GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Back to the 70s. There's a weak area of low pressure coming through, but it looks like its impact—if any—will be on the southern Greens. We get mostly blue skies, temps reaching the low 70s, breezes from the south. Tonight's mostly clear, low in the upper 40s.Well, hey. At least it's off the ground. "With a barn, garage, 2 porches and over 30 trees on the property," writes Barbara Mason from N. Thetford, this is where a pair of robins chose to nest.And this is definitely off the ground. "Somebody was hot-air ballooning their way pretty much straight south down Skunk Hollow Road in Hartland," writes Milena Zuccotti. She caught it with Ascutney framed perfectly in back.Norwich planning commission chair, vice chair resign. The news comes in letters to the selectboard from chair Jaci Allen and vice-chair Brian Loeb. This brings recent turnover on the seven-member board to four, notes Chris Katucki on his Norwich Observer blog; two members did not seek reappointment earlier this year. In his letter (tomorrow night's selectboard packet here, letters in "correspondence") Loeb writes, "A strong partnership between the Selectboard and Planning Commission is essential to address the town's deeply felt and well understood needs... Such a partnership is absent today and has been for some time." Allen's term was due to end in 2025, Loeb's in 2026.In Claremont, proposed Valley Regional Hospital affiliation with DH comes under the microscope. At a hearing last week organized by the NH AG's office, reports Nora Doyle-Burr in the Valley News, one key focus was on how much control the smaller hospital would retain. As proposed, Valley Regional would share a leadership team and a nearly identical board with Mt. Ascutney Hospital, across the river. DH CEO Joanne Conroy assured attendees that "local leaders would retain responsibility for managing day-to-day operations," writes Doyle-Burr. She details the discussion and locals' concerns, including greater access to mental health and addiction treatment.SPONSORED: Don’t miss Pat Metheny when he kicks off his latest tour at Lebanon Opera House! The 20-time Grammy-winning jazz guitarist launched his 2018 tour here and now the NEA Jazz Master returns on Wednesday, June 7 at 7:30 pm. He’ll be joined by the latest iteration of his Side-Eye band: pianist/organist/keyboardist Chris Fishman and exciting young New Orleans drummer Joe Dyson. Together, they’ll play intricate new music alongside a few unexpected re-workings of Metheny’s classics. Sponsored by LOH.After three years, barbershop owner closes next-door art gallery in Windsor. Cassie George has been running Bob's Barber Shop for over three decades, and opened the Main Street Gallery in a vacant space next door almost on a whim just before the pandemic. But now, reports Liz Sauchelli in the VN, the space's owner needs it for another business, and George has shut the gallery down. In its short life, Sauchelli writes, it became a popular spot with area artists, "filled with pieces...in an array of mediums hung side by side." Now, George is going to devote space in Bob's to one artist a month.“I probably crack and pop more than I have ever before.... But other than that I feel good.” Which is pretty darn miraculous, given the injuries 37-year-old race car driver Tyler Lescord suffered in a crash at Claremont Motorsports Park a year ago. We're talking face, lungs, ribs, neck, even his eye muscles—plus a month in the ICU and six months with a head and neck brace. But now, writes the VN's Patrick Adrian, Lescord is back behind a steering wheel on the track. Adrian describes what Lescord went through—and why he's back. "I feel super safe in a race car,” Lescord says.SPONSORED: The annual Pompanoosuc Mills Memorial Day Sale is back! In 1973, we had a simple vision: to create timeless home furnishings that would be cherished for generations. We build forever furniture right here in the Upper Valley. And like our Tent Sale from years past, our Memorial Day Sale offers the same great savings. We hope to see you at our flagship showroom and factory in East Thetford, or our showroom in downtown Hanover. Sale ends May 30th. Sponsored by Pompanoosuc Mills.Banned for decades, PCBs are still everywhere in NH. In the air, in the water, in the soil, in fish, in crops... And, writes Hadley Barndollar in NH Bulletin, in every loon egg tested by the Loon Preservation Society from 24 lakes; Lake Francis, Merrymeeting Lake, and Squam have especially elevated levels. The state won a $25 million settlement from Monsanto last year, but Gov. Chris Sununu proposed putting just $6 million into a PCB Assistance Fund—and now, House legislators have cut the proposed funding to $1 million.Bragging rights. NH Attorney General (and Hanover High grad) John Formella and VT Rep. Becca Balint on Friday found themselves on the new list of 500 Americans just barred from entering Russia. So, for that matter, did former VT attorney general TJ Donovan. They join an interesting group that includes former President Barack Obama, MSNBC commentator Joe Scarborough, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, comedian Seth Meyers, historian and newsletterer Heather Cox Richardson... As NHPR's Todd Bookman points out, the entire NH congressional delegation was on a previous list.“Are Vermonters unwittingly destroying their homes in their quest to be green?” In VTDigger, Alden Wicker digs into the safety, effectiveness, and risks of spray-foam insulation. In a thoroughly researched and reported piece, she examines misinformation, shady installers, non-existent regulations, and lack of consumer protections. The state's housing stock needs weatherization to meet climate goals, but without more training for spray foam installers, “Vermonters are in for some nasty and expensive surprises, lurking right inside their walls.” Foam can be "excellent," she writes, but only if installed perfectly."When we stop listening to the other side, we stop supporting democracy." In a commentary on VTDigger, Putney town moderator and healthy-politics thinker Meg Mott uses last year's Article 22, the constitutional amendment protecting reproductive rights, to look at ways of supporting families in VT without displaying the intolerance of dissenting views that was rampant in that debate. Rather than give in to fears of what the other side intends, she argues, coalition-building among progressives, conservatives, and libertarians would produce better policy—and boost "our capacity to live with great differences without succumbing to the impulse to dominate."Warhol as you've never seen him. That is, on small canvases. In Artful, Susan Apel looks ahead to the "Small is Beautiful" exhibition of more than 100 of Andy Warhol's paintings in the collection of the Hall Art Foundation in Reading, VT. "I think in this show you could find yourself in a room, the size of your living room or your bedroom, sort of surrounded by Warhol paintings — and it's much more intimate," the foundation's director, Maryse Brand, told VT Public's Mary Engisch last week. "Do Warhol paintings need to be outsized to pack the usual wallop?" Susan asks. "I’ll let you know." In Stowe, beavers flip the narrative as wetlands threaten development. Or the town's rec fields, anyway. Because of nearby beaver activity, WCAX's Kiana Burks reports, two baseball fields have already been reclassified as wetlands—which, under state law, are protected, thus complicating the town's plans to redevelop Memorial Park and add new playing surfaces. “We’re trying to live with the beavers. Maybe we’re going to have to think about other options and sites," says town manager Charles Safford.Why don't fast-food chains open in Vermont? They do, actually, writes Nancy Mock in Mashed—"There's a smattering of fast food joints in the state including McDonald's, KFC, Subway, a couple of Chipotles, and plenty of Dunkin' Donuts"—but not in the concentrations you'll find elsewhere. The reason? Maybe it was Bo Muller-Moore's successful pushback when Chick-fil-A tried to block "Eat More Kale." Maybe it's the state's loyalty to its home-grown food. Or maybe, Mock suggests, it's because VT has a tiny population. "For many chains, it's not even worth trying to set up shop," she writes.“I knew that even if I could catch one of those lines, I was in no condition to climb up the side of a moving oil tanker in the middle of the night.” That’s pilot Nathaniel Johansson, Dartmouth 2018, who once taught flying at Leb airport, describing his rescue from the Pacific after his plane went down. In the Dartmouth Alumni Mag, Jennifer Wulff writes about how Johansson, who was ferrying a plane across the Pacific for a customer, crash-landed in the swells and, with a co-pilot, survived a harrowing, 18-hour rescue. “We had a moment where we came to peace with the fact that this might be it,” he recalls.What's more competitive than getting into one of the Ivies? Getting a spot in the Yukon 1000. That's what Smithsonian mag says about "the world's most grueling race," a nearly ten-day (or less) adventure that requires paddlers to navigate dangerous river rapids and avoid hungry bears as they ride the wild Yukon through the remote bush country of Alaska and Canada. If this sounds like your bag of gorp, know that last year 3,500 teams applied and only 40 were deemed fit enough. You can always just read Max Ufberg's you-are-there article instead—it isn't as rip-roaring but you won't get eviscerated by anything.The Tuesday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
At 5 pm today, Maurice Jean, who co-founded and runs the Tysea Orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti, will be at the Howe Library in Hanover to talk about its work, the several dozen kids who live there, and conditions in Haiti. He'll also be appearing Thursday, same time, at the Norwich Public Library.
From 6 to 9 this evening, the live Karaoke Bandstand band takes the stage at Sawtooth Kitchen in Hanover for the last Live Band Karaoke before they take a break for the summer. "From Disney to Dolly, 'Purple Rain' to 'Brown Eyed Girl,' choose from decades of tunes and try, just try to stump the band," Here in the Valley's Jakob Breitbach writes.
At 6:30 this evening, the Etna Library (in-person at Trumbull Hall) hosts local organic farmer Sarah Herr for "Seeds, Soil, and Starts: Vegetable Growing for the New England Gardener." Herr will talk soil, tomatoes, greens, and much more for local gardeners.
Ever wonder how atmospheric CO2 gets measured—and what it tells us about climate change? One of the premier long-term data sources was established in 1958 by Charles David Keeling atop Mauna Loa in Hawaii, and this evening at 7 his son, Ralph Keeling, joins the Mt. Washington Observatory's "Science in the Mountains" series to talk about it all. Via Zoom.
And the Tuesday poem...
Pink, small, and punctual,Aromatic, low,Covert in April,Candid in May,Dear to the moss,Known by the knoll,Next to the robinIn every human soul.Bold little beauty,Bedecked with thee,Nature forswearsAntiquity.
—"May-Flower" by Emily Dickinson.
?
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!