GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Colder, afternoon sun. High pressure’s going to be building in today in the wake of last night’s system, but there’s still a chance of rain and snow showers first thing, before it all clears out. The air in the wake of the cold front that also came through is sharply colder, with highs today only reaching the low 40s, and tonight’s lows down into the low or mid 20s. Winds today from the northwest, with decent gusts into the afternoon.
Paint it orange. Or maybe rose-orange? Recently, Sadie Evans and her little brother Sam were at the Dartmouth Skiway for the Ford Sayre season opener celebration and took advantage of the chance to climb up to Holt’s Ledge in time for sunset. Sadie captured what they saw.
And hey, speaking of stunning skies, it’s time for Dear Daybreak. Which leads off this week with Sarah Davie’s photo of the morning sky in Orford. Robin Dellabough writes in about the unlikely chain of events that got a forgotten rain shell back into her hands from Quebec City—despite a Canadian postal service strike; in 11 words, Kathy Manning sums up a moment with her cats; and Lynn Kisselbach figures out a strange noise that spooked her on Halloween night. If you’ve got something to share, please send it in.
Late-fall recipes galore! Jenny Sprague’s Edgewater Farm CSA blog starts out this week with a callout to the four Jamaican farmers who compose Edgewater’s field crew, and whose island was devastated by Hurricane Melissa. Then Emily McNamara, who also works at Edgewater, pops in with a detailed guide (and suggestions) for roasting this season’s vegetables. And finally, Plainfield cookbook author and all-around home cooking master Mitchell Davis offers up two recipes: Lebanese chard stem salad (the stems need to be cooked first, but they make a great salad); and a “creamy, comforting” sweet potato gratin.
Traffic heads up: I-89 Northbound Exit 3 in Royalton to be closed today. It’s part of the ongoing bridge rehab project along that stretch of the interstate, where northbound traffic has been shifted over to a southbound lane recently. Today, VTrans says, Exit 3 will close “to allow for removal of the temporary ramp crossover and for repaving. While this closure is in place, northbound traffic wishing to exit will be detoured to Exit 4. By the end of the day, the Exit 3 off-ramp will reopen, the ramp crossover will no longer be used, and all northbound traffic will remain in the low-speed lane across the new northbound bridge.” At the link, scroll down to “Royalton, I-89 Bridge Rehabilitation.”
On his way out, Orange County Sen. Larry Hart reflects on the VT legislature. Hart, you’ll remember, is stepping down at the end of next week, after serving less than a year in the post. Seven Days legislative reporter Hannah Bassett caught up with him to talk about it, and though Hart cited long-term grief after the overdose death of his daughter, he also blamed the frustration of serving—including facing bills by legislators not born in VT. He tells Bassett a GOP colleague plans to introduce a bill to bar anyone not born in the state from running for office—a measure Senate GOP Leader Scott Beck says he hasn’t heard about and that would have no chance. Hit the link for more.
In Enfield, Montcalm Golf Club eyes housing development. Owner Kristen Brenner tells the Valley News’s Liz Sauchelli the club would like to find a developer for some 110 acres for private housing—perhaps “a charming village of 100 cabin-style homes.” To get there, it’s putting the land’s residential development rights up for sale, but not the golf club itself. Spokesperson Kimberly Lohman Clapp tells Sauchelli that club memberships and day rates aren’t covering expenses. Brenner and her late husband “invested millions of their own money into making Montcalm the gem that it is today,” says Clapp. “While that is doable, it is not sustainable.”
Longtime Tunbridge Fire Department bookkeeper charged with embezzlement. The case began back in August, the VT State Police wrote in a press release late yesterday, when the volunteer department notified them of a possible case of embezzlement. An investigation “revealed that during a 10-year period from 2014 through 2025, $186,000 had been embezzled from the department. VSP’s investigation identified the suspect in the embezzlement as Jacqueline Higgins, who was hired by the Tunbridge Fire Department as a bookkeeper in 1994.” She was arrested and charged yesterday, and released with a court date of Dec. 31.
Coming this weekend in Hanover, Paul Winter celebrates New Hampshire forests. As you’ll see in this afternoon’s weekend Heads Up email, the legendary composer and musician will be at the Congregational Church at Dartmouth College for a concert called “This Glorious Earth.” NHPR’s Rick Ganley talked to Winter and to Standing Trees’ Zach Porter—including about the 1,700 acres of old-growth forest on the flanks of Mt. Sunapee. “Old growth forests in the Northwest have gotten a great deal more attention in recent decades, but I'm thrilled to know about this old growth patch that's still there in the Sunapee forest here,” Winter says.
NH AG’s office reviewing judicial branch maneuver that led to $50K payout to high-ranking employee. You may remember an NHPR story last month that found a former top aide to state Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald had been laid off from one judicial branch position then rehired two days later for a different job—a move that let her cash out accrued employment benefits. Shortly afterward, reports Todd Bookman (who broke the original story), the DOJ sent letters to the people involved telling them to preserve records in the case. The next day, the Court cancelled all oral arguments, without explanation. Bookman details what’s known so far.
UNH researchers use AI to find magnetic materials—and, possibly, reduce reliance on rare-earth elements. As the university’s Beth Potier writes, “Magnets are at the core of the technology that powers our world: smartphones, medical devices, power generators, electric vehicles, and more.” But they also need elements that are “expensive, imported, and increasingly difficult to obtain.” So the researchers built an AI system to read scientific papers, extract details about materials that turn out to be magnetic, and then feed a database that now holds 67,573 magnetic materials entries, with information on how hot they can get before losing their magnetism.
With Skinny Pancake closing through winter and spring in Stowe, a message on housing and cost of living. No fears for the company itself, which still has 10 other locations. But founding owner Benjy Adler tells Seven Days’ Melissa Pasanen that continued staffing issues at the Stowe location grew out of two broader challenges: lack of local housing—“It was really common for people to be driving an hour to Stowe to work”—and high living costs driving high wages. “If we want to have a tourist economy, if we want to have a flourishing food-service economy, we need to address our labor shortage, which does tie back to housing and cost of living,” he says.
How Marlon Brando changed acting. Step by step, Evan Puschak walks us through a scene in On the Waterfront to show how Brando utterly re-set the film actor’s art and craft. He chucked aside the unwavering stares and overacted emotions that had been the norm, instead glancing sideways, fidgeting in his seat, deflating with a drooped shoulder and heavy sigh. “Brando’s great gift is in the ways he lets us catch glimpses of the desperate sensitivity beneath,” Puschak says. Then snap! he’s back to his hard, intense self. “It’s easy to see why Brando became a North Star for an entire generation of actors,” says Puschak. And it’s mesmerizing even if you’re not an actor.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
DH sponsors a virtual “Community Conversation on Medicare Advantage and Medicare Changes”. Samantha Ball, executive director of Valley Health Connections, will be talking about the changes affecting some Medicare recipients and the options available to them. “She will provide a better understanding of the issues and give you the information you will need to make decisions about your healthcare,” DH says. 10 am, and you’ll need to register.
Vermont Law & Grad School hosts Charlie Sellers and "What We Can Do: A Climate Optimist’s Guide to Sustainable Living”. Sellers, the director of sustainability at Microsoft, is the author of a book with the same title, which uses “a data-driven framework to help readers live and lead more sustainably—in their homes, workplaces, and communities.” 12:45 pm in Oakes Hall Room 107 and online.
At Fable Farm in Barnard, the Rumney Sessions with the Quincy Saul Research & Development Band. With a name inspired by Herbie Hancock's legendary Mwandishi group, the R&D Band brings together local musicians—cabinetmaker Pete Michelinie on drums, astrophysicist Lukas Saul on bass, and ecosocialist organizer Quincy Saul on piano and clarinets—with global tastes. “Expect music on the world-soul-jazz-funk-family continuum with originals and classics and surprise cameos from artists renowned and unknown,” Fable writes. Doors, food, and drink at 5:30, music 6 or 6:15.
Dartmouth’s Rockefeller Center hosts former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf for “Virtue, Liberty, and Independence: Our Foundation and Our Future". The conversation with the two-term Democratic governor (2015 to 2023) and Dartmouth alum is part of Rocky’s "Law and Democracy: The United States at 250" speaker series, and will be moderated by government prof Jason Barabas. 5:30 pm in Filene Auditorium and online.
At the Howe Library in Hanover, “Wild Lands: What They Are, and Present and Future Opportunities for Protection and Restoration”. A panel discussion with John Davis, the rewilding advocate at the Adirondack Council; Jon Leibowitz, CEO of Northeast Wilderness Trust; and Ronan Donovan, National Geographic fellow. They’ll be talking about the future of wilderness and rewilding in the Northeast, moderated by NH State Rep. Terry Spahr. 5:30 pm in the Mayer Room and online.
Hop Film screens Holding Liat. Brandon Kramer’s documentary, released earlier this year, focuses on members of his own family as they deal with the kidnapping of Liat Atzili and her husband Aviv after Hamas attacked their kibbutz on Oct. 7, 2023—confronting conflicting political perspectives as they pursue the release of their loved ones and reckon with their own place in the larger political conflict. Discussion afterward with producer Brandon Kramer, writer Judith Hertog, and Middle East Studies prof Bernard Avishai. Loew Auditorium, 7 pm.
At the Norwich Bookstore, Chuck Collins and Burned by Billionaires. The writer and senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies has a new book out—which, despite its title, focuses on families with more than $40 million in assets, which, he contends, is about where “wealth translates into levels of influence and power that distort democracy.” He takes on how the concentration of wealth affects ordinary people’s health, housing costs, political participation, environment, and more. 7 pm.
Dartmouth College Gospel Choir at the Hop. Under charismatic director Knoelle Higginson, the ever-popular choir’s fall concert will deliver a high-energy performance of spirituals and contemporary gospel, with soul-stirring vocals, rhythms that make it impossible to sit still, and a rousing rendition of, among other things, “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho”. 7:30 pm, Spaulding Auditorium.
David Francey at the Flying Goose in New London. The great Canadian singer and storyteller spent his childhood in Scotland, worked in Canada's rail yards and in the Yukon, and then, at age 45, turned the songs he'd been writing in his head into a music career. Since then, he's won three Juno Awards (Canada's Grammys) and had his songs covered by The Del McCoury Band, The Rankin Family, and others. 7:30 pm, you’ll need to call for reservations.
Flamy Grant at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon. Hosted by the Lebanon Opera House, the powerhouse vocalist and songwriter from North Carolina—with a drag name that pays homage to Amy Grant—blends country, folk, gospel, and roots music “into a wholly original storytelling experience,” LOH writes. 7:30 pm.
And for today...
We’ll look to David Francey (tonight at the Flying Goose)…
See you tomorrow.
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