GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
More showers. It's a new front, but here on the ground things will look a lot like yesterday. At least, during the day: showers likely by mid-morning, temps reaching the mid 50s. Then there's yet another system approaching that will reach us tonight, when we'll get full-on rain—with temperatures holding steady in the 50s. Given snowmelt and the water that's been falling, officials are keeping an eye on rivers and streams, which are already moving pretty fast.Bookends.
Ducks in a sea of white during last week's storm after crossing Route 5 in Fairlee, from Diahann Tanke;
And the earliest flowering bush in Sharon Wight's yard in Lebanon, now in full bloom. "It slowly spreads from its roots," she writes. "It always brightens my spring and has a great scent. In the fall it has red berries."
Royalton bridge over the White River closed. On Tuesday, a VTrans contractor inspecting the Royalton Hill Bridge—also known as the Foxstand Bridge—raised "a significant concern with a gusset plate." The bridge, which connects the foot of Royalton Turnpike with Route 14 just south of the intersection with Route 107, "will remain closed to all traffic for the safety of the public until further evaluations can be completed," the town says. If you're a Feast & Field fan (it starts up May 30) you might want to keep an eye on this.With federal re-licensing under way for Wilder Dam, towns want to address recreation, river bank erosion. For starters, reports Frances Mize in the Valley News, Hartford is hoping to get financial support from Great River Hydro—the dam's owner as well as the owner of the land on which Kilowatt Park sits—for park upkeep and improvements. Like, for instance, reopening the footbridge across the dam, which would connect the park with Boston Lot on the Lebanon side. Hartford, Norwich, and the Connecticut River Conservancy also want re-licensing to address erosion along the river's banks.Revels North creative director: "There’s just this dangerous cycle of there’s less money in the arts right now.” As you probably remember, the group late last week announced that it won't be mounting its annual Midwinter Revels production this year. In the VN, Liz Sauchelli checks in with creative director Alex Cumming and executive director Julia Hautaniemi about the decision—and where they're headed. They're expecting to bring the show back in 2025, but income from ticket sales, donations, and grants has fallen since the disruptions of the pandemic. Sauchelli details the challenges.SPONSORED: Was Shakespeare really the rock star of his day? When Puritan values meet creativity and radical self-expression, the results are hilarious. Don’t miss Something Rotten!, We the People Theatre’s latest production, now at the Briggs Opera House. With an exuberant cast of local actors, this show is delighting audiences. It’s smart, it’s silly, it’s a send-up of all things Broadway. Two more weekends—and shows are selling out! Don’t be disappointed. Tickets here or at the burgundy link. Sponsored by We the People Theatre.“Two continents, 13 countries, four deserts, six mountain ranges, two jungles...hottest desert on earth, windiest region of the world...What's not to love?" That's a jaunty Bond Almand, a Dartmouth sophomore aiming to set a world record for the fastest cycle ride from the northern coast of Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina. He's just one of several athletes at the college who don't go in for the typical team sports, profiled by The Dartmouth's Leila Brady. There are also members of the college's triathlon team, and skier Tommy Bevevino, who recounts February's Last Skier Standing in Rumford, ME.SPONSORED: Make a difference in someone's life! At Hearts You Hold, the Upper Valley-based nonprofit that supports immigrants, migrants, and refugees by taking the time to ask them what they need, we're still flooded with requests as the weather changes. At the burgundy link above or here, you'll find requests from farmworkers in NH and VT who need clothing, shoes, even beds while they keep area farms running. And elsewhere, requests for strollers, cribs, laptops, and other goods to help Ukrainian, Afghan, and other refugees get back on their feet. Sponsored by Hearts You Hold.Trial set for former director of White Mountains Trail Collective. Melanie Luce, who ran the Campton-based nonprofit before it dissolved in 2023, is facing federal charges that she used more than $30,000 of the group's funds for personal expenses and inflated her fundraising figures to obtain a performance bonus, reports NHPR's Todd Bookman. Luce, who pled not guilty, was convicted of embezzlement in 2012 from a medical practice in Plymouth. It isn't clear whether the nonprofit's board knew about that conviction, Bookman notes. Luce's trial has been set for July.It may be wet out there, but NH officials say April brings higher risk of wildfires. For one thing, the state Forest Protection Bureau's Steven Sherman tells WMUR's Troy Lynch, since trees haven't leafed out yet forest floors can dry out quickly in the direct sunlight. "Typically in April, periods of very dry weather are paired with low humidity and warmer temperatures, which creates a higher risk of wildfires," Lynch notes. "But sometimes with wet conditions, people don't take fire safety as seriously" as they should.10 emails a day. That's how many Hartford state Sen. Becca White's been getting from parents and teachers concerned about Zoie Saunders, Gov. Phil Scott's pick for VT's education secretary. Saunders is slated to start Monday, but still needs confirmation by the state Senate. In Seven Days, Alison Novak digs in to why there's been widespread pushback against the appointment, interviewing Saunders about her experiences in Florida, looking into the for-profit charter school management organization Saunders worked for, and tracing Saunders' record in Ft. Lauderdale and Broward County, FL.The eclipse by the numbers.
VT officials estimate that about 160,000 people—which was the upper limit of their pre-eclipse estimates—visited the state in 60,000 cars. And traffic speeds on I-89 between Colchester and the NH border averaged 45 mph slower than usual, reports VTDigger's Shaun Robinson, with the slowest average speed a mere 5 mph; I-91 was marginally faster.
Meanwhile, NHDOT reports that 166,254 more vehicles traveled the state's highways than over the same weekend last year, with 54,000 more cars going through the Hooksett tolls Monday and Tuesday than the same days last year.
"Better to eat them than take photos of them." It's astounding that Seven Days' Melissa Pasanen made it out of Montreal alive after her tour of the city's Jewish eateries. She started with a Mish-Mash omelette and challah dog in the Plateau, moved on to chocolate babka, poppy seed kokosh, and cheese crowns at Cheskie's Kosher Bakery in Mile End, tried out Wilensky's special—"a hamburger bun is griddled around slices of beef bologna and beef salami laced with yellow mustard"—then headed for the cottage cheese pancakes at Arthur's Nosh Bar in St. Henri, moved on to chopped liver and karnatzel...Think you planned ahead for the eclipse? This teacher had it on his radar in 1978. Pat Moriarty was 22 and in his first year of teaching science when he saw there'd be a full eclipse over Rochester, NY in 46 years, NBC reports. So for 16 years—16 classes—he told his ninth-grade students: circle this on your calendar and we’ll get together to watch in 2024. Fast forward to this week: More than 100 former students made the trip to Moriarty’s house from across the country. One even postponed knee surgery—her surgeon tried to convince her that her knee was more important, “but he doesn’t know Mr. Moriarty.”And a doff of the hat to Anouk Garnier. Who climbed a free-hanging rope 361 feet to the second story of the Eiffel Tower yesterday, setting a new world record. The 34-year-old, who's usually an obstacle racer, trained for a year. She'll be carrying the Olympic torch through Marseille next month. The Guardian's got the story—and video.The Thursday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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At 4:30 this afternoon, Dartmouth's English and Creative Writing Department brings in Guatemalan-American fiction writer Eduardo Halfon and Brazilian-American writer and translator Bruna Dantas Lobato for a conversation with one another. Over the course of 15 books published in Spanish, Halfon—born in Guatemala City, raised there and in Florida, educated in North Carolina, the grandson of an Auschwitz survivor and a Lebanese immigrant—has always plumbed questions of identity. Dantas Lobato, who currently teaches at Bennington, has made a career of translating Brazilian works into English; her first novel is due out this fall.
Today at 5 pm, Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center hosts former Québec premier and Canadian deputy prime minister Jean Charest for a conversation on "Conservative Environmentalism". It will revolve around "how conservatives can find strong and bi-partisan solutions to climate change, how the U.S. and Canada can work closely on climate legislation, and what the United States can learn from Canada on climate policy." In person in Hinman Forum as well as online.
Also at 5, Dartmouth's Dickey Center hosts former Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström for a conversation with center director Victoria Holt, "More Than Lip Service"—about her quest to improve women's rights and the challenges of implementing a 'feminist' foreign policy. Before her stint at the foreign ministry, Wallström was the first United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.
And also at 5, Upper Valley Music Center hosts a conversation with three Ukrainian composers and a violinist, all in residency at Dartmouth as part of last week's performance of the US premiere of music based on the novel Amadoka—an effort to create "an immersion into Ukraine’s past and present through music."
At 7 pm, Providence-based journalist Phil Eil will be at the Norwich Bookstore, reading from and talking about Prescription for Pain: How a Once-Promising Doctor Became the "Pill Mill Killer". The book, just published by Steerforth Press, is the result of 15 years of work digging into the opioid crisis and the story of Ohio doctor Paul Volkman—Eil's father's old high school classmate—who was accused of flooding southern Ohio with prescription opioids and is now serving consecutive life sentences in federal prison in Arizona for the role he played in the overdose deaths of four of his patients.
Also at 7 pm, this year's Fly Fishing Film Tour pulls into the Lebanon Opera House. With a collection of short films on everything from fishing in the Amazon to blending spring fishing and skiing in Canada to conservation efforts in Baja, Mexico. Parts of LOH's proceeds go to the greater Upper Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited and to the NH and VT chapters of the Native Fish Coalition.
This evening at 7:30, the Hop presents Chicago-based cellist and composer Tomeka Reid and her "stringtet". Reid, who's a visiting scholar at Dartmouth this year as well as a Hop resident artist, is debuting the 16-member improvising chamber orchestra, which "brings together the musical communities of New York City, Chicago and beyond." They'll be conducted by Coast Jazz director Taylor Ho Bynum. At Our Savior Lutheran Church in Hanover.
And anytime, you can check out JAM's highlights for the week, including: a video meditation by local teacher, playwright, and poet Alan Haehnel, "Only Everything"; Colorado US Rep. Jason Crow last week at Dartmouth's Dickey Center on "How American Choices in the Middle East Affect Its Global Leadership"; and Chad Finer's video of rapper Kuf Knotz and harpist/vocalist Christine Elise at the Anonymous Coffeehouse recently.
And for a rainy Thursday...
"Sunday." Earlier this year, two British folk-fusion bands—the duo Good Habits and the collective Mishra—were touring in New Zealand when they met up at the Auckland Folk Festival.
Good Habits cellist Bonnie Schwarz and accordionist Pete Shaw had turned to Mishra's Kate Griffin (banjo) when they cut the studio version of their song, "Sunday", so they pulled her and tabla player John Ball in for an impromptu, one-take, just-knocking-around version. It came out nicely, don't you think?
See you tomorrow.
The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers, writers, and librarians who think you should read. this. book. now!
Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.
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