GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Oh boy! Rain! Probably, anyway. Remember that low moving up the coast? Well, there's another one off to our west, as well. The result: a cloudy start to the day, slight chance of rain mixed with snow first thing, chance of rain through the morning, and more than a chance the rest of the day, through the night, and into tomorrow. Highs today in the low 40s, winds from the north. Down into the mid-30s tonight. Let's just stop for a second and remember where we live. Jennifer Hannux is a Hartland RN with a weather-geeky Twitter feed (you may remember her from her beautiful time-lapse photo-a-day video of Mt. Ascutney from her front porch). The other morning she was on her way to work and caught this pic: a country road in the early-morning light, frost still on the fields, sun peeking through the trees... Breathtaking. Sigh. Okay, today's numbers:
NH is at 415 reported cases, up 48 from yesterday, with 58 people hospitalized. The town-by-town ranges remain the same: 10-19 in Hanover and Lebanon, 1-4 each in Littleton, Haverhill, Warren, Dorchester, Canaan, Enfield, Plainfield, and Claremont.
VT now has 321 reported cases, up 28 from yesterday, with 16 deaths and 30 hospitalized COVID patients. The numbers in Windsor and Orange counties remain as they've been for the last few days: 18 and 4, respectively.
And a word about those numbers... "The official tallies are vast underestimates of the true number of cases." That's Jeffrey Parsonnet, an infectious disease doc at DHMC, cautioning that the numbers I report every day tell only a portion of the story. In NH, he notes, people who have symptoms but aren't sick enough to go to the hospital aren't being tested (VT is relaxing its testing criteria a bit). And, obviously, people who've been infected but aren't symptomatic aren't being tested, either. Full letter at the link.NH National Guard setting up at Dartmouth gym. They were at West Gym yesterday, measuring the space as they prepare to convert it into a “clinical flex area,” the VN's John Gregg reports. In an email to Gregg, Lebanon Fire Chief Chris Christopoulos says, "We are looking at between 100-125 beds initially based on conversations with DHMC. Staffing will largely be clinical and non-clinical volunteers and we are working on this resource now."
Stern's Quality Produce starts up online ordering. They already do pre-orders by phone for curbside pickup. But now you can let your fingers do the talking.
And this was class! CHaD's pediatric residency program yesterday ordered bagged lunches from Maple Street Catering/Big Fatty's. Tucked inside their lunch bags, they found these notes....A wrap-up of all the changes in and around Hanover. Savannah Eller, a reporter for The Dartmouth, surveys the scene for her fellow students who aren't around to see it themselves. Most restaurants still open for takeout (though not Murphy's, Pine, or Starbucks); changes at the Co-op — which, by the way, will be rolling out curbside pickup sometime soon — religious services online, social service agencies slammed...Oh, and a reminder that Northern Stage's "Play Date" starts tomorrow. The theater's Zoom-based class —tomorrow it takes up Chekhov's The Seagull, led by artistic director Carol Dunne — combines performance and discussion. Participants buy and read the play, then convene at 4 pm to talk it over. So far, says Seven Days, 80 people have signed up for tomorrow's. Next week they take on Eurydice, by Sarah Ruhl, led by education director Eric Love. Gives new meaning to the name "Powerhouse Mall"... "If a fitness class is held outdoors, high-fives are pantomimed, there are no weights or implements to touch and the Powerhouse Mall parking lot’s lines provide the distancing guides, why not get folks together and moving?" writes the VN's Greg Fennell, about what has to be one of the few in-person fitness classes going right now. Lisa Dumont's Fit Body Boot Camp is "giving exercise a curbside delivery option," Fennell writes.Yep, that's what my desk actually looks like. I know, it could be neater, but hey, it's not terrible. On her Artful blog yesterday, Susan Apel ran a really nice post about Daybreak. She asks thoughtful, not-easy-to-answer questions (consider yourself warned, should an email from her ever pop up in your inbox). If you're interested in the arts of all kinds, or food, or simply good writing about the Upper Valley, you should subscribe to Artful. Susan writes with open eyes, a keen mind, and an open heart, and she's got that talking-to-readers-like-they're-neighbors thing down pat."The challenge of orchestrating a debate between 150 legislators on a Zoom video conference call might be the greatest test of all." That's from Tim Briglin's most recent report on life as a legislator during the pandemic. Briglin represents Thetford, Norwich, Sharon and Strafford, but his daily reports are filled with useful information wherever you live in Vermont. Yesterday's was about how an up-close-and-personal legislature is adjusting. "As a pre-schooler...I feasted on a steady diet of Sesame Street, Brady Bunch... and Zoom! Who’d a thunk that nearly a half-century later I’d be spending a good chunk of my days with Zoom looking at a Brady Bunch screen?" So, let's say someone hands you a trillion dollars... That was the gist of the question Dartmouth associate dean Dan Rockmore asked economics department chair Nina Pavcnik, about the federal stimulus package. Pavcnik in turn put it out to faculty members, and the result was this email-debate/macro-economics-lesson in how the money might be used most effectively. Which, it won't surprise you to learn, is not necessarily how the stimulus package is designed.“I wouldn’t call the market frozen right now. It’s more like on pause.” That's the president of the Seacoast Board of Realtors in NH Business Review, talking about real estate in the Granite State right now. In a survey last week by the statewide realtors' board, 63 percent of respondents said buyers have decided to delay a home search, 51 percent of sellers are delaying bringing new listings to the market, and — intriguingly — 22 percent said the coronavirus has had no impact on their business.Meanwhile. Gov. Sununu is boosting funds for abuse-related services. Yesterday he announced $2 million to turn part-time DCYF family violence prevention specialists to full-time, and to hire new drug and alcohol counselors, as well as $600,000 to the state’s 13 centers that provide crisis emergency services to victims of domestic violence.NH schools are trying to figure out this whole distance learning thing. They're parking wifi-enabled school buses in neighborhoods where kids don't have online access, and creating "social hours" for kids to connect. But teachers are also working 12 to 15 hour days, some immigrant kids aren't showing up to public wifi spots because they're worried they'll be questioned by police or ICE, and districts around the state are lowering academic expectations. Vermont starts to figure out unemployment insurance details. If you've filed, you'll start getting the $600 federal add-on next week. Unless, that is, you're self-employed or an independent contractor. That's going to take longer. And the Dept of Labor is besieged: As many as 40,000 claims have been filed in the last few weeks, VTDigger reports – as many as the department usually handles in a year.Though there's this interesting dilemma taking shape: Some VT workers can now make more from unemployment than on the job. The combined federal and state benefit tops out at $1100 a week. “It’s certainly true that people feel safer at home,” Danforth Pewter's CEO tells VTDigger's Anne Wallace Allen. “So if you can make more money and feel safer, it’s hard in good faith to tell people they should come to work.” Anecdotally, some workers are choosing that option, Allen reports, though economic development commissioner Joan Goldstein points out, “The first thing they should keep in mind is if somebody just quits, they are not eligible for unemployment."Just a little blast of togetherness from NYC. As you may know, every evening at 7, New Yorkers stand at their windows to cheer, clap, clang bells, and create a general hullabaloo to thank health care and other frontline workers. The NY Daily News captures it. This is a little personal, because my sister and brother-in-law are among those stuck inside, shouting out. "We yell and clap along with everyone. Nice to hear loud New Yorkers letting go. Otherwise the only sounds outside are sirens and birds." (Thanks, AG!)
"We didn’t know it would create such a community, that so much good would materialize out of people’s work." That's Michelle Ollie, co-founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies in WRJ, talking to Gareth Henderson in the Christian Science Monitor. Henderson profiles CCS, its impact on WRJ, classrooms around the country, the wider world of literature, and above all the people who've found in comics and cartooning a creative outlet and way of connecting that plain words never satisfied. VLS lands $3 million grant to create new National Center on Restorative Justice. The new center is being shaped in part by former Windsor County prosecutor Bobby Sand and Stephanie Clark, who directs VLS's Center for Justice Reform.Mr. Tumnus from Narnia, Yorick's skull nestled in a bed of woodbine, wild roses, and love-in-idleness... Those are the tattoos on Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup's right arm, and they pretty immediately tell you he's not what you'd picture as the head of a state humanities council. Kaufman Ilstrup, who's in his second year leading Vermont Humanities, is focused on reshaping the organization's mission to "foreground the voices of marginalized communities," as Seven Days' Chelsea Edgar puts it in a long, deep profile. Which includes the tidbit that First Wednesdays lectures will be moving online, as is poet Richard Blanco's talk on Friday. We know the crisis is upending the rules, but this? The Alchemist, famous for Heady Topper, Focal Banger, and restricting its beer sales to Vermont, is going to start selling in Massachusetts. Night Shift Distributing, a Mass. company, just announced the move via Instagram. "We understand that we are all living in strange and stressful times and collectively, we hope that some happiness from Vermont will be a temporary distraction," they write.“So far, the bears seem to have been respectful of the art." That's a spokesperson for the Dia Art Foundation in Beacon, NY in a post on the hip arts site Hypoallergic that went up yesterday — which, um, would be April 1 — describing a "sleuth" of black bears wandering around the art installations. "There’s no reason to panic over this, we have bigger fish to fry these days,” park ranger Christopher Robin says. “Folks should take this as just another reminder to stay home.” (Thanks, KE!)News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
#UVTogether
Staying Sane
You could make some noise yourself... Patricia Norton of the Upper Valley Music Center's Juneberry Chorus is launching the "Pocket Song Singers" starting this Sunday, and anyone can join. Short songs, through Zoom, and Patricia will use "looping, call-and-response, and movement to build a communal singing experience." Signup at the link.
Or maybe, instead of in the air, you'd rather be underwater. NOAA has a bunch of "virtual dive galleries," both video and still photos, from the Florida Keys to American Samoa.
Helping Out
Right now, the Byrne Foundation is matching gifts to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health Community Relief Fund, which goes to regional social service providers to help people struggling with the economic devastation this thing has wrought. Or you could give to the Hope Fund, which helps D-H employees, many of whom are dealing with dislocation at home as spouses lose jobs.
"Community members who we have never talked to before are contacting LISTEN because they are out of work and they heard we might be able to help them." LISTEN is putting out the word that its food pantry is open, and if you know anyone who's worried about feeding their family — or if you're in that position yourself — you should given them a call. (603) 448-4553.
And VTDigger, which has had to lay off employees, just announced an interesting thing. It's joined with Vermont Glove in Randolph, which has gone into making face masks pretty much full time. They want to donate 3000 masks to health care workers in 30 days, and will give one away for each person who becomes a Digger supporter at any level.
Reading Deeper
"Every single day we're getting better. We know more." That comes in a remarkable, hour-long video by Dr. David Price, an ICU pulmonologist at Cornell-Weill in NYC. A bit over a week ago, he held a video chat for friends, family, and colleagues, meant mostly to reassure them and to pass on what he knew at the time about staying safe; it's now an internet sensation. He's obviously exhausted, but also calm and, except for one moment, remarkably collected as he lays out what things are like at the hospital and how people can protect themselves (though keep in mind, our understanding is changing by the day). “Coronavirus is a wimp,” he says. “It dies as soon as you disinfect it.” (Thanks, CC!)
Andy Slavitt, former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under Barack Obama, spent some time digging into the White House's changing approach to death toll projections. He's angry and doesn't hold back, but he also looks at what we learned in the 1918 pandemic to talk about why we need a coherent national strategy to deal with this thing. "We must stop being a week or more late and start saving every life," he writes.
And on those White House projections... NPR talked to a couple of members of the U of Washington team (that was that link from the other day) that's put similar ones together, and goes into the five key assumptions the team made that haven't been reflected in the official government rhetoric.
Well. I don't know about you, but
I
could sure use to wallow in un-distanced life. Here's
, with "Country Girl."
See you tomorrow.
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