GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly sunny, pleasant. Yesterday’s disturbance has headed off to the east, and there’s more weather coming in tomorrow, but for the moment we get mostly clear skies (once the fog lifts), calm winds, and temps getting into the mid 70s. Things start clouding up overnight ahead of a cold front and tomorrow’s rain, lows in the low 50s.
An explosion of color. Technically, the dahlias were a gift for Norwich photographer Rich Cohen’s wife. But he does specialize in flower photography, so…
Time for Dear Daybreak! The weekly collection of short pieces from readers about Upper Valley life picks back up again with a trio of stories: Bettyanne McGuire on the procession of wildlife passing in front of her kitchen window; Jennifer Rickards on an unusual twist on one of the inescapable features of late-summer life; and Kelly Hawes on a very close encounter with a hummingbird. Plus Ashley Arsenal’s lovely photo of a Mascoma Lake sunset. And hey, Dear Daybreak needs submission! If you’ve got something to share, why, please do send it in!
About that divebombing dragonfly. Yesterday’s Peter Bloch video (at the burgundy link) drew this explanation from naturalist Ted Levin: It’s laying an egg in the water.
Bedbug fumigation error at DHMC sickens five employees. A single bedbug was found in a patient’s room on Aug. 19, and “as a single bedbug can cause an infestation, the hospital moved to quickly seal off and treat the room,” writes Lukas Dunford in the Valley News. The company DHMC hired to apply pesticide, however, used one intended for outdoors, in well-ventilated areas. Five employees needed treatment from the hospital’s emergency department—and the room was ventilated, cleaned, and “operational” the following afternoon, DH’s Audra Burns tells Dunford.
At AVA Gallery, a show of works “informed by ideas about the meaning of ‘home’”—and with plenty of attitude. Corrine Yonce’s solo show—along with “excellent” solo shows by Misoo Bang, Mike Howat and Cierra Vigue, writes Seven Days reviewer Alice Dodge—opened last weekend. Yonce’s sure hand with materials that range from acrylics to broken pipe tiles yields works that might “seem clunky or chaotic in another artist's hands, [but] Yonce pulls them back to something a little demure,” Dodge writes. And her titles! "Time did that thing where it collapsed like a bad cake.” "the tough swallow: enduring wounds don't mean ya won't give 'em."
In federal court, NH, school districts battle over new anti-DEI law. The arguments on both sides were laid out before US District Judge Landya McCafferty in Concord yesterday—with McCafferty seeming “sympathetic to plaintiffs’ contentions that the new law is difficult to understand and comply with and could muzzle free speech,” reports Ethan DeWitt in NH Bulletin. The law was part of this year’s policy-setting budget “trailer” bill and bars school districts from engaging in “any DEI-related initiatives, programs, training, or policies.” The state’s lawyers argued the law’s intent is plain: to keep groups from being disadvantaged or placed at an advantage over others.
“I don't believe that they were actually abducted by aliens. But…there’s not an easy answer to the question of what happened.” That’s Toby Ball, host of the iHeart podcast Strange Arrivals, about the 1961 incident that led Betty and Barney Hill of Portsmouth to say they’d been driving through Franconia Notch late at night, diverted, brought aboard a flying saucer, given medical exams, and then released. Demi Moore and Colman Domingo are due to star in a new film based on the podcast, and Ball sat down with NHPR’s Rick Ganley to talk about what happened—the Hills only detailed the incident a few years later, under hypnosis—and why it’s got staying power.
What’s behind this summer’s firefly glory. Unlike birds, which have legions of ordinary New Englanders jotting down sightings and helping scientists keep track of numbers, fireflies might not go unnoticed, but they do go undocumented. So while there are no hard numbers to verify that this has been an unusually firefly-abundant summer, it sure seems that way. And in the Concord Monitor, Emilia Wisniewski explains what’s going on—a wet spring made it easier for firefly larvae to survive—along with why they’re tough to track and how to help create firefly habitat.
VT Public announces layoffs. Details yesterday were scant, but VT Public yesterday announced that 13 staffers are losing their jobs and two other positions are being eliminated—in all, trimming 14 percent of the organization’s workforce—thanks to the $2 million in federal funding lost from the budget. CEO Vijay Singh provided few details, reports VTDigger’s Shaun Robinson, other than to say that the cuts will affect a reporter and hosts of some Vermont Public programs: “There are hosts who people love and have built relationships with — and I’m sure some folks will feel the loss there,” he said.
In an interview with Seven Days’ Derek Brouwer, Singh said that the organization has faced an ongoing deficit. Fundraising drives since Congress clawed back funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have brought in over $1 million and have "certainly helped us to avoid other cuts," he added, but "we are trying to anticipate the year ahead and don’t want to overestimate the generosity of Vermont…. Realistically, the work ahead of us is figuring out what can we maintain and what will we have to stop doing."
Quick: What’s the biggest single power plant in VT? Not what you think, environmentalist and writer Bill McKibben tells David Goodman on the Vermont Conversation. It’s “now the collection of batteries that Green Mountain Power has helped people put in their basements and garages and that they can call on in time of need to provide power.” That’s part of what McKibben calls “one big good thing happening on planet Earth…[the] sudden surge of clean energy, especially from the sun, that over the last 36 months, has begun to really rewrite what power means on planet Earth.” He and Goodman talk about what’s going on, and what it means.
Answering the call of nature, one country store at a time. Themed long-distance bike rides aren’t a new idea, but cycling through Vermont to visit every country store just might be. Marcie Gallagher and Betsy McGavisk, from Burlington, are pedaling their way across the state, popping into country stores, buying something, and asking to use the restroom, writes Sam Hartnett in Seven Days. “Every place we have gone has been wonderful, goofy, full of character, extremely hospitable and just a great place to take a break after riding a bike," says McGavisk. You can follow them—and the stores they’re visiting—on Instagram @caniuseyourbathroomvt.
I so need a pot like that. Sure, it’s pointless. And vaguely loony. But when some random guy in China puts ever-bigger firecrackers under a pot just to see how high it’ll blow, then films it, how can you not watch? And that pot? It’s a survivor.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
At Feast and Field in Barnard, Bow Thayer’s Choirs of Aether. It’s a crowd on stage tonight, as the veteran VT musician is joined by Jeff Berlin, Krishna Guthrie, Steve Ferraris, River Thayer, Tyler Boles, and Chazz Canney, “bringing forth his rocking older tunes as well as new songs for an evening sure to include plenty of dancing and grooving!” Doors and food at 5:30, music at 6.
Rewilding pollinator gardens in Woodstock. Sustainable Woodstock hosts a conversation with Stephanie Reger of Wilde Bee Farm about different styles of pollinator gardens, recommended plants, and some rewilding projects around the town. 6 pm outdoors at East End Park. Bring a blanket or folding chair.
Sarah Strohmeyer and A Mother Always Knows at the Norwich Bookstore. The award-winning and bestselling novelist—and former town clerk of Middlesex, VT—has a new novel out: Stella O’Neill—”just your average millennial, working at a public library”—turns out to have a past in a VT commune where her mother was murdered and which she’d escaped. Only now she’s got to return… 7 pm.
At Artistree in S. Pomfret, The Glitter Ball. NYC-based singer, songwriter, and performer Krystofer Maison kicks off a tour backing his new album, Glitter Rinse Repeat, with two locals joining him onstage: Woodstock-born burlesque and drag queen Faye King (“half goddess, half glam, all smoke and mirrors”) and Barnard-based trio Grey Cats: Kathleen Dolan, Mark van Gulden, and Glendon Ingalls. Doors at 7, performance at 7:30.
At the Lake Morey Resort, Shane Smith & the Saints. It’s the next-to-last concert in the resort’s epic summer series, tonight featuring the Austin, TX-based band, which sorta knocked around for a few years after starting up in 2011, then took off “at supersonic speeds” (Americana Highways) once their music started getting some TV exposure. They did a sold-out gig in Cambridge last night and are headed to Galveston next, and you get to see them for free. Food starts up at 6, music at 8.
And for today...
First, a clarification: Ray Charles may have made yesterday’s song, “Lonely Avenue”, famous, but it was written by Doc Pomus, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Blues Hall of Fame. He’s got a heck of a life story. (Thanks, JG!)
Now… Yep, Shane Smith & The Saints (tonight at the Lake Morey Resort). Somehow set up in the middle of the Texas desert…
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!
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