GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Cloudy, gusty, highs in the high 50s. Sure took its time to turn nice yesterday... but then, oh gosh! We won't be so lucky today. There's a front headed our way from the west and it'll be here by sometime tonight. Clouds thickening ahead of it, rain tonight, and showers first thing tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow's rain, it could further delay work on River Road in Lyme. The 600-foot stretch of road has been closed to traffic for so long you forgot you could even drive there (okay, actually, since 2015). Work was supposed to wrap up by August, but permitting delays, then early-season snow, then delays due to ledge work.... Anyway, they're crushing ledge now and paving's due to start soon, but now the rain's holding things up. (VN, sub reqd)One tiny town produces another champ. It's not just Olympians and bicycle racers: Norwich can now claim the world record holder in 5-ball lift bounce juggling. That would be Liam Ryan-O'Flaherty, former Circus Smirkus juggler and wire walker, now in college. He just nailed a 56-minute-9-second session in the basement of his college's sports center. Scroll down to "5-ball bounce" at the link, then hit the video link by Liam's name to gain new appreciation for hand-eye coordination — and the stick-to-itiveness of the long-distance juggler."This is a moral moment." If you missed Cory Booker's appearance on Sunday, The Dartmouth was there. Along with about 500 people crammed into the Top of the Hop and the space below.Defense atty wants Gage Young's trial postponed. Young, the 23-year-old Leb man accused of randomly shooting a Massachusetts man in Hanover last fall, was due to face a jury yesterday. But there are several pending motions, and his lawyer now wants to put things off until Nov. 5. The VN's Jordan Cuddemi has the legal ins and outs.D-H to announce rural geriatric emergency partnership. The hospital network is joining forces with West Health, a California-based family of nonprofit orgs focused on seniors' health, to create a "geriatric emergency department" for rural northern New England. The official announcement's tomorrow."The Valley News wants today’s readers to adapt to the Valley News instead of the other way around." That's Watt Alexander, HereCast's CEO, in a post that went up yesterday taking the VN to task for not publishing various letters to the editor he's sent them. "We’re living in a golden age of local news," he writes. "More words, photos, and video about Upper Valley life are available to us today than ever before." A sunny, cool afternoon, a breeze rippling the water, the last colors of autumn across the way... Okay, yeah, I could be there. A pond in Chelsea (unclear whether it's Jones, Keyser or Whitehouse) yesterday afternoon.If you're planning to vote in the NH primary... Friday's the last day you can change your party registration, and NHPR takes the opportunity to give you a primer. It notes that this week’s cutoff isn't for actually registering -- it just "applies to people who are already registered to vote and aren’t planning to move to a new town before the primary." Who knew there was so much to say about party affiliation?Strawberry shortcake in October! New research points way to lengthened growing season for strawberries. Researchers at the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station have found that by varying the types of strawberries they plant and growing them under low tunnels, farmers can double their yield and quadruple the length of the growing season until well into the fall. If you've been to a farmers market in the last few weeks, you know that some locals have already figured this out.VT public access TV stations turn to legislature for help. Facing an FCC rule change that threatens to cut a huge percentage of funding from their budgets, local access channels met with a study group of legislators yesterday, looking for state funding. The change permits cable providers to deduct "in-kind services" from the fee they pay that supports public access stations. Lawmakers were noncommittal. VT now leads New England in childhood obesity, though rate's still below national average. According to data from UVM and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 15.1 percent of 10-to-17-year-olds in the state are obese; the national average is 15.3 percent. NH has a 12.3 percent rate, and ME is at 14.9 percent. VTDigger's Erin Petenko says Vermonters spend $4,694 per person each year on food prepared at home, the highest amount in the country, and spend more on eating out than the rest of the nation.Almost half of Vermonters in survey would tell an 18-year-old to leave state for opportunity. Remember that VPR/VPT survey in yesterday's Daybreak? Well, the full survey finally appeared. Lots of interesting stuff in there. A full 91 percent say their communities are somewhat or very safe from crime, 40 percent would struggle to pay an unexpected $1,000 expense, 63 percent use the internet for work... You know you've always wanted to do this. A former selectboard member in Essex, VT, protested a proposed governmental merger between Essex Junction and the greater town of Essex with a full-throated version of Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath" at a recent meeting. Complete with instrumentals in the background. Video at the link, but the best part? The minutes. "Her rendition mentioned the municipality’s history, process, surveys, and feedback provided about the proposed merger. She sang about her hopes that the process slows down and focus on what is most important."
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SO... TONIGHT?
The company's Youth Ensemble Studio, under Eric Love's direction, put together a set of stories from various WRJ business owners and turned them into a play with music -- "painting a portrait of a small New England town experiencing a renaissance," as Northern Stage says. At 4:30.
Mozart's score transposed for trumpet and an orchestra of marimbas, melded with a Tsonga folktale about a magic flute. The Cape Town ensemble's "exuberant fusion of 18th-century European and 21st-century African storytelling, music and rhythm" (
Washington Post
) won an Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival in London a decade ago. In Spaulding tonight and tomorrow at 7:30.
The film is a collaboration between the marine science and film divisions at Rutgers, and it chronicles a team of scientists' efforts to understand the effects of glacial melt and rising seas on a colony of Adélie penguins. It's "a moving portrait of individuals who devote their lives to understanding the environmental shifts," the
LA Times
wrote. 6 pm at Woodstock Town Hall.
"Vermont's coyotes now occupy a role as natural predators in our ecosystem," the agency's chief says. "We want to help people understand them from an objective, scientific perspective, and we want to help people learn how to live with them because they are here to stay." With Kimberly Royar, who leads VT's Furbearer Project, and wildlife ecologist David Person. 7 at the Weathersfield Center Meetinghouse.
AliT's at Windsor Station, it's Karaoke night at the Skinny P in Hanover, and Upper Pass has, um, Kind Bud. Plus listings for the rest of the week.
Corey Burchman, who teaches anesthesiology and pain medicine at Geisel and is the chief medical officer at cannabis grower Acreage Holdings, is teaching a one-evening class on "navigating the hype" around CBD. "Participants will learn how to use CBD effectively, based on research, for health purposes." At River Valley Community College in Leb, 6-8.
Okay, let's dive into the day now. See you tomorrow.
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