GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Got a moment? It's been a while since I did this, so this seems a good time to mention the maroon "Yes, I count on Daybreak" button down below. It's pretty simple: Daybreak depends on your contributions to keep going. If you find your day or week doesn't feel quite right without it and you'd like to see it continue and grow, hit the link at the start of this item or the button below and check out the options. There are plenty. And if you can't afford to contribute, please don't fret: It's a pleasure to have you as a reader. Now, on to...Getting sunnier, a bit warmer. Today's the day things start to warm up for the rest of the week, but you wouldn't want to call it warm warm. Temps will probably top out just below freezing and we'll still see decent winds from the northwest, but clouds will diminish as the day goes on. Lower teens tonight.Patterns in wood...
Inside Thetford's Sayre Bridge in sunlight, from Sally Duston
And at Kedron Sugar Makers in S. Woodstock, from Amanda DeRoy.
"No one wanted to work. We regularly had one to three people missing from four- to five-person shifts." That's Alejandro Morales, one of the Dartmouth undergrad organizers of student dining workers' effort to unionize, talking about conditions over the fall and winter. The election is on Thursday, and in Jacobin magazine, Leena Yumeen talks with Morales and four of his colleagues about what motivated them to organize, how they went about it, why the labor shortage in the Upper Valley helps them, the administration's response, and what they plan to demand should the union vote pass.Northern Stage expands up Gates Street. The theater company yesterday announced that it's completed the purchase of 160 Gates Street, the lot where the Parker Agency stood before it was torn down last month. It plans to build a "housing development" for staff and visiting artists there—and maybe additional rehearsal and lab studio space. The new housing will free up 14 other WRJ apartments the theater rents, "thereby giving back to the community affordable rentals so desperately needed in the area," its press release says.SPONSORED: Do you know where your photos are? Are they on old phones, computers, or hard drives? Deteriorating in boxes crammed in your attic? Your photos (and slides, videos, etc.) hold some of your most precious memories, but they are practically inaccessible to you...or anyone else! Luminta’s expert designers and meticulous photo managers can help. Based in Lebanon, our services include: photo organization/preservation, scanning and digitization, photobook design/creation, and more. Hit the link above for details, email [email protected], or call 1.833.LUMINTA. Sponsored by Luminta.Parents scramble as Leb, Plainfield, New London after-school programs to close. "It’s a small sample of the bigger picture in the Upper Valley,” West Leb's Colin Parker tells the Valley News's Rose Terami, talking about the decision by YMCA Camp Coniston to shutter the after-school care it provides at elementary schools in the three towns. The program has struggled with high staff turnover and lost several site coordinators during Covid. “The truth is it’s hard to find somebody to work three hours a day,” Coniston director John Tilley says. Coniston's summer camp isn't affected.As much a community celebration as a showcase for circus skills. For the first time in two years, The Sharon Academy middle school was able to return to its annual March tradition of a circus residency by Circus Smirkus' Troy Wunderle and the stilt-walking, diablo-slinging, juggling, tumbling, and clowning show that results. Sharon's Dave Celone was there, and on his Upper Valley VT/NH Musings blog he writes about the show and the packed house that attended—"a community celebration of seeing friends and family gathered in one place" after two years of absence, he writes.Four and a half years of talk: Windsor prison's future still up in the air. The Southeast State Correctional Facility closed in 2017, and a report last year found that VT's spending more every few years to keep the water running and maintain the grounds than the property's worth. VPR's Mitch Wertlieb and Howard Weiss-Tisman talk over the issues: Townspeople are adamant they don't want a new human-services facility of any sort, and the state's just starting to look at what it would cost to take down derelict buildings and razor wire...Spot a rabbit? NH wants to know. Or, at least, NH Rabbit Reports does. It's a joint program run by UNH Cooperative Extension and NH Fish & Game to gather citizen-fed data and build a better picture of the distribution of rabbit populations in the state. New Hampshire has two species of rabbits, the eastern cottontail and the New England cottontail, and one species of hare, the snowshoe hare. You don't need to know the difference to file a report—though if you're quick on the camera shutter, that could be helpful.Most of NH's "education freedom account" participants are not leaving public schools. Of the 1,800 students enrolled in the state's program to devote state funds to private schools or homeschooling expenses, just 204 had gone to a public school the year before, reports NH Bulletin's Ethan DeWitt. Democrats have criticized the program for its potential expense, but the results so far, writes DeWitt, "have allayed one concern: that the program would result in a flow of students leaving school districts." Most participants were already being homeschooled or in private school.Federal appeals court sides with NH House Speaker on remote participation. The 3-2 decision from the First Circuit Court of Appeals, issued Friday, reversed a lower court ruling that backed Democrats challenging Speaker Sherm Packard's decision not to allow remote participation. The judges sidestepped the question of how the legislature should conduct proceedings during a pandemic, and instead argued that an early decision siding with Packard in arguing that he had legislative immunity was legit. Dems have limited options now, writes Annmarie Timmins in NH Bulletin.Like hiking Franconia Notch? You can thank the NH Federation of Women's Clubs. In Governing magazine, Emma Newcombe writes about the 1920s campaign organized by the Society for the Protection of NH Forests to buy land in the Notch after its owners sought to sell it to timber companies. It turned to the federation, dedicated to preserving "God’s gift of exceeding beauty to our hills and valleys,” for fundraising help. After a national effort, the groups reached their $100K goal, and in 1928, the Notch became a state park.Ummm... So there's this 14-year-old kid in Las Vegas who was bitten by the politics bug after watching Elizabeth Warren campaign a few years ago. He's ineligible to run for governor of Nevada because of his age, but he discovered that Vermont has no age limit for governor. Nor, according to KVVU Las Vegas, does it have a residency requirement if you're running as a write-in. “He didn’t really ask,” says his mom. “He just told me. He said there are no age limits, so I said ‘Buddy, go for it.’” No response yet from the VT Secy of State's office on the legalities.“There’s nothing like pure [checks label] New Mexico maple syrup?” It’s that time of year again: though we ache for spring, we hold our breath for one last healthy stretch of cold nights and mild days—hoping for a decent maple yield. But with climate change, VT syrup production is increasingly uneven. To help offset down years, writes Jennifer Kingson in Axios, sugaring is cropping up in some unlikely regions, like Montana and the Southwest. Don’t be surprised someday to find spicy variations on the classic dark amber. After all, says a producer in New Mexico, “We’re known for our chiles.”"Always swim. You'll never regret it." It's the end of March, which means that there are already hordes of AT thru-hikers heading our way from Georgia and more getting ready to start out. A bunch of them are newbies, and in Outside Online, Grayson Haver Currin has 10 pieces of advice for anyone who's never done this—or any other—thru-hike before. Including: how to get creative with a buff; rely on audiobooks; don't make snap judgments about other hikers; look around you; and calculate your water to the last mouthful.Meet Britain’s other “queen”: a forensic scientist with the right DNA. Angela Gallop, 72, isn’t who you’d picture. As the Guardian’s Imogene West-Knights writes in her profile of Gallop’s impressive career, she is neither the “oddball in a white lab coat” nor the shadier “leather-jacketed pseudocop.” Gallop’s nails always match the earrings, and she drives a Tesla. Her atypical profile belies an extraordinary knack for solving some of the UK’s coldest cases over the last 40 years. Through meticulous investigative work, down to tiny clothing fibers left at a crime scene, Gallop has led a transformation of the profession. Oh, um, some details might not go well with breakfast.
And the numbers...
With undergrads back, Dartmouth case numbers continue to rise, with 79 active cases reported yesterday (compared to 58-61 on Thursday). The college's dashboard reports 15 undergrad cases, 55 among grad and professional students (+9), and 9 among faculty/staff (-2).
NH cases are holding steady, with a 7-day average now of 126 new cases per day, compared to 127 on Thursday. The state reported 98 new cases on Friday, 146 Saturday, 118 Sunday, and 76 yesterday, bringing it to 302,181 in all. There were 2 deaths reported during that time; the total now stands at 2,447. Hospitalizations are up slightly: 26 people are currently hospitalized (+2). The state reports 1,020 active cases statewide (-50), 123 of them in Grafton County (-15 since Thursday), 31 in Sullivan (-10), and 86 in Merrimack (+6). In town-by-town numbers, the state says Hanover has 57 (+5), Lebanon has 24 (+1), Claremont has 11 (-3), New London has 8 (+3), Haverhill has 5 (-9), Charlestown has 5 (-3), and Piermont, Warren, Rumney, Lyme, Enfield, Plainfield, Grantham, Springfield, Cornish, Sunapee, Newport, Unity, and Newbury have 1-4 each. Canaan is off the list.
VT's basically holding steady, reporting 161 cases Friday, 143 Saturday, 104 Sunday, and 56 yesterday, bringing it to 116,157 total and down to a 7-day daily average of 131, compared to 133 Friday. There were no deaths during that time; they remain at 615 all told. Hospitalizations have dropped a bit: As of yesterday, 13 people with confirmed cases were hospitalized (-3), with 2 of them (-1) in the ICU. Windsor County has seen 51 cases since Thursday and 221 over the past two weeks, for 8,690 overall, while Orange County added 11 cases (63 in the past two weeks) to reach 4,894 overall.
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At 4 pm today, Woodstock's Norman Williams Public Library hosts an online conversation between Maggie Doyne and Luke Metcalf about Doyne's BlinkNow Foundation and her book, Between the Mountain and the Sky: A Mother’s Story of Love, Loss, Healing, and Hope. Doyne founded first a children's home and then a school in Nepal after chancing on a young girl breaking rocks in a Nepalese quarry during a gap year. Metcalf, who grew up in Pomfret, worked with Coyne for nearly six years.
At 7 pm, it's time for this week's Here in the Valley Tuesday Jukebox, hosted by fiddler Jakob Breitbach. He'll be bringing in songwriter and bandleader Jes Raymond, his frequent musical partner, who toured nationally from Seattle for over a decade before moving back home to Vermont in 2016. She'll be joined by Ben Kogan (bass), Steve Hennig (banjo) and Jakob Breitbach (fiddle). Both in-person and streaming options available.
And at 7:30 in Spaulding, the Hop presents classical, jazz, newgrass, bluegrass, and country bassist (and, two decades ago, MacArthur fellow) Edgar Meyer. He'll be on stage with the Glasgow-based Scottish Ensemble, which has broadened from its initial focus on baroque music to explore the classical repertoire more broadly—including, with Meyer, the roots of bluegrass in the music of the British Isles. They'll be playing Bach, Holst, and music composed by Meyer himself.
Also at 7:30 and a definite drive away—but really, how many chances are you going to get for this?—the Flynn in Burlington brings in violinist Itzhak Perlman, who'll be performing alongside his longtime pianist Rohan De Silva. He will also, the Flynn writes, "regale the audience with stories from his life and career, hosting a one-of-a-kind multimedia experience that digs deep into his archives."
Finally, at any time this week you can check out CATV's lineup, including a roundtable discussion on real estate in NH that brings together Rep. Annie Kuster and realtors from around the state; the Howe's virtual tour of Hanover Garden Club president Susan Edwards' garden; dietician Annie Hutchinson looking at the history and risks of dieting; and a quick little profile of Chad Finer, talking about his now years-long project of recording Upper Valley musicians.
Orange Kubota — long black claw — impersonates T-Rexor a sabre-tooth tiger picking bones of the old Texaco —exposing veins, organs, splattering guts of the pumpsrecalling fossils from whence they came that time whenEarth stood there winking at the minor prophets,their tablets of meaning, stood there by the freewayshouting like Amos with his hair on fire in rush hourin a place where ponies once worecolors of the tribes and ran for their supper.
— "Tablets of Meaning" by Bruce Lowry,
, recommended by Andrea Gurwitt and selected from Daybreak readers' suggestions by poetry editor Michael Lipson.
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 and writers who want you to 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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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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