GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Oh yes, it's cold out there! But don't worry, temps will be going up -- low-mid 20s by mid-afternoon. Of course, it'll also be getting cloudier and the chance of snow will be rising, too. But it's just slight. Honest. Won't amount to anything.Enfield's fire department is dysfunctional. So says a consultant brought in to suggest changes to end the infighting that's beset the volunteer force in recent years. The department is currently overseen by elected officials, and has become too political, its members contend. (VN, subscription required)Should news sites be able to post to the hugely popular Upper Valley VT/NH Facebook group? There's a wide-open debate over InDepthNH's posts there, some of which are about New Hampshire and not just the Upper Valley. "SPAM" says one commenter. "I'd rather read [those] posts than some of this back and forth," rejoins another. "I've been wondering for a while how to handle these sites," says the group's moderator.Hanover's Kelsie Hogue -- aka Sir Babygirl -- is getting music-industry buzz. The former Tuckerbox waiter and substitute teacher now lives in Brooklyn and is building a following with her "unabashedly bubblegum, unashamedly queer pop” singles. (VN, subscription required)Working draws a go-see-it review in Seven Days. We The People's production at the Briggs, coming into its second weekend, is an "upbeat tapestry" and "a tight, lively show that exalts work and working people."Can cheese cubes for dogs save Vermont dairy? Hey, anything's possible. The industry's been whacked by low prices, and the big co-ops are looking for innovative ways to survive. Cabot's eyeing the $60 billion dog marketplace, St. Albans likes grab-and-go. One thing they won't do? Ice cream. Someone else in Vermont has that covered.School consolidations, opioid crisis contribute to VT kids going hungry. Those are some of the points in a new report by the Urban Institute for the National Life Group Foundation. Consolidations lead to longer bus routes and missed breakfasts. All told, there are 19,000 "confirmed cases of children who don’t have enough healthy food to eat."Bill advances to make public NH's "Laurie's List" of law enforcement officers who've been disciplined. At the moment, the names of the 260-odd officers who've been sanctioned for dishonesty, excessive force or mental illness are redacted. Bills in the NH House face a winding road to becoming law, but the Judiciary Committee's 19-0 vote to move it along is suggestive.Let's try this again: Here's the real story about NH legislators in pearls. Remember yesterday's item about pro-gun lawmakers wearing pearls? The link that led you to the Dartmouth self-study instead? No, it wasn't a devious scheme to fill your head with Big Green talking points. It was a mistake. Here you go, with my apologies.And finally, did you know that sledding down city streets in Vermont (and New Hampshire, too?) was once a huge thing? They called it "coasting." Sleds 6-10 feet long, packed with people, pulled to the top of hills by fire horse teams. Hey, it was the 1800s -- they knew how to have fun back then.TIME FOR SOME THURSDAY-NIGHT PLANS...You could go see Streisand and Redford when they were young and in their prime. It's The Way We Were, of course, about which The Hollywood Reporter wrote when it came out in 1973, "Because director Pollack looks corruption in the face and exposes it for what it feels like, The Way We Were emerges as one of the least sentimental love stories ever filmed." At Woodstock Town Hall.Or you could step out of the cold and go wallow in the fauna and landscape of Tanzania. For years now, Cabin Fever University, the "institute of random learning" in Strafford, has been bringing locals together to teach and learn from one another just when the end-of-winter doldrums are setting in. This evening features one family's adventures in east Africa. In South Strafford.So stay bundled up this morning! And have a terrific day! See you tomorrow.
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