GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Well, there's the rain, of course. But that's not actually the big weather news today. It's the pair of cold fronts—one came through overnight, the other's due a bit later—that are going to send the thermometer dropping. We spend the morning with a likelihood of rain showers and temps pretty steady in the low 60s. We should see some sun in the afternoon, which is also when the second cold front arrives (and winds shift to come from the northwest) and we begin dropping through the 50s, reaching the low 40s by sunrise tomorrow.Unless you're a swimmer with goggles, you've probably never seen Grafton Pond like this. New London videographer Peter Bloch is continuing his iPhone forays beneath the water's surface, and just posted this glimpse of the aquatic life you rarely get to see as you're poking about the nooks and crannies and islands. Including, at about 1:20, a Horsehair Worm. Which are fine if you're human, but bad news if you're a cricket or a leech.Orange County, VT is "what you might call the 'planetary epicenter' of sugar maples." That's Mike Snyder, the state's commissioner of forests and parks, talking to Happy Vermont's Erica Housekeeper. A lot has to do with the Waits River, it turns out. “Sugar maples happen...in a glorious way” in the county, Snyder says. “People have been taking good care of them there for a long time. It’s a really good place for sugar maples.” Housekeeper takes us on a tree tour: Route 25 between Orange and Bradford, Chelsea Mountain Road, 132 in Strafford, 244 in Fairlee and Thetford, and up to Newbury.Leb police put out call for help finding alleged kidnapping suspect. Adam Adolph, a 32-year-old from Thetford, had been arrested back in July after a bizarre series of events at the Lebanon Airport in which police accused him and others of abducting and detaining a woman who'd gone there with her fiance to rent a car. Adolph was released last week through a Grafton County pre-trial program. On Tuesday, reports Nora Doyle-Burr in the VN, police found his electronic monitoring bracelet in the woods along I-89 in Lebanon. Leb Police press release here.When is a 7,500-square foot, two-story building with a 45-car parking lot a farm store? That's the question before VT's District 3 Environmental Commission, and the answer, Hartland planning officials argue, is never. Local and regional planners, writes Frances Mize in the Valley News, are opposing an effort by Sunnymede Farms, a 600-acre cattle Hartland farm and sugaring operation owned by a Florida developer, to create an "outlet" for its own and related products. The planning board sees it as a commercial business. “This is not a Dollar General or a McDonald’s,” Sunnymede's lawyer responds.SPONSORED: Stitch, Breathe, Speak: The George Floyd Quilts at The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College. The Sacred Ally Quilt Project is a collaboration of churches across New Hampshire, quilting the last words of George Floyd. View these amazing quilts from September 23 – October 1 at The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College. The organizer of the project, Mark Koyama, will preach at our 10:00 AM worship service on Sunday, Sept. 25 followed by a viewing and discussion of a film about the project. All are welcome to join us! Sponsored by The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College.So, what are you having for dinner at Elixir? That's the question for Christopher Brewer, the popular WRJ restaurant's longtime head chef and, since April, owner. In the third installment of this Daybreak/Artful collaboration, Brewer talks about some of the growing pains he's faced since he took over, the time he tried to take a popular dish off the menu, how he makes those truffle fries, and... oh yeah, the meal he'd choose if he had the time.And just what is it like to walk across Iceland top to bottom? And set a fastest known time for an unsupported hike (that is, carrying everything except water) while you're at it? Eli Burakian, who left his job as Dartmouth College photographer this summer, did just that in August. In a Daybreak article, he talks about why he did it, what it was like, how at times the scenery brought him to tears, and why "it was the greatest trip of my life." And yes, he's got photos."I heard he is really known in America because he failed." That's Ziva Pintar, an 18-year-old Slovenian, talking to the Monitor's Ray Duckler about her grandfather, Vinko Bogataj. You may not know his name, but you've seen him: He's the ski jumper who crashed so spectacularly at a meet 52 years ago that for decades the footage became emblematic of "The Agony of Defeat." This weekend, Bogataj will be in the Upper Valley at a ski jumpers' reunion organized in part by former Olympians Jeff Hastings and Mike Holland and veteran announcer Peter Graves, all UVers. Duckler tells Bogataj's story."This guy knew how to ride his bike." That's gravel-bike racer Kevin Bouchard-Hall, "one of the best gravel riders in the Northeast," per Kirk Kardashian in Seven Days, talking about Kenyan cyclist Suleiman "Sule" Kangangi. Kangangi died after a downhill crash in S. Woodstock during the Vermont Overland last month, and Bouchard-Hall performed CPR until the EMTs arrived. Kardashian profiles Kangangi and his impact on African cycling, as well as the little that's known about the circumstances of Kangangi's crash—and why it's left his fellow riders so perplexed.NH primary results were slowed by grassroots effort to force hand count. In the Keene Sentinel (here via NHPR), Rick Green writes that groups dubious about electronic voting machines encouraged voters to mark the write-in oval on their ballots and then write in the name of their preferred candidate—even if he or she was already on the ballot. The intent, one candidate explains, was to bring out people disenchanted with the process. But the result was that clerks had to hand-count ballots. "It really stresses the system," Secy of State David Scanlan says. "It probably increases the chances for errors.”NHPR sued for defamation by former substance abuse treatment leader. “Unburdened by truth or ethics, the NHPR defendants dropped this guillotine of a story on Eric’s reputation with a Robespierre-like arbitrariness,” the 396-page lawsuit says of the radio network's investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by Eric Spofford, former owner of Granite Recovery Centers. Spofford's suit includes the reporter on the story, Lauren Chooljian (you may remember that her home and that of another NHPR employee on the story were vandalized last spring). NHPR says it stands by the story.NH hospital beds are filling up... but not with Covid patients. In fact, according to the latest stats from the state, just 9.4 percent of staffed ICU beds and 7.7 percent of total staffed hospital beds in the Upper Valley/Southwest NH hospital group are available, but there are only five patients being treated for Covid. It's not quite clear what's going on, reports Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin. Interestingly, the health care officials she talked to did not specify delayed care from the pandemic; instead, they cite staffing challenges and more local specialty care options. VT is "working on contingency plans" in case southern governors send it migrants. That's according to Gov. Phil Scott, who was asked at his weekly press conference yesterday about the moves by the governors of TX and FL to bus or fly migrants north. “We want to welcome as many people as we can into the state. We think that's part of the answer,” Scott said. Asked for details, reports VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein, he added that the state is weighing options, "whether it's in some of our campuses that have closed, and whether it's some of the existing campuses that might have some space."The latest on VT’s slow cannabis marketplace rollout. Who better than Vermont Public’s Bob Kinzel and Mitch Wertlieb to wax exhaustively on the much-ballyhooed status of recreational pot in VT. While it’s set to launch on October 1, eager patrons should temper expectations at the outset. Says Cannabis Control Board chair James Pepper, it’s going to start small and grow gradually. A highly regulated process of reviewing applications—for retailers, growers, and product makers—is time-consuming and causing some delays. Plus, most outdoor growers won’t harvest crops until later in the fall.Not just spectacular bird photos, but reminders of what needs protecting. You could breeze through My Modern Met’s stunning selection of winners in the 2022 Bird Photographer of the Year competition and be plenty satisfied. But in each photographer’s adjoining statement is more cause for applause. Beyond the near-impossibility of some of their shots—on a snowy Norwegian mountain or deep in an African forest—the care they took to minimize disruption to habitats and their subjects’ behavior is remarkable in itself. How else does one snap a sage grouse in such a pose? The Thursday Vordle. You can do this.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
T-shirts, tank tops, and, of course, coffee/tea/cocoa mugs. It's all available thanks to Strong Rabbit Designs in Sharon. Check out what's available and wear it or drink from it proudly! Email me ([email protected]) if you've got questions.
Today at 12:30, the Hood Museum is giving an introductory tour of its blockbuster Aboriginal art exhibition, "Maḏayin", led by exhibition curator Henry Skerritt. You may remember that the show is the first major exhibition of aboriginal bark paintings to tour the US, and was curated by the Yolŋu people of northern Australia. It includes 90 "seminal" paintings, and will be at the Hood until December. At 7 pm, the curator of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Margo Smith, will give a livestreamed talk on the collaboration that produced the exhibition. And to put it all in context, here's Eric Sutphin's fine feature about the art and the exhibition in the Valley News.
At 2 pm today, the Howe Library hosts an online conversation between novelist (and former Hanover resident) Rachel Barenbaum and fellow novelist Jonathan Escoffery. Barenbaum—author of two critically acclaimed novels, A Bend in the Stars and Atomic Anna—is kicking off a series of author interviews for the Howe. She'll be talking with Escoffery about his new collection of interconnected short stories about a Jamaican family living in Florida, If I Survive You. It's just been long-listed for the National Book Award, and is filled, NPR reviewer Maureen Corrigan said recently, with "originality, heart, wit and sweeping social vision."
Today at 5:30, Billings Farm is hosting a reception for "Common Threads: Land, History, Art", the solo exhibition by artist-in-residence Margaret Dwyer. The exhibition features works created by Dwyer during her time at Billings this summer (and fall), focused on the land there and at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park, as well as on their history and their conservation legacy.
It's time for BarnArts' Feast & Field at Fable Farm in Barnard/Royalton. Gates open at 5:30, music starts up around 6, with Beecharmer, anchored by Here in the Valley's Jes Raymond and Jakob Breitbach delving into Americana, along with Ben Kogan on bass and Sam Purdom on banjo.
This evening at 7, The Underground listening room in Randolph brings in Lyme-based singer-songwriter James Graham (and Company) for a livestreamed show. Folk, rock, soul, and influences from Neil Young to reggae.
And anytime you feel like it, check out JAM's highlights for the week, including: Howard U political scientist Niambi M. Carter's OSHER lecture on "Redefining the Meaning of Race in the 21st Century"; the Mudroom storytelling evening from a couple of weeks ago, with Kamyn Asher, Kristen and Paul Coats, John Weatherly, Warren Thayer, and Sally Wright Bacon telling stories on the them, "The First Time"; Here in the Valley's recent show with bluesman Arthur James and Americana-ists Jennings & Keller; and Dartmouth College's representatives presenting their North End/Lyme Road student housing plan to Hanover's planning board at the end of August.
"Long Legged Larry was a frog at the pond/
Jump so high might miss him while he gone...." If you've got kids, you might recognize this. Rapper Aesop Rock (aka
Ian Matthias Bavitz) came to the indy rap world's attention two decades ago for his socially conscious songs, but lately he's turned to a fascination with animals, tart observations of what it's like to age... and telling stories through song. Last year he dropped Long Legged Larry—a story about
a bearded bullfrog superhero—which quickly gave birth to a plush toy and then a video game. But here's the great thing about YouTube:
(Thanks, TRH!)
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.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music?
Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on the Daybreak Facebook page
, or if you're a committed non-FB user,
.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! You can subscribe at:
Thank you!