GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Showers, maybe a thunderstorm this afternoon. The skies may not look that different from yesterday afternoon, but up above there's a cold front moving in with what the weather follks call "high precipitable water values," bringing the potential for bursts of heavy rain, along with a slight chance of thunder. The main action will be in the later afternoon, but there's a chance of showers first thing, too. Highs in the lower 50s, winds from the southeast, mid-30s tonight.What better on a gloomy day than a rainbow? Twin rainbows, in fact, the first of the season at Fat Rooster Farm in South Royalton, from Jenn Megyesi.State bomb squad, feds descend on Wilder home. Late yesterday morning, Hartford police, the VSP, the FBI, and ATF agents began a police "operation" at a house on Perkins Place that lasted through the afternoon. The bomb squad "successfully mitigated hazards arising from explosive devices found inside" the home, the VSP says in its press release. Agents detained William Hillard, 51, "on a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm," and investigation is continuing into "the possession of destructive devices." Hillard lived in the house with his mother, Stevie, a librarian at Hartford Middle School, reports John Lippman in the Valley News.Woodstock places municipal manager on paid leave. "By mutual agreement," ran a short statement issued by town fire chief and now acting manager David Green, "Town Manager [William] Kerbin is on paid administrative leave. This leave will give Woodstock as a whole and Mr. Kerbin the time and space to consider their future needs.” Beyond that, reports the Valley News's Darren Marcy, details are scarce—except that Green said he'd received a phone call Sunday asking him to take on the role “until further notice.” He tells Marcy he wasn't told why Kerbin was placed on leave.SPONSORED: Celebrate the joy of Easter! Join St. Thomas Episcopal Church for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, as together we journey toward the joy of Easter. With Easter comes renewal (and an old-fashioned egg hunt)! Be part of our community as we share the spirit and meaning of these holy days. View our full schedule of services and learn more here. Sponsored by St. Thomas Episcopal Church."The equivalent of putting out a sign that reads ‘Wet Floor.’” That's how Edward Spiker describes the Croydon Selectboard's paper notice of public meetings outside town hall—which, along with another outside the town's general store, generally goes ignored. In a bid to boost townwide involvement —an issue that's been getting a lot of attention in Croydon following the sparsely attended Town Meeting that cut the school budget—Spiker has taken to video recording selectboard and school board meetings to post on YouTube and Facebook. The Eagle Times's Patrick Adrian profiles his effort.Bookstock back after two-year hiatus. Forced to shut down in 2020 and 2021, the annual Green Mountain Festival of Words in Woodstock yesterday announced its return in June. There'll be a "mammoth" used book sale—no doubt made even more mammoth by all the books that didn't get unloaded these past two summers—along with exhibitors, music, food, and various festivities. But the centerpiece as always will be writers, including Pulitzer-winner Ayad Akhtar (Homeland Elegies), spy novelist and former CIA officer Valerie Plame, various VT poets laureate, and more. Press release at link.And speaking of books... A new local podcast is joining CATV's growing list of community-based media efforts: "Shelf Help" is hosted by the Book Jam's Lisa Christie and is a collaboration with the booksellers who own and run Still North, the Yankee Bookshop, and the Norwich Bookstore. It's designed, Christie says, "to answer real-life book dilemmas, such as what to give your mother-in-law, or your new significant other, or a new baby." In this first episode, Allie Levy, Kari Meutsch, Emma Nichols, and Sam Kaas talk over the books that best represent who they are.And speaking even more of books... Down in the basement of Dartmouth's Baker Library, there's a space dedicated to such timeless arts as letterpress printing and bookbinding. The Book Arts Workshop houses studios for bookbinding and printing, as well as an extensive type collection that goes well beyond the Roman alphabet. In The Dartmouth, Omala Snyder profiles the space and its users. “Once you've made a physical book," says English prof Jessica Beckman, "you start to realize what it has taken to preserve and share written knowledge across human history.”“Anyone who survives this long in the hospital does so as a result of a huge team effort." Which is a big reason why there was a celebratory gathering of doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and other staff at the WRJ VA yesterday morning as “Buba” Carroll Humphrey was wheeled out of the hospital six months to the day after being admitted with shortness of breath and other Covid symptoms. WCAX's Adam Sullivan reports that Humphrey, a veteran from Island Pond, came close to death several times. "They are the best," he said of the team that kept him alive and nursed him back to health.Okay, let's try this again. Many of you who tried to get to the US Drought Monitor maps yesterday had trouble. Here's what I think happened: Mailchimp automatically adds a little bit of code to a link when you click on it here. The vast majority of websites can handle it, but every once in a while you stumble on one that can't. Looks like that's the case with the drought monitor. So the maroon link at the top of this item takes you to a web page that has the VT and NH drought links. And yeah: I've tested them to a fare-thee-well.As NH winds down Covid infrastructure, public health experts wonder if it'll be prepared for the next outbreak. The state's goal, reports NHPR's Alli Fam, is to shift pandemic response to pharmacies and hospitals. But as it shuts down testing and vaccination efforts, says Dartmouth's Anne Sosin, it's missing a chance to strengthen them for next time. “If we don't close the gaps in vaccination in the state, we're going to see surge after surge that impacts our rural health systems disproportionately,” she tells Fam. And as legislators weigh weakening public health mandates, experts worry about the next pandemic.“We can't carry every frog across every road. That is not a permanent solution to the road mortality issue.” When Brett Thelen, of NH's Harris Center for Conservation Education, first approached the Keene city council to close a road on "big nights," when frogs and salamanders surge across to get to water, they were dismissive. A decade later, she returned with a standing-room-only crowd of volunteers; now the road gets closed. VPR's Lexi Krupp reports that more people in both states are turning out to help amphibians, and talks to Ben Fletcher, who started the Hartford Salamander Team.VT beekeepers and dairy farmers face off over pesticide-covered seeds. And there’s no easy solution. Bee colonies are dying off at alarming rates, attributable to neonicotinoid pesticides found in feed-corn seeds. But, reports Kevin McCallum for Seven Days, small dairy farmers—also struggling to survive—rely on those treated seeds to grow the corn to feed their herds. Frustrated VT lawmakers are split on whether to enact a ban on the pesticides. Some question if pesticides are responsible for bee decline; others warn that we ignore the die-off of important pollinators “at our own peril.”“The idea is to really just be, and not do much of anything.” That’s Robby Silk, whose favorite thing is to bring a chair to the world’s most beautiful spots and do absolutely nothing. From sunrise to sunset, if he can. Atlas Obscura’s Laura Kiniry writes that decades ago Silk pioneered “the sport of competitive chair-sitting…that involves sitting in extreme environments” for several hours without anything to pass the time. Among his good, long sits: Antarctica, Sedona, and Joshua Tree National Park. “Your surroundings matter,” he says. “Because that’s all that there really is.” Could extreme hammocking be next?
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At 4:30 today in Dartmouth's Filene Auditorium (and also livestreamed), the college's Spanish and Portuguese departments kick off a three-day symposium on political violence, gender, and reconciliation with a keynote conversation between the first female president of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, gender activist Zainab Salbi, and internationally renowned war photographer James Nachtwey. They'll be talking over their personal experiences involving war, the impact of civil society on decision-making during times of war, and the human values lost and gained during conflicts.
At 5:30 today, Sustainable Woodstock offers up an online presentation on EVs by David Roberts, coordinator of Drive Electric Vermont, and Green Mountain Power's Jenn Yandow. They'll be talking nuts and bolts—not just about the cars themselves, but about various government and private incentive programs tailored to EV owners.
And at 6 pm, Audubon Vermont and the Birds of Vermont Museum present an online ask-a-naturalist discussion called "Mosquitoes, Ticks, and Black Flies." That pretty much sums things up right there. They'll be taking questions.
At 7 pm, Hop Film screens Maixabel, a Spanish political drama about a true story. Maixabel Lasa's husband, a former politician named Juan María Jaúregui, was killed while eating lunch in 2000 by three gunmen tied to the Basque separatist group ETA. Eleven years later, she agreed to meet with two of those killers as part of a state reconciliation program. "Everyone deserves a second chance," she explained. The film is about what happened next. Following its screening, there will be a conversation with Maixabel Lasa herself.
At 7:30 pm, Shaker Bridge Theater in Enfield opens An Iliad, a one-storyteller meditation on war and retelling of Homer's classic through the eyes of a bard tired of talking about war. The play was first developed through the NY Theater Workshop, and features Shaker Bridge and Northern Stage veteran David Bonnano. Through May 1.
At 8 pm, Vermont poet and former politician Scudder Parker will give a reading—both in-person and online—hosted by the Deborah Rawson Memorial Library in Jericho, VT. He'll be reading from his first collection, Safe as Lightning, as well as from a collection-in-progress, What We Share and Cannot Keep. You'll need to register ahead of time for the online version.
Rosita Kèss grew up in Venice, passed through London, Paris, Barcelona, and Berlin, and now lives in Brooklyn, where she and her husband, also a musician, run a music bar in Bed Stuy. A friend who's a singer once described her as "a sultry Euro-bohemian chanteuse with a kind of magical style.” Which, unlikely as it seems, is on full display in her latest single, a collaboration with Memphis
folk, blues, gospel, and soul singer Valerie June to
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 and writers who want you to 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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