GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Maybe some fog and clouds first thing, but they'll all give way to sunshine. Again. This is so interesting: It's definitely colder this morning, with frost hanging on in a few spots and some thick river-valley fog, but then will get a touch warmer today than yesterday, highs into the high 60s and low 70s. Once again, sunny and stunning by mid-morning. High clouds working into the region late tonight, which means less chance of frost. Motorist in fatal I-91 accident comes forward. In a press release yesterday afternoon, the VT State Police announced that 65-year-old Patricia Whitcomb of Charlestown, NH, went to the Westminster barracks on Monday to say she believed she might have been the person who ran over 22-year-old Keanan Thompson after he was ejected from his car on Sunday. Police confirmed it was her car that was involved and are conferring with prosecutors on next steps.Border patrol used unmarked cars, plainclothes agents to follow and stop undocumented workers in Upper Valley. Documents obtained by the NH ACLU shed some light on CBP sweeps in the region earlier this year, says NHPR. In March, agents ran records on a car, found no social security number tied to the registration, followed two men into "a thrift store in Lebanon," and ultimately detained one. In July, they came across a pickup in WRJ with Georgia plates "linked to an undocumented immigrant" and wound up detaining nine men. JAG Productions to partner w/NYC's Cherry Lane Theater on world premiere. The play will be Esai's Table, Brooklyn-based playwright Nathan Yungerberg's fable about three young black men on a mythical night-sea journey. Yungerberg worked on and developed the script both at Cherry Lane, itself a fabled New York playhouse, and at JAGfest 2.0 in February of last year. The production will star a trio of film and Broadway actors, and opens at the Briggs in October before moving on to the Cherry Lane next spring.A quick "Really? That's in the Upper Valley?" aerial shot. William Daugherty, the drone guy, posted a view of Kennedy Pond in Windsor yesterday evening on FB. Makes you want to get out in a canoe or kayak right now!Bill Smith's Labor Day auction lovingly detailed in Antiques and the Arts Weekly. Smith's Plainfield auction house drew over 300 people early this month for a sale of American paintings, four carousel horses, weathervanes, clocks, Audubon prints, Oriental rugs... Okay, it's all over and done, but reading Rick Russack's detailed review — "The mahogany case was inlaid with bird’s-eye maple veneer; it had fluted columns, brass finials, with a fretwork bonnet and a moon-phase dial" — makes you feel like you could have been there. Highest price paid: $23,000 for an Audubon print of a pileated woodpecker.The VN's John Gregg looks into the presidential candidates' NH and VT campaign fundraising in the second quarter. Pete Buttigieg did nicely in NH, pulling in funds from Ken Burns, Lyme Timber founder David Roby, and biotech entrepreneur Tillman Gerngross. Across the river, not surprisingly, Bernie Sanders led the pack, but Elizabeth Warren also made a strong showing. Gregg points out that both Biden and Buttigieg have drawn $5,600 each from Bill and Jane Stetson, the Norwich couple prominent in Democratic Party circles. Top fundraiser in NH for the cycle: Donald Trump. Not so much in VT. Some intriguing pics of baby timber rattlesnakes born in the last few days in NH. There's only one tiny, vulnerable population of them in the state, and NH Fish & Game closely guards their location.Sununu goes 23-1 in first day of NH House override session. Of the 24 vetoed bills the chamber took up yesterday, it was able to counteract the governor only on a measure letting patients and their caregivers cultivate marijuana for therapeutic use. Efforts to overturn vetoes on an independent redistricting commission, net metering, biomass subsidies, and repeal of stricter voting requirements all failed.Jaime Laredo announces retirement. This will be the longtime Vermont Symphony Orchestra director's last season. He'll step down next May.VT violence prevention task force mostly sidesteps gun control, focuses on school security, identifying troubled young people. The task force, convened by Gov. Phil Scott after last year's school-shooting scare in Fair Haven, made 38 recommendations in its May report, which was just made public. They include increased funding for suicide prevention efforts, boosting active-shooter training in schools — and buying software to monitor social media posts by Vermonters for signs of a potential shooter. Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you probably know that tomorrow kicks off the youth-led Global Climate Strike. There'll be events over the next week, but the headliners are tomorrow. The link above takes you to an editorial in the science journal Nature on the climatic state of play (thanks, DH!). Meanwhile, around here:
In Norwich/Hanover: At 7:30 tomorrow morning, both kids and adults aim to create a human chain running from the Norwich Green, across the Ledyard Bridge, and up West Wheelock to the Hanover Green.
In S. Strafford: Also at 7:30 am, people will gather with signs outside Barrett Hall, at the intersection of Rt. 132 and Justin Morrill Hwy — without, organizers say, disrupting traffic.
In Sharon: Starting at 8:30 am, there'll be a day of speakers, film clips and other events at The Sharon Academy high school.
In Claremont: Students and adults will gather from 11:30-1:00 in Broad Street Park.
In Randolph: From noon to 1:30, a rally "where disruptions are not planned or intended," with presentations from elementary and high school students.
In WRJ: The Monarch Affinity Group is organizing a gathering from noon to 2 pm in Lyman Point Park with banners, music, and "displays of the world we want to see."
In Hanover: At 7 pm, a screening of Bill McKibben's talk last month at the Chautauqua Instititution, followed by community discussion. At Our Savior Lutheran Church.
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We'll just let the Hop describe it: "While you sip and socialize at a typical office function, [Barnes and Elisa Clark] swagger in and execute increasingly competitive dance numbers in an attempt to impress the ladies. No one makes better fun of mildly toxic masculinity than these two women." The 5:30 show may be sold out, but they're reprising at 8:30 and again tomorrow and Saturday.
It's a social gathering and a communal practice session, and you're welcome to go play or just sit and listen as musicians improvise, vamp, and stretch out together. Starts at 6:30 pm.
Essayist and "one of the great storytellers of contemporary poetry" (Philip Levine), McNair grew up in Newport and gives voice to the lives of northern New Englanders. He spent five years as poet laureate in Maine, has served five times on the Pulitzer jury for poetry, won an Emmy for a series on Robert Frost, and started the American Studies program at Colby-Sawyer. At 7 at the Library Arts Center.
. Van Norden, who lives in Hanover, is a gardener. It's how he makes his living. But it's also is calling, and he's convinced that humans are “just as much a part of nature as any flower," as he told the VN last year. "When we’re out there we feel comfortable.... But we’re getting so far away from it that it’s not healthy.” So he made this hour-long documentary not just about that disconnect, but about how gardens — and we're talking about places like the High Line, Monticello, and Mount Vernon —help bridge it. Screening at 7, Q&A with van Norden afterward.
Sean Lawson, brewer and owner of cult favorite Lawson's Finest Liquids will be hanging out to talk to all comers, Jim Yeager will be performing, there'll be plenty of food, and Big Fatty's will be pouring more different Lawson's brews than you knew existed. Runs 5 to 8 pm.
How the thickest of them erupt justabove the ear, cresting in waves so stiff no wind can move them. Let us praise themin all of their varieties, some skinnyas the bands of headphones, some risingfrom a part that extends halfway aroundthe head, others four or five strings stretched so taut the scalp resemblesa musical instrument.
— From "Hymn to the Comb-Over" by Wesley McNair
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