Daybreak Thursday 7/6/23

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Sweat, rinse, repeat. Today, we're looking at a remarkably similar forecast to yesterday's: Fog in the favored spots to start, then full-on sun with temps once again reaching the high 80s or low 90s, with enough humidity to make it feel hotter and a chance of a thunderstorm in the afternoon. Upper 60s overnight.Putting things in perspective.

Wells River man busted after striking Leb police officer as he flees traffic stop. On Tuesday, officers in the city stopped a car with no registration—only to discover the driver had no driver's license, either. Instead of getting out of the car when asked, he drove off, hitting an officer on the elbow and leg; police gave chase from Mechanic Street to School Street, where "the operator became hung up on a tree stump that was in a grassy area between two parking lots," the LPD says in a press release. John Cyncar, 51, was found to have an extraditable warrant from Colorado for "Dangerous Drugs."“This has been a spring and early summer to forget." That's Becky Nelson of Beaver Pond Farm in Newport, NH, talking the Valley News's Patrick Adrian about the weather's impact on her farm's berry crop. The freeze in May and the waterlogged weeks that followed have played havoc in spots with fruit trees, raspberries, blueberries, and especially strawberries, Adrian writes—though the impact varies farm to farm. Some are opening later than usual to give berries time to size up or ripen; others are writing off portions of their crops; all are hoping for more sun, if only to dry out their fields.An invitation to bring "some of the stories of rural Vermont onto our stage." In particular, Northern Stage's stage. That's the theater company's Sarah Elizabeth Wansley talking about the work she's directing, the indie folk musical Vermont Farm Project, to Seven Days' Mary Ann Lickteig. Wansley, musician and songwriter Tommy Crawford (Wansley's husband), and NY playwright Jessica Kahkoska spent a year visiting farms and talking to farmers and farmworkers, and the results are being woven into a script and production —with a Friday reading aiming to draw feedback from a farm audience.SPONSORED: Three dazzling chamber music concerts with world-class performers. Next week, Oak Hill Music Festival returns to the Upper Valley with another season of concerts and free community events. Experience Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Borodin, Mahler, Gershwin, Barber, and a diverse lineup of other masterworks with influences from around the globe. Wednesday, July 12 and Friday, July 14 at 7:00 pm at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon, and Saturday, July 15 at 7:00 pm at the Norwich Congregational Church. Tickets here or at the link. Sponsored by Oak Hill Music Festival."I have to tell you: there’s a reason that people have been talking about The Art Thief by Michael Finkel." And that reason, the Norwich Bookstore's Sam Kaas writes in this week's Enthusiasms, "is that it's fascinating." If you read Daybreak last week, you know the outline: The book is about Stéphane Breitwieser, a French art thief who, for reasons of his own—which did not include selling the art—stole nearly 300 works from museums around Europe, in daylight, under the noses of guards. And the book itself, Sam writes, is propulsive: "fast-paced, nearly electric, and dosed with a level of suspense that keeps a reader continually wanting just one more chapter."Dousing Jane Austen "in glitter from head to toe." That's how Caoimhe Markey describes Northern Stage's current production of Sense and Sensibility, which runs through Sunday. The adaptation, director Aileen McGroddy told Broadway World, aims to explore “the nasty, rowdy, and delicious currents that drive the formal society of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ to understand how it might be possible to live freely in a corseted world.” Markey clearly has hesitations about McGroddy's sometimes over-the-top approach, but lauds the cast and notes the production "has created its own fun-loving if gaudy place" on stage.For Carmen, Opera North and Upper Valley Music Center join forces. The opera, writes Susan Apel in the summer issue of Image mag, has always had a children's chorus; ON's challenge was how to put one together. The result is "the first substantial collaboration between the two Upper Valley arts organizations," Susan writes, "(though UVMC's Ben Van Vliet has a vague memory of loaning ON a piano in years past)." It's a chance, he says, for young people to see "the ensemble nature" of music first-hand, as well as to understand the nature of collaboration both on and off stage.For some Upper Valley skateboarders, "It’s hard to find somewhere where you’re welcome." There's the Rusty Berrings Skate Park in West Leb, of course, but let's say you're 14 or 15, have to depend on your parents to get you there, and live a long drive away—Corinth, maybe, or Bradford. That's part of the thinking behind an effort to bring a skatepark to Bradford, writes Liz Sauchelli in the VN; at the urging of young people in the area, the selectboard has authorized a new committee to raise money and design a park near downtown. “It’s an avenue for young and old people that don’t groove on team sports,” says Bradford Parks and Rec chair Jean Carlan.With Nashua legislator's resignation, NH House numbers shift again. Longtime Rep. David Cote stepped down yesterday after 21 two-year terms in office, reports NHPR's Todd Bookman, after 21 terms. Cote, a Democrat, was never sworn in for his current term; because health concerns—he has cerebral palsy—put him at risk from Covid, he'd asked to be sworn in remotely, but the House doesn't allow for remote participation. Cote's resignation puts the House at 199 Republicans, 196 Democrats, two independents, and three vacancies. Timing for filling Cote's seat is unclear.In final report for 2022, NH medical examiner's office finds drug overdose deaths rose sharply. They grew 11 percent, to 486, reports WMUR's Arielle Mitropoulos, largely due to fentanyl. "Heroin has to be grown in fields and then processed and moved here. Fentanyl can be made in someone's basement," Chris Stawasz, of American Medical Response, tells her. The state saw 425 overdose deaths in 2021, and 417 the year before. Vermont, meanwhile, also saw a jump in opioid-related fatal overdoses, from 217 deaths in 2021 to 239 in 2022, according to a preliminary report in April.Medicaid may now cover basic dental care for NH adults, but that doesn't mean they can actually see a dentist. So far, reports Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin, just a relative handful of the state's dentists—125 of the state's 850 dentists and oral surgeons—have signed on. Partly, she writes, there's a shortage of dentists, hygienists, and dental assistants. But it's also because reimbursement rates cover only half the cost of many procedures. The result is a patchwork of care: Some practices are scheduling for August, some for next year or even, in one North Country case, 2025.VT settles with defrauded EB-5 investors for $16.5 million. The agreement is aimed at resolving all legal claims by investors in a series of development projects centered around Jay Peak, reports VTDigger's Alan J. Keays. Announced yesterday by VT Attorney General Charity Clark, it still requires approval by the federal court in Florida overseeing the Jay Peak receivership. Keays notes that if accepted, the settlement would keep current and former state officials from testifying "about what they may have known and when about wrongdoing with the EB-5 projects."“A lack of broadband has left [Vermonters] without easy access to telemedicine, remote job opportunities and virtual schooling.” In Seven Days, Rachel Hellman writes about the “colossal effort” and substantial funding going toward bringing high-speed internet to the two-thirds or so of Vermont addresses that don’t yet have it. The determination of Vermonters to correct federal records led to some 11,000 mis-categorized houses being added to the "Wrong! We don't have broadband” list. That earned the state millions more dollars in federal funding. Now comes the bureaucratic and logistical challenge of spending the money effectively. Like, a lack of qualified construction workers, and people running the show who've never done it before.Blackened ground all around, heat through the truck window: "Okay, we're here. We're at the fire." Here in the US, the smoke from Canadian wildfires has been bad enough. Can you imagine what it's like in the midst of it? Vermont Public's Jenn Jarecki talked with Chloe Sardonis, a VT state forester who recently got back from helping fight the fires in Quebec. She describes what it was like getting there, the challenges they face—once the fire reaches the boreal forests' "duff layer" it's tough to put out, and there's been no rain—and the prospects: It's going to take snow to put the fires out, Sardonis says.Given today's warmth, maybe you want to be in western Montana. At least, that's what Alaska-based climatologist Brian Brettschneider suggests for early July on his “70°F Road Trip.” In the updated version of a map he first produced in 2015, he's routed a full year of driving—one route for the coastal US, another inland, and another into Canada and Alaska—where the temp will remain a pleasing 70 degrees. True, actually driving from San Diego to Fairbanks by way of Texas, the Blue Ridge, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Manitoba might not be the most environmentally friendly way to stay comfortable, but what a trip!The Thursday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.

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And to bring us into the day...

Here's a taste of some of the music ahead from the Oak Hill Music Festival:

. It was written after the Czech-born composer fled to India ahead of Nazi persecution in 1933, became music director of All India Radio, and drank in Indian music, blending its influence with those of the 20th century European music—as well as klezmer—he'd grown up with. This is the ARC Ensemble on a series of recordings by the English label Chandos dedicated to "music in exile."

(Thanks, LK!)

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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