GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly sunny, colder. Well hey, there's snow out there! On the ground, anyway (and maybe in the air by tomorrow first thing). After yesterday's storm wound down, colder air began moving in from the northwest, clearing out a lot of the clouds and bringing us a high today only in the mid- or upper teens. We'll also see pretty steady winds and gusts up to around 25 mph this afternoon. Chance of snow showers toward dawn.Curious about yesterday's snow totals? Here are spotter reports from around VT and NH — pay attention to the time they were filed, since a few are from before much snow had a chance to fall.
Something very few of us will ever get to see in real life. A cardinal in winter? Sure... that flash of red is breathtaking and unforgettable. But an albino cardinal? Here's one that showed up in Claudia Sacuk's yard last week in Brownsville. It's at a bit of a distance, but you'll get the idea.Norwich removes the "Acting" from police chief, hires new public works director. Ever since Jen Frank left town last year to take on the chief's job in Windsor, Simon Keeling has been serving as Norwich's interim chief. Now, Interim Town Manager Rod Francis announces in a press release (via Demo Sofronas' About Norwich blog), the town's made it a regular thing. In addition, the town's hired Chris Kaufmann, who was construction manager at a private wastewater engineering firm in Essex Junction to take over the DPW slot left vacant last year by Larry Wiggins.Thetford covered bridge struck. The historic Sayre's Bridge on Tucker Hill Road was hit Friday afternoon by a white Freightliner with a flatbed hauling a single wooden shipping crate. The driver continued on, and town police are asking the public's help in identifying the vehicle—including residents along Routes 132 and 113, or on Tucker Hill Road who might have security cameras.Sponsored: Why do so many Upper Valley high school juniors and seniors spend half of their school day engaged in learning at the HACTC? Hit the maroon link to learn more about the Hartford Area Career and Technology Center’s 13 programs (such as Building Trades, Business Administration, Health Sciences, Information Technology, Natural Resources and more!) and link to the school’s virtual information sessions on January 18th and 19th at 7PM. The HACTC new student application is now available at HACTC.com for the 2022-2023 school year! Sponsored by the HACTC.“With the way the school is handling the pandemic, I feel like everyone will get it at some point.” That's one of the students who works at Dartmouth's Alumni Gym, talking to The Dartmouth's Angus Yip about over-crowding in the gym the first ten days of the term this year. The college had partially closed its strength training center for varsity athletes, and with the usual surge in January crowd levels, the space was packed. "It was absolutely ridiculous at the start of term," says one student.Before she came to the UV, Meg Brazill’s techno-punk group toured the US. Known to many locally as the former director of Pentangle Council on the Arts, Brazill passed away in December. Perhaps lesser known was Brazill’s stint in the late '70s and early '80s as lead singer of new wave band Los Microwaves. Alex Hanson’s obit in the VN describes an artist whose voice drew comparisons to Patti Smith’s, and whose group was at the forefront—along with the likes of Devo and the Dead Kennedys—of an emergent sound. Says Hanson, the experience “was essential to who she was for the rest of her life.”Good Food? Yep, we've got it. Each year, the Good Food Foundation hands out awards to small companies around the country that make good-tasting stuff in a socially responsible way. The 2022 awards are out, and the Upper Valley's right there in the mix. North Country Smokehouse in Claremont, Blake Hill Preserves in Windsor (with three different awards) and Vershire's Moon and Stars Arepas all come in for props. So do a bunch of other VT companies, from Eden Ciders to Vermont Creamery.About the size of a chipmunk. That's how big black bears are at birth. And hard as it is to believe, Mary Holland writes on her Naturally Curious blog, over the next month will be giving birth to between one and five "tiny, blind, almost hairless, 9-inch long, one-half pound cubs." The cubs, she writes, won't hibernate, but like their human counterparts, they nap frequently. And, like human mothers, "Black Bear mothers sleep when their young sleep."In the Upper Valley, VPR outdraws NHPR—which outdraws conservative talk radio. In a post to the liberal blog Daily Kos, the part owner of a VT/NH broadcaster writes in with interesting comparisons of the latest Neilsen numbers for talk radio in the two states' markets. Around Portsmouth, the station that carried Rush Limbaugh has seen its ratings plunge; NHPR now commands the share that station used to own and dominates the Concord market. Around Manchester, three conservative talk-radio stations and NHPR duke it out. Around here, VPR's share is even higher than NHPR's in Concord.Why GMP's energy mix isn't as carbon-free as you think. It matters, Stuart Blood writes in Sidenote, not just for environmental reasons, but because there's some concern this year that natural gas shortages could cause rolling blackouts in New England. And GMP's energy supply, despite its claim that it's "100% carbon free," in fact contains some natural gas-fired power. Understanding how the utility can claim one thing and do another requires an excursion into the netherworld of energy accounting, and Blood is a willing guide to what he calls "this bizarre shell game."The start or the end of VT's redistricting battle? You'll remember that last year, a multi-partisan reapportionment committee recommended switching from multi-member to single-member districts (thus, for instance, splitting several existing Upper Valley districts into at least two). On Friday, however, the House voted to advance a map that largely maintains two-member districts, though it does tinker around the edges of existing districts for population reasons. It also had the effect of making life easier for incumbents, Seven Days' Kevin McCallum noted. Expect plenty more rhetoric before all is said and done.VT Supremes order Slate Ridge closed. Also on Friday, the state Supreme Court affirmed an environmental court ruling from last March declaring that Daniel Banyai, owner of the controversial Pawlet, VT firearms training facility, was out of compliance with local zoning ordinances. Banyai had challenged the notice of violation, but the Court ruled that it was valid, and that Banyai "is foreclosed from challenging any of the violations therein.” The town, reports VTDigger, will now "begin the process of enforcement." Among other things, Banyai is now on the hook to dismantle buildings that are out of compliance.Six reasons to keep your skates in your car. On her Happy Vermont blog, Erica Housekeeper surveys six community ice rinks around the state, including Sharon's (it's by the elementary school). She also checks into Rochester, Peru, Greensboro, Proctor, and the rink by the State House in Montpelier. Even better, there are après skate suggestions for each venue.Since Ben Franklin’s kite, scientists have asked: how does lightning actually form? The problem is, lightning formation is extremely difficult to observe. But as Thomas Lewton writes in Quanta magazine, research co-led by UNH physicist Joseph Dwyer leverages advanced radio telescopes to produce, says Dwyer, “the first really clear picture of what’s happening inside the thunderstorm.” From these images emerges a new theory about lightning’s origins—ice particles colliding to ionize the air—that may lead to other answers, like what connects lightning to the ground. Plus: a really cool animation.
Because of the MLK Jr. holiday, case counts weren't reported yesterday. Update tomorrow.
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At 4 pm today, Woodstock's Norman Williams Public Library hosts two novelists online, talking about their works of historical fiction. Melodie Winawer, a physician-scientist and associate professor of neurology at Columbia University, will read from and discuss Anticipation, published in November, about a research scientist vacationing in Greece with her son whose guide, it turns out, was originally born in 1237. Jillian Cantor, who's the author of 11 novels for teens and adults, will talk about her forthcoming (Feb. 1) novel, Beautiful Little Fools, which places the women of The Great Gatsby front and center.
At 4:30 pm, Dartmouth's Dickey Center hosts two US Afghanistan policy veterans for an online discussion, "Making Choices: The US Role in Afghanistan and What Happens Next." Tina Dooley-Jones, an '82 Dartmouth grad, has spent her career in international development, and was director of the USAID mission in Afghanistan. Annie Pforzheimer is a longtime diplomat who served the deputy chief of mission in Kabul, and later as acting deputy assistant secretary of state for Afghanistan. Livestreamed.
At 5 this afternoon, Dartmouth alum, 2021 NYC mayoral candidate, and NBC/MSNBC legal analyst Maya Wiley delivers the Rockefeller Center's MLK Address: "Fixing What We Face: How Racial Justice Can Save Our Democracy." In particular, one of the truths the nation must face, she argues, is that too many people feel rage "in response to the long road to racial justice and a democracy that opens its arms to the changing complexion of a nation built on racism and exclusion." Via Zoom, no registration required.
Let me begin again as a quiet thoughtin the shape of a shell slowly examinedby a brown child on a beach at dawnstraining to see their future. Let me beginthis time knowing the drumming in my dreamsis me inheriting the earth, is morninglighting up the rivers. Let me burnmy vanities: old music in the pines, siftersof scotch, a day moon like a signatureof night.
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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.
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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