GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Things remain unsettled up there. The rain will taper off over the course of the morning, and we'll get a dry (but cloudy) slot this afternoon, but keep the rain boots handy—there's a system moving our way that may bring rain overnight before things start up in earnest tomorrow. Mid-50s again today, winds from the east, and down into the mid-40s tonight.It's daybreak... Starting with a deeply poetic early-morning sky over Lyme last week by Barbara Woodard and continuing, slowly, back into winter. If it's been a while since you checked out the "Daybreak Where You Are" photos from this year, they're all collected, and the collection's been growing steadily. There are some stunning photos in there to get your day off to a fine start.What's that flitting about? It's a comma. Butterfly, that is. And this first week of May, writes Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast, you'll find gray and eastern commas around, since they overwinter as adults. Also out there in the woods: early blue cohosh, saxifrage, elderberry, wood ducks, and... oh, didn't your hear leap the first time you heard one recenly?... hermit thrushes."The point is to create a kind of intimacy with strangers." Emily Walton teaches sociology at Dartmouth, and with several of her students has launched a project called "Humans of the Upper Valley." They're short but very deep stories about people who live here—WRJ's Matt Bucy on coming out as gay and why he and his partner aren't married; Leb's L’Tonya Johnson on the search to feel connected here as a newcomer and African American; Canaan's Scott Henkels on living with hearing loss. On her Artful blog, Susan Apel talks to Walton about how the project came about and where it's headed. SPONSORED: HACTC Tech Camp coming in June! The Hartford Area Career and Technology Center (HACTC) is holding its Summer Tech Camp June 21-25 for students entering grades 7, 8 and 9 in the fall. They will explore 10 hands-on activities in one week! Past activities have included photography, creating edible centerpieces, basic welding or plasma cutting, building direct-current circuits, and more. The camp registration fee is $30. Hit the maroon link for more info and a camp application. Sponsored by the HACTC.Two playwrights win 2021 Neukom awards. The annual award goes to works for the theater that wrestle with the question, "What does it mean to be a human in a computerized world?" Gina Femia's meet you at the Galaxy Diner won the playwriting award, giving it time this summer at the VoxLab workshop for new works, and then at Northern Stage. Dartmouth alum Nkenna Akunna's Some of Us Exist in the Future took the runner-up spot. In all, there were over 140 submissions. "We are delighted to see the explosion of interest" in the award, says Neukom Institute director Dan Rockmore."Parasitic infection affected the Dartmouth community during the early nineteenth century." That's a line from the abstract of a new study by archeologists Theresa Gildner (now at Wash U) and Jesse Casana (still at Dartmouth). Casana and a team of students excavated the site of what used to be the Choate House privy, now in front of Baker-Berry Library, in 2019. They unearthed several fecal samples, which Gildner, a parasite specialist, was able to rehydrate; she found tapeworm and whipworm eggs. "Even wealth could not protect you from these parasitic infections 200 years ago," says Casana.Feel like having an ex-marina all to yourself? Well, for a cool $1.1 million, there's one on Mascoma Lake for sale, which for some reason Boston mag just highlighted. It's near the northern end of the bridge across the lake—built as a marina in 1959, now a 3,500-square-foot house with four bedrooms and baths, chef's kitchen with breakfast bar, and wraparound deck with, of course, a hot tub. Oh, says the mag: "Don’t worry too much about this house being in the middle of nowhere"—the Northern Rail Trail is right nearby.On the other hand, you might not want this Enfield house. Out in LA, the Geffen Playhouse is mounting Someone Else's House, an online horror story by multimedia artist Jared Mezzocchi about the haunted house in Enfield his family lived in for a time before he was born. There's an ex-tannery in the basement, a swarm of bees, spattered blood, and an unsettling plot. Still, the LA Times's reviewer writes, "I went to bed without checking under my bed, and when I woke to a strange bang in the other room, I assumed it was the cat and rolled over."VT, NH get to duke it out for vaccination bragging rights. In the CDC's latest figures, VT has overtaken CT to lead the country in the rate of total vaccines (first and second doses) administered: 94,499 per 100,000 population, or almost 590K altogether. On that front, New England overall is outpacing most of the country. On the other hand, if you look at percentage of residents who've received at least one dose, NH stands apart, with 60.8 percent of its residents, compared to 57.4 percent in VT, similar percentages around New England, and lower rates elsewhere. You can play with the map at the link. "It appears that visibility is increasing over time from the summit of Mount Washington." This remarkably good news comes from a study of hourly visual-distance data collected since 1943 by researchers at the observatory atop the mountain, reports David Brooks in the Monitor. The first uptick in visibility comes after emissions controls were added to the Clean Air Act in the 1970s, but they also found an even steeper—and puzzling—increase after 2000. "What is that about?" says the observatory's Brian Fitzgerald. "I don’t know. Like any research, you end up with more questions than answers.”In the NH budget spotlight: the fate of reproductive health care funding. In NH Bulletin, Annmarie Timmins delves into a provision in the budget bill that passed the House and that the Senate is now considering that would require Planned Parenthood and other providers to physically and financially separate abortion services from all other family planning care. The providers contend it would jeopardize their ability to provide non-abortion health care, including cancer screenings. Backers say it would make sure no state money goes to abortion services. Gov. Chris Sununu has been noncommittal on what he'd do.Mass walkout at UVM over sexual violence. About 2,000 students left class yesterday and marched through campus protesting sexual violence and a lack of responsiveness from the administration. The walkout was set off after a viral April 26 Instagram post by a junior detailing the university's response after a rape; it touched off dozens more social media posts highlighting the problem, writes VTDigger's Grace Elletson. University officials met with students over the weekend, who detailed 17 demands for reform of the Title IX office; the university has agreed to all of them, says the dean of students.Oops. You may remember that early this year, VT's Joint Fiscal Office reported that of the people who applied for regular unemployment last fall, 73 percent were women. It drew widespread attention as evidence of the pandemic's outsized impact on women. Now, reports Seven Days' Anne Wallace Allen, the JFO is backing away from the number. "We may have been misled by data that somehow isn’t quite right,” analyst Joyce Manchester tells Allen. “There may be something funky in the data set.” Even so, Allen writes, other data shows that VT stands out for its share of women on unemployment."I failed music in school... But when I was 6 years old and put a harmonica in my mouth, it sounded like a symphony.” That's Lee Oskar, who went on to riff on harmonica for WAR (think "Cisco Kid”), talking to Ben Marks for Craftsmanship Quarterly. In the '70s, Oskar and other demanding blues and rock harp players rebelled against a drop in the quality of the Hohner harmonicas coming out of Germany—and started creating their own or refurbishing Hohners. The result? Hohner reformed itself. A great dive into harmonicas, craftsmanship, business... and demanding musicians.
So...
Dartmouth remains at 4 active cases among students and 3 among faculty/staff. There are 10 students and 3 faculty/staff in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 4 students and 8 faculty/staff are in isolation awaiting results or because they tested positive.
Colby-Sawyer reports 3 cases among students, 2 among faculty/staff. Altogether, 5 people are in isolation, while 6 are in quarantine.
NH reported 161 new cases yesterday for a cumulative total of 95,506. Deaths remained at 1,305, while 80 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (up 1). The current active caseload stands at 1,979 (down 263). The state reports 133 active cases in Grafton County, 64 in Sullivan, and 168 in Merrimack. (Quick apology: Yesterday's county numbers were 14-day new cases, not active cases.) In town-by-town numbers, the state says Lebanon has 24 active cases (no change), Claremont has 22 active cases (up 2), Hanover has 14 (down 1), Haverhill has 11 (up 1), Sunapee has 10 (no change), Charlestown has 10 (no change), Newport has 6 (no change), Enfield has 6 (no change), New London has 5 (down 3), and Plainfield has 5 (no change). Warren, Orange, Grantham, Springfield, Unity, and Newbury have 1-4 each. Cornish and Orford are off the list.
VT reported 31 new cases yesterday, bringing it to a total case count of 23,158. There was 1 new death, raising the total to 248, while 15 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (down 2). Windsor County gained 6 new cases and stands at 1,365 for the pandemic, with 80 over the past 14 days, while Orange County added no new cases and remains at 756 cumulatively, with 67 cases in the past 14 days.
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Today at noon, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller and Billings Farm host Vermont Center for Ecostudies biologist Steve Faccio (scroll down), talking about the ecology of vernal pools, the wildlife that depend on them, and the roles that pools play in the environment around them. As the National Park Service writes, "Ecologists have come to realize these tiny wetlands are 'keystone ecosystems' which have a much greater influence on the surrounding forest than would be expected based on their size alone."
And at 1 pm, the VT Land Trust hosts VCE biologist Kent McFarland and Land Trust ecologist Liz Thompson, talking about "Spring Wildflowers and Their Pollinators." Which pretty much says it all: The flowers are out there, bursting into bloom—amazingly enough, right as many insects are ready to look for nectar and pollen as the flowers emerge. McFarland and Thompson will go into the details, no doubt with photos.
This evening at 7, the Etna Library hosts NH Fish & Game volunteer Donna Roscoe with her presentation on bobcats, their life history and behavior, and Fish & Game's efforts to figure out just how many of them make their home in New Hampshire. Email [email protected] to sign up.
Finally, at 8 pm, the Hop hosts avant-garde jazz bassist and music historian William Parker and his biographer, Pratt Institute cultural historian Cisco Bradley. They'll be part of the Coastin' Creative Music Conversations series led by Coast Jazz Ensemble director Taylor Ho Bynum, delving into jazz history, how it gets told, and who tells it.
I went down to
mingle my breathwith the breathof the cherry blossoms.
Oh Cherry,why can't my poemsbe as beautiful?
All around usthe blossomsflurry downwhispering, Be patientyou have an ancient beauty. Be patient you have an ancient beauty.— Excerpted from "Cherry Blossoms," by Toi Derricotte.See you tomorrow.
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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