GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Just in time for Memorial Day weekend: a nor'easter with wintry conditions in the mountains. Remember those two low pressure systems yesterday? Well, it's the second one, off the coast, that starts taking charge today (and tomorrow), with rain likely to move in sometime this morning—a bit less than initial forecasts had predicted—and, with falling temps, up to a couple of inches of snow atop the Greens and the Whites. Highs only in the upper 40s today, lows around 40 or upper 30s, gusty winds from the east then the north.Seems like a good day to gaze at some blue sky above and below. That's because the sky's reflected in a puddle with the Windsor grasslands stretching off into the distance, from Marv Klassen-Landis.It's time for Dear Daybreak! This week's collection of stories and reflections from around the Upper Valley features Sue Pitiger's view of the parade of goings-on through the seasons in downtown Norwich; Bethel poet Danny Dover on snake skins—and the "clumsy skins" we all wear; and Michael Welch on his father's search for the perfect escape spot—which brought him to Haverhill—and what it's meant in the decades since. If you've got an anecdote or a memory or a reflection to share, please do send it in!Clogged culvert contributed to WRJ flooding. Dartmouth researchers warn it could happen again. The culvert is above the former 25,000 Gifts, reports Eric Francis for Daybreak, and in an article and photo essay, he details the impact of all that water coursing down Route 5 on Saturday. He also looks at research by Dartmouth undergrad Kalyn Dawes, who in a presentation to town officials mapped the damage to roads—and the public safety threats—that can be caused by blocked culverts and storm drains in downpours like Saturday's, and efforts by Dartmouth geographer Sarah Kelly to create a sort of culvert neighborhood watch aimed at preventing disaster.For Bethel/Royalton schools, third time was not the charm. On Tuesday, reports VT Public's Sabine Poux, voters in the White River Valley district once again deep-sixed a proposed $3.8 million bond for updgrading security entrances and expanding the high school’s shop and performing arts spaces. Last November, the bond went down by 10 votes; in March, a trimmer version failed by 20 votes; this time, the proposal was the same as in March, and the margin was 94 votes. “Clearly, our constituents have spoken that they’re really concerned about any increase in tax,” says Supt. Jamie Kinnarney.SPONSORED: Calling all grammar enthusiasts! See the new docu-comedy Rebel with a Clause at Lebanon Opera House on Thursday, June 5. Author Ellen Jovin took her pop-up “Grammar Table” on the road, visiting all 50 states as passersby asked questions, told stories, and filed comma complaints. In a deeply divided country, the Grammar Table became a place of unity and connection. The evening includes a Q&A with Jovin and filmmaker Brandt Johnson and a book signing. Sponsored by Lebanon Opera House.A tour of the Hood's Monets. "And it is magnificent here," enthuses WMUR's Jean Mackin, who for "New Hampshire Chronicle" visited the two paintings on display through Sept. 28 as part of the Hood's exhibition, "Reimagining the French Landscape". Elizabeth Rice Mattison, the museum's curator of European art, describes the two: "a beautiful spring day in the town of Argenteuil" with the 1872 "Apple Trees in Bloom" and the wind pushing trees to the side in 1885's "Road near Giverny". "This could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for people," Hood director John Stomberg tells Mackin.Billings takes a different tack on VT's iconic painting subject: "Instead of art of barns, it has art on barns." So writes Seven Days' Alice Dodge about the new set of works for the Woodstock farm and museum's second annual version of "Art on the Barns," which went up last month and runs to next February. Both Grand Isle's Elise Whittemore and Will Gebhard, who now lives in Vietnam, are inspired by quilts and barn quilts, and their works hang throughout the grounds. "The most remarkable thing," Dodge writes, "is that they, in turn, highlight the farm's architecture and landscape."SPONSORED: Our biggest event of the year is here—the 2025 Memorial Day Sale at Pompanoosuc Mills! For a limited time, take 30% off almost every new order and 30–50% (or more) off hundreds of in-stock pieces pulled from showrooms across New England. Swing by our factory showroom in E. Thetford or visit the Hanover floor: both are packed with handcrafted, Vermont-built “forever furniture” at classic Tent Sale prices. Proudly made in the US, each piece is designed to outlast trends and keep waste out of landfills. Bring home furniture built to last another 50 years. Sponsored by Pompanoosuc Mills.Dartmouth names a new provost. Santiago Schnell, who is currently dean of the College of Science at Notre Dame as well as a mathematical biologist who studies "the molecular continuum between health and disease," will take on the role July 1, the college announced Tuesday. He replaces David Kotz, who winds up his term at the end of June. Schnell, born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, says in the college's release that he wants to see how it can "work more effectively to solve problems that make an impact beyond any one specific academic discipline.”Bradford selectboard member decides to stick around after all. You may remember that last week, board vice chair Michael Wright was one of two members to resign—in his case, he cited threats from supporters of a group of firefighters who'd quit the department and what he called "bullying" by Chair Meroa Benjamin. Now, WCAX reports, he's rescinded his resignation and "is expected to be at [today's] meeting."In nonprofit's new hospital safety report, DHMC drops from A to C; chief quality officer says data is out of date. The data in the report from Leapfrog, a nonprofit that reports on hospital safety twice a year, comes from 2023-24, reports Amanda Gokee in the Globe (sorry, paywall). It found the hospital losing ground on sepsis and c. difficile infections, as well as issues related to surgery. Dr. Michael Calderwood, the chief quality officer, tells Gokee that since that data was gathered, the hospital has driven down its infection rates and improved in other areas. NH hospitals ranked 23rd in the US; VT's, 48th.At DH Children’s in Manchester, Heather Martin helps new moms deal with stress, anxiety, and depression. It's personal for Martin: 16 years ago, her sister died by suicide in what "we know now was postpartum psychosis," she tells NHPR's Julia Furukawa. Now she's a maternal mental health "navigator" checking in with new mothers when they come in for pediatric visits and connecting them to any resources they need. "We talk about...how exciting it is to have a baby and how happy everyone is—but it's not always like that, right?" she says. "For a lot of moms, it's feeling stressed [or] anxious."NH Senate committee votes to give $1 to state arts council. As William Skipworth reports in NH Bulletin, the chamber's Finance Committee has been looking for cuts passed by the House that it can undo, including to Medicaid. But yesterday, it essentially agreed to the House's elimination of the State Council on the Arts, despite Gov. Kelly Ayotte's move to include $1.7 million in funding for it; the committee's GOP majority opted instead for a single dollar of funding and turning the council into an all-volunteer organization. The full Senate still has to weigh in.VT Senate pulls back on education reform bill. With "the entire public education establishment...now in open revolt" against the Senate version of the much-scrutinized effort to revamp the state's school system and its funding, reports VT Public's Lola Duffort, the Democratic caucus decided not to hold a scheduled vote on the measure yesterday. Though there's widespread agreement that some districts will need to consolidate and that the state needs more control over school spending, things fall apart after that. Duffort details the debate—and why not acting isn't an option, either.In Wolcott, VT, a hair-raising rescue after a car plows into a barn, setting it on fire. Paul Fixx has the play-by-play in the Hardwick Gazette: on Saturday, car hits iconic barn by Route 15, engine catches on fire, passersby stop and one smashes in rear window, car's tilting into the barn below road level and rescuers worry it might tip if they climb in too far, but eventually they get the driver out—but have to drag him farther and farther away as the barn becomes engulfed in flames. Eventually, it collapses. With photos.Got music plans this summer? Here are some ideas, both within and beyond VT. Seven Days is up with two crucial summer music guides.
The first, by Amy Lilly, is to chamber music around the state, from a five-concert series in Adamant to the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Colchester to the Manchester and Marlboro music festivals to the Central VT Chamber Music Festival at the Chandler in Randolph. It's a wealth of great music and great musicians, including, in Manchester, Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat, with film actor David Strathairn as the soldier and soprano Christine Goerke as the devil.
And the second, by Chris Farnsworth, offers road trip ideas: from Mountain Jam in the Catskills (Goose, Khruangbin) to Avril Lavigne, Phish, Dave Matthews, Rod Stewart, and Cheap Trick in Saratoga Springs, to Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Wilco, Lucinda Williams, and Waylon Payne at the Bank of NH Pavilion in Gilford. Plus Guster in Portland, ME and The Weeknd in Montreal.
“Today, casinos don’t need to cheat. They have math on their side." Players, on the other hand... Enter Sal Piacente, your guy in casino cheating support. Piacente’s a former Marine with a Brooklyn accent straight out of central casting who trains casinos globally on the finer points of cheating. He's seen it all, and in this YouTube video, explains how magnetic dice are used, how cards are marked, the right way to use x-ray contact lenses, and what the law allows a casino do if it catches you counting cards (spoiler alert: no breaking of hands). All that plus edge sorting and “the Trojan Horse of chips.”The Thursday Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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They don't happen very often, so if you've ever wondered whether you'd enjoy being up there, here's your chance. "The auditions will involve warming up together, including a name game and some icebreakers. Then we'll teach some basic improv games that we’ll all play together," they write. 6:15 pm at the West Leb Congregational Church.
AAPI Heritage Month gets a darkly comic twist with H.P. Mendoza's 2018 film, screening at 7 pm in the Loew Auditorium. This Filipino-American revenge comedy serves up mango cake, family dysfunction, and murder over the holidays. "An exercise in empathy meets boisterous hijinks in this cleverly unpredictable film, which pulls off its unique tonal blend with panache," the Hop writes. Free admission.
Green's new memoir shares her journey from gardening in New Mexico (though she was raised in Alaska) to embracing hunting elk, deer, geese, turkeys, and grouse, exploring themes of sustenance, nature, self-discovery, and self-doubt. 7 pm.
Still North Books hosts a reading by James Crews and Brad Peacock, editors of Love is for All of Us.
This anthology celebrates LGBTQIA+ voices through poetry and personal essays, an exploration of love in its many forms: "
romantic, family, friendship, self-love, and love for nature. The poems are gathered from a diverse group of contemporary writers," Still North writes. 7 pm.
It's Pentangle Arts' first annual fundraiser, featuring Boston-based Americana band Cold Chocolate—
Ethan Robbins on guitar and Ariel Bernstein on percussion, fusing folk, funk, and bluegrass
.
Enjoy live music, mudpie desserts, and a whimsical crown contest. Doors open at 6:30 for the mudpies and middle schooler Agnes Derrendinger solo on guitar, cello and violin; concert at 7:30.
The Dartmouth College Gospel Choir at Rollins Chapel. Under charismatic director Knoelle Higginson, their spring concert will deliver pure joy—a high-energy performance of spirituals and contemporary gospel, with s
oul-stirring vocals and rhythms that make it impossible to sit still. 8 pm.
: poet and prof Elizabeth A. I. Powell's VT Humanities talk on Nobel Laureate Louise Glück and her poetry; NH Gov. Kelly Ayotte's address to the Upper Valley Business Alliance on housing, trade, tariffs, the state budget, and economic development; and the May 1 candlelight vigil for Palestine on the Dartmouth green.
And to launch us into the day...
Well, sure: Cold Chocolate (at Woodstock Town Hall Theater tonight),
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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