A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny, warmer, but still cooler than normal. At least it's not snowing. Love this from the weather folks yesterday: "Snow showers continue to overproduce..." Mm-hmm. Today, there's a ridge of high pressure that's built in from the Great Lakes, and it's bringing us sunny skies, with temps getting to around 50. Clouds will arrive this evening ahead of the next front, and there's a tiny chance of snow before you wake up tomorrow. Lows around 30. Spiffy new copper counters at Coburn's. A few weeks ago, carpenter Patrick Gillespie was in the beloved S. Strafford general store and asked if he could cover their checkout counters in copper, which is known to kill pathogens. "We were like, 'Sure, whatever,'" says Chrissy Jamieson, whose parents Melvin and Sue own Coburn's, along with her uncle Phil. Next thing they knew, a listserv post went up encouraging townspeople to donate, and within a week $200 had shown up in a box in the store. Now Gillespie's made good on the offer (pic at the link). "People love and admire it, and it definitely brightens up the front of the store," Chrissy says.
Okay, let's just dive in.
NH saw a sizeable jump of 99 new cases, bringing the total to 1,588. Meanwhile, 550 have recovered (up 4) and 48 have died (up 6), bringing the total current caseload to 990. Grafton County is at 45 cases while Sullivan is at 10 (no change for either); Merrimack County is now at 105 (up 4). In the second of its new weekly summaries, the state has added race and ethnicity to its demographic information.
VT saw an uptick of 5 new cases yesterday, bringing the total to 823. Of those, 18 are hospitalized (down 3), with 40 deaths (no change). Windsor and Orange counties remain at 38 and 6 cases, respectively.
They're having some trouble keeping up with NH for some reason, but even so, you'll get the gist. Scroll down to the second chart, choose the state you want to highlight, then over on the right under "Data," choose "New cases/day." The key thing to note for Vermont (hover over a date) is that the average geometric growth over the last week has been below 1.0 for a while; the data's choppy for NH, but it's right about or slightly above the 1.0 mark.
There's another way to gauge what's happening, here and elsewhere, and that's to look at the fatality trends. The NYT went up Tuesday with a state-by-state graphic, divided by region. It shows, among other things, how hard-hit the Northeast has been — and some worrying trends in the Midwest and the South. (Thanks, JT!)Some good news from Lucky's: It's reopening, in keeping with the times. You'll need to download an app, called Cloosiv, but once you do, you can swing by the Lebanon café's walk-up window Tuesdays-Saturdays from 8am-1pm for coffee, breakfast sandwiches, bagels, or soup. They'll be adding more to the menu as time goes on. "We are navigating this crazy time as best we can," writes owner Deb Shinnlinger. "The Lucky’s crew are all wearing masks inside and have been meticulously self-isolating for a month to prepare for this. It's been difficult not seeing our regulars every day. We miss our community!" On the other hand, the Aloha camps will be closed for the summer. "After consultation with federal, state, and local experts in the fields of medicine and public health, and thoughtful discussion, the Board unanimously decided to suspend all existing programs at our camps, Aloha, Hive, Horizons, Lanakila, and Ohana for the summer of 2020," reads the Aloha Foundation's announcement. It's the first time in 115 years the camps won't be open for the summer. Things will be quiet on Lake Fairlee: Camp Billings announced earlier it will be closed.Randolph VTC campus gets new lease on life. After intense outcry, VT State Colleges Chancellor Jeb Spaulding yesterday withdrew his proposal to shutter the VT Tech campus along with campuses in Lyndon and Johnson. “Our Board of Trustees heard loud and clear...and determined that my recommendations would be damaging on many levels," he said in a press release. "I accept their judgment." Legislators are looking at funding a "bridge year" to cover pandemic losses, but Spaulding warned "with strident caution" that the system's current structure is unsustainable.SPONSORED: "Chemistry is chemistry—even over an internet connection." Amir ElSaffar's music combines jazz and classical Arabic music. He has performed on the great stages of the world, and tonight at 8 he and four members of his Rivers of Sound Orchestra will perform live online from four different locations in a concert commissioned by the Hopkins Center for the Arts. The concert employs musicians whose live April 21 Hop concert had to be postponed until 2021—and lets listeners and musicians connect in an experience of rich sound and deep listening. Tune in through YouTube Live, and read an interview with Amir about online music-making.VT restrictions delay NH construction. The overhaul of Lebanon's municipal offices, for instance, was supposed to be done by September, but probably won't be done until January, the VN's Tim Camerato reports. That's because the work is being overseen by a VT firm, and the state's stay-home order bars construction workers and contractors who cross state lines for non-essential work from commuting back and forth. Other NH projects, including several bridge projects, are delayed for the same reason.NH judge dismisses legislators' lawsuit on emergency spending. In a 16-page opinion yesterday, Hillsborough Superior Court Judge David Anderson ruled that the Democratic leaders of the state legislature lacked standing to challenge Gov. Chris Sununu's ability to distribute federal bailout funds, writing that stopping or delaying the governor in the midst of a global pandemic would be against the public interest. First meeting of NH's reopening task force turns callers away. It was just a scene-setter with no real substance, but even so, the call-in meeting was capped at 500 listeners; everyone else who tried was unable to connect. Organizers say that from now on, the task force meetings will be able to handle more than 500 callers. They'll be gathering daily from 3-5 pm. Today, they'll be hearing from the food service and accommodations industries.Which vented to a legislative advisory committee yesterday. The pandemic has been “catastrophic,” the president of the NH Lodging & Restaurant Association, Mike Somers, told the panel, estimating 40,000 to 60,000 jobs lost. Concord hotelier Steve Duprey said occupancy is down 80 percent, they're already getting cancellations for the fall, and “there isn’t going to be a summer tourism season on any level to be worthwhile to be open.” Somers said the industry will need "hundreds of millions of dollars to prop it up."Questions about unemployment issues in New Hampshire? NHPR will be doing a special one-hour version of The Exchange this afternoon with Rich Lavers, the deputy commissioner at New Hampshire Employment Security, looking at New Hampshirites' experience navigating the system and answering questions about the process. Airs at 1 pm, you can submit questions at the link.One SBA program has gotten a lot of money out to NH businesses. The other has lagged. NH Business Review's Bob Sanders writes that the Concord office of the Small Business Administration has approved some 11,682 PPP loans to New Hampshire companies, totaling $2 billion. However, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, with funds coming directly from the SBA, has managed just 126 emergency loans and some 3,700 small grants. Though he points out that the average grant of $4,658 gives NH the ninth highest average in the country.VT keeps Brattleboro Retreat afloat with $7.3 million in cash. The state's largest mental health provider, already struggling to make ends meet, is in a "dire" financial situation due to the pandemic, Human Services Secretary Mike Smith says. Its patient population has dropped 40 percent, and 50 staff members (of 870) have left. “What the Retreat needs to do to stay open through the crisis,” says CEO Louis Josephson. “Bigger questions about our financial sustainability...we’ll get to in a few months.” To that end, Smith has convened two teams to look at the Retreat's long-term financial viability.The story behind VT's struggling unemployment system. Not the bureaucratic system, but the baling-wire-and-chewing-gum computer system that's thrown everything into disarray. Seven Days' Paul Heintz details the failed multi-million-dollar effort to replace it, and the herculean task of keeping it going through its frequent breakdowns. Among other things, he writes, "only 10 or so programmers on the state payroll know the nearly obsolete COBOL language necessary to tweak and patch the system," he writes. UVM Medical Center down to half its coronavirus caseload from a week ago. It now has 10 patients, compared to 20 last week, hospital president Stephen Leffler said yesterday. It's also expanded its testing capacity to 2,200 tests a day, compared to the 118 a day it was able to perform when it started in-house testing last week. The state, he said, is in relatively good shape. “This has come because of the really hard work and sacrifice of Vermonters who socially isolated, stayed home, did the right thing. Without question, they have saved maybe hundreds of lives of their friends, neighbors, maybe their family members and themselves.” "It's like we're trying to run with a twisted ankle." That's VT state Rep. Laura Sibilia talking about the digital inequities that have beset families, students, workers, and entire communities in Vermont (and, of course, in New Hampshire). About three-fourths of VT addresses have access to broadband internet—but not at speeds that can meet the needs of the moment, as multiple users need bandwidth-gobbling capacity. Libraries are stepping up, and so are internet service providers. Community broadband initiatives (like EC Fiber) will help, but not in the near term. So the state is left with a patchwork.Of course, there is a silver lining. "Straight up, if I don’t want to go to a class I just have to email my teacher and be like 'Oh no my camera’s not working' or 'My internet’s been really weird recently.'" That's Lucy, an 18-year-old high school senior somewhere in Vermont, talking to Jezebel's Emily Alford about life as a high-schooler in the pandemic. She's wry, philosophical... and sad. "I was talking to my eight-year-old brother the other day, and he asked, 'How many times have you been in quarantine?' That made me really sad because kids just think this is what life is like. He was so sure all people go through this all the time." (Thanks, CG!)
Tuck School marketing, communications director dies at 49. Edward Winchester died "from natural causes," The Dartmouth reports. He arrived at the business school in 2007, and held a variety of communications roles there before taking the lead position. He was a five-time member of Canada's national rowing team and rowed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Locally, he organized a team to row in the Head of the Charles regatta in Cambridge, MA each fall.
Hartford SB decides not to ask feds whether "welcoming ordinance" imperils grant funding. The board voted 6-1 Tuesday night not to send a letter drafted by the town attorney checking on whether the ordinance means Hartford is not in compliance with applicable federal laws and therefore ineligible for federal grant funding. Several board members noted that the town is out of compliance in several other areas, too, and argued the town attorney was "cherry-picking" ordinances to be concerned about. (VN)Oh, um, today's your last day to snag that college campus you've always wanted. The Marlboro College campus is "available for immediate occupancy," according to a real estate firm that's offering virtual tours and taking offers until today, reports the Brattleboro Reformer. Marlboro College President Kevin Quigley had no comment on the firm's press release. Want to wander around campus? You can do that here.Speaking of wandering, this will be fun! Starting May 1, the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire will launch an around-the-world Douglas DC-3 flight, using its flight simulator and terrain software. “Visitors use the museum’s flight simulator all the time to fly over southern New Hampshire and northern Mass. But the terrain software literally has the entire planet mapped, and so with schools closed and people staying at home, we figured we’d fly around the world,” Jeff Rapsis, the museum’s executive director, tells David Brooks.
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Staying Sane
Northern Woodlands is up with what amounts to a game board of forest scenes in a 15-mile radius of Lyme. There's scarlet-cap fungus, yellow-bellied sapsucker holes, ramps, wood frog eggs... "We hope you enjoy using this grid as a prompt for your own explorations, or as the basis for a game of family forest tic-tac-toe," writes Elise Tillinghast, the executive director and publisher.
Or if you want a completely different type of scenery—and a sneak peak at the Aviation Museum's around-the-world flight—here's the flight simulator cruising (slowly) past Devil's Tower in Wyoming.
A crowdsourced Hamlet soliloquy, Weybridge VT's Haiku contest, an online store of art postcards to benefit the VT Foodbank...Here's a roundup of "virtual ventures from Vermont's creative sector" in Seven Days.
For the next couple of months, DC's Folger Theater has its 2008 production of Macbeth up on YouTube. The directors were Teller (as in Penn &...) and Helen Hayes Award-winner Aaron Posner. There's magic, thanks to Teller, but one word of warning: There's also blood, and not just that spot.(Thanks, CJ!)
And you definitely want to check out the dance performances being streamed by NYC's Joyce Theater, the Chelsea dance mecca. Right now it's got the Trisha Brown Dance Company (until Sunday) and an energetic, sly Deluxe, by the BalletBoyz, which will be up until 10 am tomorrow.(Thanks, AG!)
Reading Deeper
Coronavirus "can attack almost anything in the body with devastating consequences. Its ferocity is breathtaking and humbling." That's Yale cardiologist Harlan Krumholz in a Science magazine roundup of the growing understanding of how the virus attacks cells in the body: lungs of course, but also the heart and blood vessels, kidneys, gut, and brain. With the caveat that large-scale studies are only now getting underway, so the conclusions emerging come from smaller-scale studies and case reports.
But oh, there's something else we need to worry about: water that's been sitting around for months in the pipes of unused office buildings, gyms, malls, and other spaces people used to congregate. Researchers at Purdue and Virginia Tech point out that when water sits, bad things grow in it. There's debate over how to keep water fresh during the pandemic, they write, but the core message is simple: "Do not let water sit in buildings." (Thanks, RM!)
Despite all this: "It will be over. It really will." That's Andy Slavitt, whose name may be familiar because he's become something of a Twitter star, but may also be familiar because he's the guy who retooled HealthCare.gov in five weeks after its botched rollout under the Obama administration. And he's become a Twitter star because he's been a clear-eyed straight-shooter on the crisis, "a fire hose of inside information often steps ahead," the Chicago Tribune writes in this profile, "calling for 10-week quarantines and stricter measures and enormous relief packages for health workers, sometimes offering real-time data of [how] stay-at-home policies are working, sometimes matching hospitals with medical supplies."
You know what? Let's go back a ways today.
Hard as he is to top, what you really want to see is Fayard and Harold Nicholas, the Nicholas Brothers, doing one of the most athletic, beautiful dance routines (tap, in this case) ever put to film. These were the guys Fred Astaire declared his tap heroes.
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