GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Cloudy but warmer. The airflow's from the south today, which will help temps moderate a bit after a truly cold start to the day, but they won't cross the 30-degree line (and then, not by much) until early afternoon. Clouds most of the day, though they'll start decreasing a bit overnight tonight.Weathersfield selectboard pleads Tenney tree's case. As you know, VTrans plans to cut down the large maple that looms over the Exit 8 park and ride, the last visible reminder of farmer Romaine Tenney's stand against the construction of I-91 through his property in 1964. Now the town has officially asked Gov. Phil Scott for a stay of execution while it explores alternatives. (VN)GrubHub comes to the Upper Valley. Chris Ng, who runs the Upper Valley (VT/NH) Foodie group on Facebook, posted last night that the food delivery service opened for business in these parts yesterday. Judging from their search-results page they've got almost a dozen spots signed up, including Norwich's Blue Sparrow Kitchen, Hanover's Swirl & Pearl and Noodle Station, and Leb's Karibbean and Thai Orchid.Hanover Haircutters object to college's single-barbershop voucher approach. Dartmouth's Office of Pluralism and Leadership offsets the cost of hair care for low-income — and especially African-American — students by providing $20 vouchers to use at Sean Taylor's People’s Barbershop and Shave Parlor in Hanover. Ryan and Robert Romano, the father-son team who own Hanover Haircutters and also have a black clientele, think that's unfair. "Why is the voucher only...to be used at his shop?" Ryan tells The Dartmouth. "I feel like it should be any shop that somebody chooses.” What your wood pile says about you. Right just now they're everywhere you look, and in Junction magazine, Isaac Lorton and a variety of photographers are up with a dandy little photo essay about wood piles — from the venue's point of view. The dairy farm, the I-can't-believe-they-stacked-all-that sugarhouse, the classic back-of-beyond home... "You have a red barn-like shed with plenty of wood ready to go.... And that’s just your backup supply."Three locals in the running for 2020 Good Food Awards. This is the tenth year that the Good Food Foundation is handing out its kudos to craft food makers around the country. A dozen VT producers are among the 307 finalists, three from the area: SILO Distillery for its cider and vodka; Brookfield's Fat Toad Farm for its goat's milk caramels; and WRJ's Elizabeth Feinberg for her Pumpkin Seed Chipotle Toffee. NH is represented only by the nomination of Colorado-based Stem Ciders' "New Hampshire Heritage and Winesap" cider. Posers!"It's just a way for me to bring to life some of the history I'm reading about." That's Sharon's Sam Brakeley, being a tad modest. This is the guy who paddled 740 miles to follow indigenous travel routes across New England. And who retraced Benedict Arnold's trip from Augusta, ME, to Quebec City in a canoe. Now he's talking to Seven Days about his new book, Skiing With Henry Knox: A Personal Journey Along Vermont's Catamount Trail. All 300 miles of it. Knox, of course, didn't haul cannons from Ft. Ticonderoga along the trail, but... oh, just read the article.It may be warming up, but it's still going to be colder than normal over the next week. The Weather Service has a handy graphic looking at the temp forecasts over the next seven days. Saturday's the day to watch out for.Not after Vermont switches temps to the Kelvin scale, though. When it's -40F, it'll be 233 Kelvin, and that, says Gov. Phil Scott, will make everyone feel better. “Have you ever woken up and heard on the radio that the temperatures are below zero?” Scott says. “That we’re in the negatives? How does that make you feel? I’m guessing not very positive. But from now on, all Vermonters will be able to hear good news on the weather report.” Or, well, no: satire from The Winooski. Kind of an intriguing idea, though...NH trails only West Virginia in rate of kids affected by opioid abuse. That's the conclusion of a study by the United Hospital Fund and Boston Consulting Group, which looked at 2017 figures on opioid use disorder among parents and children. It found that 51 out of every 1,000 children in New Hampshire were affected. The figure in WV was 54 out of every 1,000. California had the highest absolute number, at 196,000."How are you going to explain to the masses of people who look at what we have on the walls and explain why yours isn't signed but everyone else's is?" That's Virginia Drew, who oversees the visitor's center at the NH Secretary of State's office and its wall-full of bumper stickers signed by presidential candidates who've come in to file for the primary. Freelance photographer Elizabeth Frantz has a lovely little photo essay in the NYT about the hoo-hah surrounding candidates' in-person visits. Deadline's on Friday.Federal judge rules border agents can't search electronic devices just because they feel like it. The case involved 11 plaintiffs whose laptops and cellphones were searched at points of entry around the US, including at the VT-Quebec border. U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper, whose territory covers Massachusetts, ruled that agents must supply specific reasons for searching a device, though they do not need a warrant.VT officials consider cutting net metering reimbursements. Currently, the state's approach pays corporations and individuals who install solar more for the power they feed into the grid than the retail cost. Critics charge that this rewards the wealthy at the expense of ordinary ratepayers. Now the Department of Public Service thinks the current payment structure is no longer needed, since solar in the state has become a mature industry. VTDigger dives deep."We're not letting you cut loose and just do doughnuts out there." That's Karl Stone, who works at Team O'Neil Rally School in the north woods of NH, to Seven Days' Ken Picard. Picard visited the school in Dalton — which specializes in teaching high-end driving skills to military, police, and rally teams — to learn more about its winter-driving classes for ordinary folks. You learn how to steer out of skids without fishtailing, stop suddenly on a slippery road, and other useful skills. Alas, as Picard says, they save the ramming and J turns for military and law enforcement clients.
If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
GOT PLANS?
It's pretty much impossible to describe
Olio
, the collection that won Jess the 2017 poetry Pulitzer. "I’ve been trying to think of the right handle for it," one interviewer told Jess, "because I want to say epic, and I want to say opera, and I want to say Broadway, and vaudeville..." But it's also history, both fictionalized and non-, about black musicians from the Civil War to WWI, and a
tour de force
. 4:30 at Sanborn Library.
Costello, who specializes in the intersection of Catholic theology and indigenous spiritual traditions, is an expert on the life of Black Elk. He'll be talking about Black Elk's role during the Great Sioux War and his callings as traditional healer, Catholic teacher, and revivalist of Native American traditions. 7 pm at the Baldwin Memorial Library.
It's the Hanover Conservancy's annual meeting, which will feature Kilham, the expert on black bear behavior who also takes in orphaned cubs and rehabilitates injured bears at his Lyme sanctuary. He and his work have featured on pretty much every nature channel known to humanity. Here's a chance to see him in person. Starts at 7 in the atrium, and the Conservancy meeting won't start until afterward.
This is a new film by Emmy-winning documentarian Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who is also married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The film explores the gap between "the American dream" and a reality of widening income inequality, in which zip code and family often determine a person's prospects. She lays the blame on a culture that reveres stereotypically "masculine" pursuits like money, power and individualism. Starts at 6:30.
Who am I to deny this world? This giftof music storming through me? It howls outmy fingers when I reach into God’s mouthof piano, grabbin’ fistfuls of sun witheach song. It spins me in circles, surroundsme in starshine, mounts my head, hands, and hearttill I tell it what it wants, tell it howwe are all one wave of notes in the darkgospel of the universe.
-- From "Blind Tom Plays On..." in
Olio
, by Tyehimba Jess
See you tomorrow.
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! You can subscribe at:
Thank you!