GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Back to mostly dry weather. And some sun, hopefully. We've got high pressure building back in today, though we'll be on the cool side of things and the cloud cover will keep temps from getting too exuberant. Mid-40s today, winds from the northwest, down to around freezing tonight. There's also a slight chance of rain overnight, with maybe a touch of snow.You'd think it was Edward Hopper. But no. The other day, Janice Fischel was walking along the rail trail in Enfield and got this perfectly framed photo of a small piece of the old Baltic Woolen Mill and its reflection at the point where the mill dam bisects the river. The mill's heyday was in the early decades of the last century. Here's a postcard from that era. Ahem. Ignore this if you already know that on Tuesdays there's poetry down at the bottom of Daybreak and the rest of the week there's music. But if you've never scrolled down that far (and knock me for a loop, apparently some of you haven't), there's stuff to keep you occupied. The poems are chosen by my friend Michael Lipson. The music's chosen by me, though fairly often there's a suggestion from a reader. Here's hoping you like it enough to check out from time to time.Three Randolph schools go remote; FitKids staff case. With two positive cases and a shortage of substitutes to fill in for staff required to quarantine, Randolph Union HS, the Randolph Tech Center, and Braintree Elementary have moved to fully remote instruction at least through tomorrow. The schools had been operating on a hybrid model. In addition, the Valley News reports, a staffer at FitKids Childcare at the River Valley Club has tested positive, and the children in the affected classroom are quarantining for two weeks."Her presence is so overwhelming that I have to convince [my players] that she’s still just a girl.” That's Hanover High girls' soccer coach Doug Kenney talking about Sally Rainey, the Lebanon High goalie who's become a legend in local soccer circles. On his Octopus Athletics blog, Tris Wykes profiles Rainey: vocal, fierce, "relentlessly cheerful," and possessing steel nerves. "She would be the one who didn’t know how to swim, but still jumped in the pool or rode her bike down a steep hill,” says her mom. Rainey, whose father coaches Dartmouth's women's soccer team, heads to UNH next year. All I can say is, Scott Nichols was one lucky guy. Last week he got a photo of a bobcat peering at him from the woods in Lyme, which he sent along to Elise Tillinghast for her weekly "This Week in the Woods" feature. For that matter, Elise was pretty lucky, too: She got to spend time with a little saw-whet owl—they're migrating right now. Also out there: downy rattlesnake plantain, golden saxifrage, jays, sparrows, flocks of bluebirds, and the fantastically named Virginia ctenucha moth caterpillar.Graduates of the School of Avian Bewilderment. That's how writer and naturalist Ted Levin describes the robins, bluebirds, and kingfishers who flush repeatedly in front of him, leading him on...and away. Mostly, though, he writes with great fondness of the three books that as a child set him on his course: Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher's Wild America, Carl Kauffeld's Snakes and Snake Hunting, and above all Donald Culross Peattie's A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America, which "imbued trees with personality."Speaking of trees, the drought will probably slow them down. Heidi Asbjornsen, a natural resources prof at UNH, says that the combination of the drought and the mast year that both red oak and white pine are experiencing puts them at risk of depleting the carbohydrate reserves they need to tolerate stressful conditions. In a release from the NH Agricultural Experiment Station, she says it's likely they'll grow more slowly next year, and may be more susceptible to pathogens and disease—and that "with repeated severe droughts, it is possible that we will start to see mortality in these species."What the heck is a "Laurie issue?" That's what Nancy West—then a reporter at the Union Leader, now at InDepthNH—wanted to know when she ran across the term. As NHPR's Jason Moon reports in the first installment of an in-depth story on police accountability in NH, it was a secret list kept by government lawyers: police officers who "somewhere, sometime" got a black mark against them and whose credibility could be questioned in a trial. As Moon says, "If the question on the minds of many people is 'can I trust the cops?' these lists would be a good place to start looking for answers." Only you can't.NHPR launches long-form journalism unit. As it happens, that "Laurie" piece is the first effort by Document, a new NHPR initiative to tell "New Hampshire's most important stories," in the words of CEO Jim Schachter, using multi-part, multi-platform, narrative-driven content—a podcast on steroids. In fact, it's led by Moon, who hosted the viral Bear Brook podcast, and Lauren Chooljian, co-host of the Stranglehold podcast about the NH primary. "The List" looks at the effects of secrecy around police misconduct. The next project will likely tell the story of one guy's struggle to get his life back on track after prison."The Bill and Ted of the presidential set." Those would be the mannequins outside the outhouse at Chris Owens' vegetable stand in Holderness. One's Joe, the other's Donald—the resemblance is passing—and inside the outhouse are two seats, one for each candidate, into which visitors and customers can drop their (fake) ballots. It's all in good fun, but even so, "We've had several fights here," Owens tells NHPR's Sean Hurley. "We've lost a couple customers.”A way to track the VT absentee vote. As of last Friday, 190,000 voters in the state had already cast their ballots, far surpassing the 91K mail-ins cast in 2016. Now, the Community News Service—a student-run UVM journalism effort—has put together a tracker for keeping tabs on the percentage of absentees returned in each town. It's updated regularly. Looks like Norwich leads the region, with 61 percent of the ballots returned; Thetford, Strafford, Royalton, and Pomfret are all at about 52 percent. Itching to get up to Montreal? Sorry about that. Officially, the border closure's been extended to Nov. 21. But VPR's Henry Epp talked yesterday with Jeffrey Ayres, who specializes in Canadian politics at St. Mike's; Ayres says things may stay shut down to non-essential travel until next summer. "There's no way Canadians are going to open the border to the United States without...some sort of sense of confidence that we've really gotten the pandemic under control, which we clearly haven't," he says.Randolph's not the only school system struggling with staff shortages. In one district, reports VTDigger's Lola Duffort, one superintendent nearly cancelled bus routes when two health screeners unexpectedly had to stay home. In others, school board members are getting waivers from the state education agency so they can step in. In the Champlain Valley region, over 100 positions are unfilled. Administrators, Duffort writes, are "struggling to maintain operations, even as they’re attempting to bring kids back for more face-to-face instruction."And people aren't the only creatures adapting to shortages. VT Fish & Wildlife reports that beechnut counts are abnormally low this year, following a bumper crop in 2019. Wild apples and berries are also low, and wild turkeys, deer, bear, and grouse are feeding more in oak stands this fall, where acorns are plentiful."I thought (kite-flying) was for sissies." Eventually, Ray Bethell came to think differently, and by the time he died at age 90 he'd figured out how to fly three kites simultaneously (one tied to his waist), performed in front of enormous crowds, and won countless ribbons and awards for both artistic and endurance kite-flying. He lost his hearing in his 60s. "The rest of the world is in silence,” he said later, “so I put my whole heart and soul into my kite-flying … completely at peace with myself and the whole world.” Video is of him and his three kites in Vancouver, to the "Flower Duet" from Léo Delibes' opera Lakmé.
Let's see...
NH reported 77 new positive test results yesterday, bringing its official total to 10,397. There were 2 new deaths, which are now at 475. The state's current caseload is at 1,002 (down 30), including 23 in Grafton County (down 3), 10 in Sullivan (down 1), and 166 in Merrimack (down 5). Hanover has 5 active cases (down 2), and Lyme is back in the 1-4 category, as are Lebanon, Plainfield, Grantham, Orange, Springfield, New London, Newbury, and, once again, Claremont and Charlestown.
VT reported 9 new cases yesterday, bringing its official total to 2,083, with 284 of those still active (up 2). Deaths remain at 58 total; 3 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized. Windsor County remains at 119 for the pandemic, with 14 in the past 14 days. Orange County gained 1 to stand at 33 cumulative cases, 7 of them reported in the past 14 days.
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Just a heads up that on Thursday, Granite United Way and Hypertherm are partnering to give out free food boxes to those in need. Each box will include 12 pounds of produce, 5 pounds each of meat and dairy, and a gallon of 2% milk. You can sign up ahead of time for slots between 11 am and 1 pm, or just show up between 1 and 2 pm, first come first served. The event will be at the Hypertherm building on Old Etna Road in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, today you could have lunch with John Grisham, albeit virtually. He'll be hosted at noon by Gibson's in Concord, talking about his new novel, A Time for Mercy, as well as about writing in general.
And at 12:15, Dartmouth's Irving Institute is hosting UC Santa Barbara's Leah Stokes talking about the clean-energy battles among interest groups at the state level, the political history of energy institutions, and how various well-heeled interests have been able to delay clean-energy advances in various states. You'll need to register.
If you're interested in food in the Kearsarge region, at 6:30 pm Vital Communities, Land for Good, and the Kearsarge Food Hub are bringing together farmers and others to talk about the nuts and bolts of increasing productive farmland and how to boost resilience through local food security.
And if you're interested in Dwight Eisenhower, at 7 pm his granddaughter Susan will be on the Portsmouth Music Hall's virtual "Writers on a New England Stage" talking about her book, How Ike Led. "He tried to be the calmest man in the room, not the loudest," run the promo notes. "So instead of seeking to fulfill his personal desires and political needs, he pursued a course he called the 'Middle Way' that tried to make winners on both sides of a situation."
Finally, at 8 pm, the Hop offers an evening with soprano and opera star Nicole Heaston, who is one of its resident artists this year. Heaston is most closely associated with the Houston Grand Opera, but has appeared regularly with the Met and elsewhere. She'll be showing excerpts from her performances and her popular Purple Robe Song Series and talking over her career with DSO director Filippo Ciabatti. Free, but tix required.
Inside me is a black-eyed animalBracing in a small stall. As if a birdCould grow without breaking its shell.As if the clatter of a thousand blackBirds whipping in a storm could be heldIn a shell.
— From "Inside me is a black-eyed animal" by Terrance HayesSee you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Banner by Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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