GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Cooler, mix of sun and clouds. Last night's system may linger for a bit, but any rain and/or snow will end this morning. Clouds will scatter over the course of the day as high pressure builds in, though temps will only reach the low or mid 40s. Winds from the northwest, mid-20s tonight.It's only partly cloudy tonight, so this is your chance... In a rare alignment, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus will all be visible in an arc in tonight's sky (and for a few nights more, though maybe not as visibly). You may be able to see all of them except Uranus unaided, though Mercury and Jupiter will be close to the horizon, so binoculars help. As UCLA astronomer Rory Bentley tells Popular Science, "You get to see pretty much the whole solar system in one night.” If you miss it, there's another chance coming up in 2040.What the melting snow leaves behind. Or, to be more accurate, uncovers. Jay Cary writes: "This deer skeleton was 60 feet from Rte. 10 in Lyme, probably mortally injured by a vehicle and subsequently picked clean by the local scavengers, like crows and coyotes."Dartmouth Coach bus strikes, kills man at Logan Airport. "A preliminary investigation shows the victim was at the airport to pick up a friend and was standing on the driver's side of his SUV when the bus hit him and dragged him along the side of his car," WHDH TV's Rob Way reported this morning. The incident happened yesterday at about 5 pm. “Our deepest sympathies are with everyone impacted by this evening’s incident at Logan Airport," Dartmouth Coach said in a statement. “We’re working in conjunction with the Massachusetts State Police and Massport to gather further information.”In old W. Leb, residents and businesses like city's plan to buy Main St. properties, pan idea for new firehouse there. You may remember that the city's spending $1.8 million to take over three parcels, roughly across from Shyrl's Diner. The move was spurred in part by the need for a new fire station, reports Patrick Adrian in the Valley News; its current station, a block north, is too small and lacks isolated space for firefighters to decontaminate clothing and equipment. But at a recent public meeting, Adrian writes, residents argued that what Main St. needs most is economic development, and a station won't help.As closing of Lyme-Thetford bridge approaches, neighbors figure out how to deal. No one's happy, WCAX's Adam Sullivan reports: the 18-month closure means people hoping to cross the river between Lyme and Theford will either have to head 8 miles north to Fairlee/Orford or 11 miles south to Norwich/Hanover (where repairs are also planned on the Ledyard Bridge). Even so, they're adjusting. Cedar Circle Farm will run CSA deliveries to the NH side; Thetford Academy will continue to provide transportation to Lyme kids. No firm date for the closure has been set yet; it's planned for April or May.SPONSORED: Free Organ Recital in Hanover on Sunday! On Sunday, April 2 at 4 pm, the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College presents Polish concert organist Marek Kudlicki as part of its Ives Concert Series. One of the few organists to earn a living almost exclusively from appearing in concerts, Mr. Kudlicki has performed on every continent, achieving great acclaim. His program will include works by Bach, Brahms, Jan of Lublin, and Polish composers Felix Borowski, Feliks Nowowiejski, and Mieczysław Surzyński. Sponsored by The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College.Where the "idly curious" can go look over a first edition of Pride and Prejudice or Hobbes's Leviathan. Or a Shakespeare first folio, or a postcard given to Robert Frost by Ezra Pound with directions to William Yeats's house. Or, as Jay Satterfield, head of special collections at Dartmouth's Rauner Library, tells Susan Apel for Artful, "about 1,000 other things." Susan got in touch with him to ask about the library-world debate over using gloves when handling old books and manuscripts, and they got to talking about the treasures in the Rauner's collection. As for gloves? Old books are "remarkably sturdy."At heart of Lake Tarleton logging debate: how best to handle NH forests. You may recall that the US Forest Service said last week that it's planning to go ahead with logging 690 acres around two lakes in Piermont and Warren. In the Monitor, David Brooks looks at the arguments on both sides. The Forest Service contends that logging will improve the health of the forest; that, as Brooks writes, "it can’t thrive without active management," which the district ranger tells him can target species for help and create "a diverse landscape." Locals argue that leaving the forest alone is what would help it thrive.SPONSORED: Oak Hill Outdoor Center is looking for a General Manager. Any recommendations? Friends of Oak Hill, a new Upper Valley community non-profit, will be taking over operations of the cross-country ski area in Hanover next season and making substantial investment and improvements. We're looking for an experienced General Manager to lead operations. This could potentially be a year-round, full-time position or ebb and flow with the seasons. Interested? Know someone who might be? Hit the burgundy link or click here to learn more. Sponsored by Friends of Oak Hill.It's prime time for observing waterfowl. Ducks are returning or passing through in late March and April, Mary Holland writes on Naturally Curious, and she's got some pointers for how to tell "divers" (the ones that dive for their food) from "dabblers" (whose tails you'll sometimes see sticking out of the water). For one thing, divers look more compact (they squeeze the air out of their feathers so they can chase prey more quickly); dabblers tend to have larger wings and can take off from the water more easily.The Boston Globe makes a play for NH readers. As you may have noticed, the Globe's had two reporters covering the Granite State: former NH Bulletin (and VTDigger) writer Amanda Gokee and former USA Today editor Steven Porter. Yesterday, Globe editor Lylah Alphonse, who also runs the paper's RI coverage, formally introduced them (no paywall). "As other news outlets shrink and the media landscape continues to evolve," she writes, the Globe is expanding coverage. An NH-focused newsletter is coming soon. The Globe's exploring gift links, Alphonse says in an email, but in the meantime, you can check it out for a month online for free, no credit card needed.Sununu's plan to overhaul licensing in NH is facing tough times in the legislature. The governor wants to eliminate 34 licenses, including for foresters, licensed nursing assistants, radiologists, and court reporters. But, writes Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin, lawmakers of both parties "are moving to reject" almost all of his planned changes. In part, that's because groups representing the affected professions have been hammering legislators. In part it's because even lawmakers who support the idea say they weren't given enough time to vet the 100 pages of sweeping proposals.Hey, Upper Valley women who own VT businesses: The VT Women's Fund wants to count you. There's not much data on women-owned businesses in the state, so the fund has set out to correct that. So far, 2,850 business owners have taken their survey (at the burgundy link), and they've collected all sorts of interesting information. In a report Friday to a state Senate committee, the fund pointed out that there was a jump in women-owned businesses in 2020 and 2021 (almost certainly pandemic-related), and altogether, the nearly 3,000 businesses in the survey so far contributed $2.25 billion to the state's economy.Fingerprint-processing delays are keeping new hires at child care centers from fully engaging. Until their background checks are completed, they can work but they can't be left alone with children—and as Amy Brooks, who runs the Upper Valley-focused Early Care & Education Association, tells VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein, "Somebody will need to use the restroom sooner or later." So centers are struggling to field the staff they need to meet demand. The delays, Weinstein report, stem in part from new regs requiring background checks for nurses, which has flooded the state agency that processes fingerprints.Why should Joe's Pond get all the fun? Well, it is the granddaddy of ice-out wagers, ever since 1987, when Jules Chatot jury-rigged a cinder block and an alarm clock to record when the block fell through the ice on the Northeast Kingdom pond. There are others out there as well, writes Kate O'Farrell in VTDigger. And now, Vermont's Department of Environmental Conservation is asking people to report ice-out dates—officially, the day a lake or pond is ice-free from shore to shore. They want the info to help track climate change. Which is pretty visible in the Joe's Pond chart of dates.That's a lot of pop culture pouring out of a speck in the upper right corner of the map. A while ago, Windsor's Sara Morin was thinking about the worldwide appeal of Noah Kahan's "Stick Season" and got to wondering what else has put VT on the cultural map. So Brave Little State's Myra Flynn sat down with VT Public's Jane Lindholm, former Burton Snowboards guy Luis Calderin, and Seven Days' Dan Bolles. They talk maple syrup, films, Phish, cheese, Bernie, Hadestown—and, if you've got time to listen, marriage equality, Luis Guzmán, Galway Kinnell, Grace Potter, Grace Paley, Ed Koren, and more.From swimming pools to the Amazon: Winners of the 2023 underwater photography competition. Atlas Obscura chooses some favorites from the competition and praises the photographers’ tenacity in bringing their images to the world. They contend with frigid waters, heavy equipment, and venomous creatures. The work also demands patience—it took more than 30 night dives to catch a pair of coconut octopuses in the act. Have fun scrolling through the complete gallery of winners, as well as video interviews with photographers.The Tuesday Vordle. With a timely word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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At 6 this evening, Here in the Valley's band takes over the stage at Sawtooth Kitchen in Hanover for its every fourth Tuesday Live Band Karaoke. As HitV's Jakob Breitbach writes, "From Disney to Dolly, 'Purple Rain' to 'Brown Eyed Girl, choose from decades of tunes and try, just try to stump the band. The house band has hundreds of songs to choose from. Lyrics displayed on a large TV monitor on stage."
And at 7 pm, the Thetford Arthouse Cinema continues its twice-weekly run in the Martha Rich Theater at Thetford Academy with Orson Welles' 1958 noir thriller, Touch of Evil. Welles is a corrupt police chief in a small town on the US side of the Mexican border; Charlton Heston is a Mexican drug cop who's just married Janet Leigh, and, well, things get tangled. Also, Marlene Dietrich, who tells Welles' character, "Your future is all used up." He never directed a Hollywood film again.
And the Tuesday poem...
In my medicine cabinet, the winter flyhas died of old age.
— "In my medicine cabinet" by
, from his collection,
The Book of Haiku
.
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.
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