Daybreak Tuesday, 7/14/26

A quick heads up about events in late July and early August. I’ll be taking my annual publishing break for downtime and back-end work from July 24-August 14. But I won’t leave you completely high and dry: There’ll be a “Week Ahead” newsletter going out each Monday the weeks of July 27, Aug. 3, and Aug. 10. If you’ve got an event one of those weeks you want to make sure I know about (as always, priority goes to the arts, readings, lectures, museums, nature), please email me ([email protected]) no later than this Thursday.

Hot, humid, some risk of severe storms late. The heat dome that’s been making life miserable elsewhere arrives for a brief visit today, with temps reaching the mid or high 90s and the heat index up in the high 90s and 100s; it’ll be hottest from about 2 pm until evening. And then, toward the end of the day, a strong cold front drops down from Canada, producing a slight risk of strong storms around here and an “enhanced” risk of severe weather from about St. J and Littleton north—we’re talking damaging winds and hail, flash flooding, possible tornadoes. Otherwise, there’s a chance of showers overnight, lows in the low 70s, and to make things even more fun, smoke from Canadian wildfires may put in an appearance tonight. .

“What the heck, Buddy?” Late one night in Thetford not long ago, Herb Detrick was driving home when he heard a thunk on his truck. “My first thought was some kid had hurled a fastball at me, but it was after midnight, so I turned the truck around to see if it was an animal,” he writes. It was. There, right on the centerline of the road, was a northern saw-whet—a small, fierce (if you’re a mouse), decidedly nocturnal owl. Herb tells the story, with photos, at the link.

“I’m plowing and cultivating nature!” At least, that’s how Henry looks at the algae growing on the pond in DB Johnson’s Lost Woods. For Wally, it’s just so much green pond scum.

Ramp from I-89N to I-91N to close for the day tomorrow. Weather permitting, NHDOT crews will be doing roadway milling and paving the interchange ramp on the VT side tomorrow, July 15, between 7:30 am and 5 pm, so the ramp will be completely closed. The signed detour will take motorists up to Exit 1 (the Quechee/Woodstock exit) and then back on I-89 south to the I-91 interchange (Bonus: You won’t have to deal with people coming from the NH side busting through that yield sign just before you get onto I-91 North). Expect delays between Exit 20 and the Vermont line on I-89 NB as well as along the detour, NHDOT says.

Robert Tulloch resentenced for Zantop murders. Tulloch was 17 when he and James Parker killed Dartmouth professors Half and Susanne Zantop in Etna in 2001. He was given life sentences, but a 2021 US Supreme Court ruling has led to a series of resentencing hearings, including Tulloch’s. Yesterday, in N. Haverhill, prosecutors and his attorneys announced an agreement that Tulloch would serve 45-years-to-life, making him eligible for parole in 20 years, when he’s 62. The Zantops’ daughter, Veronika, spoke remotely. “I don’t believe for a minute that some magic rewiring of the brain has or will ever happen to Robert Tulloch that would ever justify his release from prison,” she said. After her comments, Tulloch declined a chance to read a statement. “After listening to that, I feel disgusted by even thinking I could say anything that would mean anything,” he said. The Valley News’s Alex Ebrahimi gives a full report.

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Hartford hires new town manager. Town officials yesterday announced that the selectboard has voted to appoint Gail Ostrout, who served nine years as finance director and spend a year as acting town manager in 2022-23, to replace John Haverstock, who’s retiring. She starts July 27. She was chosen from among 30 applicants, seven of whom moved on to a second round, and three into the finalist round, the town’s press release reports. The process was led by former Hanover Town Manager Alex Torpey’s municipal consulting group, ReThink Local, and by Hartford Fire Chief Scott Cooney.

“I didn’t know when I was really little that everybody didn’t take in animals.” Though eventually, Lori Wakeman tells Abigail Collins in the VN, she figured out that her mom—Betty Farnsworth—wasn’t like other moms. “Farnsworth spent her life trusting, adventurous, and unafraid,” writes Collins in her “A Life” recollection of Farnsworth, who was a key mover behind the creation of the Upper Valley Humane Society. For years, Farnsworth and her husband, Everett, and their kids hosted stray dogs, cats, horses, a raccoon… Eventually, she and the rest of an informal rescue community set out to create a permanent shelter. It took some doing, and Collins recounts the tale.

If you’re a bumblebee, beware the Eastern Yellow-backed Laphria. They look kind of like bumblebees, writes Mary Holland in Naturally Curious, only they’re what are known as robber flies, which—sorry, breakfast-eaters—”capture their prey in flight with their spiny legs, then use their stout proboscis to pierce their prey and inject paralyzing enzymes which liquefy the prey’s organs. They then drink the resulting liquid, using their proboscis as a straw.” This one can tackle bumblebees and beetles. Larger robber flies, Holland writes, “occasionally prey on hummingbirds.”

Kelly Ayotte vetoes NH’s 10-year transportation improvement plan. Her move on Friday “raised a chorus of protestations” from legislators on both sides of the aisle, reports the Globe’s Steven Porter (no paywall). The governor said she was nixing the measure to avoid a boost to turnpike tolls, but as Porter writes, the bill was “a multi-faceted proposal that garnered broad support after extensive negotiations”—including things like road and bridge repairs—”so Ayotte’s move sparked bipartisan blowback.” This marked Ayotte’s 41st veto of the 2025-2026 legislative term.

Dem lawmaker in NH claims “legislative privilege” shields her from speeding charges. Rep. Ellen Read, who represents Newmarket, was twice stopped for speeding on I-93, Porter reports in the Globe (paywall): once in 2024 for going 107 mph on I-93, and again in 2025 for doing 92 mph. Since the state constitution says legislators can’t be arrested while traveling to or from the Legislature, she’s argued—all the way to the state Supreme Court, which rejected the case—she should be immune. “I don’t think anyone in the general public believes that just because a state rep is traveling to or from session that they are immune to committing any violation or crime,” says Major Christopher Bashaw of the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.

A lot of Vermonters consider the state unaffordable; four in ten say they’re likely to leave. That’s one of the findings of a UNH Survey Center poll of 981 Vermont residents in June; the survey carries a sampling error of +/-3.1 percent. In all, 86 percent of those surveyed describe the state as not very or not at all affordable, and while 62 percent of the total consider VT a good or very good place to live, that’s down from 73 percent two years ago. Among the 42 percent of respondents who said they may leave in the next five years, most cite cheaper housing or cost of living. The “leavers” skew young: 64 percent of those aged 18-34 fall into that category.

Never mind. Yesterday afternoon, multiple state agencies and rescue personnel scrambled to respond to an automated emergency alert from a cellphone indicating a possible airplane crash on Mount Pisgah, in Wetmore. First responders launched a coordinated search pattern on the mountain, both on foot and using drones, VT State Police spokesman Adam Sullivan writes in a press release. The VT National Guard did an aerial search. They tried calling the owner of the cellphone for several hours; eventually, the owner got back to say “they had not been involved in an aircraft crash but did hike trails on Mount Pisgah.” It remains unclear what triggered the alert.

Well, that’s one way of announcing your visit. The UK’s aerobatic demonstration squad, the Royal Air Force Red Arrows, dropped by Beta Technologies in Burlington, VT yesterday morning—though not before flying over Lake Champlain and doing a few flyovers above the airport before landing. WCAX has the story and footage.

And if you need a little more adrenaline to overcome that robber fly item… As Teton Gravity Research writes, “Urban downhill racing demands a different breed of athlete. There are no soft dirt landings, no loamy berms, and absolutely zero room for error.” Two weeks ago, the sport’s elite was in coastal Genova, Italy, “to test their abilities against concrete stairs, brick walls, and massive urban drops.” Brazil’s Roger Vieira took the top spot after navigating the narrow pedestrian walkways with aplomb. At the burgundy link, his own 2 minute, 44 second POV. TGR article, with a link to video of the entire race, here.

Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.

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HEADS UP
The Dartmouth Libraries host a book talk and tasting with Danielle Callegari. Callegari, who teaches French and Italian at the college, is also a food and wine expert: She’s writer at large for Wine Enthusiast, co-host of the Gola food and wine podcast, and author of the new book, A Bite-Sized History of Italy: Gastronomic Tales of the Roman Empire, Renaissance, and Republic. 4 pm in Berry 180A, with a Q&A afterward and then a food tasting in Dartmouth Hall. Registration required.

The Bob & Sarah Amos Band in Fairlee. The father-daughter bluegrass duo and their bandmates (the band is Sarah Amos on vocals and Bob Amos on banjo, guitar, and vocals, with New England musical veterans Andy Greene on guitar, Kirk Lord on bass, and Bob Dick on mandolin) are actually doing two concerts today: The first is at Dartmouth’s Collis Center at 12:30 pm, followed by their Fairlee Community Arts show at 6:30 pm. If the weather’s decent the evening performance will be on the town common; otherwise, it’ll be in Fairlee Town Hall.

Meg Richardson and Natalie Norris at Still North Books & Bar. You may know the pair as Sketchbreak cartoonists. Richardson is also a novelist and today’s the official publication date for her new book, Paradise Pawn, about a pair of 14-year-old girls who work with their fathers at a pawn shop in Florida—and navigate the bumps and hiccups of life as young teenagers. Richardson did work in a pawn shop in her 20s, but “the pawn shop where I worked was much less dramatic than the one in the book,” she tells an interviewer. She’ll be talking it all over with Norris. 7 pm.

The Lyme Town Band on the Lyme Common. They’ll be playing concert band standards as well as tunes by Glenn Miller, John Williams, and Leonard Bernstein (from West Side Story). 7 pm.

Brett Ann Stanciu reads from and talks about Call It Madness at the Norwich Bookstore. As they write, “Millennial Avah Lavoie’s crumbling relationship is the final push she needs to answer her estranged mother’s unexpected call: her great-grandfather Opa has died. Driving north to rural Vermont, Avah hopes to untangle a murky family history. The novel unfolds in a frigid winter, where buried truths rise, and endings refuse to follow the script.” 7 pm.

And for today...

Hence no force however great 
can stretch a cord however fine
into a horizontal line
which is accurately straight

— A “found” poem by William Whewell from his 1819 textbook, An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics, with the final part of the sentence (which was not in verse form) reading, “there will always be a bending downwards.” Whewell was in the midst of explaining why cords (think ropes, chains, whatever) can never be mathematically straight when pulled horizontally, because of gravity. Along with important mathematical and other discoveries, writes poetry editor Michael Lipson, he was an amazing wordsmith, coming up with words such as anode, cathode, ion, astigmatism, and physicist; he’s also credited with coining scientist.

See you tomorrow.

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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt      Poetry editor: Michael Lipson    Associate Editors: Jonea Gurwitt, Sam Gurwitt