GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Before we start, a huge thank you! A couple of weeks ago, I made one of just a few requests for contributions that occur each year. You don’t ever need to pay to get Daybreak, so it depends on how generous your fellow readers are feeling. I’m deeply grateful to those of you who signed up for monthly contributions or sent along one-time support, a good number for the first time. It was a heartening boost—and a reminder that Daybreak rests on the shoulders of people who care about the Upper Valley, Vermont, and New Hampshire. You are a model of what's possible. And if you didn't contribute then but want to now, here’s the link.
Oh, also! I’m looking for your thoughts on the Upper Valley nonprofits you care about most. Four weeks from today, on Dec. 2, it’ll be Giving Tuesday. You can be a tad dubious of creating a single day to support organizations that depend on donations while still recognizing how important end-of-year giving is to their work. So on that day, Daybreak will run a crowd-sourced guide—nothing encyclopedic, just a quick selection of local nonprofits readers value, and why. At the burgundy link, you’ll find a form to pass along your thoughts. It’s fine to write about the big players, but the little, less-noticed ones would be especially valuable. Thank you for weighing in!
Now, then…
Mostly sunny, but gusty and cooler. The front that came through yesterday ushered in cooler air, with winds today from the northwest and gusts in the 30 and 40 mph range. Temps won’t get much above 50 today, but skies will be blue. Clear tonight, lows around or below freezing.
The Fairlee Palisades at night. As you know, crews for VTrans have been working for months on stabilizing them so that boulders don’t bounce down onto I-91, and the other night, Pril Dorman Hall caught the night-work scene from across the river in Orford.
“We need to know what we have to appreciate what’s missing.” Henry’s out in DB Johnson’s Lost Woods this week, jotting down what he finds before it disappears—much to Wally’s confusion when it comes to weeds. Which Henry saves in his hat.
How the Upper Valley landed on the feds’ “wild porcine infestation” map. Or, put another way, wild boar. Sightings around the region are fewer and farther between these days, writes Steve Taylor in the Valley News, but there was a time when they were more common, thanks to not one, but two mass escapes from the Croydon animal preserve known as Corbin’s Park. Turns out though, that the NH AG’s office says you need the park’s permission to shoot them outside its property—which “provokes lusty guffaws from the Upper Valley’s community of riflemen, who have been shooting the critters unimpeded for more than three generations,” Taylor writes.
SPONSORED: Help someone who needs a hand right now! Based in the Upper Valley, Hearts You Hold supports immigrants, migrants, and refugees across the US by asking them what they need. These include an Afghan refugee in Burlington who needs a pressure cooker and a refugee in Atlanta whose young husband just died and who can’t even come close to funding funeral expenses. Everywhere, there are immigrants who need boots and jackets and help with the basics, from shampoo to clothing to school supplies. At the burgundy link or here, you'll find people to help all over the country and from all over the world. Sponsored by Hearts You Hold.
NH announces mobile food pantry, food box sites for SNAP recipients. The state and the NH Food Bank will be distributing food to SNAP recipients starting tomorrow at a range of sites, including at mobile pantries on Tenney Mountain Road in Plymouth, the Walmart in Woodsville, and Runnings in Claremont, with food boxes being distributed at the Claremont Food Pantry and the LISTEN Food Pantry in Lebanon. “Individuals must verify that they participate in the SNAP program by showing their EBT card or a notice from DHHS confirming their SNAP participation,” the state says. Days, hours at the link.
And here’s Daybreak’s page of information about food pantries and other efforts in both Vermont and New Hampshire, in case you missed it yesterday. An updated list of pantries with links and contact info across the region from Willing Hands, links to both LISTEN and the Haven, and where to give if you’re of a mind to donate.
Dartmouth study finds elevated kidney cancer rates in Merrimack, NH. It’s the third in a series of studies focused on the town, where PFAS chemicals from a Saint Gobain manufacturing facility there contaminated groundwater. Looking at 27 years of cancer data, reports NHPR’s Mara Hoplamazian, researchers found the rate of kidney cancer in town is 38 percent higher than in the rest of NH. It looked possible causes and came to no conclusions—except that another study is needed. The higher kidney cancer rate, says Dartmouth epidemiologist Megan Romano, “seems to suggest that there is something going on there that is worth unpacking and trying to understand.”
In much of VT, there’s plenty of food out there for wildlife this fall. Every autumn, biologists with Vermont Fish and Wildlife take the measure of oak and beech stands, looking at acorn and beechnut production, and on Friday, the department reported “excellent” beechnut crops except in the Northeast Kingdom, and acorn crops that range from low to “bumper.” “In areas where acorns or beechnuts are not abundant, many of Vermont’s wildlife species will be on the move looking for alternative food options before winter, and some bears will enter winter dens early,” they write.
Another rescue, another teaching opportunity. This time, in Vermont. On Sunday evening after dark, Stowe Mountain Rescue was called out to find two young men who’d summited Mt. Mansfield after setting out late in the day—wearing cotton hoodies and sweatpants, without four-season boots or spikes, and lacking headlamps. As the team writes on its Facebook page, “there’s nothing colder than saturated cotton, which will literally freeze solid and provide zero insulation,” there were up to 8 inches snow on the trail, and “getting darked out on a mountain in winter conditions is no joke.” Interesting debate in the comments on SMR’s shame-free approach to writeups.
Really? VT has a law that says apple pie needs be served with cheddar? And the state actually tried to adopt Nantucket? Month in and month out, Vermont Public’s Brave Little State brings us its sometimes serious, often entertaining investigations into listeners’ questions. This time around, though, it’s BLS’s 200th episode. So the team—Josh Crane, Burgess Brown, Sabine Poux, and Camila Van Order González—set out to answer 20 questions in a single episode. There’s background on everything from Nantucket’s (and Martha’s Vineyard’s) bid to secede from MA (NH also extended a hand) to VT’s love for Subarus to how meteorologist Lawrence Hayes came up with his distinctive “eeeye on the skyyy…” signoff. It’s an epic episode!
“You're either a Parallel Parking Wu-Tang Master… or you're a member of the Curb Kisser Club. There’s no in-between.” Car and Driver’s Christi VanSyckle believed that the “spatial awareness passed down from my ancestors” would give her an edge in this year’s Pittsburgh Parallel Parking Championship. (Disqualifiers: touching the curb or the cars parked in front and back.) Dan Leber, who dreamed up the challenge, has managed to transform a frustrating chore into a joyous gathering that “felt more like a party than a test drive,” writes VanSyckle. Her strategy? “Speed over precision.” You can see how that worked out in the good-natured competition.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
THERE'S SOME GREAT DAYBREAK SWAG! Like Daybreak tote bags, sweatshirts, head-warming beanies, t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
HEADS UP
The Hanover Garden Club presents “To Know Our Trees: A Vital Responsibility for Today and the Future”. W. John Kress, curator emeritus at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and a former visiting scholar at Dartmouth, spent five years writing his 2024 book, Smithsonian Trees of North America. He’s got a lot of thoughts on the relationship between humans and trees, and will lay them out at the Montshire today at 1 pm, as well as online via Zoom.
“Digital Decluttering” at the Howe Library. Dartmouth records archivist Vi Welker will talk over digital storage, what to keep, what to delete, and all the various ins and outs of online records-keeping. 6:30 pm in the Mayer Room and online.
At the Chelsea Library, “Aging Gracefully and Prevention of Injuries”. Long-distance runner and former Gifford Medical Center podiatrist Robert Rinaldi, who’s treated injuries in young athletes and in the elderly, will talk over human anatomy and physiology, injury prevention, and treatments. 7 pm.
And the Tuesday poem...
I heard the old, old men say,
“Everything alters,
And one by one we drop away.”
They had hands like claws, and their knees
Were twisted like the old thorn-trees
By the waters.
I heard the old, old men say,
“All that’s beautiful drifts away
Like the waters.”
— “The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water”, by William Butler Yeats.
See you tomorrow.
Looking for all of the hikes, Enthusiasms, daybreak photos, or music that Daybreak has published over the years? Go here!
And always, if you’re not a subscriber yet:
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 on Daybreak’s homepage.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to visit daybreak.news to sign up.
Thank you!