GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Patchy fog, then partly sunny. There is a brief change in the weather coming: Low pressure is due to build up offshore tonight and we'll see more cloudiness, cooler temps, and even a slight chance of rain tomorrow. But for today, we're looking at fog to start, partly cloudy skies, and highs around 80. Winds today from the northeast, lows tonight in the mid 50s.In need of a burst of color? Sally Harris has you covered with this view at Sunapee Harbor the other day.Time for Dear Daybreak! It's the second installment of reader-submitted vignettes, short items about life in or related to the Upper Valley. This week: Taylor Haynes reflects on looking and listening on morning walks, Laura Ayotte comes up with the perfect new word, Nancy Curtis sends in a video of a sculpture Geiseling (you'll just have to check it out), and Becky McMeekin captures the poetry of the changing season."White River has a funky vibe: a mix of artisan, high-end and yard sale." That's River Roost founder Mark Babson talking to Seven Days' Melissa Pasanen about the town. The weekly has been sending its writers out tvisit to towns around Vermont, and this week, Pasanen spends 14 hours in WRJ, starting at Putnam's and the Tuckerbox, visiting the village's endearingly oddball collection of shops, going on a gallery crawl, giving shoutouts to Northern Stage, Shaker Bridge, and We the People, listing dinner options, dropping by JAM and the Main Street Museum... Sheesh. There is a lot to do!SPONSORED: Want to manage pain or reduce stress? Integrative Medicine at APD combines holistic health with traditional medical care to help patients decrease stress, strengthen the immune system, reduce pain, and speed recovery. We offer acupuncture, cupping, energy healing, naturopathic medicine, and craniosacral therapy. Contact information, providers, and more here. Sponsored by Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital."It comes down to common sense: It's smart to know your neighbors." That's Josh Crane, a producer for VT Public's "Brave Little State" and a Norwich resident, talking to former Hanover town manager Alex Torpey. Torpey's launched a new podcast, "Upper Valley Vibes", and for his first episode he and Crane walk the Leb Rail Trail for a conversation on living in small places, the Upper Valley, the issues "Brave Little State" listeners care about, local journalism—"Often, that's an overlooked part of the community that you take for granted until it's gone," Crane says—and lots more.SPONSORED: Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions in Larissa FastHorse’s wickedly funny satire, The Thanksgiving Play. Shaker Bridge Theatre's new production runs Sept. 26 thru Oct. 13 at the Briggs Opera House. A troupe of terminally woke teaching artists scrambles to create an elementary school pageant that somehow manages to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month without ruffling any feathers. What could possibly go wrong? Just about everything! Hit the burgundy link or go here for more information. Sponsored by Shaker Bridge Theatre.West Leb woman arrested after assaulting police officers. The 27-year old "appeared to be under the influence and was asking people for rides on Elm St. West," the Leb police say in their report on yesterday's incident. When they approached her, she fled down an embankment and into "a stagnant body of water" near the South Main St. railroad tracks. After fruitless negotiations, officers then waded into the water, where the woman attacked them as they tried to pull her out. She was uninjured, and taken to the hospital for evaluation. Four officers had minor injuries, and one was taken to the hospital.CNN reports the NH National Guard is beset by "a toxic, sexist work environment." The story itself ran on Friday. Yesterday, CNN National Security Producer Haley Britzky sat down with NHPR's Rick Ganley to talk about the investigation. She details allegations against Lt. Col. Mark Patterson, who led a police battalion at the southern border last year and recently pled guilty to sexual harassment, and points out that while the issues are hardly unique to the NH Guard, it did have the highest rate of sexual assaults reported in the spring of 2023 of any state Guard in the country.With more Republicans running for state legislature, VT will have more contested races this fall than it's seen in four decades. In all, reports VT Public's Corey Dockser, 24 of 30 Senate seats and 84 of 150 House seats will be contested: that is, there are more candidates than seats available (especially in multi-member districts). This in part stems from active GOP recruitment, especially after rising property taxes grabbed public attention this spring. “There were people we contacted who weren’t ready to make a commitment in May," says GOP chair Paul Dame, who later stepped forward.Prime targets for scams, older Vermonters are losing their life savings. More than 150 of them filed reports of cyber scams with the FBI last year, with losses totaling $4.8 million. The true number is likely much higher, writes Derek Brouwer in Seven Days. Victims are falling prey to scammers who use malware to take over their computers, then gain their trust and convince them to move money into “secure” cryptocurrency accounts; the losses are no longer tax-deductible, so taxes pile up. The state, say victims, doesn’t provide enough help. Brouwer tells some hair-raising stories, and gives tips and contact info for the scant resources that do exist.“You cannot save a bird if you don’t understand when, where and how it breeds.” That’s Douglas G.D. Russell, senior curator of birds at the Natural History Museum in Hertfordshire, England. In Smithsonian, Carlyn Kranking gives a tour of nest examples from Russell’s new book, based on the museum’s massive collection. They're “robust and beautiful little bits of architecture,” says Russell. Take the engineering genius of the African Cape penduline tit, whose nest has a door to hide the eggs and a false entrance leading to a decoy empty chamber.
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We may be the middle of nowhere to everyone else in VT and NH, but
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Crow is one of the organizers of the festival, which will run in Concord Oct. 4-5. She's being hosted today at 4:30 by the Cover-to-COVER Book Club, and will talk about the festival and her own book, set in a thinly-veiled version of an all-male elite college in NH.
The Columbia U English and comparative media prof's talk is part the fall term's Critical AI lecture series. 4:30 pm in the Wren Room at Sanborn House.
Musasama has traveled extensively to Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and lived for a time in Sierra Leone. She'll discuss her installation in the Hood's
Immersive Worlds
exhibition and "reflect on her career, sharing the challenges she has faced as well as her ambitions for the next chapter." 5 pm.
Led by René and Don and Nichole. René is a 13-year-old local who plays ukulele, guitar, and piano, and started composing four years ago—winning the 2022 Green Up Vermont Jingle Contest and, with friends, last year's as well. Don is his music teacher, and Nichole is his mom. They'll be leading the crowd in all sorts of songs starting at 5:45 pm at the pavilion in Elizabeth Park.
The local VT/NH band is heavy into funk and soul. At Fable Farm Fermentory in Barnard, gates and food at 5:30, music at 6.
Known especially for his Darby Chronicles series of novels, which captured life in rural NH at times of transition, the local novelist and emeritus Dartmouth prof will speak at 6 pm.
Tonight's theme is "Schooled!" and anyone is welcome to show up and share an unrehearsed five-minute true story. As the organizers write, "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." 6 pm.
Six youngsters in pursuit of spelling glory, telling their own stories and hoping not to make any mistakes—"A riotous ride complete with audience participation," says Artistree. 7 pm tonight, runs through Sunday and again next weekend.
The award-winning writer will read from his latest collection, channeling "the perspective of the 13th -century Japanese founder of the Sōto school of Zen if he were alive today." 7 pm.
: Lebanon Historian Nicole Ford Burley's talk on the fire of 1964, with visuals; the ribbon-cutting for the new Twin Pines Apartments, the new housing initiative next to the Haven and St. Paul's in WRJ; and scholar, litigator, and VT Law and Grad School President Rod Smolla on the constitutional issues at play in this year's presidential election.
And for today...
The Red Clay Strays
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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