GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Another day, another chance of rain/snow showers. A new low pressure system began moving in last night, bringing a slight chance for showers—which, once again, will be terrain-dependent, with snow up high, and snow mixing with rain in the valleys. Winds are shifting to come from the northwest, but we won’t see much temperature difference from yesterday: highs around 40, lows tonight in the mid or upper 20s. We should see some sky this morning, before it gets cloudier later.
Looking at the light. It’s the great thing about late fall: The landscape may be getting barer, but the light heightens everything.
Here’s a dramatic view from atop Mt. Kearsarge the other day. Michael Noreika writes, that the sun’s angle “was just right to create the shadow of the mountain all the way out to the horizon (actually slightly above the horizon because of the haze). That pine tree is actually green but the sun turned it bright yellow.”
And emerging from the woods in Lyme to find the last light of day across the Connecticut River Valley, from Bill Waste.
And the view across Occom Pond in Hanover, where the trees, even muted, remain vibrant—from Janice Fischel.
It’s time for Dear Daybreak! Which leads off this week with Irit Librot’s haunting photo of a pond at dusk, followed by Glenn Wylie’s tale of how he came inadvertently to feed—and root for—a local skunk; Danny Dover’s poem about the “fragile messy beautiful” lives of aging men; and Ann Thompson’s it-takes-a-village story of helping a home-bound friend land a La-Z-Boy. If you’ve got something to share, please send it in.
Dartmouth aims to double undergrad veterans, strengthen ROTC presence. President Sian Beilock announced the initiative at Tuesday morning’s Veterans Day breakfast; at the moment, the college has 13 veterans who are undergrads, and 60 in its graduate and professional schools. “We want to be leaders in recruiting and creating those committed to service through the military, government, and other careers,” Beilock said, Aimee Minbiole reports for Dartmouth News. “We want to ensure that their experience and voices are heard in our classrooms because it makes us all better.”
Spare a thought for the people who live on or use Goose Pond. It’s been two years since NH drained the pond in Canaan and Lyme to construct a new dam, and only recently did it refill to normal levels. But now it’s being drained again: Back in September, engineers found one of the new dam gates “had a faulty seal when under pressure,” reports Clare Shanahan in the Valley News. Divers tried a fix, but it didn’t work, so the gate will have to be removed to replace the seal. “Our hope is to start refilling Goose Pond by the end of this calendar year,” says the chief engineer for the state Dam Bureau. Which means it should be full again around next Memorial Day.
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NH Supreme Court hears arguments over whether “tainted” evidence helped convict Logan Clegg in Concord double murder. Clegg’s serving 50 years to life for the 2022 murders of Stephen and Djeswende “Wendy” Reid on a woods trail in Concord. Yesterday, reports Damien Fisher in InDepthNH, his defense attorney argued that because Concord Police detectives didn’t get a warrant for cellphone data before arresting him in Vermont, all the evidence that flowed from that data should have been inadmissible. The AG’s office responded that because Clegg was trying to leave the country, time was of the essence. Fisher recounts the day’s exchange.
$1.92. That’s the median amount that VT Agency of Agriculture inspectors found Walgreen’s overcharged customers at the register between 2018 and 2024, compared to prices posted on store shelves—though the actual amounts ranged from 4 cents to $23.40. Now, reports Liam Elder-Connors for VT Public, the drug store chain is paying $500,000 to the state to settle a claim by the state AG’s office after inspectors documented 416 instances of overcharging. Atty Genl Charity Clark says the state can’t track down people who overpaid, so the penalty is “a donation that sort of honors and symbolizes a return to the community” of the overspent dollars.
With shutdown and federal policy, some VT ski resorts worry about hiring enough foreign workers. The hiring process is “expensive and time-consuming,” writes Seven Days’ Sasha Goldstein, but “the resorts need these employees because there aren’t enough local workers.” Now, things are even tougher. The shutdown means that visa applications are being processed more slowly than usual. And, at least at Smugglers’ Notch, some applicants have gotten hung up when their social media posts are reviewed by federal officials. In all, Goldstein reports, a dozen ski areas across the state are looking to hire about 1,400 workers from overseas this season.
For VT’s teen snowboard prodigies: erratic weather, slush, ice, obscurity… and national championships. Both 14-year-old Sydney Howard of Bolton and Pax Draugelis of Morrisville, also 14, topped the podium at this year’s U.S. national snowboarding championships, “despite having fewer training facilities, smaller mountains and less snow” on which to train, writes Ken Picard in Seven Days. But what they and others get in return: a snowboarding culture that keeps things in perspective and that, even at the elite level, “emphasizes camaraderie, mutual encouragement and, yes, having fun.” Picard profiles them, their attitudes, and their parents’ approaches.A
The most relaxing sounds around the world. It’s been a week, right? You just might need a calm moment on a beach in the Aegean Islands, a peaceful ramble along Scotland’s (rain-drenched) West Highlands Way, a leisurely stroll down Fifth Avenue, sirens blaring. OK, the last one, not so much. But travel the rest of the globe on this quirky website—with accompanying photos—and take a calming breath. There’s plenty of water (rivers, oceans, rain) but also the snip snip snip of a Boston haircut and a few minutes in Dent Village in the Yorkshire Dales (“listen to the English birds tweeting”).
Not a relaxing sound in the least: The wind whipping across a frozen Mt. Washington summit. The visuals are pretty exciting, too. Last Saturday, the pair who post photos and video of NH hiking adventures as NH Wild hiked up the mountain with the aim of reaching the summit by sunrise. A few days ago, they posted what the top looked and sounded like. It could be a scifi film… (Thanks, JF!)
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
At Upper Valley Music Center, “A Little Lunch Music” with faculty members Alicia Casey, Ben Van Vliet, and Chenyu Wang. They’ll be performing music for two violins and piano, including Maurice Moszkowski’s “Suite in g minor, Op. 71”. Noon, free to all.
Bow Thayer and Krishna Guthrie at Feast & Field’s Rumney Sessions. As they write, Thayer’s been exploring “folk, prog, blues, world music, improv and psychedelia on his journey to bring backwoods music into the present.” Farm-fresh food, live music, and community — all in a 250-year-old barn. Doors at 5:30, music ~6 or 6:15.
Author Brad Kessler and photographer Dona Ann McAdams at the Norwich Bookstore with The Woodcutter's Christmas. Kessler, a novelist (Birds in Fall) and nonfiction writer and McAdams, an internationally prominent photographer, have a new book out about a Vermont woodcutter who travels to Manhattan to see what happened to the Christmas trees he cultivated. 7 pm.
David Wilcox at the Flying Goose in New London. The NC-based singer and songwriter has something on the order of 20 albums to his name, and he’s just come out with a new one, The Way I Tell the Story—which is apt, because he’s nothing if not a storyteller whose music and voice are hard not to compare to early James Taylor (more on that below, in the music section). 7:30 pm.
And anytime, check out what JAM’s got for highlights this week. You’ll find producer Chico Eastridge’s visit with former Hampshire College president and Dartmouth dean and historian Gregory Prince at the horse farm where he’s lived for a half century; US Rep. Becca Balint’s town hall in WRJ last week; and the Hanover High Footlighters’ production of Twelfth Night.
And for today...
For most of his career, David Wilcox has been hearing the James Taylor comparisons. He sees things differently. “People see a guy with an acoustic guitar and say he must be like James Taylor,” he told an interviewer once. “I think we are speaking about different ideas, but that is a lot more subtle than most people want to think about.” You can judge for yourself: He’ll be at the Flying Goose tonight. Here’s the title track off his new album.
See you tomorrow.
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