GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly cloudy, a smidge warmer. Though we're not really talking warm: maybe mid or high 50s. Or as the weather folks so nicely put it, "another cool, drab day in the 50s." Winds today from the north, lows tonight in the mid 40s, slight chance of showers overnight.So let's take a look at a catbird on a sunnier day. Perched on a cherry tree in Woodstock, singing without a care in the world, blue skies overhead. From Lauran Corson. Who writes, "Wish I'd taken a video!""Rafting feels like flying, doesn't it?" Deep in the Lost Woods swamp, Auk and Eddie talk over the difference between air and water as they get carried along by the raft they found. Which, of course, they launch. In case you've missed it, nationally known author and illustrator D.B. Johnson (Henry Hikes to Fitchburg) has revived his Lost Woods strip. If you're a newcomer, here's an intro to the strip. And here's an easy way to catch up on the latest round, which began in March.Behind cold metal in Fairlee, a warm story. The assignment for Daybreak reporting intern Duncan Green was simple, but not easy: Go to Fairlee; find a story. Once there, he tracked down Don Newton, a retired landscaper, to ask about the giant sculpture—the Meg-asaurus—you've surely noticed standing along Route 5. It's 15 feet tall and was built by Newton and his granddaughter, Meg, from a 1938 Dodge truck, tractor parts, and sprockets from a bulldozer as he taught her to weld. “It started as an abandoned truck sitting in the weeds,” Meg, now 27, says. “He let me be who I was, and now we’ll have it forever."With Thetford "whole house" project, COVER shifts up a gear. Until now, the WRJ-based nonprofit has focused on smaller fixes to houses in need of repair. But on a muggy day earlier this month in Thetford, writes Matt Golec for Daybreak, volunteers and COVER staff took on an entire house: roof, falling deck, moldy basement, red-tagged oil tank, and more. Matt was there to talk with homeowner Les Lee, COVER director Helen Hong, and others about the new effort, which they hope will yield eight refreshed houses this year and next. “It's been a game- and a life-changer for me,” Lee says.SPONSORED: Gardening Tips For Hurting Hands. Love gardening but not the aches and pains that come with it? With a few simple strategies, the right tools, and smart recovery tips, you can dig, plant, and prune in comfort. At the link, you’ll find ergonomic tool picks, planning tips, and easy exercises to help you prevent pain, work more efficiently, and recover faster—so both you and your garden can thrive all season long. Sponsored by Cioffredi & Associates Physical Therapy.Dartmouth student workers go on strike. The Student Worker Collective, which represents about 300 undergrad dining workers and residential advisers, walked out yesterday. It's asking for a pay raise and yearly boosts tied to tuition increases, protection from automation, and a requirement that ICE agents have judicial arrest or search warrants to enter campus, report Kent Friel and Vidushi Sharma in The Dartmouth. The college says its main dining halls and cafes won't be affected, but that smaller cafés might be. A strike organizer says slowdowns have already occurred: “We’re confident that the school needs us.” Whaleback reaches fundraising goal for lift. “We asked for help, and you showed up in a big way,” the nonprofit Enfield ski mountain wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. “Together, we raised over $250,000 to keep Whaleback alive and thriving. We’ve stabilized operations, kept our team together, and lift repairs start by July. We’ll be ready—with not just Sky Lift but the new surface lift running this winter." The mountain had to close in mid-March, after the gearbox for its chairlift broke. Rather than spend millions replacing the lift, Whaleback is shipping the gearbox off to be rebuilt.SPONSORED: A private house concert, Martha’s Vineyard vacation, or 1st edition Dickens novel? Bid on these and more unique musical items in Upper Valley Music Center’s online silent auction. Win a statue of a cellist or a Bach Cello Suite house concert paired with wine and cheese! You’ll also find jazz and traditional music house concerts, beautiful artisan pieces, and local business gift cards. Here's the auction catalog. All proceeds support music education in the community and help earn a $100K matching challenge from the Byrne Foundation! Bidding ends Sunday at 9 pm. Sponsored by UVMC.Leb police, NH DOJ investigating Brown Furniture complaints. Both the LPD and the state have received dozens of complaints from the besieged company's customers, reports the Valley News's John Lippman. Owner Brad Nelson tells him there was no intentional fraud: "This was just a business that failed." Nelson has a backlog of more than $1 million in customer orders that he's trying to clear—and between 520 and 540 customers who put in down payments or paid in full for furniture that hasn't been delivered, with some orders dating to early 2024. “I feel like a complete loser," he tells Lippman.“Writers and book lovers have almost always thought that books were on their last legs." That's Lyme novelist W.D. Wetherell, one of the "deans" of the Upper Valley community of writers and authors whom Marion Umpleby and Alex Hanson talked to for their pulse-taking piece in the VN over the weekend on literary preoccupations these days. Middle-grade writer Jo Knowles, mystery writer Sarah Stewart Taylor, undefinable writer Adam Blue, romance (and now mystery) author Sarina Bowen, poets April Ossman and Sydney Lea, novelist and rhetoric writer Jay Heinrichs, cartoonist Harry Bliss, and others check in.E. Barnard's Floyd Van Alstyne dies at 105. The WWII vet, logger, sawmill operator, sugarmaker, and, at one point, country's oldest licensed commercial truck driver (at least, that's what he said when he was in his 90s), was born in Boston on Leap Day, 1920. He bought his farm in E. Barnard after returning from service in North Africa and at Anzio, launching a dairy business that he eventually shuttered in the '60s, turning to construction, the sawmill, cattle farming, and more. An inveterate storyteller and an anchor of Barnard civic life, he died May 9 at home. Here's a link to the video series historian Neil Goodwin made about Van Alstyne and his life, The Floyd Van Alstyne Story.Judge sides with Conway NH bakery owner. Remember the long-running legal hoohah over a doughnut mural painted on the side of Leavitt's Country Bakery? The town had argued that the mural, painted by students some years back, was an oversized sign and needed to be taken down. Owner Sean Young filed a First Amendment lawsuit, arguing that it's art. Yesterday, reports Daymond Steer in the Conway Daily Sun, federal district court Judge Joseph LaPlante ruled for Young, writing that town officials "conducted themselves conscientiously and in good faith" but behaved unconstitutionally.NH Senate wants more time on auto inspections. You might have missed it in the flurry of legislative action last week, but last Thursday the Senate opted to put off a bill passed by the House to eliminate annual auto safety inspections in the state. The measure had support from legislators who argue that inspections are costly, mostly benefit dealerships and mechanics, and show little evidence of improving safety. But it also faced concerted opposition by everyone from the NH State Police and the DMV to the Motorcyclists’ Rights Organization. In NH Bulletin, Ethan DeWitt explains the controversy.NH corrections commissioner resigns. Helen Hanks, who in 2017 became the first woman to run the state's prisons, is stepping down immediately, according to a press release from the governor's office, while her chief deputy is being placed on leave, also immediately. No explanation was given for either move. As NH Bulletin's William Skipworth reports, the department faces a financial bind caused both by overtime payments and the threat of steep budget cuts. In February, Gov. Kelly Ayotte told Hanks to stop using "residents" instead of "inmates" in her communications.VT sees fall in opioid overdose deaths for second year in a row. The nearly 25 percent drop, from 236 deaths in 2023 to 186 last year, is part of a national trend—though as Seven Days' Colin Flanders note, the toll "remains well above pre-pandemic averages." Though better access to treatment and the wider availability of overdose-reversal medication have no doubt helped, Flanders writes that some researchers believe other factors are also at play: weaker fentanyl, more xylazine ("it has sedating effects that can lead people to use less each day"). The drop appears steepest in the state's three southern counties.Stuckage!!! Some traditions don't die. The VT State Police report that around 11:10 yesterday morning, the first tractor-trailer of the season got stuck in Smugglers Notch, after the Maryland-based driver "chose to disregard several signs stating tractor trailers were prohibited, and decided to drive around chicanes that were installed at the entrance to the notch road. [He] claimed he saw a sign telling him he could drive through." The (in)famously twisty roadway through the mountains was closed for three hours and the trucking company fined $2,347. As you can imagine, the VTrans Facebook page blew up."We're in a tornado!" Our weather system on Saturday might have been dramatic, but in St. Louis on Friday it was at a whole other level. You might have seen photos of the tornado's destruction, but what was it like actually to be in it? A pair of construction workers—who thankfully had hightailed it into their truck—videoed the whole thing. Language warning: Lots of "dude"s.The Tuesday 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:
Like Daybreak tote bags, thanks to a helpful reader's suggestion. Plus, of course, 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!
Tobar, who spent two decades as a city reporter, national and foreign correspondent, columnist and culture writer, was part of the team that won a Pulitzer for coverage of the 1992 Rodney King riots. He's the author of six books; the most recent,
Our Migrant Souls,
won a Kirkus Prize. Carson Hall L02, 5:30 pm, reception beforehand.
Sponsored by Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center, Dartmouth Civics, and others, it's a conversation "about journalistic neutrality when covering politics in a polarized environment. How do storytellers and journalists craft the narratives of the times we're living in, and how do they use facts and context in their efforts to civically engage audiences during a time of deep political division and skepticism?" 5 pm in Rocky 003 and livestreamed.
A former US diplomat and current Dartmouth lecturer and Chicago Tribune columnist, Shackelford brings firsthand insight into the upheavals of recent American diplomacy.
She'll be focusing on
"the dramatic ways that US foreign policy has changed" under the new administration. At Trumbull Hall in Etna, 5:30 pm.
Telford, a seasoned fiddler with roots in New England contra-dance and a mentee of Cape Breton legend Jerry Holland, teams up with Park, whose guitar work complements her mastery of traditional tunes.
An evening of free traditional music in a close-up setting. 6:30 pm.At the Howe Library in Hanover, “Sustainable Investing: Aligning Your Money with Your Values”. Led by Karen Shapiro of Green Future Wealth Management, the session explores how to invest in ways to use
publicly available information and tools "to help you understand how your investments align with your values and how you can identify investments that may better support what matters to you most.
" 6:30 pm in Mayer Room or via Zoom.Leb High School spring concert at the Lebanon Opera House. The
Concert Band, Chorus, Superlatives, and Jazz Band all perform music from around the globe, starting at 7 pm. Tomorrow,
.
Pianist Sally Pinkas returns to Rollins Chapel for her annual solo recital. This year it's “Small Wonders”, a
program featuring works by Mozart, Béla Bartók,
Vítězslava
Kaprálová, and Rowland Moseley, juxtaposing three composers of the modern era with "the
memorable late Mozart Sonata in F Major, full of unexpected twists and turns." 8 pm.
The Tuesday poem.
A few days after solstice, I follow bobcat tracks to the lake.The moss is glowing, the water all thawed, the colda kind of woolly coat. A willow, bald without its leaves,towers over its frail reflection. I sit on a bench, begin to readold journals. Then I close my eyes and cringe before that girl,the younger me, makes another bad decision. I want to tellthat girl to stop running, trespassing, stop showing off woundsto strangers like some perverse shadow puppet flailing insidethe theater of her brooding, restless heart. I tell her to stop and tieher shoes, to check for ticks. I urge her to banish her urge to tearthe peonies up from the soil just to see the roots naked, renderthem wild, but she’s wistful and shifty and cannot hear me—she skipsup the mountain or down the stairs onto the train platform, no coat...
— 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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