GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
"Nice little high-pressure system you got here. Such a shame if something happened to it..." Today it's mostly cloudy but quiet, temps cooler behind yesterday's cold front, with a high around 50. What happens tonight, though, is the first tentative foray by a sprawling storm system that's been making its way east and seems likely to bring us a snow and sleet dump eventually. More on that tomorrow. Tonight, a slight chance of rain before midnight, then a chance of rain, snow, and sleet before morning.Raccoons. In trees.
Last week, at the corner of Route 5 and Goodrich Four Corners in Norwich, Elizabeth Mann looked over and noticed this one. "I’m not sure how he got into these vines (from above?), but he seemed a little embarrassed about his situation," she writes.
And who knows, maybe it's the same height-seeking raccoon? Sunday night, also in Norwich, Cynthia Crawford happened on "this little rascal in a tree near our house tonight, no doubt looking for bird seed. I used a headlamp to find him, and therefore his eyes glow!"
Just a reminder about the 12A bridge over the Sugar River in Claremont. Starting today, NHDOT's closing it from 7 am to 7 pm for several days so workers can put in new structural steel girders for the southbound lanes. The work is scheduled to last at least through Thursday, but could go into Friday. NHDOT spokesman Richard Arcand says this week's storm "might cause a short delay in the work but that shouldn't impact the schedule."S. Royalton home destroyed by fire. By the time firefighters arrived Saturday morning at the blaze on Broad Brook Road, reports John Lippman in the Valley News, "the structure was already totally engulfed and on the verge of collapsing." The residents, Evan Burnham his girlfriend, Erica Brinkman, are staying at a hotel; Burnham's two sons were at their mother's, Lippman writes. In the wake of the fire, Burnham tells Lippman, “The overwhelming sense of community has been nothing short of amazing"—and as of this morning, a GoFundMe page set up by a friend has collected over $18,000"What we hear over and over again is 'Learn new things.'" That advice for people who are aging could just as well be "Teach new things," and performing artists Ham Gillett, Michael Zerphy, and Marv Klassen-Landis have embraced both sides in a series of arts workshops for older Upper Valleyites in Woodstock. This caught the eye of Adithi Jayaraman, a senior at Dartmouth, who'd been thinking about aging after a visit to her grandparents. In the first of a series of podcasts from Sophie Crane's "Tell Me a Story" podcasting class at the college, Adithi talks to the three about just what it is they're up to.SPONSORED: The show "we need right now." That was Variety on WE’RE HERE, and you can get a sneak peek of its new season this Friday at the Loew Auditorium. The Hop is screening an episode from Season 4 of the critically acclaimed HBO series about four fabulous drag queens using their art to spread love, awareness, and connection. Don’t miss a post-screening discussion with co-creator and Dartmouth alum Stephen Warren ’82 and drag queen Priyanka! Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth.James Parker, convicted in the Zantop murders, up for parole soon. Parker is serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the stabbing deaths of Dartmouth professors Half and Susanne Zantop in Etna in 2001; he's due to go before a state parole board April 18, reports Nancy West in InDepthNH. On WMUR, Arielle Mitropoulos notes that in 2018, Parker requested a hearing to suspend his sentence, citing good behavior; he withdrew his request after objections from the victims' family. A legal expert tells Mitropoulos that Parker's age at the time of the murders—16—will likely figure in his lawyers' argument.LOH three ways. In her latest Artful post, Susan Apel highlights the newly renovated Lebanon Opera House via three links. The first is to a just-published piece she wrote for Image mag—with some seriously eye-catching photographs by Lars Blackmore—about the one-time vaudeville theater turned community performing arts hub and its current steward, Joe Clifford; WMUR's Chronicle foray into the Lebanon arts scene a few weeks back; and info on auditions and backstage tech needs for NCCT's June production of The Music Man, which will run on the LOH stage.Shakedown at Shaker Village, Dudley Dudley vs. the Onassis oil refinery, and the drugstore boycott that led to the Claremont Senior Center. What a treasure trove! In 1973, Charles Calley was part of a small crew that founded and, for about a dozen years, ran the New Hampshire Times. Each week, he and photographer Hank Nichols would head out to find and report stories. Nichols died last year, which drove Calley to find an old box of clips. "I was pleasantly surprised, shocked actually, at how well they still read," he writes in the intro to a website he recently built that collects their work from 1974—50 years ago. They are a total treat, as are Calley's scene-setting intros.NH approves Valley Regional Hospital affiliation with DH. The Claremont hospital's move to join the Dartmouth Health network has been in the works for a couple of years, and the AG's office gave it the go-ahead yesterday, but with a number of negotiated conditions "meant to ensure patients don’t face higher costs or lose access to services," reports NHPR's Paul Cuno-Booth. Among the terms: DH will pay for a new medical office and open a new addiction treatment center at Valley Regional; it also will maintain or expand mental health, primary care, and pre- and post-natal services there.VT, NH both above average when it comes to alcohol use disorder, binge drinking. Though they've long been an issue in the state, reports VTDigger's Tiffany Tan, "Staffers at addiction recovery centers statewide said that, since the coronavirus pandemic reached Vermont in 2020, they’ve had growing interactions with people aged 60 and older who are struggling with alcohol misuse." A federal survey using 2021-22 data finds VT and NH among a cohort of 13 states in which 12 percent of respondents 12 and older report alcohol use disorder; the national average is 11 percent. Table at the link.Green River Reservoir Dam: You take it. No, you take it! As VTDigger's Sophia Keshmiri reports, the ongoing battle over the fate of the dam—and with it, of the massively popular paddling site and wildlife refuge—"has taken a new turn." Morrisville Water and Light yesterday announced it's prepping to surrender its federal operating license; if approved, it would stop generating electricity, but hold onto the dam with the "intent" that the state would maintain it. The state responded that the move comes "as a surprise" and that it's neither agreed to nor has the money for the small utility's plans."Another round of confusion" for Vermonters in the state's motel voucher program. Carly Berlin reports for VTPublic that about 360 households—a quarter of those housed in state-subsidized motel rooms—were due to lose their housing yesterday, and that state officials were pleading with social service providers to help them renew their vouchers. "The reasons for such a large-scale non-renewal for motel vouchers remain murky," Berlin reports. State workers yesterday afternoon were also "making outbound calls to households eligible to renew."Morristown VT police discover what really brings in the tips: shakes and steamed lobsters. "The department last week was able to rapidly nab four people with warrants out for their arrest by using its Facebook page to offer rewards, including a limited-time dessert from McDonalds," reports the News & Citizen's Tommy Gardner. Actually, they've nabbed a fifth by offering $62.39 in 87 octane gas (plus a "coveted" junior police officer sticker). The gas offer came after nine Shamrock Shakes and three steamed lobsters went out the door—and the FB page went viral. Lt. Det. Todd Baxter now posts once a week.Ever Google your name and discover someone has written a song about you? Yeah, me neither. But Brett Martin has, and, being a reporter, he had to investigate. In the NYT Mag (gift link) he writes that what he found was a former Granite State songwriter named Matt Farley, who posts a lot of tunes on Spotify under some 80 pseudonyms. He “send(s) it all out into the abyss, hoping that someday, somebody, somewhere will hear it.” Songs about poop are big hits; so are the ditties by his alter ego, the Guy Who Sings Your Name Over and Over. Mock him, but Farley is pulling in $200K a year “one halfpenny at a time.”Okay. This guy needs to start buying lottery tickets. Last Thursday in Eugene, OR, Shane Reimche had just walked into the Quick Trip Market when a large circular saw blade from a nearby construction site bombed across the parking lot and embedded itself in the wall he'd just passed. “I put my hand on the door, and I heard a loud bang and yelling here at the corner. Just as a cloud of smoke pops us and I see a guy fall in the ditch, and a four-foot blade hurling at me," he told Eugene's KEZI News.The Tuesday Vordle. 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:
Today at 1 pm, the Montshire Museum and the Hanover Garden Club present Montshire executive director Lara Litchfield-Kimber's talk, "Fertile Minds: Children Belong in the Garden". She'll be talking about how gardens can serve as "living classrooms" both for young children and for older kids interested in everything from math and science to history and culture. In-person in the Montshire's community room and online here.
Today from 5 to 7 pm, Dartmouth Engineering is holding its annual open house for members of the larger community to check out its labs and workshops and see what students and researchers are up to. There'll be tours, food science demos (and samples), robots, race cars, students' projects, and more. Free parking available in the parking garage under the Class of 1982 Engineering and Computer Science Center (ECSC) at 15 Thayer Drive.
Also at 5 today, Dartmouth's Dickey Center hosts Democratic US Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado for "How American Choices in The Middle East Affect its Global Leadership". Crow, who's a former Army Ranger, serves on both the House intelligence committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He'll be talking with Dickey Center director Victoria Holt about US policy toward the region and its impact both at home and abroad. In-person in Filene Auditorium as well as livestreamed.
At 6:30 this evening, the Howe Library in Hanover hosts three poets who make their homes in the Upper Valley: Colby-Sawyer prof Ewa Chrusciel, West Leb's Jeff Friedman, and Dartmouth prof Ivy Schweitzer. They'll be reading, talking, and answering questions along the theme, "Beauty Will Save the World." In-person in the Mayer Room as well as online.
At 7 this evening, Fairlee Community Arts will host a VT Humanities talk by reporter, photographer, and high school teacher Bill Mares, "Bees Besieged: A History of Beekeeping". Mares has just co-published a book on the history of beekeeping in VT, The Land of Milk and Honey, and will be talking about the evolution of beekeeping, as well as the issues the pastime sometimes called "farming for intellectuals" faces and raises. In Fairlee Town Hall.
Also at 7, Still North Books & Bar in Hanover hosts cartoonist Ricardo Liniers Siri (a.k.a. Liniers) in conversation with writer Peter Orner about Optimism is for the Brave, the second English-language volume of his internationally known strip, Macanudo. "Elves, witches, forest monsters, unicorns, children, talking cats and penguins… plus zombies with fitbits, Stephen King’s Christine working as an Uber, and office politics? The bounds of a daily comic strip don’t restrict Macanudo’s imagination or subjects," they write.
There are still tickets left for tonight's and tomorrow's 7 pm Bob Marley shows at the Lebanon Opera House. These are rescheduled from the March 23 shows cancelled because of that day's snowstorm. The Maine-based comedian, no stranger to the LOH stage, has "been all over the tee-vee from Leno to Letterman and Conan to Jimmy (Fallon, that is) to name just a few. He co-starred in big screen action thriller The Boondock Saints (and its sequel All Saints Day) playing Detective Greenly. He has toured the US, Europe, Canada, Kuwait, and Iraq."
And at 7:30 pm, the Hop presents violinist and year-long Hop resident Johnny Gandelsman in the latest performance of his This is America series. The program includes seven pieces, including Christina Courtin's Stroon, Anjna Swaminathan's Surrender to Adventure, and the premiere of the Hop-commissioned piece by Gabriel Kahane, Body Language (Three Folk Dances for Violin). It'll also be performed tomorrow night at Next Stage Arts in Putney.
And the Tuesday poem...
We walk up the valley ankle-deep in tenderness,hunting lions without weapons. Knowingwhat ripens desires to be gathered.Ladies winnow at the threshing ringon late summer days of singing and thirst.It is what our strength tells us.We gather sticks for the ritual,the sound of animals in the air.It takes strength to yield, to give into the applause of ocean and fire,to let the bones dictate. They have beenin exile getting strength from the wildness.We throw flowers on whatever that thing is that roars, our hearts in our bodies.It is right. The stars reel in the dark.Vermeer’s woman holds up the scaleto weigh the pearls in the quiet room.And each time something happensto make them balance in the satin light.
— "Demon-Catchers On Our Doors", 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.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music?
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 if you're a committed non-FB user,
.
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 hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! Subscribe at no cost at:
Thank you!