GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Partly sunny to start, warmer. We've got a series of warm fronts coming through over the next few days, and while today that means we'll be getting up to around 40 under skies that will grow cloudier as the day goes on, there are also a couple of bands of precipitation headed this way. The first, this afternoon, is minor, with just a slight chance of rain. A more serious round arrives overnight as temps drop to freezing or below, so we could see freezing rain and a glaze of ice toward dawn before rain arrives.Think it's a pain post-holing through crusty snow? Now imagine if you're a turkey—as seen on Devan Tracy's trail cam in Plainfield. "Reminds me of popcorn," Devan writes.Coming up in NH next week. While we await results from VT town meetings, the Valley News has a look ahead at next week's town and school meetings in NH. Croydon is looking for voters' guidance on what to do with its one-room schoolhouse; Sunapee has a slew of proposed zoning changes; Plainfield wants to renovate its school; Piermont's proposing new town offices; New London's proposing a bond for planning a new police facility; and several towns are proposing changes to how they conduct town meeting. Here's Alex Hanson's survey of that issue on both sides of the river.In Lebanon, heated contests for two city council seats. The at-large race to replace Karen Liot Hill, who's moved to the state Exec Council, has drawn three candidates, writes Clare Shanahan in the VN: former DH nurse and administrator Lori Key; The Karibbean restaurant's Carline Roberge; and state Rep. Laurel Stavis. Meanwhile, former Plainfield Police Chief Paul Roberts is challenging incumbent Devin Wilkie for the Ward 2 seat. Shanahan checks in with them all. Meanwhile, city historian Nicole Ford Burley is unopposed in Ward 3, and incumbent Doug Whittlesey is running unopposed in Ward 1."Stella's may have delicious pizza, but it would be NOTHING without the organic tomatoes from Longwind Farm!" Thetford's floor meeting Saturday didn't actually devolve into a shouting match over whether to rename the Lyme-E. Thetford Bridge to the E. Thetford-Lyme Bridge. But in Nick Clark's fertile imagination on Sidenote, it did. In an all-too-infrequent bit of town-meeting satire, Clark imagines the floor discussion ("After a brief fact-checking pause, it was determined that the State of New Hampshire is, in fact, responsible for all bridges across the Connecticut River..."), debate, and aftermath.SPONSORED: New show coming from We The People Theatre! Alfie Byrne, a bus conductor in 1963 Dublin, has two joys in life: the poetry of Oscar Wilde and mounting productions with his amateur theater troupe. When the Catholic Church threatens to shut down his production of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, he is forced to confront the forces of bigotry and his own suffocating secret. Terrence McNally's A Man of No Importance (premieres March 28) shows us how theater can bring us together and lift us up. Sponsored by We the People Theatre.Wood ducks have a secret. What you see are the pretty feathers, especially on the male. But what you might not know, Mary Holland writes on her Naturally Curious blog, is that they have an expandable esophagus, which is handy because one thing they really like to eat is acorns. As a result, they can swallow acorns up to nearly ½” wide and a little over 2” long, Mary writes. "As many as 30 small acorns have been found in one Wood Duck esophagus, and 20 large acorns in another. (For those wondering how a duck chews an acorn with its bill, it doesn’t. It is ground up in the bird’s gizzard.)"SPONSORED: You can help Twin Pines Housing create homes and strengthen communities! Your support for Twin Pines Housing helps create affordable homes for our neighbors in the Upper Valley and provides supportive services for residents, connecting families to food assistance, healthcare, and more. Together, we can build stability, opportunity, and dignity for those who need it most. Donate now at the burgundy link or here to invest in a stronger Upper Valley. Sponsored by Twin Pines Housing.How to start winter hiking in NH. “Hiking in the winter is special because there are fewer people out,” writer and hiker Mardi Fuller tells NHPR's Rick Ganley. “There are no bugs bothering you, no black flies, no mosquitoes, and just the beautiful landscape in winter.” And she's got plenty of tips. Like, choose a first hike below tree line that's easily within your capabilities. Bring a printed map (and try learning to use a compass). Pack the ten essentials. Definitely use traction, and learn how to dress in layers (you can always turn to the hiking community for a gear loan). And hey, these tips are probably good for VT, too.In VT and NH, bewilderment—especially on energy—as Canadian tariffs take effect.
In NH, reports WMUR's Arielle Mitropoulos, Irving Energy customers have already gotten notices that their oil contracts will be affected; in all, she reports, NH imports $2 billion in goods annually from Canada, with fuel topping the list at $444 million. "A lot of bills are going to go up. And it's not just going to be on oil," says Joe Sculley of the Energy Marketers Association of New Hampshire.
VT buys about $775 million of electricity and $420 million of fossil fuels from Canada, reports VTDigger's Habib Sabet—but the tariff rollout has been chaotic and no one knows specifically what will be affected. "We’re not even sure what entities are responsible for paying the tariff and how that would be measured," VT Electric Coop CEO Rebecca Towne says.
Why does VT's health insurance cost so much more than the national average? It's a burning question, because ever-rising rates underlie everything from surging school budgets to municipal cutbacks. At the behest of a VT Public listener, Brave Little State's Josh Crane dives into the question for the rest of us. The result is a tour of VT's health marketplace delivered by a friendly guide who makes sure we don't get lost. Crane takes on each of the three key players: UVM Med Center, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the Green Mountain Care Board—and why what they each do adds up to a crisis for the state.As lobsters migrate north to colder waters, Maine's catch drops. Though storms last year didn't help. Still, the haul in 2021 was nearly 111 million pounds, which dropped to 97 million pounds in 2023 and, according to a report released Friday, to 86.1 million pounds last year. That's the "lowest figure in 15 years," reports the AP's Patrick Whittle—though the price per pound was one of the highest on record and fishermen did just fine economically. Still, there are plenty of threats: a decline in the number of baby lobsters settling off ME, NH, and MA, and the specter of tariffs, since much processing happens in Canada.
And while we're thinking about the north: a rare view of polar bear cubs. The footage comes from a remote camera set up near a den site by researchers in Svalbard, the remote archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole. “In Svalbard...it’s hard to imagine how cubs could find their feet in this severe terrain,” says a new study's lead author, U of Toronto ecologist Louise Archer. “Watching them sliding, tumbling and even climbing up on their mother was truly remarkable.” More on the study here.The Tuesday Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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The Hanover Gardening Club brings in the Upper Valley's own Gardening Guy to talk over ideas about how to add interesting trees, shrubs, stonework, art, and whimsy to your garden. Most of the plants he’ll show grow in his own gardens, including many native plants. 1 pm at the museum and online.
El-Naggar is a Cairo-based correspondent for
The New York Times
, as well as a Pulitzer finalist and Emmy nominee. As the Dickey Center writes, her work often focuses "on issues of identity and often falls at the intersection of politics, religion, gender and youth culture. Some of her most recent work features a series of character profiles that shed light on the human toll of the war in Gaza." She'll be talking with Middle East Studies prof Jonathan Smolin. 4:30 pm, Haldeman 41 and online.
Muirhead, who teaches politics and government at Dartmouth, will be talking about his book, co-authored with Nancy Rosenblum, on the deliberate effort to dismantle the capacity of government to do its work, how it became "a malignant part of politics
,"
and no doubt will take a look at what's been going on in Washington and around the country since the book was published. 6:30 pm in the Mayer Room and online.
The Tuesday poem.
it’s late now, it’s early, no wayto know which season it isof the total years of my life,weren’t we only just nineteen,tonya & i, wasn’t she only justalive, long-limbed & cross-leggedon my dorm room floor,wasn’t it springtime of a yearso unlike this one, thirteenyears past, cool nights in lineoutside the nuyorican hopingto make it on the list, wasn’t ita friday night like this one& the only people i wanted to lovewere poets, earrings swayingagainst their necks, dancingin the dark of the room where weall knew each other’s secrets, weren’twe all just at that party, wasn’t i onlyjust eighteen, pointed northwardon a chinatown bus to that city....wasn’t the dream to be a poet, wasn’tthe plan to live forever, our powersnewly acquired, newly in lovewith what we could do, didn’t we allbelong to each other, to that work,going after to the pizza shopto recite what we’d memorized,weren’t we all just there, wasn’t it warmoutside, wasn’t the road long & clear,isn’t it early still, isn’t it late, & whyam i still here, did i survive or was i leftbehind, & what season is it that we areno longer together & some of us have gone?
— From
by
.
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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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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