RABBIT RABBIT, UPPER VALLEY!
Now we're getting hot. High pressure's still in place, so are cloudless skies, and so, fortunately, is a dry air mass, so it won't be getting too humid as we get into the lower 90s today. You won't be able to see it tonight, but that ridge of high pressure is going to be shifting westward, opening the way for different conditions to start taking over tomorrow. Tonight, low or mid 50s.Oh, and yeah, there's probably more to come. NOAA predicts a 50 to 60 percent chance of New England having a hotter summer than usual, reports NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian. Chances are elevated for a chunk of the US, actually, but as the agency's handy map shows, we're right there in the reddish-orange you-really-don't-want-to-be-in-this-color band.Aaahhh! Coolness. Okay, I'll confess I've been holding this one since March. But if feels just right for a day like today: a long look down the Cornish-Windsor bridge, winter wetness on the planking, the drop in temp right there in front of you. From Phyll Perry.Or heck, you could always try this. It may be in the 90s and, you know, June, but Killington just announced they'll be open today—just for a day. "We've managed to hold on to enough of our stockpile," they write on their TikTok video. "But be aware walking may be required as the day progresses."Hartford Selectboard rejects proposal to close Wilder Park & Ride. The suggestion had come from town officials who have been peppered by "hundreds of phone calls from multiple residents regarding their safety,” as Acting Town Manager Gail Ostrout told the board Tuesday. But, reports Patrick Adrian in the Valley News, board members also heard from Police Chief Gregory Sheldon that most issues at the lot involve "littering, dumping and public urination," and from residents contending that the lot serves legit carpoolers, bus riders, and others.There's a new tick in town. It's not new new, but until recently the brown dog tick preferred the warmer climes of the South, writes Li Shen in Sidenote. The fact that one showed up yesterday on Poor Farm Road in Thetford, she suggests, is an unwelcome example of previously southern species moving north. The ticks can live their entire lifecycle indoors, and all stages can transmit Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever to dogs, though rarely to humans.SPONSORED: The 34th Annual Ogontz Choral Workshop. Join us August 7-13 for an extraordinary week at a rustic resort renowned for its outstanding food and scenic beauty in Lyman, NH. Acclaimed British conductor David Hill will lead singers through J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Mezzo-soprano Paula Rockwell of Acadia University will provide vocal instruction, master classes, and a solo recital. Certificates of Professional Development hours are available for teachers. Questions? Email [email protected] or phone 215-962-2998. Sponsored by Ogontz Arts Foundation."Too many books leave nothing behind." Most of them, in fact, Peter Orner writes in this week's Enthusiasms. But then there's the rare book—or in this case, short story: John Edgar Wideman's "Welcome", which closes his collection, All Stories Are True. It's just a fleeting glimpse, a father and son huddled against the cold at a bus stop in Pittsburgh at Christmastime, the story's narrator inventing reasons why they might be out there. And then, a moment of grace. "I don’t need the paragraph itself to conjure that father, that son," Peter writes. "I carry them around."Paintings that evoke "summer days and berry-stained fingers." They're the work of Adelaide Coburne Palmer, born in Orford, resident of Piermont for decades, creator in the 1890s of the first Fruit of the Loom commercial logo—and, Susan Apel writes in Artful, the subject of a celebration and exhibition this Sunday at the Piermont Village School. After studying at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, she built a successful career as an artist, remaining part of the Boston art world her whole life while teaching art in both Boston and Piermont. Susan's got a striking example of her work at the link.Meanwhile, at the Main Street Museum in WRJ, 270 paintings of cows. It's an exhibition curated by mainstay MSM volunteer Joie Finley, based on a single paint-by-number kit mailed to hundreds of people all over the world who responded to Finley's January call to artists—and then mailed their work back. There's "a steampunk cow, an alien cow, a true storyboard about a ransomed cow and a Shrinky Dinks cow," Finley tells Seven Days' Pamela Polston. And bling cows, glow-in-the-dark cows, knitted cows, gold leaf cows... The exhibition opens tomorrow evening. You can get an uplifting glimpse at the link.SPONSORED: The Pompanoosuc Mills Memorial Day Sale—FINAL WEEK! What a Memorial Day weekend we had here in the Upper Valley. If you spent it outside rather than furniture shopping, we can’t blame you! The good news is that you have one more week to save 25-70% off new and in-stock furniture. Every piece is built at our Thetford workshop and designed to last generations. We don’t want to sell you your next dining table, couch, or bed… we want to sell you your last. Shop hundreds of in-stock pieces at our Thetford and Hanover showrooms or at pompy.com. Sponsored by Pompanoosuc Mills.So, why is the Boston Globe suddenly a player in the New Hampshire news world? The short answer: Because it can be. The longer answer: Because it sees an opportunity to fill coverage gaps that have opened as other news organizations have had to cut staff. In a Daybreak story, I check in with Globe (and former NH Bulletin and VTDigger) reporter Amanda Gokee and with her editor, Lylah Alphonse, who is steering the paper's forays into both NH and RI. “We want to take a landscape that’s become less robust and make it more robust again," says Alphonse. It doesn't sound like they plan to stop at NH. Also, here's Gokee talking to the Laconia Daily Sun the other day about it all.In VT, a signature and a veto that's sure to smart.
On the one hand, Gov. Phil Scott yesterday signed into law a measure setting out new rules for the state's 14 county sheriffs to follow, including a requirement that they keep detailed records of how they spend their time (you remember the Bennington Co. sheriff who kept frequenting Tennessee?), a new set of auditing protocols, and new disclosure requirements. VTDigger's Tiffany Tan has the details.
On the other hand, Vermont Public reports, Scott yesterday vetoed the pay raise legislators gave future legislators in a bid to make it more feasible for working Vermonters to hold legislative office. Scott criticized lawmakers for passing legislation that would raise taxes and fees and then "insulat[ing] themselves from the very costs they are imposing on their constituents by doubling their own future pay." You can bet this one will get some play in the veto override session later this month.
"For the first time in more than 75 years, no Bassett is milking cows in Woodstock." That's because last fall, Robert Bassett sold off his 100-cow herd, tired of trying to compete with farms ten times the size of Bassett Farm. "You've got to get big or get out," he tells Seven Days' Kirk Kardashian. As Kardashian writes, VT had 11,000 dairy farms in 1950; today, it has 508. And behind those numbers is a sweeping story, on which Kardashian stretches out, of dairy's rise and fall, place in Vermont's culture, and why, if current trends hold, there could be just 63 dairy farms left milking 1,800 or so cows apieceWhen he was a TV reporter Anson Tebbetts excelled at "finding and telling stories about Vermont and real Vermonters." Now he's ag commissioner, and still doing it. That's partly because he's spending so much of his time these days trying to help farmers in VT deal with wrenching change, Colin Flanders writes in a Seven Days profile (you may be noticing a theme to this week's stories). So he's trying to highlight "hope, resiliency, and innovation," Flanders writes. While it's unclear what impact he's having on the ground, farmers are noticing that he's helping them be heard.“Nice word, but bye-bye.” The Scripps National Spelling Bee finals are tonight, and competitors aren’t the only ones who've been prepping hard. The AP's Ben Nuckols got exclusive access to the closely guarded work of the panel that selects words. It’s more daedal than you might think, and the process has morphed to account for the way today’s students prep and for changing competition rules. Gone are the days of 2019, which resulted in an eight-way tie; this year, a lightning round will determine a sole winner. Which words will make it to the stage tonight? “The best words kind of happen to you as you’re scrolling around through the dictionary,” says one panelist.Bet you whoever's crowned spelling bee champ won't have been knocked unconscious beforehand. Which can't be said for Delaney Irving, a 19-year-old from Canada who just, improbably, won the women's race in this year's Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling & Wake in Gloucester, England. Though she didn't know it until she came to with a wheel of Double Gloucester in her lap. The idea, as you may remember, is that a crowd of men or women charge pell-mell down a steep, 200-yard incline after said wheel. "I don't think you can train for [this race], can you? It's just being an idiot," one guy told the BBC. "I think next year I just want to watch," Irving tells the CBC (burgundy link).The Thursday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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This morning from 10:30 to noon at the Nugget Theater in Hanover, the Alzheimer's Association presents a free info session on Alzheimer's risk factors, recent breakthroughs in research into treatment, early detection, and diagnosis, and lifestyle interventions that can help prevent dementia and promote healthy aging. You can sign up here.
This evening at 6, BarnArts' Feast and Field in Barnard brings in Bow Thayer, along with Barnard-raised musician Jack Snyder and VT's own Krishna Guthrie (yes, grandson and great-grandson of...). As BarnArts writes, "Bow Thayer’s music is always evolving and unpredictable, spanning genres of Americana, folk, prog, blues, world music, and psychedelia on his journey to bring backwoods music to the present. Jack Snyder grew up in Barnard and has been performing locally since he was teen. His music is soulful, groovy and explores interesting harmonic and melodic possibilities. Krishna Guthrie, while never leaving behind the roots of his family’s music, turns it up a notch, infusing rock, blues and modern influences." Doors at 5:30, sets at 6 and 7:30.
Also at 6, it's JAM's bi-monthly storytelling circle in WRJ. Anyone in the Upper Valley, seasoned storyteller or outright beginner, is invited to join to share a five-minute true personal story: "No competition, no judgment, no lecturing, no ranting… Just share a story about something that happened to you and listen to other people’s stories," write the moderators.
This evening at 7, the Norwich Bookstore hosts writer and illustrator Katherine Roy, reading from and talking about her new book, Making More: How Life Begins. It's just what it sounds like: a guide for young readers or listeners to the science behind how plants and animals reproduce. The methods may vary, she writes, but “the pattern stays the same: meet, merge, and create something new.”
At 7:30, a drive away (but how often are you going to get this chance?) the Flying Monkey in Plymouth, NH presents a pair of legendary singer-songwriters: Bruce Cockburn and Dar Williams. Not many tickets left, but you should be able to snag one.
And although the event itself doesn't happen until June 14, today's the last day you can reserve a spot for "An Evening with Shaker Bridge Theater" at The Center at Eastman. Founder Bill Coons and actors Susan Haefner and Grant Neale (who's also the incoming artistic director) will tell stories, talk about (and maybe show) the rehearsal process, and pull back the curtain on the company's plans.
Finally, anytime, you can check out JAM's highlights for the week: Simeon Morrow, host of Around Woodstock, focusing on the Scotland House's adult day program; the Movie Magic Talent Show at the Main Street Museum; an OSHER talk by John Snell, chair of Montpelier's Tree Board, "So Many Reasons to Love Trees"; and part of JAM's “Night of Poetry & Black Music” with poet Vievee Francis reading from her new collection, The Shared World.
And to start us off for the day...
On the one hand, it stands to reason that you don't see Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar playing music together, since their genres are so different. On the other hand, they
are
half-sisters. So you want to take notice when they appear together, as they did recently on Jones's series, "Norah Jones is Playing Along With..."
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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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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