Sasha Goldstein. But it can’t monitor things like temperature and water content—and for everyone from ski areas to flood-control managers, those things matter. Thanks to a $5.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation, new monitors are going in this winter near the Mansfield summit, at UVM’s Jericho Research Forest in order to gauge what’s happening at low elevations; and at Sleepers River in Danville for middle-elevation data.
Every step you take is trying to untie your shoes. We probably don’t need an astrophysicist to explain the mechanics of unraveling shoelaces, but hey, why not? In her entertaining four-minute explanation of what’s going on when your foot hits the ground (including g-forces comparable to a rocket), BBC science communicator Josie Peters (and astrophysics PhD) explains the research, dives into the 5600-(at least)-year history of securing shoes, illustrates why you want to tie a reef knot not a granny knot, and details why less is more when it comes to aglets. You know, those little … oh, we’ll just let her explain it.
The Thursday Crossword. A “midi” pre-day workout for your brain, from Laura Braunstein.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
Dartmouth’s Rockefeller Center hosts CNN data analyst Harry Enten for “Reading the Numbers: A Post-Midterm Analysis.” Enten, Dartmouth ‘11, will talk over the midterms and what the numbers say with government prof Mia Costa. Noon in Rockefeller Center’s Hinman Forum as well as livestreamed here.
The Rockefeller Center hosts Richard Haass and “Foreign Policy and the Midterm Elections.” Haass, a former chief foreign policy advisor to President George H.W. Bush and then to Colin Powell at the State Department under George W. Bush, will talk with government prof Benjamin Valentino about “the impact of recent foreign policy on the midterm election results, and the impact of the midterm results on U.S. foreign relations.” 5 pm in Filene Auditorium as well as livestreamed here.
Rick Redington and Tuf Luv at Fable Farm Fermentory’s Rumney Sessions in Barnard. Can’t possibly put the description better than they do themselves: “A Four Piece Ensemble With A Driving Hellbent Hendrixian Edge Tapered With A Bit Of Psychedelic Deadishness.” Alongside warmth, food, and drink. It all starts up at 5:30 pm.
At the Norwich Bookstore, Elizabeth Wellington Rollins in conversation with Tory Henwood Hoen about The Three Graces of Pearl Street. Rollins’s debut novel has gotten lots of buzz, with its plot centered on three generations of Valentini women who move in together—a situation, Library Journal writes, that “causes family secrets, old rivalries and grudges, and hidden heartbreaks to bubble up, flavoring the story with humor and heart.” Rollins will talk it over with fellow local novelist Hoen at 7 pm.
At Still North Books & Bar, Benny Peterson with The Maidenheads. Peterson’s debut novel centers on a 20-something Baltimore journalist who’s navigating life at an alt-weekly, her first hetero relationship, her old relationship, her old DC-based band The Maidenheads, her old band partner’s new band… The book, Baltimore mag wrote, is “tender, yearning, and unflinching.” 7 pm.
Hop Film screens Mary Oliver: Saved By the Beauty of the World. Sasha Waters’s new documentary uses “archival footage, never-before-seen personal photos, notebook pages and original interviews [to explore] Oliver's early days as a writer, aspects of her personal life she kept private, and the award-winning works that launched her to broad acclaim.” Plus a boatload of celebrity interviews. 7 pm in the Loew Auditorium.
Briston Maroney at the Hop. The Nashville-based indie rocker can fill big spaces (think Red Rocks) with both people and sound, what with three albums and a dedicated global fan base. Tonight he’s close to filling Spaulding, though there are still seats left. Folk-rocker Noah Pope opens. 7:30 pm.
And anytime, JAM’s highlights for the week: Hartland’s annual town meeting last March—recorded by Hartford Elementary 8th graders; the late Dartmouth President Emeritus James Wright’s discussion of the shifting landscape of war, delivered on Veterans Day 2021; and a new podcast by Jimmy Coleman and Miranda Dupre on the Upper Valley, the people who live here, and what makes its towns and villages thrive.
And for today...
Briston Maroney (tonight at the Hop) in a more-intimate-than-usual setting, with an acoustic version of “Even If You Are Not Mine.”
See you tomorrow.
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